He shook his head, not as if he were denying her, more as if he were trying to shake off a concussion. He glanced around the condo, saw the open suitcase piled with clothes, the cardboard box she’d loaded up with nonperishables from her kitchen: cereal, canned soup, boxed mac and cheese. She knew how to cook but never seemed to get around to it.

“You’re moving,” he said. “Too bad. This is a nice place.”

“It’s okay.” It was more than okay. And it would be hers to keep if she gave up and went back to her old job. But she didn’t want to do online promotions for motor oil or deal with one-star reviews because a customer’s replacement ignition coil failed. That kind of work had sucked out her soul.

He picked up Oinky. “Nice pig.”

She fought the urge to snatch her pig away. “School mascot.”

He took Oinky with him as he sat uninvited on her cocoa-colored sofa. Compared with Officer Hottie’s pumped-up calendar-boy gorgeousness, Graham was rougher at the edges—the planes of his face more rugged, a battle scar on his forehead, another on the side of his jaw. That cleft chin. He was hard as nails, despite the hand clasping her pig. In times of war, Graham would be the commander men followed into battle. In peacetime, he led his team to glory. All in all, a man not to be trifled with.

“Keith and I’ve been friends since college,” he said. “I trusted him as much as I’ve ever trusted anyone.”

“Your mistake.” But there was something about the slump in those big warrior’s shoulders, the burnished shadow in his wolf’s eyes that got to her.

“Don’t let yourself get sucked in,” Duke had said. “Every jackass has a sad story.”

The sandwich had crumbled in her fingers. She dropped it untouched in the trash. “You’re not the first employer who’s been ripped off by a trusted employee. It happens all the time.”

He curled his hand around the ankle he’d hooked over his knee. “I should have seen what was going on.”

“Your so-called security people should have seen. That’s why you hired them. But they’re probably taking a cut.”

His head came up, and he bristled with hostility. “My security people are top-notch.”

She gave him a faintly pitying look. “So rich and yet so dumb.” It felt good to see what he couldn’t. “The reality is that you’re so used to everybody bowing and scraping that you don’t understand most people only show you their best side. You’ve forgotten how many creeps there are. All your fame has made you a babe in the woods when it comes to living in the real world.”

She expected a hot dispute. Instead, he set her pig aside and drilled her with his eyes. “Who hired you to follow me?”