Alani gave him a hard stare. “What are we doing really?”

He held out a hand. “We’re really going to pick up some groceries for dinner and rent a movie. No chick flicks, though. Anything but that.”

Alani didn’t take his hand.

“All right, fine, a chick flick it is. I can suffer through one if it matters that much to you.”

Her long sigh expressed sarcasm, annoyance and a refusal to budge. “There’s no way you’re this cavalier about a direct attack—and that’s what it was. The car wanted us to wreck. But then what? You have to have a theory, and I want to know what it is.”

He’d told Trace she wasn’t a china doll. Well, she wasn’t obtuse, either. He glanced around the lot but didn’t sense any spying eyes. “Remember what you said about keeping our routine, to draw them out?”

Now that he’d given in, she accepted his hand and stepped out. “Yes.”

“That’s what we’re doing.” He put his arm around her and headed for the video rental first. “I don’t feel anyone watching us, but in case anyone does, they’ll think we wrote off that incident as a bad or irresponsible driver.”

“Because you don’t want to tip your hand.”

“Better to keep the bastards guessing.”

“Thank you for telling me.”

They stepped into the air-conditioned video store. Making his preference known, Jackson steered her around toward the action movies. “I don’t want to freak you out. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”

Solemn, she asked, “You expect me to freak out?”

He thought about it, studied her earnest face and shook his head. “Not really, no. You’re a little bitty thing, and there’s this air of innocence around you.” He leaned down to speak closer to her ear. “It’s sexy as hell, let me tell you.”

At his whispered words, she came to a dead stop in the aisle.

Jackson straightened and got her moving again. “But I think you’ve got a hell of a lot more guts and backbone than you let on.”

This time, her “thank you” held more real gratitude.

“Trace will have my ass, but if you really want the blow-by-blow, then I’ll give it to you.”

“So you haven’t been giving me the…blow-by-blow?”

“Nah.” Stopping in front of his favorite movie section, he chose a new release with Bruce Willis in it. “Look, this one is on sale. We can buy it instead of rent it.”

She took the movie from him. “So what else have you kept from me?”

Uh-oh. She sounded pissed again. Jackson rubbed his ear. “You know when the car stopped following us?”

“It turned down a different street and I thought that was the end of it.”

“Yeah, I know you did.” He never, ever, wanted her robbed of that innocence. “Thing is, I knew it’d be back.”

Comprehension dawned. “When you were talking to Trace, you said something was doubtful.”

Off to their side, two women stared at him over a rack of movies. Jackson ignored them. He and Alani spoke low enough that no one could hear them, and the women, beyond gawking, weren’t a threat in any way. “He asked if I’d lost them. But I figured the car was trying to get around ahead of us to cut us off.”

“How could you know that?”

“Instinct.” Jackson cupped her face, and he didn’t give a damn who saw him kiss her. He kept the contact brief, but sometimes, around Alani, not kissing her wasn’t an option. “He also told me to keep you clear of danger, and I said I would.”

Alani stared at him through several heartbeats before she glanced over at the nosy women. She glared at them. “Those women are looking at you.”

He shrugged. “I’m not looking back, now, am I?” With one finger under her chin, he brought her face around. “Pretend they’re not there.”

“You were still aware of them.”

“I’m aware of everything, sugar. Including your jealousy.”

“My…? Ha!” Fuming, his movie choice in her hand, she headed for the checkout.

He kept pace with her. “Whoa. Hold up, will ya?” A few more people glanced their way, but most were busy making their own movie choices. “What’s the matter now?”

She looked hot under the collar, her expression tight, her face flushed with annoyance. He waited for her to deny any jealousy, and instead she said, “You knew that car would come back around again and you didn’t tell me.”

“I suspected,” he clarified. “And you’re causing a scene, blowing our hoax big-time.”

Her expression pinched even more.

He had to bite back a smile. She was so darned cute when riled. He started to tuck her hair behind her ear, but she jerked her head away, and he dropped his hand. “If you don’t lighten up, we may as well shout to the whole parking lot that we have nefarious types tailing us and we know it. And let me tell you, that’s going to open up a whole can of worms from the local police on up the chain of command.”

Miraculously, as Jackson watched, her features smoothed out. Though her eyes still glittered with annoyance, she laughed, swatted at him, then went on tiptoe to kiss him right on the mouth.

Almost like they’d had a spat and then made up.

Leaving one hand on his chest, she settled back on her own two feet and asked innocently, “Better?”