by Cynthia Eden
Why did he screw up so much when she was around?
Snarling, he turned and marched toward his bathroom. The door was partially shut, and he shoved it open. He flipped on the light—
The glass mirror was shattered. And letters were carved into the wall next to the broken mirror—rough letters that looked as if they’d been made with a shard of that broken glass.
Stay away from her.
“Ava!” He roared her name even as he whirled around and ran from the bathroom. The creep hadn’t been outside. He’d been in the house. He’d drawn them out, maybe even set off the alarm deliberately so that he could get access to the home. “Ava!” Mark was in the den now and running fast. His heart thundered in his chest. He had to get to Ava, to see her. Had to—
She ran out of her room. “Mark?” Fear flashed on her face.
“He was here,” he snarled as he grabbed her shoulders. “Someone was in my home.”
She shivered before him. “I...I know.” She pointed toward her door. “My light was off. I think he was in my room.”
The sick joker might still be in there. Mark pushed her behind his back and ran to her room. The covers were tousled, and he had a flash of Ava in that bed, with him.
So close...
Until that jerk had come and sounded the alarm.
Her bathroom door was shut. Was the guy in there? Waiting for her?
“Be careful,” Ava whispered. “I was just about to go in there...”
Forget careful. If someone was waiting in her bathroom, Mark would tear the guy apart. Mark kicked open the door. It slammed back into the nearby wall.
He saw the broken shards of the mirror on the floor. Just like in his bathroom. Words had been left behind for Ava, too. Only these words...
Don’t trust him.
“We need to search the whole house,” he said, voice flat and hard. “The video cameras were running, so we must have caught the bastard.” He turned to find Ava behind him. Her gaze wasn’t on Mark, though. It was on the message the intruder had been left behind.
The guy was trying to play games with them, but he was about to realize... Mark was an enemy he didn’t want.
No one threatens Ava on my watch.
No one.
* * *
THE HOUSE WAS searched from top to bottom. Every closet. Every corner. There was no other sign of the intruder.
Ava’s hands were shaking as she watched Mark pull up the video feed from his surveillance cameras. This was the first time the stalker had actually left any kind of message for her.
Don’t trust him.
Did the stalker really think she was going to listen to him? She trusted Mark completely. He’d protected her on the worst night of her life. She’d never turn away from him.
“There he is,” Mark muttered.
She leaned over his shoulder and...sure enough, she saw a man slipping out of the house.
The guy on the video feed was wearing a black ski mask. And as soon as she saw that ski mask, Ava lost her breath. For a moment in time, she wasn’t standing there with Mark, looking at a computer screen. She was back at her old home, hearing the thunder of a gunshot and rushing toward her house. Her father was standing in front of the window.
Run.
And a man wearing a black ski mask was lifting a gun.
“Ava! Ava!”
She blinked. Mark was in front of her, breath heaving. His arms were around her and he was holding her tightly. Get your control. Don’t break in front of him. Not in front of Mark. He was one of the few who didn’t think she was already broken beyond repair. “He...followed me from Houston.” She thought of that drive. The darkness. The stretching interstate.
All that time, she thought she’d been leaving him behind, but he’d been with her every step of the way. Had he watched while she’d packed up? Had he been there? Every moment?
Now she’d brought him to Mark’s door. No, into Mark’s house. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, and she pulled away from him. Ava started walking toward the front of the house. Her steps were slow but certain.
“Ava!”
She didn’t look back. She’d never wanted to bring danger to Mark, but now she’d put him right in the center of this thing—whatever it was.
But that black ski mask...that wasn’t just a coincidence, was it? Was the guy trying to tell her something? Was he one of the men who killed my parents? Because those two men had been wearing black ski masks that night.
She reached for the front door. Mark caught her hand and pulled her back against him. Ava tried to break free of him, but he just held her tighter.
“What are you doing?” Mark demanded as she turned in his arms.
“Leaving you.”
He flinched.
“I thought that was obvious.”
“Why?” He seemed to grit out that one word.
“I’m not going to have you threatened because of me! I won’t do that to you!” She owed him more than she could ever repay. Danger wasn’t what he deserved.
“He left me a message, too.”
Her breath caught.
“The fool told me to stay away from you.”
He’d been intimately close to her before the stalker had come calling on them.
Mark’s blue eyes glittered down at her. “That’s not going to happen. The last thing I’m planning to do is leave you on your own. He wants you to run away. He’s trying to put a wedge between us so that you’ll be out there, vulnerable, and he can close in on you.”
Ava winced. “But what about you?” She hadn’t considered the risk to him when she’d driven to his ranch, seeking shelter for the night.
“I can handle anything this guy wants to throw at me.” He said the words with such grim certainty. She wanted to believe him.
But, once upon a time, she’d thought another man could handle any threat that came his way. Then her father had died. He’d died protecting her, and in that moment, she’d vowed—no one else will ever suffer for me.
“I want to leave,” she told Mark softly.
He shook his head. “No way, baby.”
