There was a second of silence, then a male voice said, "Well, hey there. You must be Lily. Let me talk to Zach."

She could hear a woman's voice in the background chiding her caller about his manners, but she merely said, "He's sleeping."

"So wake him up. Tell him Coop wants to talk to him."

"No."

"Excuse me?" He might have been Zach's twin, so unaccustomed did he sound to having his demands denied.

"No. I won't do that. The kidnapper moved things up last night, and Zach ended up getting hit on the head. I'm not going to distur—"

"Did he lose consciousness?"

"Yes."

"For more than a few minutes?"

"No."

"Did he have to go to the hospital?"

"Nooo." She drew the word out cautiously, pretty sure she didn't like the direction this was taking. "Zach said it wasn't necessary."

"Well, he's had enough experience to know."

"He has a knot on his head the size of a golf ball!"

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Coop informed her, and his voice turned as comforting as a warm hug, momentarily soothing her fears. "If he hadn't had a lump you actually would have had more to worry about, because that often means the hematoma's pressing inward against the brain." Without warning, his voice developed snap. "Which means you can get him up and put him on the phone. It's not like he's some Navy wu—"

"What is this fixation you guys have with the Navy?" she interrupted hotly, feeling doubly betrayed because for a moment there she'd fallen for his show of concern. "He got smashed on the head , and I am not going to—"

"Lily." Zach's voice, scratchy with sleep, cut through her diatribe before she could really get rolling, and she twisted around to see the blankets slide down to pool around his waist as he pushed up onto one elbow. "I'm awake." He held out his hand for the phone.

She wanted to refuse to give it to him, to make him lie flat so she could check all his pulse points to assure herself of a good steady heartbeat, to go over his wound thoroughly until she was certain it hadn't gotten any worse. But his hand remained out and he met her gaze with level-eyed demand. With a sigh, she handed it to him.

It was a brief conversation. From Lily's standpoint, it was also a frustrating one, since it was impossible to glean anything from Zach's grunts and uh-huhs . She snapped to attention, however, when she heard him say, "I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

" No" she protested as soon he hung up the phone, but could only watch in frustration when he ignored her and started pulling on his clothes. "Zach, be reasonable. You can't go running around with that wound on your head."

"My head is fine." A moment later he'd finished dressing and, against her continued protests, headed for the door.

She followed in his wake. "This is crazy."

"No, it's necessary. The kidnapper didn't get what he wanted last night, so he's bound to try again. This time we're gonna nail his ass."

"Not if you're flat on your back in the hospital because you were racing around with a concussion."

"It's not a concussion, Lily. It was a minor bump on the head, but I'm all right now."

A whistle of frustration escaped her. "You are so darn stubborn!"

He grinned and hauled her up against him, bending his knees until they fit in all the crucial places. Then he kissed her thoroughly. But even as he set her bare toes to curling against the floor and her body helplessly pressing as close to his as she could get, she felt him opening the door at his back in preparation to leaving.

"Oh!" Jessica's flustered voice exclaimed from the hallway. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude. I'm… oh."

Zach slowly raised his head. Licking his lower lip, he stared down at Lily. "I prefer 'determined' to 'stubborn,' " he murmured, pressing a final quick kiss on her still pailed lips. As she struggled to regain a modicum of intelligence amid a sea of jangling nerve endings, he turned to smile at Jessica, who stood on the other side of the door with her hand still raised to knock. "You're not intruding," he assured her solemnly. "I was just leaving."

And a second later, he did just that.

"Wow," Jessica said softly as she turned back from watching him stride down the hall. She stepped into the room. "He's feeling better, I take it." She inspected Lily, and a faint smile curved her lips. "I do believe your skin is smoking."

"Oh, my." A startled laugh escaped Lily. "It wouldn't surprise me." She looked at her friend. "How did you know to come here instead of my door?"

"I did go to your room first. You were just too preoccupied to hear my knock." Jessica flashed a crooked smile and shrugged. "When you didn't answer, I thought I'd try here."

Feeling her face heat, Lily decided a change of subject was in order. "Hmm. So. You're out and about early."

