Janey stiffened at the reference to Dayle Mackay.

“I’m aware of what can happen if we don’t prepare properly,” she stated coolly. “But I think we’re able to handle the additional customers. We’ll have an added waitress Monday with Desmond’s additional chef. Tiffany’s sister has agreed to waitress until we can find more staff, and Rogue will cover for us at least until we can find a general manager, if she doesn’t take the job herself.”

“We don’t need a general manager; even Natches agrees with that.” Hoyt looked to Natches for support.

“That wasn’t what I said, Hoyt.” Natches frowned. “I said we’re not hiring one if it means Janey will try to leave.”

“You’re leaving?” Hoyt’s head jerked around, his gaze narrowed. “You didn’t mention that.”

“I’m not leaving,” she muttered, well aware of Alex watching her silently. “If I left, Natches would burn the place down.”

“I would,” he agreed with a mocking smile. “And we both know how much that would break my heart.”

His voice was sincere. The look in his eyes wasn’t. He’d love nothing better than to burn the place to the ground, and Janey knew it.

She stared around the waiting room at the curious gazes watching them.

“She’s not going anywhere,” Alex stated before she could speak. “Except home to sleep. I locked up the office; everything’s ready to go whenever you are.”

The kitchen was secured, everything prepared. All they had to do was walk out the front door.

“I still think this is a mistake,” Hoyt stated as he moved from behind the register. “We’re not ready for this move, and Janey doesn’t have the experience for the job.”

Yeah, she’d been hearing that argument out of him for months.

“She has the experience, but does she have the stamina?” Tiffany pushed herself to her feet. “God, I’m exhausted.”

“She’s got the guts to do it,” Desmond argued, looping his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “She’ll do.”

Janey smiled at his statement. “We have a day off. Let’s see what we can do with our time then to rest and get ready for next week. Before opening we’ll meet for any further ideas or objections.”

“Why? You don’t listen to them.” Hoyt pouted.

“She listens when you agree with her,” Natches snorted. “That should be close enough.”

“You always disagree with me,” she told him as Alex helped her with her leather jacket.

“And you never listen.” Natches glared at her as Chaya gave a low, amused laugh.

“Poor baby,” his wife murmured. “Come home, darling. I’ll listen to you all night long if you want me to.”

“Really?” Natches’s expression perked up. “Interesting.”

Laughter echoed around Janey as everyone filed outside and she and Alex set the alarms and locked the doors. Janey touched the glass of the door and stared into the darkened restaurant then.

Alex’s heart clenched at the wistfulness in her expression. She had dreams. He heard them in her voice, saw them in her eyes. Dreams of a future here, dreams with him. He knew she had those dreams because he saw them in her eyes when she turned and laid that small hand on his arm.

Leading her to the truck, Alex could feel the fine hairs at the back of his neck lifting in warning, though.

He’d felt it for the last two nights, the malevolent gaze focused on Janey, the threat of violence swirling in the air around her.

They were playing a waiting game.

He could feel Mark and Tyrell backing them as Alex kept her close to his side, sheltered by his body, the vehicles and the shadows around them.

What would he do if he lost her? He hadn’t been lying to her when he told her he would cease to exist.

When he’d been wounded, he’d come home with one thought in mind. Janey. Touching her, having her, relieving the unrelenting hunger he’d had for her for far too long. He hadn’t returned with the best of intentions. Because seducing her had been his plan, not finding himself bound to her by emotions he couldn’t explain, justify, or make sense of.

As they neared the truck, Mark and Tyrell moved ahead of them as Timothy eased in behind Janey. The older man was softer around Janey. Hell, that whole daughter thing. He’d worked in that restaurant like a pro the past few days. And if Alex wasn’t mistaken, he had enjoyed it.

“Clear,” Mark murmured after he and Tyrell checked the vehicle for explosive devices.

“This is ridiculous,” Janey muttered. “All of you putting your lives on the line like this, Alex.”

She was frightened. She hid her fear well until they left the restaurant each night, but until they were safely behind the locked doors of his house, she trembled with the terror of someone being hurt because of her.

The fear wasn’t as much for herself as for others.

“It’s our job.” Timothy beat him to a response. “And trust me, every time we win, every child, husband, daughter, or sister we save makes it all worth it.”

“And I don’t let anyone take what’s mine,” Alex told her softly as he lifted her into the truck and watched her slide to the middle of the seat.

She sat beside him; she never slid to the other seat anymore. He liked that. Liked the way he could curl his hand around her leg, above her knee, and touch her warm skin as he drove. He liked having her close to him, feeling her, knowing she was safe.

As they drove away from the restaurant, he felt the tightness in his neck increasing. The closer they got to the house, the more he could feel the danger approaching. Once they got in the house, it would ease.

Whoever her stalker was, he hadn’t figured a way past Alex’s security yet.

