TWO POLICE OFFICERS SHOWED UP AT THE DOOR. THEY TOOK ONE look at Abby’s battered face, clamped a pair of handcuffs around Clay Reynolds’s wrists, and hauled him away.

Since there was no proof he was behind the kidnapping attempt in Denver or the attack at the hotel in Mexico City, Gage figured the guy would cut some kind of a deal to lessen the assault charges and get off with a minimum sentence.

If he was smart, he wouldn’t show his face in Denver again. As long as he stayed away from Abby, Gage didn’t care.

Abby closed the door behind the officer who had remained to take their statements, walked over, and dropped down on the sofa. Gage sat down beside her. He wanted to pull her into his arms and just hold her, make sure she was okay. He wanted to kiss her, make love to her, but he no longer had that right.

“You okay?” he finally asked.

Big golden eyes gazed up at him, seemed to look straight into his heart. “I wouldn’t be if you hadn’t shown up when you did.” She frowned as if a thought had just occurred. “Why did you show up? Why’d you come over?”

“There were some things I needed to say.” He reached out and ran a finger gently over the bruise on her cheek, and his jaw tightened. He wanted to punch Clay Reynolds all over again. “I got sidetracked when I saw that bastard on top of you.”

Abby gingerly touched her face. “Like I said, bad things happen every day.”

“So I guess you were right.”

“I was?”

“Yeah. I think maybe you were right about a lot of things.”

Some of the color returned to her cheeks. “Which . . . umm . . . things do you mean?”

“After you left, I had plenty of time to think about everything you said. I thought of what happened in Mexico. All the things that could have gone wrong, all the things that did. I reminded myself you could have been killed. Nothing I told myself made any difference.”

Abby just looked at him, but there was something different in her eyes. It was hope, he realized. The same feeling swelled in his chest.

He reached down and took hold of her hand. “I’m crazy in love with you, Abby. I tried to convince myself it wasn’t true. Then I tried to convince myself it didn’t matter. Nothing worked.”

Her eyes welled. “Gage . . .”

He brought her hand up and kissed the back. “When I get home from a trip, I’m always ready to head off again on some new quest, but not this time. I can’t stand the thought of going without you. No matter where I went, I’d always be wishing you were there to share the adventure with me.”