NADIA WAS TRYING NOT TO cry. Months of frustration and fear were wrecking her nerves, and tearing down her composure like a demolition crew on a condemned building. The tears fell despite her efforts. When the detective cursed again and pushed up from his chair, she tracked his movements as he stalked to a door on the side wall that she hadn’t even noticed when she’d come in. He wrenched it open with surprising force. “Jonas!” he bellowed. “Get in here.” Then he stalked back and sat down. Not in his chair behind his desk, but in the one next to her; he rested a hand on her knee. “Wait for my partner, to tell the rest. I want him to hear this, and I don’t want you to have to go over it more times than necessary.” She nodded, absurdly reassured. Not just by his thoughtfulness, or by the fact that he was concerned enough to bring in his partner, but mostly by that large warm palm on her knee.

In that touch was comfort and strength. She was feeling so vulnerable right now that the gesture, small as it was, soothed like a ray of sun breaking through the clouds after days of rain.

“Hey, what’s up?” The man that walked in was as rugged and handsome as the one sitting next to her, and Nadia had to take a moment to let her mind adjust to what her eyes were telling her she was seeing.

It had been hard enough to believe what was right in front of her face when she walked in and saw Caleb, now with the addition of his partner, she was taken aback again.

They were two of the handsomest men she’d ever seen in person. Maybe even beyond that, she’d be willing to bet that Hollywood didn’t even have this kind of male beauty on tap. Both were tall, at least six feet, they both had brown hair, only Caleb’s was darker, almost black, while Jonas’ was more of a sandy color and had a slight curl to it. They had impressive builds, showcased nicely in their choice of attire. Caleb was dressed in what she always considered business casual. He had on black dress slacks and a crisp, white buttoned-down shirt that outlined impressive shoulders and pecs.

His partner was dressed in jeans that had been worn to soft perfection, and displayed his lower half in mouthwatering glory. He wore a navy blue T-shirt with them that hugged his torso tight enough to make her pulse kick, but not tight in a bodybuilder gym rat kind of way.

And that was just their bodies; both of them had chiseled good looks that made their physiques just icing on the cake. Nadia was distracted enough to let her mind wander, as it usually did under normal circumstances, to how she would describe them if they were characters in one of her books. Words like dashing and devastatingly gorgeous came to mind. But the bleak reality that had brought her to these men would not be overshadowed for long, and her playful musings faded away like smoke on the wind.

Jonas set one hip on the corner of Caleb’s desk while he listened to the other man catch him up on the conversation thus far. His brow furrowed with concern and concentration as he picked up the file and began to leaf through it. Nadia saw the same resolve in his expression that she had seen in Caleb’s, and she recognized that even though they looked handsome enough to be models, they also looked competent and capable.

“I’m glad you came to us.” Jonas looked up from the papers in his hands; his gaze was piercing and unwavering. “We’re going to be able to offer you protection that the police just don’t have the time or the manpower to provide. We’re also going to find this sick son of a bitch to make sure he gets put behind bars where he belongs. That’s a promise.”

“Thank you.” Nadia’s voice was hardly recognizable to her own ears; she was so choked up with fear. “I can’t tell you how much better I feel just hearing that. All the police could say was that they would order drive-bys and that if they caught him, thanks to my pillowcase, they would have DNA to convict.” Nadia felt her lips curl in derision. “On breaking and entering and stalking. With no prior convictions he would get a maximum of five years. They were kind enough to point out that, with a good lawyer, he’d most likely get off with probation, though, if there were indeed no priors.”

“We are going to make sure you are safe,” Caleb told her in his deep soothing voice. “And believe me when I tell you, when we catch this guy, we’ll build a case against him strong enough that there won’t be a lawyer on the planet good enough to get him out of jail time.”

She did believe him. Confidence and trustworthiness clung to him like expensive cologne, and Nadia felt more and more relieved with each passing second.

“That’s so great to hear.” She beamed at him and then at Jonas. “So great. How does this work? I need someone on me day and night. Will you guys tag team me, or do you have other partners who will take their turns with me?” It took a full thirty seconds for Nadia to realize what she’d said, and how it must have sounded. As her face went up in flames, she gave the men full marks for their attempt at professionalism; she could see from their expressions they clearly caught her blunder, but neither of them commented on it. Caleb looked as though he was going to burst out laughing at any second and one corner of his mouth was twitching with the effort of biting back the laugh fighting to get free. Jonas was having a worse time hiding it, his shoulders were shaking and he couldn’t even look at her, instead he concentrated very hard on the file in his hands.

Caleb was the first to respond. He cleared his throat and sent a pointed look at his partner as that man started to cough into his fist. Obviously choking on pent-up laughter, Nadia thought, and smiled a little as she herself fought against a fit of inappropriate and embarrassed giggles. “As it happens, your timing is perfect. Jonas and I only take on security details like yours one at a time, and we just finished a tour with an ambassador through Guam and the Philippines. We’ve only been back for a couple days.”

“As far as the other work on our plate, it’s nothing we can’t pass off to one of our junior partners.” Jonas, having regained his composure, leaned forward as he assured her. “You have just become not only our number one priority, but our only priority.”

“That’s how our security works, Nadia,” Caleb rejoined. “That’s why we’re so good at what we do. When we take you on, you get one-hundred percent of our focus and one-hundred percent of our expertise. No one is going to get past us to get to you. No one.”