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  From the military and smart investments, Austin was well off. Very well off from what I could tell. Not that I was interested in his money, of course, but it was comforting to know the things he did for me didn’t hurt his wallet.

  I sat in the kitchen, having a relaxing breakfast and enjoying a quiet moment. I wasn’t going to let the unknown weigh on me. Instead, I thought about the positive things. Doris and I texted every day in the week since she’d left, and I loved our blossoming relationship. Family was important to both Austin and me.

  Angie’s actions were still a concern. Austin had installed cameras, parked our vehicles in the garage, and added a door so I wouldn’t have to go outside if we weren’t together. Thinking about the craziness of the situation put me on edge. This woman had stalked me and tried to get my number under false pretenses. I had no idea why she’d want my number.

  As far as the police were concerned, there was nothing that could be done. She hadn’t made any threats, and her actions hadn’t warranted a restraining order.

  Honestly, I never really went anywhere unless I was with Austin. I’d been a homebody for so long I wasn’t used to really going out. I was fine just being together.

  Austin came out of the bedroom, shirtless with his jeans unbuttoned. I smiled into my toast, remembering him taking me from behind in the shower. Today we were going into San Antonio to do some shopping for his apartment. He wanted to look at a bigger TV. I knew his game. His current monstrous television would make it into my place. It had been years since I’d had one.

  His brow was furrowed as he looked at his phone. Something had caught his attention, and he studied it more closely. I knew something was wrong by the change in his breathing. It was slight, but I learned when Austin was agitated, he breathed deeper, slower. When he wanted to, Austin had the amazing ability to remain unnaturally calm. I guess that came from being a sniper.

  Casually, Austin walked over to the front window. “I need you to get your shoes on. We need to leave.”

  I froze. Yes, he had prepared me for this, but I hadn’t it expect it to really come to pass. I stared at him like an idiot, wondering if I’d misheard him.

  “Scarlette, sweetheart, I need you to listen to me.” Austin was calm—too calm. This wasn’t a drill. It was the real thing.

  I dropped my toast. “What?” My voice was a hoarse whisper.

  “Get your shoes. We need to leave.”

  On autopilot, I grabbed my tennis shoes. He must have seen something in the surveillance video on his phone. Every morning he reviewed the tapes from the night before. “What did you see?”

  “I’ll explain on our way. Just trust me. I need you to stand by the garage door while I get something off your front porch.”

  Of course, I trusted him. Completely. Austin grabbed a broom from the kitchen, stuck it outside, and swept it in toward the house. What is he getting? For him not to open the door, it had to be dangerous.

  Fear settled deep in my chest. “Be careful.” If something happened, I would be lost without him. I had found my other half. In fact, since he’d left me in the hotel, something had been missing from my life. And when we got back together three weeks ago, my heart felt whole again.

  After locking the door, he grabbed a pair of tongs and put what looked like a bullet in a Ziploc bag. A large bullet. My mouth went dry. “Is that—”

  “Yes. We need to get out of here.” I followed him out to the garage and to his truck. He locked the doors as soon as we were inside. “Duck down. Stay low so no one can see you.”

  “Austin, I can’t lose you.”

  “You won’t.” The confidence in his voice, which I knew came from years of training, helped calm me.

  There was a roar as the engine came to life, and my nerves shot up again. I hugged my knees tightly as the truck swerved to the right. Austin was intense as he stared out the windshield. We made another sharp turn. My heart thundered in my chest, and my back pressed against the door. The noise from the engine filled my ears as I tried to process it all. I was terrified.

  This is dangerous.

  Someone is after us.

  Without glancing at his phone, he hit two buttons and held it to his ear. “Skip. There’s an issue. I found a .308 round on Scarlette’s doorstep. The perp wore a mask and gloves. No discernable clothing. That was my plan. Yes, the height and weight could match Angie. The walk was feminine. I can’t take a chance if it is something else.”

  Skip must have been talking because Austin grew silent. He glanced back in the rearview mirror. “I have a visual. It’s Angie. She’s hanging back, but I’ve made the truck three times since we left. Yeah, that’s my next step.”

