Simon Says Die

trying to get him to let go. When he wouldn’t, she jerked her knee up toward his groin, but he anticipated her action, twisting sideways.
    â€œLet. Me. Go.” She gritted out each word.
    They stared at each other for a full minute, their eyes clashing like swords on a battlefield. Finally, Pierce released her.
    She fled into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

 
    Chapter Fourteen
    T HE SOUND OF the bedroom door slamming echoed through the hallway. Pierce closed his eyes, and leaned back against the wall. He hated that he’d hurt her, but from the moment he heard her security code, his frustration and anger had started a slow boil. How could she use their first date as her alarm code, as if she cared about him, and then continue to lie to him?
    His shoulders slumped, and he shook his head in defeat. He didn’t know how long he stood there, in the dark, thinking. It was the sound of Madison’s soft snores that finally broke through his haze, and had him trudging back to his computer desk.
    He plopped down in the chair and powered up the laptop again, to read the files Casey had sent him. Nothing earth shattering, nothing about Damon’s life in New York that seemed any different than any other businessman. Either Casey had been a boss too long and had forgotten how to investigate, or Damon really didn’t have anything lurking in his background worth finding.
    If it weren’t for the shooting that had started all of this, Pierce would probably be sitting in Hamilton’s camp right now, thinking Madison was a crazy woman, desperate for attention, inventing shadows, faking notes.
    He didn’t doubt that she believed what she was telling everyone. She genuinely believed her husband had come back from the dead to stalk her. But what if her bitter relationship with Damon was clouding her judgment? What if the shooter was just a simple burglar, casing her house, as Casey had suggested? That scenario was just as plausible, hell, more so, than the scenario she believed.
    He scrubbed his hands over his face. Logan was due back home from his honeymoon in a few more days. As soon as Logan was back in the States, Pierce was going to call him and tell him to get his butt to Savannah to take over guard duty for his sister. Her baby-blue eyes had sucked him in once, and he was hearing that sucking sound again. He needed to get out while he still could.
    Tomorrow he’d get her laptop, and look through Damon’s files. But the way things were going, he didn’t hold out hope that the files would reveal much. Other than Madison’s statements about her husband, there was nothing else backing up anything that she’d said about him, or that she even had a stalker to begin with.
    Not. One. Damn. Thing.
    M ADISON WAS MUCH calmer the next morning as she got out of Pierce’s car at her house to get her laptop. He was trying to help her. She had to keep reminding herself of that. He couldn’t help it if he had a suspicious, detective’s brain. When she thought about everything from his perspective, she could understand his skepticism.
    Especially since she hadn’t told him everything.
    â€œI can open my own door.” She stepped in front of him to unlock and open her front door.
    His hand closed around hers. He, too, was calmer today. There was nothing of his anger from last night in his eyes, in the gentle touch of his hand on hers. “We have a truce. Remember? Part of our deal is that I’m supposed to protect you. Stop fighting me.”
    She relaxed her grip beneath his. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make this even more difficult for you.” She pulled her hand back.
    â€œEven more difficult?”
    She waved her hand in the air. “You know, being around me. I know you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t feel you had to, because of your promise to my brother. I’m not trying to be difficult. Really, I’m not.” She waved her hand again. “I think it just comes naturally.”
    His lips twitched as if he were trying not to smile, but then he gave in to the urge and grinned. “Being with you isn’t that much of a hardship. I happen to enjoy your waspish ways.”
    â€œMy waspish ways?” She put her hands on her hips. “What’s that supposed to—”
    â€œUh-uh.” Laughter was heavy in his voice. “You can’t apologize and ruin it by doing the