Son of a bitch. I cradled my abused hand. That hurt.

And then holy hell broke loose.

The reporters smelling fresh blood in the water—Lance’s, which was spurting from his nose—and a new angle on Shasta’s murder, exploded through the doors. Camera flashes burst in the air around me, drawing customers to what was going on.

Dang it. More YourVid clips.

Suddenly there was a lot of noise and a lot of people all around us. I got jostled and bumped back by the crowd that had started to form around Lance, who was out cold. I moved back, desperately needing to get away from all the noise and confusion. Someone shoved a cell phone in my face and blinded me with the flash. I stumbled around, my vision dotted and blurry, right into a body.

A hot and hard body. A body I’d felt before. A body I’d had on top of me, all around me, inside me.

Super Agent.

He wrapped an arm around me and hustled me out of the growing crowd and into the elevator.

“How am I supposed to keep you out of jail when you keep assaulting people on camera?”

I blinked up at him, trying to clear my vision. “Are you laughing at me?”

“You’ve got quite a right cross there, Knockout. Remind me never to get on your bad side.”

“He’s had that coming awhile, but da-yam.” I shook my hand. “That hurt.”

He took my hand in his. “I’ll see if I can get you some ice.” He placed a kiss on the back of my hand. “Are you all right?”

“I’m clearly not right in the head.” I flexed my fingers. “Or in the hand.”

“You’ll make better mistakes tomorrow.”

“I thought so yesterday, but I’m not so sure today.”

The elevator doors opened to the first floor. Super Agent guided me toward store security office where he’d been hanging out all day watching me and listening in.

As we entered, one of the security personnel scooted past us. “I’ve got to go help with crowd control,” the guy said. He nudged his chin at me as he left. “Nice hit.”

“I have a feeling the guys around this store are going to start giving you a wide berth,” Super Agent said.

“You seem awfully pleased about that.”

He hitched a shoulder and headed for the door. “Where can I find some ice?”

“You’re jealous.”

His gaze connected with mine. “You’re a beautiful woman, Maggie. Guys are gonna notice. I like it. What I don’t like is them forcing you to protect yourself. The ice?”

“Employee lounge. Go back out the way we came and go toward the escalators then hook a left. You’ll see the door. The code is 1-2-3-4.”

“Are you kidding?”

“Yeah, we’re like the Pentagon around here.”

“Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

Alone in the security office I took a moment to look around. I’d been in here once before to collect a reward for catching a customer trying to pass off stolen gift cards. There was a wall of TV screens with different camera angles all over the store. I sat down in a wheeled office chair and scooted forward to watch Super Agent make his way out of the hallway and onto the sales floor.

Man that dude was sexy. The way he moved, like a panther, all sleek darkness and tightly packed power. My lady parts sat up like begging dogs, panting, tongues lolling. I reached out and touched his image on the monitor. I wished I could be the right kind of girlfriend for him. He deserved better than me. I guessed I was just going to have to work harder at it.

As Super Agent disappeared into the employee lounge, I switched my attention to the melee going on around the Estelle Landers counter. Lance was now sitting up. Tabitha held a cloth to his nose. I hoped it was broken. More people had joined the crowd and there was some jockeying for position.

Xavier was going to be sorry today was his day off. When this hit the news my phone was going to explode. Too bad I didn’t have it with me or I could FaceTime him footage from the security cameras. He’d like that.

My gaze tracked to the stockroom where Shasta had been killed. The camera angle on the other door was odd. If you opened the door, it would block you from being seen and then wouldn’t pick you up again until you were on the other side of the floor. Whoever rigged that shelving unit had to have known about that discrepancy.

“Hello, Maggie.”

I spun around in my seat. I’d been so wrapped up in my conspiracy theories I hadn’t heard the door open.

“Hey, Daryl.” Oh, crap. He was here to fire me. I could see it in his face. “I’m so sorry about what happened with Lance. I really didn’t mean to hit him. If you’d heard—”

“I know what he says about you. And to you. He’s a pig.”

“So, I’m not in trouble?” I went limp with relief. I really needed this job. And I suddenly realized how much I really liked it too.

“Oh, you’re in trouble,” he said, inching closer. “I saw you with that man. Who is he?”

“It’s okay. Security knows all about him—”

“No. Who is he to you?”

“He’s my boyfriend. I probably should’ve talked to you—”

“Should’ve? Of course you should’ve. You should’ve broken it off with him when you accepted my gifts.” He was close enough now that I could smell the coffee on his breath. “You’re mine, Maggie. Only mine.”

Ho-ly creeper.

I’d worked with this man for almost two years and never thought…never saw. He seemed so harmless. This man with his mousy looks and timidity had killed Shasta. Because of me.

I cut my gaze to the monitors, hoping to see Super Agent on his way back, but the first floor was virtually empty now. The cosmetics department on the second floor was crammed with people. A fight had broken out between some of the reporters. I watched in dawning horror as the remaining first-floor employees filed onto the escalator to the second floor. Super Agent would be my only hope.

“He’s not coming,” Daryl said, regaining my attention. “I jammed the door. No one’s coming. It’s just you and me, Maggie. Forever.”

He reached out to touch my face. I leaned as far out of his reach as I could and came up against the counter.

“Ouch!” I reached out to touch the twinge in my side as Daryl showed me the syringe in his hand. “What did you…?”

My last coherent thought was that I wouldn’t get to make a better mistake than this tomorrow.