Free Not This Time by Vicki Hinze

used that phrase; she’d heard it. “Do you think NINA attacked us at the club?”
    “Yeah, but I can’t prove it.”
    “I think I’m even more scared of whatever’s going on with Robert.”
    “Why?”
    “I’ve got a bad feeling he’s up to something. I feel it.” Down to the marrow of her bones. “I don’t know what, but I’m worried it’ll hurt Sara. She’s acting totally weird.”
    “Totally weird—how?”
    Beth told him about Sara’s warning, about the hundred unusual things she’d said and done in the past week, and especially the odd tidbits relayed tonight. “But you know what scares me most?”
    “What, sha ?”
    Sha . A Cajun endearment for “sweetheart” or “darling.” Heart, don’t you dare leap. He probably uses it all the time . “The way she looked at that cake topper.The bride and groom had been torn apart, and the groom was missing. Sara’s reaction was bizarre.”
    “With Robert missing, her reaction seems pretty normal.”
    “It wasn’t normal for Sara. She wasn’t devastated, Joe, she was angry. Unnerved and scared, but really angry … and I think a little relieved.”
    “Now that’s interesting. Why would she be angry or relieved?”
    Beth slid down on the sofa and checked the darkened hallway to be sure she was still alone. “I don’t know, but tonight she told me she wished she could go back. It wasn’t clear if she meant back to before Robert, but that’s how it came across.”
    “Maybe she regrets marrying him.”
    “See? Totally weird. Since day one, she’s been besotted with him.”
    “Put your bias aside and tell me what your gut says about him.”
    “I can’t.” She squeezed a throw pillow, half ashamed of that truth. “It runs too deep.”
    “Try.”
    Her mouth went dry. “He’s dangerous. That’s the first thing that always comes to mind. I don’t know why.”
    “God gave us instincts for a purpose. You don’t have to understand, just listen.”
    Joe’s tone carried a warning. Did he know something she didn’t about Robert? NINA?
    Before she could ask, he went on. “I want you to know that I care about you, Beth.”
    “We’ve become good friends.”
    “That too, but this is different.” He paused, then added, “Man-to-woman different.”
    “Why?”
    “I have no idea. Women usually love me. I’m crazy about you, and you treat me like a kid brother. It’s demeaning—and don’t tell me you didn’t know it. That would make it worse.”
    “You’re crazy about me?” Her heart beat hard and fast, then harder. “Seriously?”
    “Seriously. Laugh and I’ll put salt in your coffee instead of sugar.”
    “I’m not laughing.” Her jaw was on the floor. He was crazy about her? Her? Impossible. Couldn’t be. “I just … had no idea.” She didn’t dare believe it.
    “Maybe I’m just crazy.”
    Guard your heart. Guard your heart. He’ll break it. You know he will . “That’s far more likely.” Guys like him didn’t hang their hearts on women like her. They went for models and beauty queens. The women who at sixty were still stunning. “You genuinely like all women. I’ve seen it in the way they react to you.”
    “It is genuine. I think they react to that, but Nick says—”
    Another Shadow Watcher. “What does your mother say?”
    “We don’t talk much. We never did.”
    That had been hard for him to admit. “She was immune?”
    “Mostly pickled.”
    “Guess that was hard on you and your dad.”
    “On me and my brothers. Dad was pickled too.” He sighed. “I really don’t want to talk about the family, Beth.”
    He never did. But only now was she getting a grip on why. “I’m trying to figure you out, Joe. You say you’re crazy about me.”
    “Yeah, I did say that.”
    “Did you mean it?”
    “I always mean what I say. Otherwise, scars can cut deep, and you know it.”
    She’d never told him about Max, but it sure sounded as if someone else had. “Then let me know you so I know what to make of