It was impossible to toss a handmade bomb past the wrought iron that blocked the windows. His bedroom had steel shutters on the inside that further protected the room. Those had been installed immediately after he’d brought Janey home.

Dark blinds and heavy curtains further shielded the other rooms. Windows and doors were secured, and outside, Mark and Tyrell took turns sleeping in their truck and watching the house.

The waiting game was ending, though. Alex could feel it.

“Something’s wrong,” Janey whispered. “I can feel it.”

She was staring out the truck window, her hands clasped tightly in her lap, as they turned onto a side street and headed to the house.

Alex never took the same route, never allowed anyone to know which way they were going.

“We’re okay,” he promised her.

He checked the rearview mirror. Mark and Tyrell were right behind them; there were no other vehicles following, and none in front of them.

“This is insane.” Her voice was thick, worried. “I used to get like this, before moving here. I always knew when Dayle was going to show up, when he was going to try to pressure me into marrying one of his buddies.” She sneered the last word. “I always knew when he was going to find a way to hurt me or Natches.”

“Dayle is dead, Janey. I saw the body when Natches was there. He’s gone.”

She swallowed tightly. “But he left something,” she whispered. “Someone who hated him enough that they think punishing me will get back at him.”

He breathed out roughly, checked the mirrors, watched the street carefully as they neared the house.

“Someone crazy,” he told her. “And no one is going to hurt you.”

He turned onto another side road. It didn’t make sense. No one was following them, but he could feel the sights on the truck, feel the danger rolling around them like a dark, oily wave.

He looked out the windshield. There was no place a shot could reasonably come from, not with the shelter of the buildings and the trees.

He turned down another street, coming from another angle into the street his house sat on. The closer they got, the thicker was the feeling of danger.

He pulled off into an alley, stopped the truck, and shut off the lights. Mark and Tyrell moved in behind him.

“Stay here.” He opened the glove box and pulled free his backup weapon. Checking the clip and flipping on the safety, he handed it to her. “You know what to do?”

She nodded, staring back at him with wide, fear-filled eyes.

“Good girl. I’m just going to talk to Mark and Tyrell. I’ll be right back.”

She licked her lips nervously but nodded.

“Stay safe for me, baby.” He cupped her cheek, bent his head, and kissed her quickly before stepping from the truck. The dome lights were disconnected; there wasn’t even a glimmer of light as he stepped from the truck.

“I wondered if you felt it.” Mark was armed. He carried his automatic rifle close to his leg, between his body and the truck. “Closer we get, the thicker it is.”

“Question is, how many are we dealing with?” Alex murmured.

“Can’t be more than one.” Tyrell rubbed at his jaw. “Every indication we have is a single stalker.

Whoever it is has some serious shit going on, though. I’ve been feeling this since we left the restaurant.

We were followed, somehow. When you started cutting through town and taking other routes, it eased.

But the closer we get to the house, the more nervous I’m getting.”

Alex nodded and glanced around the alley. Instinct, they called it. A sixth sense for danger that made no sense to anyone except those who had managed to survive because of it.

They were sheltered by the garage at one side and a stand of pines that bordered a yard across the alley.

It was a short, narrow little road protected from all sides. Alex’s house was on the next street over.

There wasn’t a lot of cover going in, but there weren’t a lot of places to hide, unless someone was stalking from the neighboring trees and yard.

“We could call the Mackays in,” Tyrell suggested. “Have them come in quiet.”

Alex shook his head. “If we don’t show up soon, the stalker could get spooked and run.”

He was torn. Catching the stalker while they had the chance was imperative. He was waiting on them at the house. Slipping up on him would be easy, Alex thought. Alex knew this place like the back of his hand. It was home territory; he knew the shadows and how to move within them.

“Other options?” Mark questioned him.

“Send Janey to the marina and we go in on foot,” Alex murmured.

“Think she’ll go?” Mark asked.

Alex sighed. “No.” He looked back in the truck and met her worried, concerned gaze. She didn’t like being out of this conversation.

“Stay with her and we’ll check it out,” Mark suggested.

Alex shook his head and stared around the alley again. He was the best tracker there, and that left only a few options. They had a chance to catch the stalker here and now, or they could wait and let the bastard surprise them another day. But he had Janey with him.

“Mark, do you still have the extra communication sets you stole from headquarters?”

Mark stared at him blankly, then grimaced. “Fuck, how did you know I had those?”

“Are they in the truck?”

“In my travel bag.” He sighed. “Backseat of the truck.”

“Get them.”

Mark loped back to the truck and eased the back door of the dual cab open as Alex turned to Tyrell.

“You and I are going to scout around a bit. We’ll leave Mark here with Janey. He’s good at feeling trouble. If the stalker doubles back, he can get her out.”

Tyrell nodded. “We need to get her to our truck, though. You’re blocked here.”

Alex opened the door quietly and motioned Janey out. As she eased across the seat, he picked her up and carried her to the other truck.