It was the first time he’d ever used any kind of endearment with her. He probably didn’t even realize he’d done it. The word didn’t mean anything to him, but it had her body warming.
“Yes,” she said as she gave a faint nod. “I’m not going to let him hurt you. I’ll call the cops. I’ll get my brothers involved.” Because this situation couldn’t be hidden from them, not any longer. They would go into their extreme mode—she had no doubt of that—but she needed to tell them. A strange man had followed her, broken into Mark’s place—he’s just getting worse. More dangerous.
A faint beeping sounded then, coming from Mark’s study. His computer. He didn’t let Ava go. His fingers curled around her wrist, and he pretty much pulled her back to the study. She stared at the screen there and saw the black SUV that was pulling up to the ranch’s gate.
“You don’t have to tell them,” he said as her brother Davis’s tense features came into view. “I think they already know.”
* * *
“WHAT IS MY SISTER doing at your house—” Davis stalked into the den and headed straight for Mark “—in the middle of the night?”
Mark stood his ground. Ava thought about running for the door—leaving them both.
Instead, she cleared her throat. “It’s actually getting pretty close to dawn now.” Davis’s green gaze cut to her. She shrugged. “So that’s more like morning, not the middle of the night.”
He growled. Davis did that. He growled a lot. Once he’d had a much better sense of humor. Then he’d gone off and become a SEAL. Their parents had died—and Davis had locked down his emotions. Hard. Now there was pretty much just one setting
for her brother...ice.
“How did you know I was here?” she asked him.
“I didn’t, not until I saw your car outside.” He huffed out a breath. “I was coming by because we’re helping to monitor Mark’s security system, and when I saw there was some trouble out here earlier, I figured I’d better check it out.”
His words just weren’t ringing true to her, and Davis hadn’t looked her in the eyes while he’d been talking. When Davis lied to her, he never looked her in the eyes.
You’re fine, Ava. No one thinks you were involved in what happened to our parents.
He’d been looking right over her shoulder the first time he’d fed her that line of bull. She’d wondered then...had her own brother thought she was involved? Or had he just already heard the rumors that folks were spreading around town?
“Are you sleeping with my sister?”
Now that had her eyes flying toward Davis. Her brother was big—as big as Mark. They both had the same broad shoulders and golden skin. But Davis’s hair was dark, longer, and his features were rougher than Mark’s.
Instead of answering Davis, Mark glared at him. His hands were fisted.
Ava leapt between the two men because it sure looked as if they were about to come to blows. “Stop it!” Ava ordered. She turned her own glare on Davis. “Mark is my friend, okay? One of the few who stood by me over the years.” There had been plenty who turned their backs on her. Folks who actually bought into the story that she’d either planned—or helped to commit—the murder of her parents. “So back off!”
Davis narrowed his eyes, eyes that were a darker green than her own. “What happened here tonight?”
She hesitated.
“Tell him, Ava,” Mark urged her gruffly. “Your brothers will track down that maniac.”
Exhaling heavily, she nodded. “Someone...someone has been stalking me.”
Shock shot across Davis’s face. “What?”
And she told him everything. From the pictures that had been moved to the cops who hadn’t believed her. She told him about how she’d packed up her bags and driven fast to Mark’s house...because—
“Why him?” Davis demanded. “Why did you tell him and not us?” He sounded hurt, and that was certainly the last thing she’d wanted.
“I had no actual proof that anyone was doing these things, not until tonight.” She pushed back her hair, suddenly feeling very, very weary. The adrenaline high was sure starting to wane. “Then he left those messages here for us.”
“What messages?”
“In my bathroom,” Ava confessed.
“And mine,” Mark added.
Davis’s gaze assessed her. “You were sleeping in the guest room.”
She nodded. Davis took off, heading down the hallway. In minutes he was back. His eyes immediately locked on Mark. “Did you get the same message?” he asked. “One telling you not to trust my sister?”
Ava glanced over at him. Mark shook his head. “No. Mine was different.”
Davis vanished. She figured he’d gone to read the message for himself.
“What did it say?” Her voice was quiet.
His expression unreadable, Mark murmured, “He told me to stay away from you.” His eyes glittered down at her. “That isn’t happening.”
Footsteps pounded—Davis was coming back. Fury was etched onto his face. “Based on what you’ve said, the stalker’s events are seriously escalating! I’ve seen twisted stuff like this before. Too many times, and it doesn’t end well. A man gets fixated on a woman...” His gaze snapped to Mark. “And he can’t let her go.”
Beside her, Mark tensed.
Then Davis was glancing back at Ava. “You’re lucky that you weren’t in that room when the guy broke in. Maybe he wouldn’t have used that glass just to carve a message on a wall. He might have tried carving into you.”
She held her ground. “You think I don’t know that?”
Mark swore. “Stop it, Davis. You don’t need to scare her.”
Right. She was already scared plenty, with Davis adding to her terror.
But Davis fired back, “Maybe she needs to be scared. These incidents have been going on for weeks, and she didn’t tell us. She’s lucky she isn’t already dead.”
