Christ almighty. “You had Molly kidnapped?” His daughter could have died…because of his wife. Repercussions slammed through his brain; he couldn’t bear it. “But…how?”

“Oh, that part was easy.” She half laughed. “Mark knows all kinds of people. He easily arranged everything.” Going smug, she added, “For me.”

So, Dare was right. She had involved Sagan and in the process left them both exposed to unthinkable consequences.

He looked around, expecting thugs to jump out of the bushes at any moment. “Do you know what you’ve done?”

She twittered a laugh. “Don’t worry. Mark thinks we have something special, but he doesn’t understand that I did it for you.” As if sharing a confidence, she leaned forward to whisper, “George is going to kill him for me. After he’s taken care of everything else.”

Her twisted logic left Bishop floundering. She spoke of killing with the same detachment she gave to housekeeping duties. She actually appeared proud of her cunning, as if she’d helped him to handle a tricky business deal.

Suddenly what she’d said presented a new horror. After he’s taken care of everything else. Heart thundering, Bishop grabbed her shoulder and slammed her up against the brick facing of the garage bay. His fist twisted in her finely made top. “Where is George now?”

“Bishop,” she complained, trying to wriggle free, fussing at the damage he did to her clothing.

“Where is he?”

Her bottom lip came out in a pout. “He’s gone after Molly and Dare, of course. You heard what Dare said. He wants to destroy you. But I’m not about to let that happen. Thanks to you, I have everything I ever wanted, everything that’s important to me, and no one is going to rob me of it.” She put her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. “I love our life together too much to ever risk it.”

Arms at his sides, strangled by loathing, Bishop accepted the truth; everything he’d worked so hard for would be destroyed. And though indirectly, he had no one to blame but himself.

He couldn’t cover up something this monumental. That she’d whored around on him, playing him for the fool, was bad enough. But to be complicit in the rest…

Once the news broke, he’d be pitied by some, scorned by the rest.

But it beat the hell out of dying.

Determined, he shoved Kathi back an arm’s length away but retained a bruising hold on her upper arm. It shamed him to know that, for even a second, Kathi had thought he’d go along with his daughter’s murder.

Deciding on a course of damage control, he started across the lawn toward the house.

“Bishop?” Kathi resisted him with each step.

Calmly, to keep her off guard, Bishop said, “Come with me now.”

“Oh. Yes, of course.” She drew a breath and stopped fighting him. “What are we going to do next?”

At the front of the house, he found the other guard standing there, dark sunglasses in place, but with an alert stance.

Bishop stopped in front of him and shoved Kathi forward. “Were you f**king her, too?”

“No!” Kathi reached out for him, but he kept her away. “Bishop,” she pleaded, “don’t be like this.”

Startled, the guard went very still. “Too?”

“George,” he said.

The guard pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head; he didn’t so much as look at Kathi. “No, sir.”

The relief was overwhelming. “Do you value your job, then?”

Without hesitation, he affirmed, “Yes, sir. Very much.”

“Then restrain her.” He pushed Kathi forward, and the guard automatically caught both of her arms. Lifting his phone to punch in a number, Bishop said, “The police will be here soon enough.”

“No!” Kathi fought with a decided lack of class or refinement.

Bishop turned away from her, but he couldn’t tune out the awful noise. And he couldn’t tune out the grinding guilt.

CHRIS DIDN’T LIKE IT when the alarm system glitched, shutting off and back on. Twice. It reset itself as it was programmed to do, but still he stewed. Had the weather affected things? It wouldn’t be the first time the weather had tripped something. It was all electrical, but on a backup system, too.

Going to the porch outside, Chris looked down the hill to the lake.

Though colder winds buffeted him and he could smell the impending rain in the air, it wasn’t all that bad yet. Beyond the lake, to the north behind the hills, he saw black clouds rolling in and bringing with them brilliant bursts of lightning.

Both dogs nervously circled his legs, almost tripping him. Sargie whined, and Tai put her ears back. Noisy weather sometimes spooked them, but this was odd behavior, especially since the thunder hadn’t yet reached them.

He crouched down to talk to them. “What’s the matter, Tai? There’s no noise yet. Dare will probably be home before the rain gets here, so you don’t need to worry.” She crowded in close to him, making her worry clear.

Sargie, always the jealous sort, wormed in front of Tai to soak up his attention, too. She whined in anxiety.

Laughing, Chris dropped to his ass and let the dogs crawl over him. To help put them at ease, he tussled with them a little, played and petted. In mere minutes, the skies darkened enough that the security lights flickered on.

Sargie turned and started a furious barking. She looked toward Chris’s house, but Chris saw nothing amiss.