ALECHow did things get so out of control so fast?I had to admit that coming here had been a mistake, but when Keli had told me that Evanne had seemed upset when she’d come home from school, and then I’d found her crying, her homework crumpled up in her hand…I snapped. My little girl had been hurting, and I’d needed to make it  right.Now, I saw that the way I had done things had been wrong, but I had no way of stopping what I had put into motion.“I’ll leave,” I said, “but I’m going to speak to Principal McKenna about this. Evanne is smart, and there’s no reason she should have done so poorly on a piece of homework.”Lumen’s eyes flashed. “I always give my students the chance to ask questions, and if Evanne doesn’t understand something, she asks. I can’t read minds.”“Then how do you explain the mistakes?”“I wasn’t there when she did the work,” Lumen reminded me. “I encourage my students to ask for

ALECI  couldn’t  believe  how  close  I’d  come  to  losing  this,  to  losingher. The thought made me tighten my grip on her, made my exploration of her mouth rougher, needier. After a week without her, my body ached for hers with a desperation I’d never known with another woman. I wouldn’t push her into anything, but if she was willing…“I need you, lass.” I broke from the kiss only long enough to say the words, and then my lips were back on hers. When I felt her stretching to reach me, I lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around me.“Yes,” she breathed against my mouth. Her teeth scraped my bottom lip. “Bedroom.”The rush of relief that went through me was almost as strong as my desire. I kicked off my shoes and somehow managed to shrug out of my jacket before heading for the short hallway that led to Lumen’s bedroom. She squirmed in my arms, her hands moving across my shoulders, my back, up my neck. Fingers in

Alec: I shared my deepest secret with Lumen, hoping things will be better between us. But I can’t catch a break. My life blows up again when my daughter goes missing.Lumen: To say all hell broke loose is an understatement. When Alec’s daughter went missing, so did Soleil, the girl I mentor in foster care. It stung when Alec said finding his daughter is more important than some random runaway. But that’s just one more person telling me I don’t matter.With people they love in danger, Lumen and Alec must decide where their loyalties lie and hope for a future together.ALECWHEN I’D WOKEN THIS MORNING, I’D FELT LIKE EVERYTHING HADchanged. Some of it made me uneasy, but in other ways, it was as if a weight had been lifted.I had told Evanne last night about my dyslexia and explained that the mistakes on her homework had been my fault. It seemed that Lumen had been right when she said that a good portion of the reason Evanne had been upset had been because she hadn’t und

ALEC“ANSWER THE  FUCKING  PHONE!” I HUNG  UP  BEFORE  I SHOUTED  THEwords, having enough presence of mind to want to keep Evanne from possibly hearing me yell.It had been two hours since I’d gotten Keli’s text, and I’d been waiting at the house the entire time, continuing to call and text but getting no response.In all honesty, I had expected her to show up  at  some point, perhaps making me wait a while simply to see me squirm. Perhaps she intended to use this as a way to ‘convince’ me to rethink my decisions regarding custody of Evanne and my relationship with Lumen.If that was her goal, she would be sorely disappointed. If anything, this proved that I could no longer trust Keli to do what was best for our child. For some reason, the rational woman who had cared so well for our daughter the first eight years of her life was gone. I suspected it was a combination of Alessandro having broken things off  with  Keli  and 

ALEC“THANK  YOU.  I  APPRECIATE  YOU  CHECKING  FOR   ME.”  I  CLOSED  MYeyes as I ended the call and reminded myself yet again that I shouldn’t throw my phone. All that would do would lead to the hassle of having to purchase a new one.I’d spent the entire morning calling hospitals and hotels, starting in Seattle and working my way out. Because I had no other ideas. None. Hospitals and hotels were the only two places I could think that I could check from home, and Eoin had made it perfectly clear that I wasn’t to go anywhere. He was here to help, and I was supposed to stay here in case Keli and Evanne came back.But I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. I could have worked from home, but how was I supposed to concentrate on anything if I didn’t know where Evanne was?I’d made more than two dozen calls, and not a single one of them turned up anything. For the hospitals, that was a good thing. I couldn’t regret not findi