PANDA HAD FIGURED SHE’D FORCE a confrontation, but he’d hoped to buy a little time before it happened. He should have known better. Shit. If he didn’t get away from this place soon—away from her—he was going to lose it. He’d tried to talk Temple into letting him out of his contract, but she’d refused. When this was over, he was getting back to doing what he did best, protecting clients from real danger.

The wind flipped up the collar of his jacket. “I wouldn’t advise firing me,” he told her. “I’ve got a sex tape.”

She didn’t smile. In a yellow slicker, with a black-lined hood pulled over her ridiculous hair and three inches of black cuffs turned up, she looked like a wet bumblebee. “You’re lying,” she said. “Tell me why you had your little freak-out when you saw Bree.”

“Would I lie about something as serious as a sex tape?”

“In a heartbeat. I know Bree’s family owned the house. She told me all about it.”

He should have made the connection between the woman named Bree that Lucy visited at the cottage and Sabrina Remington West, but this asinine assignment had dulled his thinking. “Video cameras are small,” he said. “I’m exceptionally good at hiding them.”

Again, no smile. She meant business, and he didn’t like that. “Bree told me she’d never met you,” she said. “So why did you run off like that?”

He came up with the most plausible explanation. “She reminded me of an old girlfriend.”

“What old girlfriend?”

He ignored the slick of raindrops on her cheek to work on his sneer. “I don’t ask about your lurid past. Leave mine alone.”

“You don’t ask about my lurid past because you know you’d fall asleep if I told you about it.” She paused. “Something I intend to fix.”

He frowned. “You told that woman who you are. Do you really think she’s going to keep it to herself?”

“She has for a month. And other than Temple’s dubious companionship, Bree is the only friend I have on the island.

What did that make him? “Who needs friends here?” he said. “We’ll all be leaving in a couple of weeks.” He ramped up his argument. “You’re getting way too cozy with people. You ride into town whenever you like, talk to whoever you want. It’s not smart.”

“I like talking, and this conversation isn’t about me. It’s about you, and if you don’t tell me the truth, I’ll start digging around. Believe me, my resources are a lot more powerful than Google.”