  Austin was silent again as he listened, his face a mask. His body moved as he drove, but he was in soldier mode.

  Angie’s following us? In her truck? That was her? It seemed a little drastic to leave a bullet on the doorstep.

  Austin narrowed his eyes. “I agree.”

  He ended the call and scanned his surroundings. “Just a few more minutes and you can sit up. I need to make sure.”

  “What’s going on?”

  His eyes shifted again to the rearview mirror after we made another turn. “Angie is following us. I assume she was the one who put the round on your doorstep. I’m going to call the cops now.” ”

  I gasped. “Why would she do that?”

  “Probably to get me on the move. She’s reckless and impatient.”

  To go to these extremes, there had to be something else driving this.

  “If she wanted you to move, should we have stayed?” This was all happening so fast. I was not soldier material. I needed more than thirty seconds to process everything.

  We turned again. It was like we were zigzagging around. “No. I need to call the cops now. Give me a second.”

  Austin hit a few buttons on his phone. “Yes, this is Austin Thomas. I’m being pursued by Angie Turnstead. We’re headed north on Old Wire Road. There’s an open field. Yes, that’s the one. Our ETA is five minutes. She’s presumed armed and dangerous—I found a .308 shell on my doorstep this morning.” Austin grew silent and listened. “Of course. I want your team to know I’m ex-military and have my concealed weapons. Yes, sir. I understand. My girlfriend, Scarlette Noelle, is in the car with me.””

  He hung the up the phone. “What did they say?”

  “The police are en route. We’ll most likely get there before they do. Everything will be okay.”

  I hoped so.

  We would be alone with Angie. And she was most likely armed. The thought sent a chill through me. “Can I get up in the seat now?” Being on the floorboard left me feeling trapped.

  Austin glanced in his rearview mirror. “Buckle up, but stay down.”

  Scrambling, I climbed into the seat and buckled my seatbelt. We turned onto a dirt road. “How far away are we?”

  “Just a couple of minutes. Oh, fuck.”

  He gunned his truck, and I braced myself by holding the bar above the door. “Angie is closing in. I’m going to try to keep her just out of reach until we get to the open field up ahead. I need to immobilize her until the cops arrive.”

  “Immobilize?” I was not a fan of that word. At all.

  “Get her secured.” Austin glanced my way. “And alive. I don’t want her hurt. She’s sick, not a terrorist.”

  Phew. Austin gunned the truck again, and I gritted my teeth. I glanced in the sideview mirror. A black truck followed too closely behind. Austin expertly kept her just out of reach. She became more impatient and dangerously swerved the truck across the road.

  My knuckles ached from holding on, but ahead of us, I saw the open field.

  “Hold on tight.”

  Austin slammed on the brakes and swerved. The black truck veered around us, and Austin gunned it again. We were in the green field and became the pursuer. I was nearly hyperventilating as we got closer to the rear of the truck.

  Austin hit the gas and tapped the back right cor
ner of the other truck. It became less stable. On the next bump, the truck lost control and began to spin. Is it going to flip? My eyes were glued to it. Finally, it stopped, but the constant screaming didn’t.

  Austin touched my hand. “It’s okay, Scarlette. It’s almost over.”

  I realized the screams were coming from me, and I struggled to pull myself together.

  “Stay in the truck.”

  All I could do was nod numbly.

  Angie stumbled out of the vehicle, holding a gun.

  A gun. The next scream died in my throat. But when she made eye contact with me, I saw the malice. She wanted me dead.

  Chapter Eleven

  Austin

  FUCK. I GRABBED MY PISTOL from the door of the truck and glanced back at Scarlette. “Stay in the truck.”

  She nodded again. Shit. What a mess. First, I needed to neutralize the threat. The police were still farther away than I would have liked. There were no discernable sirens in the distance. Angie stumbled out of the truck, holding a gun in front of her. Her eyes fell on Scarlette and rage contorted her expression.

