Caught in the Act by Samantha Hunter

important.”
    “How?”
    “I didn’t tell Gina, but I found this in his bedroom, hidden, the night he threatened me. I thought if I had something, you know, on him, then I’d have leverage, right?”
    Rio read through several pages of the small notepad, his eyebrows rising. “You took this?”
    “Yes.”
    “Tracy, what did you get into here? I can’t be sure, but these look like times, coordinates and maybe product codes of some sort. Prices. Transaction records.”
    “That’s what I thought, but I wasn’t sure.”
    “This one name, here, Backman—I’ve heard of him. He’s a local smuggler. Small-time, but dangerous.”
    “So that’s good, right? I have something that could put Peter in jail, so he won’t care about the pictures? If he threatens me, or anyone, I will use this against him,” she said. “And if Gina can get the pictures, we have even more against him. He’ll have to leave us alone.”
    Rio closed his eyes, shook his head. “No, my love. Men like your lover, they go after what they want, they take it and they usually kill whoever took it from them. You have put yourself in grave danger,” he said, stepping back to look out the curtain, watching the street. “Where did you say Gina went?”
    “She’s at Mason’s. They have kind of a…thing. She went back to his house tonight to try to get the pictures for me, but I don’t know if she’ll be able to do it. She’s not a very good thief. I knew if I showed her the notebook, she’d make me turn it over.”
    “Maybe that would have been best.”
    “Sure. What do you care? Wouldn’t having me out of the picture just make your life so much easier?”
    Rio seemed surprised at her outburst. “I have never wished you harm. You know I still love you.”
    “How can you say that, when I obviously was neverenough for you?” she said, her cheeks burning with humiliation even while her heart raced hopefully.
    Rio ran a hand over his face. “I did give in to temptation, it’s true. I suppose, on some level, I never really thought you’d stay with me. That you would find someone else, something better. And you did.”
    “Only because I didn’t have you.” Tears she didn’t want to shed erupted anyway.
    “I’ve been so stupid. I know,” he said. “I thought of coming to you, to apologize and try to make things right, but then I saw those pictures of you with him, and I became so angry,” Rio confessed. “I only wanted to hurt you. I should have known that was how I’d made you feel over and over again.”
    Tracy’s heart stuttered at his admission and the raw emotions radiating from his eyes. “Rio, I don’t know what to think,” she said softly, lifting a hand to his face, where he turned his lips into her palm and kissed the tender skin there. “But it just feels right, and safe, to be with you.”
    In the next moment, they were melded together from lips to hips and the world felt right again. Tracy felt solid again. Real in the way only Rio had ever made her feel.
    “I’ve missed you, Tracy,” he said roughly. “But we have to get out of here. He will come looking and when he does, you can’t be here. I don’t know who this man is, but he’s not going to play games with you.”
    Tracy nodded, grabbing her coat and phone. “What will we do? What about Gina?”
    Rio heaved a sigh. “We’ll work something out. Callher. Tell her not to come home. To go somewhere safe. Tell her to stay with Mason.”
    Tracy nodded, huddled into Rio’s shoulder, his arm around her as they made their way to his car. For now, she was with Rio, and Gina was with Mason, and they were safe. They just had to make sure they all stayed that way.
     
    T HERE WAS NO TIME FOR NERVES . Gina had barely finished pushing the doorbell when Mason opened the door and wasted no time pulling her in, closing the door and flattening her against it. The length of his body held her in place as he kissed her, causing her to dissolve from the waist