This wasn't like her, she never cried. She was irritated by her unusually emotional reaction. What was the matter with her? She had known that sooner or later it would come to this, that one day Jonas would succumb again to the restless spirit that had driven him for years before he had met her.

Verity had tried to prepare herself for this day, but now that it had arrived she realized she had done a poor job of protecting herself. She was shockingly vulnerable. She had surrendered far too completely during the past few months, given too much of herself to Jonas. He had taken everything she was able to give, and now he was casually walking out.

Granted, he would probably return. But she couldn't be sure it would be because of a bond of love. She wouldn't have even that much satisfaction. If and when Jonas came back, it would be because of the psychic bond they shared. He needed her for a unique reason. Lately Verity had begun to wonder how much longer he would need her even for that.

Jonas Quarrel was rapidly taming his strange talent for psychometry, which had once threatened to turn him into a killer or at the very least drive him insane. In Verity he had discovered a way to control his trips into a dimension where violent moments from the past were frozen forever in a mysterious time corridor.

Yes, she thought as she placed the glasses into the sink,

Jonas would drift back to her as long as he needed her help to understand his dark, powerful ability. But if he ever got to the point where he could control it by himself, he might take off and never return.

Or the end might be far more final, Verity reflected as she turned off the kitchen lights. Jonas might simply wander off on an adventure one day and get himself killed.

Either way, she could look forward to a lot of time alone.

Well, maybe not completely alone, she thought uneasily. She touched her stomach lightly. There was no need to panic. Lots of women skipped periods occasionally. Stress and anxiety could play strange tricks on a woman's body.

Verity picked up her favorite leather bomber jacket and opened the back door of the cafe. The February night was bitterly cold. There were patches of ice on the path that led from the cafe to the two cabins nestled in the trees a short distance away. She picked her way carefully toward the cozy little cottage she'd been sharing with Jonas since shortly after his arrival last fall.

It was going to be a long, cold winter.

A heavy silence descended on the two men left sitting at the table in the empty restaurant. Jonas listened to the door close behind Verity and wondered how long that hollow sound would haunt him. Then he reached for the nearly empty bottle of vodka.

"She'll be here when you get back," Emerson said. "Verity's not going anywhere. She'll be right here waiting for you."

"Christ. I didn't think she'd take it this hard," Jonas muttered. "I expected a few fireworks at first, but I thought she'd simmer down eventually and be reasonable. Dammit, you'd think we were leaving for a year instead of a few days."

Emerson eyed his companion thoughtfully. "If you want out, just say the word. I should be able to handle this on my own."

"Don't be an ass. It would be pretty stupid for you to go up against three men alone when you've got backup help available. You know damn well it isn't going to be a simple matter of handing over the ransom the way you told Verity. They'll kill Lehigh if they can get away with it. Much simpler and neater for them that way."

"Yeah. I'm sure Lehigh considered that when he chose me to pick up the cash and deliver it."

"At least he managed to convince the kidnappers that you were the only guy on the planet who could be trusted to handle the exchange."

"Old Sam is one smart bastard. And he's right. If he asked anyone else to handle this, he'd probably be playing pinochle with the kidnappers until doomsday waiting for the payoff. I regret to say it, but most of his so-called friends, once they got their hands on the goodies, would forget all about the bonds of friendship."

"Pays to have one or two close friends in this world," Jonas observed.

"True. Speaking of which, I appreciate your offer to tag along, Jonas. But I don't want to be the cause of you and my daughter splitting up."

"Verity and I are not going to split up over a little thing like this," Jonas assured him quickly, his voice hard. "She'll come around. She's just mad because she's used to getting her own way. That's your fault, you know. You're the one who brought her up to be a world-class brat."

Emerson sighed. "I don't know, Jonas. I've never seen her quite the way she was tonight. At the end there, it was like she just sort of gave up. Not like Verity to give up on anything. I raised her to fight for what she wants."

A cold fist gripped Jonas's insides. The thought of Verity giving up on their relationship hit him with stunning force. He hadn't considered that possibility. He was accustomed to the way she surrendered completely in bed, the way she fussed about his career, or lack thereof, the way she lectured him to reform his casual attitude toward work. He had been reveling in her attention for the past few months, he realized, taking for granted that she was in love with him.

Worse, he had complacently assumed that the psychic bond they shared was inviolate and unbreakable.

It underlay everything else in their relationship, and it would always be there between them.

Jonas forced himself to relax. That bond was his high card. Verity couldn't deny it. It bound them together, a more certain glue than love, or sex, or business. She couldn't deny it.

But he had learned over the past few months that Verity had the strength and determination to do just about anything she set out to do.

Jonas knew that if she planned to write him off as a lost cause, he was in big trouble.

He finished his vodka. The glass made a sharp sound as he set it down on the table. He rose to his feet.

"I'd better go back to the cabin and pack."

"You do that," Emerson said, his bushy brows arching. "I'll lock up the cafe. Don't forget to set the alarm. We've got to be out of here by five o'clock to catch that flight for Mexico City. It's a ninety-minute drive to the San Francisco airport."

"I'll see you at five." Jonas didn't look back as he strode out of the cafe. Getting up on time was not his main concern. Reassuring himself that Verity wasn't about to write him off was a much higher priority.

Jonas's list of priorities in life was short and simple. His relationship with Verity was at the top. She had originally ranked first because she had the talent to help him control the power that was buried inside him.

But now there were other bonds that tied him to her. Passion, friendship, and love were all mixed up with the psychic link. Jonas didn't worry about separating out and analyzing the bonds that tied him to Verity, but he sensed that occasionally Verity's very feminine mind did tackle that issue.