  Get the focus off Scarlette.

  The safety was off, and my gun was ready, if need be. “Angie, let’s think about this. You don’t want to do anything you’ll regret. There’s no reason for anyone to get hurt. Especially you.”

  Hopefully my show of concern would break her focus. She blinked once, twice, three times before shifting her gaze.

  Now, get her to drop the gun.

  I began to speak, but she beat me to it. “Why? Why do you want to keep us apart? What we have is real!” Angie screamed as tears ran down her face.

  “I don’t want to keep you away. I want to help. Kevin loved you, Angie.” Hopefully, using her name helped. “We can talk this out. You and me.”

  Finally, the screams of sirens pierced the air.

  Her eyes widened. “You called the cops!”

  “I’m sure someone reported our chase. Drop the gun, Angie. Kevin wouldn’t want this.”

  She sniffled and wiped the tears away with the side of the hand holding the gun. “No, no! Kevin didn’t love me. He wanted to break it off. I told him I was pregnant to keep him. I even got myself knocked up by someone else. But he died!”

  That must have been what they’d argued about the night I’d overheard them. A surprise baby would have cluttered his mind. Now I understood why Kevin was more reckless that day. The rage boiled inside me. His death had been unnecessary. Things could have been handled differently. The world lost a hero because of this pyscho bitch.

  Angie stared at Scarlette again, and her cold detachment scared me. Maybe the baby was a way to get her to see reason. She hadn’t mentioned it, but it was something to try.

  “So, you have a baby? I’ve always wanted children.” It was cruel to play into this, but I wanted everyone to leave here today unharmed.

  She gave a wicked laugh. “No, I got rid of it. With Kevin gone, no one would take me with a kid in tow. You don’t want kids with me. I can tell. You want them with her.”

  Shit. She wasn’t buying it. What a sick bitch. Her movements were becoming more erratic.

  “Kevin loved you. I know he did.”

  “No, he wanted to end things. And I thought it was over for me until you showed up.” She shook her head and cried out, “We’re supposed to be together! She tricked you, Austin. Can’t you see it? Things were going good between us until this whore came into the picture.”

  We’d talked and texted maybe once every few weeks. That was it. I’d only seen her once. Once. I held my free hand up. “Angie, let’s talk about this calmly. Drop your gun before the police get here. We can sort this out between us. Figure it out.”

  Before anything could be done, she held the gun to her head.

  Bang.

  Angie dropped to the ground.

  Scarlette screamed.

  The police pulled up and surrounded us with their guns drawn. One ran to Angie while another approached me. A third reached Scarlette as I put my gun down and my hands above my head. “You’ll find my gun on the ground and another in the console of my truck.”

  “She’s dead, sir,” one of the officers said.

  Scarlette sat in the truck as the officer spoke to her. I could just make out her unsteady voice as she recounted the events.

  I looked over my shoulder. “May I go to my girlfriend?”

  “After you tell us what happened.”

  Irritation bloomed inside me, but I knew it wouldn’t any good. So I recounted the events as the officers took notes. My phone call to the police reporting this incident was on record. I also had my video surveillance. Right now, I had to get through this red tape. Scarlette looked lost, and it made me more anxious.

  “Can I see Scarlette?”

  The prick stared at me for a second, knowing he had the power in this situation. “Yes, Mr. Thomas, you can go to Ms. Noelle now.”

  Without a response, I walked over to Scarlette and took her into my arms. She began to sob.

  “Shh . . . I’ve got you.”

  She grabbed on to me tighter. “Is sh-she dead?” I nodded, and she let out another sob. “She killed herself.”

  “I know, sweetheart. It’s not how I wanted things to end.”

  Fuck.

  Scarlette’s small frame shook. One of the police officers approached us. “We’ll need you to come to the precinct and sign official statements now. Officer Williams will escort you. And, of course, you’ll need to stay in the area.”

  “Of course,” I responded.

  I held Scarlette closer to me and whispered into her ear, “We need to go to the station first. Okay?”

  “Okay.” Her broken voice nearly tore me to shreds.

