His voice was very low and held little expression, but it felt like the lash of a whip to her, making her feel not quite bright. She was a woman unafraid of going into the deepest interior of the rain forest to catalogue and research the medicinal purposes of plants. She’d made a name for herself and was driven to succeed in finding new uses for the plants. She had been independent and happy—until she’d met Conner Vega. He’d turned her world upside down.

Was it fair to blame him for the things her father had done? Or for shedding light on his illegal activities? Maybe not. But she would never understand how he could have used her, clearly an innocent, to bring down her own father. It was wrong. There had to be lines one didn’t cross. What kind of man did that? And what kind of woman still craved his touch when his character repelled her?

“I want you to slide down to the floor and sit against the wall. Stay low. We’ll sit here and talk while they see who followed the two of you.” He kept his hand on her arm to steady her as she obeyed him, bending her knees and sliding her back down the wall until her bottom touched the floor. “I know you’re scared, Isabeau, but nothing will happen to you.”

“Do you have a better plan for getting into Cortez’s compound?” Isabeau needed something to distract her. She wasn’t going to panic, she’d been in bad situations before and truthfully—how far did she trust him? If he could build the illusion of being in love strong enough to fool her, then he could do the same with the danger. With Conner, she didn’t know what was truth or fiction.

He’d thrown her for a moment, that dangerous edge to him, more animal than man, deliberately showing her his ability to shift, to heighten her fears, put her in a vulnerable position, but she had resources. She was intelligent. She’d been in the rain forest hundreds of times, but she hadn’t counted on being separated from Adan.

Conner was so close to her that she felt the instant he stiffened. He went to his feet, muscles flowing easily so he appeared silent, deadly, a cat stalking prey. The breath left her lungs in a rush as she saw him cock his head to one side and sniff the air. “Isabeau, we’re getting out of here.” He reached down his hand to her. “Something’s not right.”

“What is it?” She tried to listen, but as far as she could tell, the rain forest sounded the same, although the scream of the monkeys and the cry of the birds seemed overly loud.

“I smell smoke.”

She let him pull her up. “Where’s Adan?”