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  A soft rapping on the door startled Annie. Shuddering, she gasped silently, then sucked in a deep, calming breath. “Yes?”

  “Annie, dear, it’s Mother.”

  Oh, great. She’d thought her family had left for dinner by now. “What is it, Mother?”

  “May I come in?” Jennifer asked. “There’s something I have to tell you.”

  “Please, come on in.” She really didn’t want to talk to her mother. Didn’t want to be lectured. Didn’t want to have to listen to the family’s opinion of her situation.

  After entering the room, Jennifer quietly closed the door and approached the bed where Annie sat on the edge. “Feeling better?”

  “I’m fine, Mother.”

  “This whole affair has been terribly upsetting for you, and for us. We’re very fortunate that Mr. Carmichael happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

  “I don’t mean to be rude, but if you’re going to dinner with Uncle Royce and Aunt Vera, perhaps you should get to the point.”

  “Certainly.” Jennifer sat beside Annie. “I’ve hired Dane.”

  Annie stared at her mother, a sense of dread dropping like a lead weight into her stomach. “What do you mean, you’ve hired Dane?”

  “We—Uncle Royce, Aunt Vera and I—decided that Dane is the best man for the job.” Jennifer cleared her throat. “We want him to take this case and remain your bodyguard until there is no longer any danger to you.”

  “I do not want Dane Carmichael as my bodyguard on a permanent basis.” Annie shot up off the bed, her eyes darkening, her mouth set in a grim line. “I refuse to allow you to do this to me!”

  “I’m paying the man’s salary, so I think it’s my prerogative to choose whom I think the best qualified man is.” Jennifer folded her hands in her lap.

  Annie turned on her mother, her face contorted in rage, “How many times in the past have I been forced to endure the dictates of my family because they thought they knew what was best for me? I married the man Daddy handpicked for me. I tried to be the dutiful daughter. Even after I found out about Preston’s first affair, I stayed with him because you and Daddy thought that was what was best for me.”

  “Annie, child, you’re only hurting yourself to remain so bitter.”

  “First of all, I’m not a child! I’m a woman! I’ll be thirty-five soon.” Annie clenched her jaw tightly. Why was she having this conversation with her mother? Why did she feel as if she were pleading for her freedom? She had fought and won that battle years ago. “I’d rather do without a bodyguard than keep Dane Carmichael on the job indefinitely. And I can find a way to pay for an investigator.”

  Jennifer reached up and took Annie’s hand in hers. “My sweet, Annie Sophia. Always so stubborn and independent. Always fussing and fuming and fighting to have your own way. Just like your daddy.”

  “Good God, Mother, I’m nothing like Daddy!” Annie jerked free of her mother’s hold.

  Jennifer smiled, the look in her eyes sympathetic and understanding. “Be that as it may, I have hired Dane. And unless you really are desperately afraid you’ll succumb to your attraction to him, then I can’t imagine why you’d prefer to risk your life without a bodyguard and to hire a less qualified investigator.”

  “I am not afraid I’ll succumb to Dane. I shouldn’t have told you that I find him very attractive or that he reminds me of Preston. The only reason y’all want him on this case is because he’s one of you. He belongs to the same good ole boys club that Daddy and Preston were a part of.”

  Jennifer stood and faced her daughter’s wrath. “Oh, my poor Annie. You must think you’ll fall in love with Dane to be so afraid of him.”

  “I would never fall in love with—”

  “If you’re not worried about falling in love with Dane, then what possible reason could you have to object to my hiring him?”

  Annie knew when she’d been outmaneuvered. There was no reasonable explanation for why she didn’t want Dane to stay on as her bodyguard—none, other than the one her mother had mentioned. And she was not going to admit to her mother that she was afraid of falling in love with Dane. If she did, her mother would be planning a wedding and having invitations printed. Nothing would please her family more than if she wound up with a man who had been born into their world of wealth and privilege.

  “Dammit,” Annie mumbled under her breath. “All right, Mother, you win.”

  Jennifer’s lips curved into a wide, triumphant smile.

  “I have no feelings whatsoever for Dane Carmichael and I’ll prove to you that I don’t.”

  “Yes, dear, you do that.” Jennifer hugged Annie, kissed her cheek and sauntered toward the door. After opening the bedroom door, she paused for a moment and said, “Thank you for being so reasonable about this.”

  Annie glowered at her mother, who only smiled at her as she turned and headed toward the staircase. Annie hurried into her bathroom, brushed her teeth, freshened her makeup, ran a comb through her hair and threw the straps of her bag over her shoulder.

  She waited at the top of the stairs until she heard the front door open and close, then she walked downstairs and waited in the foyer until she heard Uncle Royce’s Mercedes pull out of the driveway. She rushed into the den, where she found Dane sitting on the sofa, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked right at home, as if he actually lived here. Annie cringed. He will be living here for God only knows how long, she reminded herself.

  “Well, am I staying or leaving?” Dane asked, his gaze locking with hers the minute she entered the room.

  “You’re staying, courtesy of my mother’s generosity,” she said reluctantly. “Until the mystery is solved and my life is no longer in danger.”

  Dane frowned, furrowing his brow and widening his eyes. “I thought you’d put up more of a fight. Your mother must have amazing powers of persuasion.”

  “Let’s just say that Mother challenged me and she knew I’d never be able to resist a challenge.”

  “So this is my case,” he said. “You won’t be replacing me in a week or two?”

  “I think we’ve established the fact that my mother has hired you for the duration of my problems.” Annie tapped her foot on the wood floor. “Are you ready to go now?”

  “Go where?” he asked.

  “To the Robinsons’s lake house.”

  “It’s rather late, isn’t it? Don’t you think this can wait until morning?”

  “Maybe, but I can’t wait,” she told him. “I want to go now, and even if my mother is paying your salary, I’m your boss. Got it?”

  “All right, boss lady.” Dane rose from the sofa, his long, leanly muscular body towering over her as she approached him. “We’ve still got the rental car.” He jangled the keys in his pocket.

  “We’ll take my Navigator.” She gave him a look that dared him to disagree. “And I’ll drive. I know where we’re going. The Robinsons’s cottage isn’t far from Uncle Royce and Aunt Vera’s place on the lake.”

  Annie headed toward the back door. Catching up with her, Dane grasped her shoulder. She glanced up at him.

  “Did you tell your mother that we wouldn’t be here when she returned from dinner?”

  “No-oo.” The word dragged out slowly, laced with sheer aggravation. “Oh, you’re right. I’ll leave her a note.”

  After disengaging herself from Dane’s grip, she stomped across the kitchen. Finding a notepad and pen by the telephone, she jotted down a quick message and stuck it to the refrigerator with a magnet.

  Dane read the note aloud. “‘Dane and I have gone to the Robinsons’s lake house. We’ll pick up burgers on the way there. Don’t wait up for us. Love, Annie.”’

  “She’ll worry if she thinks we didn’t have dinner,” Annie explained.

  “You’re a good daughter.”

  “I’m not what she wanted or expected.” Annie shrugged. “And she’s not the kind of mother I needed. But we both make the best of it.”

  Annie had protested v