Ava flinched.
Mark surged toward her brother. “Don’t.” His voice was low and lethal. “Don’t you tell her—”
“Ava is my sister. What is she to you?”
Mark’s turbulent stare jumped to her. She thought of the kiss they’d shared in the guest room. Of how very close they’d come to sharing something else, too.
“Ava is—” Mark began.
“He’s my friend,” Ava said, her words clear and strong. She didn’t know what else he might prove to be to her, but on that point, Ava was certain.
Davis opened his mouth to say something else, probably to launch some kind of attack at Mark, but she wasn’t in the mood for that. “He was wearing a ski mask.”
Davis’s brow furrowed.
“A black one.” She inclined her head toward the study area. “One of the video cameras caught sight of the guy leaving, so now we know—”
“He’s big, probably about six foot one, maybe six foot two,” Mark said. “Fit. And far too familiar with my home.”
Because he’d just walked right in the door.
“We should get the cops out here,” Davis immediately said. “Get them to run a fingerprint check and use their crime-scene team.”
Mark’s shoulders tensed. “He was wearing gloves in the video, so I don’t think the guy left any prints behind. And after our last experience with the cops, I wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to get them here again.”
Our last experience. She knew just what he was talking about. For years, the McGuires had been friends with Austin police detective Shayne Townsend. Most of the cops had seemed to give up hope of ever finding the men who’d killed their parents, but Shayne had kept working the case.
Or so they’d all believed.
But when Brodie and his girlfriend had come under attack, they’d all learned the truth about Shayne. The police detective had accidentally killed an unarmed teen years ago, and he’d been covering up the crime ever since. He’d been blackmailed into breaking the law.
And maybe even blackmailed into covering up the identity of the men who’d killed her parents?
That was sure what some of her brothers suspected.
“You never know who you can trust,” Davis murmured, his head cocked as he studied Mark. “And who you can’t.”
There was something in his voice that put Ava on edge.
“We’re calling the cops,” Davis said. “And I’ll want to talk with your men.”
Ava shivered a moment, thinking about how close that unknown man had been to her.
Mark pulled out his phone. Spoke quietly.
Davis closed in on her. “Don’t trust him.”
“Right, I saw the message on the wall. I got it—”
“This message is coming from me.” His gaze slanted quickly toward Mark, then back to her. “I don’t know what you think is happening between you two, but there are things going on you don’t know about.”
Her back teeth clenched at that. She didn’t know about those things only because her brothers liked their secrets. “He’s your friend, too.”
“I don’t know what he is, not right now.”
The whole situation was insane. “He saved me that night.” She’d never forget her first sight of him. Terror had filled her, and then—Mark had been there.
Davis exhaled on a rough sigh. “Right before Shayne Townsend died I asked him who killed our parents.”
Her heart stopped before pounding again in a double-time rhythm. “What did he say?”
Mark was off the phone. And he’d—he’d closed in on them. “Yeah,” Mark said, voice roughening, “what did he say, and why didn’t you tell us before now?”
A muscle flexed along the line of Davis’s jaw. “I didn’t tell you because I know how Ava feels about her friend Mark.”
She hated the stress he’d just put on that word. “You’re friends, too—”
“Montgomery.”
“What?” Ava exclaimed. “I don’t understand—”
“The last word he said was...Montgomery.” Davis turned his attention on a still-as-stone Mark. “So I have to wonder...why did Shayne use his last breath to name your family? Unless...the Montgomerys are responsible for the murder of our parents.”
She hadn’t thought the situation around her could get any worse. But it just had—so very much worse. Because as she stared at Mark, Ava could have sworn that she saw guilt creep across his face.
Chapter Three
“Ava, let me explain,” Mark said as he followed her out to her car.
The cops had come out to the ranch. Uniforms who’d questioned them all and who’d collected pretty much zero evidence. Mark wasn’t exactly holding his breath when it came to those guys breaking the case wide open. They were still nosing around the place, but Ava was fleeing.
At his words, Ava didn’t slow down. Instead, she seemed to speed up as she hurried toward her vehicle. He reached out to stop her.
Davis caught his arm. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Most folks in Austin were afraid of the McGuire brothers. Their reputation preceded them just about everywhere they went. Grant, the eldest brother, was a former army ranger. Davis and his twin, Brodie, were both former SEALs. Mackenzie “Mac” McGuire had been part of Delta Force, and Sullivan, the youngest of the brothers, was an ex-marine. Yeah, most folks hesitated before trying to tangle with those guys.
Mark wasn’t most folks. And he’d never taken any crap from the McGuires. “The game has changed,” he said, his low voice carrying only to Davis’s ears. “I’m not just going to sit back anymore. I thought she was safe. Happy. But she’s not. She still wakes up screaming at night. And now some new jerk is out there terrorizing her.” He shook his head. “That’s not going to happen. She’s not going to spend her days and nights afraid. I won’t let that happen to her.” He’d do everything within his power to protect her.