by Cynthia Eden
She could feel the tension in Mark’s body.
“So let it go,” she told him. “I sure have.”
His gaze dropped to her lips. Then he leaned forward. Kissed her—not hard and deep. But softly. Carefully. “I just don’t want,” he whispered against her mouth, “anyone hurting you.”
Warmth spread through her. Mark had to feel some of the same emotions that she did. And he was kissing her—again! Making her feel like she mattered to him. More than anything.
“Well...” That was Alan’s slightly nasal voice. “I thought you were meeting your brothers, Ava.”
“You should really let me throw at least one punch at him,” Mark murmured.
“No,” she snapped back at him. Then she looked at Alan. “You know Mark Montgomery, don’t you?”
Alan nodded once, stiffly. “I believe you’re on the board here, too, aren’t you, Montgomery? When I signed on, they were telling me the names of a few others that I’d be working with.”
“Yeah, I’m on the board.” Mark’s voice was flat.
Wait, both of them? And suddenly she was wondering just why she’d been offered the plum job at the art museum.
“I didn’t realize the two of you were...involved,” Alan said. He smiled at her, but it certainly wasn’t the big grin he’d worn before. Far more forced and coldly polite.
“It’s new,” Mark said blandly. “She came back to town and—boom. I wasn’t about to let her go again.”
Alan’s gaze slid to Ava. Softened. “I understand.” He nodded to them. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting that’s waiting.”
A meeting that hadn’t been waiting before when he’d asked her out to lunch?
He hurried down the stairs. She kept a close eye on Mark, making sure he wasn’t going to go all macho on her and try to take a swing at the guy. “I think he’s a bit afraid of you.” Alan had sure fled fast enough. “Why would he be afraid?” she asked. Her brothers, she got. But Mark?
He shrugged. His fingers caught hers. He lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed a quick kiss to the back of her knuckles. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”
“I...I have to go meet my brothers.” They’d planned a family dinner for her. And she wanted to check in and see if they’d discovered anything else about her stalker.
I didn’t see anyone suspicious today or have the weird feeling that I was being watched. She’d felt that way a few times, back in Houston. Today had been different.
“Are you staying at the guest house?”
She nodded. “You know I can’t stand the thought of sleeping in the main house.” Honestly, being in that guest cottage was too close for her comfort.
“Then I guess I’ll be seeing you soon.” His fingers slowly released hers. But he didn’t back away.
Neither did she, because she had to know. “Why?”
His brows lifted.
“You’ve been keeping me at a distance for so long.” She wasn’t going to waste time trying to hint around at this thing between them. “And now you’re kissing me in public? Touching me?” Almost having sex with me in your guest room. “Why now?”
But he didn’t speak. He just stood there.
Ava shook her head. “What is it that you want from me?”
“Everything.”
* * *
MARK MONTGOMERY WAS a problem. The fool wasn’t backing away from Ava. He was following her, trying to get closer to her, to kiss her.
And Ava—he’d warned her about Mark. Why couldn’t she see him for the jerk that he was? Mark wasn’t some hero to save the day.
He was a killer. Cold-blooded. Evil to the core. He didn’t deserve Ava.
He didn’t deserve any happiness.
It was time to make Mark pay for the things he’d done. And when Mark fell, when Mark lost all that he had, then Ava would see the man for the liar and betrayer that he really was.
He’s not the one for you, Ava. I am.
When would she ever learn the truth? Just how much more would he have to do before she appreciated him?
Cars whizzed past him on the street. Ava pulled away from Mark. She hurried down the steps. Mark watched her, his gaze far too intent on her fleeing figure.
She’s not for you.
Mark would learn that lesson soon enough.
Chapter Four
They had dinner at the guest cottage. It was sweet, really, the way Davis prepared all of the food up at the ranch and then brought it over to her. Davis was actually an amazing chef, and whenever she ate one of his meals, Ava knew she was tasting a bit of paradise.
Grant came with his wife, Scarlett. As soon as she’d entered the cottage, Scarlett had pulled Ava close and whispered, “Are you okay?”
Scarlett had her own violent and far-too-scary past, so if any woman could understand Ava’s pain, it was her. Ava had nodded even as she blinked away the ridiculous tears that had wanted to sting her eyes.
Brodie and Jennifer had come over for dinner, too. They’d talked, laughed and tried to keep Ava distracted. Oh, she’d recognized the technique for exactly what it was.
But when the meal came to an end, she got down to business. “Did you find out anything about the man who broke into Mark’s house?”
