Say Goodbye (Romantic Suspense #25) by Karen Rose

            “Liza.” Then he frowned. “Wait. What do you mean, ‘that’s why you swore at me’?” His face paled. “How long were you standing there? What did you hear?”

            “Long enough. And everything you and your boss discussed.”

            Twin red stripes rose on his cheekbones. His breathing ticked up. He was angry. But she wasn’t afraid. She’d never been afraid of Tom Hunter. She was only afraid of how he made her feel. And what she was willing to do to make him happy.

            “You had no right,” he hissed.

            “You’re right. I didn’t. I didn’t plan to overhear you, but I did. And now I know that they are hiring a nursing assistant at Sunnyside Oaks.”

            Tom staggered back a step, anger now mixed with fear. “You wouldn’t. You can’t.”

            “I will and I can. I’m qualified for the position.”

            “Liza, no.” His jaw went tight. “I forbid it.”

            She gaped at him. “You what?”

            “I. Forbid. It.”

            A tendril of temper unfurled in her chest and she welcomed it. Anger was a million times better than despair. “You can’t stop me.”

            He was in her space before she was aware that he’d started to move, his big hands gripping her upper arms. His grip was firm, but not punishing. She still wasn’t afraid.

            She was pissed off, but she didn’t shrug him off, because he was touching her and she was pathetically needy. She swallowed a whimper. Barely.

            “Watch me,” he said in a low growl.

            His face was close, his nose millimeters from hers. His mouth was unsmiling. Still, she wanted it more than she wanted to breathe. She swallowed hard, her gaze dropping to his lips. Would they be soft? Or hard? How would he taste?

            No, no, no, no. Stop it. Stop it now.

            She yanked her gaze up. And froze.

            Because he was looking at her mouth, too. For a moment she thought . . .

            She hoped . . .

            But when he yanked his gaze up, all she saw was shock. He was . . . appalled, and her pounding heart seemed to freeze in her chest.

            His hands fell from her arms as if she’d burned him, and he took a huge step back, so huge that he nearly tripped up the stairs. He shook his head hard, saying nothing. But his rejection couldn’t be clearer.

            “Well,” she said, wondering if he could hear her frozen heart shattering into tiny pieces. “I’m glad we had this chat. I’ll be going now.” She had her hand on the doorknob when he finally spoke.

            “Liza, wait.”

            She paused but didn’t look back. She could hear that he still stood by the stairs. He hadn’t moved an inch after that colossal retreat. “What, Tom?” she snapped.

            “You can’t apply for that job.”

            Not wanting to argue, she simply shook her head and opened the door, but the knob was ripped from her hand, the door slamming shut. Tom’s hand lay flat against the door, his big body close enough that she could feel his heat.

            “Pastor is there,” he hissed, his breath hot on her neck. “DJ will be there. If he sees you, he will kill you.”

            “It is a risk,” she allowed, because to deny it would be foolhardy. To deny that her heart beat faster at the thought would be a lie. But she wasn’t afraid, not enough to quit before she tried.

            If she could meet Pastor, talk to him . . . maybe she could get him to talk about Eden. Maybe even tell her where it was. Especially if he was hurt or in detox, which she assumed he was, because he was in a rehab center. People said things when they were in pain, things they might not otherwise say. And if he didn’t tell her directly, maybe she could overhear something useful.

            She only knew that she needed to try. “But a risk I’m willing to take,” she added.

            “It is a certainty.” He didn’t shout, not really. But his voice was so loud that she recoiled involuntarily. “I’m sorry,” he said quickly, far more quietly. “I didn’t mean to yell again, but, Liza, this is madness. We had someone on the inside—one of Sunnyside’s nurses who’d agreed to work with us. She planted bugs in Pastor’s room. But DJ caught her.”