"Then why are you here?" she asks.
"Because knowing doesn't stop me from being terrified," he says. "Because I've watched you walk into a war zone with a man who might love you or might be using you, and I can't tell the difference. And because if I'm wrong about him, you die. And if I'm right about him, you die slower."
Her chin trembles.
She catches it, firms her jaw.
"He's not going to hurt me," she says.
"You can't know that."
"I do know that," she says. "The same way I know Vince will. The same way, I know this house is a cage, and every man in it has a key except me."
He shakes his head.
"This isn't about cages," he says. "This is about the fact that Damian Kade has enemies who will come for anyone near him. The auction proved that. The drive proves that. Whatever war he's fi
