I sank my teeth into the same spot Wheeler had bitten into.

“I didn’t know what you like,” he said.

That made me laugh. “I’m a predator. I like protein.”

“But you’re too good for beef jerky?”

“A lady should be more refined than drooling on a dry stick of meat.”

A pickle slipped out of the burger and onto the wrapper. Wheeler pinched it between his fingers and placed it on his tongue, chewing slowly. It raised the hair on the back of my neck.

“Why did you want to come and be a part of this?” I asked.

Wheeler turned away and looked straight ahead. “Delgado is a man who needs to be stopped.”

I curled my hand around his arm and leaned against him. “Is that all?”

He didn’t answer, and I suddenly wished Reno would turn down the radio. Wheeler’s muscles tensed beneath my fingertips. I was certain he could see me breathing faster, but Wheeler made no attempts to put his arm around me. I adored his restraint, quietly laughing to myself at the absurdity of my attraction to a man who showed no interest in me. Maybe he was right; maybe I was a glutton for punishment. But with him I found an honesty I’d never experienced with anyone else. None of the men who had showered me with physical affection stuck around. It was only a ploy to get what they wanted, and truthfully, I got what I wanted too. I knew the game they played, and that’s one reason I’d grown cynical about love. My mama had once told me that beauty was blinding, and men were incapable of loving a ruby in their pocket. She had bewitched my father and had fallen madly in love with him, but she’d often wondered if he would have given her a second glance had she been older or less attractive.

“You sure you want to do this?” Wheeler asked.

We hit a bump and Reno fumbled with the radio.

“Are you asking me to reconsider because I’m a woman?”

Wheeler’s right hand slid over my thigh and he gave it a featherlight squeeze. “Maybe I’m asking because it’s dangerous and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“You have to say that; you’re my bodyguard.”

His chest rumbled with a deep chuckle. “Austin gave me my walking papers on that job.”

I gave him a peevish look. “Sometimes I feel like I have to beat an answer out of you.”

His eyebrow arched. “We wouldn’t want that,” he said obliquely.

Reno glanced at us in the rearview mirror as the car slowed. “Heads up, boys and girls. We’re here.”

Wheeler leaned forward and looked at the mansion in the distance. “And boom goes the dynamite.”

Chapter 13

“What do you think he’s doing out there?” I whispered.

Wheeler laced his fingers together across his stomach. “Reconnaissance. Peeking in windows, smearing mud on his face, crawling through the flower garden, petting the dog…”