A possessive fury took hold, that anyone would hurt this sweet woman whose smiles came so easily despite everything she’d been through.

“So what did you do?” he asked, his jaw clenched so his own anger didn’t spill out and scare her. Because at this point he wanted to kill her brother.

“I ran. I packed up everything I could take with me overnight and disappeared. I figured New York City was the largest, easiest place to get lost. I started in a hotel, found a lawyer, changed my last name … and here I am.”

He blinked, knowing it couldn’t have been that simple. “A name change is public record.”

“Not when it’s sealed because you can show the judge the fading bruises on your neck,” she said, her hands coming up to clasp herself there.

Yep. He was going to fucking kill her sibling.

“So somehow he found you?” Jason asked, managing not to clench his fists and scare her away from him.

She nodded. “I’m guessing the slashed tire was a warning, though I have to admit, I’d hoped that was a freak neighborhood kid incident. But the vandalism and the brick? He wants me scared so by the time he comes in person, I’ll give him whatever he wants.” She’d lowered her hands from her neck, leaving red marks from where she’d made her point.

Jason had had enough. He stood up and walked over, pulling her into his arms because he needed the connection and felt certain she did, too.

She relaxed into him, her soft curves easing against his. He breathed in her sweet scent and held her as the trembling in her body eased. Too quickly, she pulled away.

“You aren’t alone anymore. Got that?” he asked.

She glanced up at him. “I appreciate you helping me get things fixed here at the shop, but make no mistake. I’m very much alone.”

He wasn’t going to argue now. There would be plenty of time for that later, when she balked against what he was beginning to plan out for her in his mind.

He might not have wanted someone else to find their way into his emotional cocoon, but this woman had done it. There was no way he was leaving her to fend for herself now that he knew what she was up against. And if that meant fighting her in order to keep her safe, he’d do it in a heartbeat.

* * *

Faith watched as Sam Fremont, a tall man with hair pulled back in a ponytail, and the workman he’d brought with him scrubbed the spray paint from her window. He’d called in a glass company, who’d sent a guy to measure her door. He’d then left to cut the glass and would return with the right size to fix her entrance. It was as if Jason Dare had spoken and all her problems were going away.

If only things were that easy.

She already understood he was more complicated than his surface grin led her to believe. A sister who’d conquered childhood leukemia, a college friend who’d died under mysterious circumstances, a nightclub and a life she knew nothing about. She wanted to know everything and that was dangerous.