“It’s gone.” That’s when all the strength she’d been holding on to fled. “The one thing I had left of my mother is gone.”

Jason knelt down beside her. “We’ll find it,” he promised.

She glanced up at him, feeling the tears shimmer in her eyes, but she couldn’t control them. The pain of losing her mother was always there, just below the surface, yet she had no choice but to keep moving forward.

This was a blow that hurt. “You can’t know that.” She looked into his serious eyes.

“I know I can do my best. We need to outthink him. I bet he pawns it for cash. If you have a photograph of it? Or if not, if you can describe it, my private investigator will look for it in nearby pawnshops.”

“Private investigator?” Her legs cramped and she rose to her feet. He followed and they sat down on her messy bed.

“Jack Renault. I have him looking for your brother. I wanted to know if he was in the city, although I think there’s no doubt. He’s just good at going underground.” Jason frowned, his frustration at her situation obvious.

“You barely know me and you hired a PI? You’re letting me stay in your apartment. I don’t understand.”

“I’m not sure I do, either, but here we are.” He lifted a hand, his knuckles stroking her cheek. “You’re safe with me.”

Her stomach pitched with unexpected desire for this man. She said the only thing she could. “Thank you.”

He treated her to a sexy smile but quickly sobered. “We should call the police.”

She nodded, knowing it was going to be a long night.

* * *

A week had passed since the break-in. The police had no solid leads and neither did Jason’s investigator, so Jason kept Faith close and they went about their lives. He’d taken time off from the club in the evenings, but he had a plan to implement and his friends were getting antsy, wanting him to come by and see the work that had been accomplished so far. He hadn’t wanted to leave Faith home alone, and given how exhausted she was after work, he’d sacrificed his own business needs.

This weekend was Noah’s birthday party, and she’d been working hard all day on the treats and packaging she had planned for the event. The good news was that she had Kelsey back at work and she wasn’t handling the burden of everything on her own.

The bad news was they were both tiptoeing around the sexual frustration that was building between them. Living together made for very close quarters. More than once, he’d walked out of his bedroom in his boxers, stumbling to the kitchen for a drink, forgetting he had company, and found her in the living room on her computer because she’d been unable to sleep.

She, too, had thought she’d be alone and was dressed in a pair of short shorts and a flimsy camisole top, her abundant breasts falling out of the lace edging. He’d woken up at the sight, his dick getting hard in an instant. She’d been flustered and apologized, rushing back to her room, but not before he caught the way her gaze fell to the bulge in his underwear and a beautiful, sexy flush stained her cheeks.