  “I’ll follow you to the station.”

  The prick only nodded. Asshole. I knew the type—large ego, wanted to make his mark. I couldn’t stand them when I was in the Marines, and I loathed them even more now.

  I walked away, trying to keep my senses about me. I doubted anything would happen, but I didn’t know these guys. Trust was earned, not assumed. I placed Scarlette in the passenger seat and buckled her in.

  I put the truck in gear and drove out of there. Scarlette looked out the window as tears streamed down her face.

  She glanced my way, and I saw the devastation. Shit. I was calloused to death after having taken so many lives myself. She wasn’t. Double shit.

  Scarlette sat silently beside me with her shoulders drawn in.

  I need a safe place to talk this out after we leave the station.

  At the police station, Scarlette was quiet as she recounted the events and signed her statement. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I felt her withdrawing from me more.

  No, no, no, I need her. I can’t lose her.

  At the stoplight, I had a thought. I sent a quick text to Gunner.

  Me: Can I take Scarlette to the old barn?

  Gunner: You screw up?

  Me: Need to make Scarlette feel special.

  Gunner: Leave it to Ellie and me.

  Me: Thanks, man. I’ll owe you.

  Gunner: Yes, you will. We’ll be mending the fences in the back forty next week. See you there.

  Me: I’ll be there with beer.

  Gunner: Better bring a lot. Jeff is helping too.

  On the drive, I kept trying to talk to Scarlette, but she only nodded or gave one-word answers. I had to make this right.

  Please don’t give up on us. Please.

  Scarlette finally fell asleep and the wrinkles on her face smoothed out. I pulled up to the old barn as Gunner and Ellie hopped on their horses. They waved before they took off. Scrubbing a hand down my face, I got my thoughts together. Hopefully this worked. I needed it to work.

  I got out of the truck and went to Scarlette’s side. Gently I picked her up and held her tight.

  Don’t let this be the last time I hold her.

  She snuggled deeper into me. “I love you, Austin.”
>
  But is love enough?

  Chapter Twelve

  Scarlette

  AUSTIN WAS HOLDING ME, AND the warmth of his chest was comforting. There was something terrible hovering outside my consciousness, beckoning to be remembered, but I pushed it away, craving the comfort of the man I loved instead.

  “Sweetheart, wake up.”

  No, no, no. I want to stay asleep.

  The touch of his lips pulled me back into consciousness. I opened my eyes to see Austin looking at me with concern.

  And then it all came back.

  The chase.

  Angie.

  The gun.

  Her death.

  “Scarlette, talk to me.”

  I chewed on my lip and stared into Austin’s eyes. The images of Angie holding the gun to her head played on a loop in my brain. “I saw Angie kill herself today. We were in a car chase.”

  He held me tighter, and I let his warmth and smell wrap around me. “Yes, you did. She was sick.”

  My throat tightened. “My mom struggled to hold on to her life. She fought for every second she could stay with me. Angie ended her life without a thought. The whole thing is very hard for me to grasp. I feel a little lost.”

  “Me, too.” I must have looked confused because Austin gave me a sad smile. “I’ve had to remain numb for a long time. And with you, I don’t. Today, I had to switch back to deal with Angie, and I didn’t like the person I was. I like who I am with you. And I don’t want to lose you.”

  I was shocked at his confession. Tentatively, I touched his cheek, wondering if this was what his life had been like in the Marines. My brave, strong man, who’d had to keep all emotions cut off to survive. I truly understood why he hadn’t been in the right mindset to start a relationship when we first met. “You haven’t lost me.”

  He exhaled heavily, obviously relieved. “Thank goodness.”

  Leaning down, he touched his lips to mine. “I want to get lost in you, sweetheart.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Austin

  A MONTH AFTER THE INCIDENT with Angie, Scarlette and I were stronger for having weathered the storm. As it turned out, Angie had a history of this sort of behavior. She’d gotten fixated on her teacher at sixteen and nearly killed him. Her family had paid a lot of money to have those records sealed.