“She won’t be safe until this ass**le is found.” Kyle held his wife to him.

“Shane won’t stop until he is.” Matt spoke with absolute certainty.

Shane took her up to his bathroom and turned on the water in his shower. “You can use a T-shirt for the time being. Let’s get you cleaned up now.” He tried to hold on to the tasks to get her comfortable. Anger and fear warred within him but he didn’t want her to see either. He needed to be strong for her right then. Later on he’d go into his weight room and beat the hell out of the bag.

Woodenly, she let him help her out of her shoes and pull her shorts and panties down. As gently as he could, he freed her hair from the ponytail. Reaching down to pull her shirt off, he steeled himself. He knew seeing the scars would be shocking but he also knew he had to control his rage at Terry Sunderland to not make her feel bad. Her hands came down to stop him.

“Let me see you, Cassie. I think you’re beautiful. You’ve told me the hard part. It doesn’t matter to me. The scars don’t make you less beautiful.”

“You don’t know. The scars…”

“Is that why you’ve left your shirt on when we make love?”

She nodded slowly. “That and well, my stomach and stuff.”

“Cassie, please trust me. Your body is gorgeous. I don’t care about the scars. They only make me think you’re more beautiful.”

More beautiful? Was he out of his mind? Angrily she pulled the shirt up and over her head and yanked her bra off. She moved her hair away, giving him her back. “There! Still think I’m beautiful? Still think fourteen stab scars makes me more beautiful?”

She felt the press of his lips over each one of her scars until tears came from so deep she couldn’t stand anymore. He was there though, taking her weight into his arms, pulling her into the shower with him.

She clung to him as he shampooed her hair and soaped her up the best he could with her arms wrapped around him.

“Come on, darlin’. Let’s get you out of here and dried off.” He helped her out of the shower and toweled her off after he’d wrapped up her hair.

Leading her into his bedroom he had her sit on his bed. “I’ll be right back. I’m guessing Penny has been by and left your clothes downstairs.”

And she had. Left a bag just inside his screen door without disturbing them further. There was a note that Cassie’s keys were at Penny’s house when she needed them.

He stood in his living room, a towel wrapped around his waist, thinking about her scars. Out of Cassie’s presence he let the rage take him. The rage at seeing the pink skin of fourteen scars on her back and neck. Of knowing the man who’d done it to her was still out there, keeping her so afraid she didn’t sleep at night. That the sick f**k had taken away her career and nearly killed her—all because she wanted a divorce. Took away her name and her home.

He needed to let it wash through him because the last thing Cassie needed was a pissed off man. He knew right then that he would track Terry Sunderland down and turn him over to the courts or kill him himself. Shane Chase was a man who lived by law and order, believed in the power of justice. But at the moment, he wanted to kill another man. Wanted it with a power he’d never felt before.

Forcibly unclenching his fists, he took several deep breaths and let it go. He picked up the bag to bring Cassie her clothes.

Cassie lay on his bed quietly, her hands folded over her abdomen. Totally naked. The shock of her beauty hit him in the gut like it always did but this time with greater force because she wasn’t covering up. She was totally exposed to him emotionally as well as physically.

“Darlin’? I’ve got your clothes here.”

“Do you want me to cover up? Do the scars creep you out?” She sat up, the wet strands of her hair moving over her shoulders and chest.

Putting the bag near the door he pulled off the towel and stood there, naked and hard. “Does it look like your scars creep me out, Cassie?”

She shook her head. “Shane?”

“Yes, darlin’?”

“Do you have condoms?”

“Yes.”

“Will you come here and make love to me please?”

He froze a moment. “Are you sure, baby? I’d like nothing more to do that but I don’t want you to do it if you don’t feel up to it. It’s been a trying day for you.”

“It has.” She nodded. “But I…I need to feel alive and you make me feel alive. When you’re inside me, with your hands on me, I feel alive and vibrant.”

He crawled across the bed to get to her. “You…Cassie, you make me feel so much. I love you. I’ve said it to another woman but I didn’t even know what love was until I met you.”

She moved to her knees and touched his chest and encircled his neck with her arms. “I love you too.” Her voice was small but he heard it and his heart skipped a beat. “I love you but I’m scared.”

“Let’s work on that, okay? Because I’d give my life for you, to protect you. I love you and that means you’re mine. And not in the way he meant it. You’re not a thing to me. You’re everything to me. I want you to be free from fear. Happy. You deserve that. Let’s work to make sure I can help protect you.”

She pushed him back on the bed and scrambled to straddle his body. “I love that you asked to protect me.”

“I love this position.” He grinned lasciviously. “And I’m trying. God knows I want to hide you and go to war for you, but I know that’s not what you need so I’m trying to find a middle ground. Because I have to tell you, I want to find this bastard so you can live freely. I want you to be able to choose to be Carly or Cassie. As long as you’re with me, I don’t care what you call yourself.”