Jessica gave her a knowing grin. But she said politely, "Yes, I know. And I'm sorry to descend on you before you've even had a chance to get dressed, but the salon had a cancellation, and I've got an appointment in forty-five minutes to get my hair cut. You wanna blow off breakfast and come to town with me?"

Lily's sense of responsibility warred with her not-yet-lessened irritation with the rest of the Beaumonts for their treatment of Zach last night, and weighing the two opposing impulses, she gave a brisk nod.

"'Sure, what the heck. Your family can fend for themselves for one meal. Just give me fifteen minutes to throw myself together, and I'll meet you downstairs."

Zach walked into the Kangaroo House Bed and Breakfast. No one manned the minuscule front desk tucked beneath the open staircase, so he strode straight into the living area and turned left by the craftsman style furniture grouped in front of the big stone fireplace. A few steps away was a door marked Kathleen's suite, and he gave it a sharp rap.

Coop's wife, Veronica, opened the door, and her unexpected appearance made Zach blink. Then he smiled. Her usually sleek cap of shiny black hair was slightly tousled, but her white skin glowed with its usual pearlescent sheen. "Hey, Ronnie," he said. "Pretty as ever, I see."

She laughed. "And you're still just as diplomatic and sweet." She opened the door wider and stepped back. "Come in."

Beyond her, he saw Rocket folding a Murphy bed into the wall. As he stepped inside the sitting room, he noted a bathroom across the room to his right and an open bedroom door to his left. Coop strode out of the latter.

His friend was big, blond, and tougher than shoe leather, but his dark eyes went soft and his even darker eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement as he watched his wife step outside the room. "What are you doing out in the hall, sweetpea?"

"I'm going to go have breakfast and give you guys some privacy to talk." She turned to Zach. "I'm so sorry about your sister," she said. "Please let me know if there's anything I can do. I know you'll get her back, but I can only imagine how worried you must be in the meantime." Then, murmuring a farewell, she pulled the door closed.

"Diplomatic and sweet?" John said the instant she was gone, raising his eyebrows at Zach. "Was she talking about the same hard-ass we all know and fear?"

"Hey, the last time I saw Veronica, she and Coop were about to be married. I just made myself scarce whenever Lover Boy here started messing with her in front of me."

"You must have spent a helluva lot of time making yourself scarce, then," John said sardonically, "because he's still at it every chance he gets." Both men turned to look at the subject of their discussion.

Coop shrugged. "What can I say? She's very messable."

"She must be," Zach agreed dryly, "if you couldn't leave her at home long enough to take care of business."

"You don't know the half of it." Rocket gave their mutual friend a pitying look. "He said, 'But honey, cookie, sugar. This here is men's work and ya can't come along.' To which she replied"—John's voice went falsetto— " 'I'm going, Cooper Blackstock, and that's final.'" Then his voice dropped back down into its normal register. "And he caved, Midnight, he just caved. Hung his head and said, 'Okay, princess. Whatever you say.' Hell, she even got to ride shotgun on the trip up here."

Zach shook his head in sad disbelief. "Whoever would have thought we'd see the day the Iceman turned into a boy who just can't say no to the little woman?"

Coop snorted. "It wasn't my little woman who refused to wake you up this morning simply because you had a"—he inspected Zach's temple—"very minor-league knot on the head."

"Yeah, but some of us actually take charge once we regain consciousness from our extremely serious head injuries." Zach gave Coop a smile that was all teeth. "And you'll notice Lily didn't accompany me here." Not that she probably wouldn't have tried to if Jessica hadn't shown up in time to prevent the idea from occurring to her.

"If you two are through swinging 'em around," Rocket interrupted, "maybe we can get down to business." He gave the fly of his fashionable slacks a fond pat. "Besides, a show of size is about as pointless as the nipples on your chests, dont'cha think? Everyone knows who's got the big one in this group."

Zach and Coop looked at him. Then they looked at each other.

"Can't argue with that," Zach said and took a seat.

" 'Course you'll notice he doesn't have a woman of his own." Coop pulled up the chair next to him and gave Rocket a nod as he sat. "But you're in the majors, Miglionni, no question about that."

Then he turned his attention on Zach. "So, what the hell is this I hear about the kidnapper calling last night instead of today?"