Davis slanted a quick glance toward Grant, then shook his head. “No, the guy’s pretty good. Made it on to the property without leaving any signs of a break-in. He slipped inside during the confusion caused by that alarm sounding at the stables—”
“Betting he set that off deliberately,” Brodie interrupted with a quick nod.
“Why?” Jennifer asked. “He made it that far without sounding the alarm, so why do it then.”
“So that there would be plenty of confusion,” Brodie said flatly as his gaze slid to Jennifer.
Brodie and Davis looked so much alike. The only difference? Brodie’s face softened when he glanced at Jennifer.
And he glanced at her plenty. Jennifer’s dark hair had been pulled back into a loose knot at the base of her head. Her dark eyes gleamed when she looked at Brodie. They...warmed.
It was obvious those two loved each other deeply. Just as much as Grant and Scarlett loved each other. Ava couldn’t help but wonder...what would it be like to have a man love her that way? So completely?
“I think he did it to draw Mark away, too,” Davis added. “No one was in the house but the two of them. With Mark gone, the guy had free access to Ava.”
That sounded bad. Very bad. “He hasn’t tried to hurt me before.”
“He’s escalating,” Grant said flatly. “That’s why you should have told us about this joker before. I mean, we’re family and—”
“You had enough to deal with.” That was a serious understatement. “And at first, I started to wonder if the cops were right. Maybe I was imagining things.” Hadn’t she worried in those first desperate days that she might be going crazy with the grief and the guilt that wouldn’t end?
“Ava...” Sympathy flashed in Davis’s eyes—sympathy and pity.
They weren’t the same thing. Not at all. And she hated the pity.
Then Davis’s phone rang. No, it didn’t ring so much as it gave off a chiming alarm. He pulled out the phone and frowned at the screen. “I’ve got the gate’s security system linked in here,” he said as he lifted the phone. “It looks like we’ve got company out there.” He tapped the display. “It’s Mark.”
Her body tensed. She looked up quickly—and found Scarlett’s gaze on her. There was no pity in Scarlett’s face, just plenty of speculation.
“What is he doing here now?” Brodie muttered.
“Can’t a friend pay a visit?” Ava shot back as she jumped to her feet. If Davis wasn’t going to key in the pass code to let Mark inside the ranch, then she’d
go bring him in herself. “Let him in, Davis.”
Davis tapped in a code on his phone.
Ava exhaled and hurried for the door. “Maybe he’s found out something about the break-in.”
“Yeah,” Brodie drawled from behind her, “and he just had to come over and tell us in person instead of, you know, picking up the phone.”
She stepped outside. She could see the lights from Mark’s car coming up the curving drive. Mark wasn’t heading for the main ranch house. He was coming to the little guest house—to her. Her family had filed out behind her.
“Do you know what you’re doing with him?” Davis asked her softly. “Ava...there’s more to him than you know.”
She turned to stare at him. They were on the narrow porch, and the front door light felt as though it was spearing down on her, bright, stark. “There’s more to me than he knows, too.” More than you all know.
She wasn’t going to hide from the past any longer. It was time to face the nightmares. “I want in on the hunt.”
“Ava, you don’t need that pain,” Grant said instantly.
“I’ve already got plenty of pain. Staying in the dark doesn’t stop it.”
Davis shook his head.
Brodie swore.
“You’ve tried to shut me out for years.” Did they have any idea how much that had hurt? “You hunted for the killers, and you kept me in the dark.”
“We were protecting you,” Brodie grated out.
“I’m not a child anymore. I don’t need you to shield me from the world. I can help. I will help.”
Mark parked his SUV. He jumped out, then slammed the door behind him.
Ava could feel his stare on her as he approached. There was just something there—a connection that seemed to make her hypersensitive to him.
“I was coming back to Austin,” Ava said, her voice low but firm, “even before this creep started messing with me. It’s not about me running from him. It’s about me...facing my life.” A life that was there, in Austin.
“Thanks for letting me in,” Mark said as he closed in on them. “I came to see Ava.”
“Right,” Brodie said, voice tight. “I heard all about how you saw her this morning and last night.”
Jennifer slapped his shoulder. “Oh, Brodie, stop acting crazy. Ava’s an adult, Mark’s an adult and you need to chill out.”
Mark braced his legs apart as he faced them. “If any of you think I had something to do with the death of your parents, say it now.”
Her brothers didn’t say a word.
“The McGuires have been my friends for as long as I can remember. Yeah, Gregory used to get mad because he didn’t want me around you all, but...he wasn’t me. And I’m not like him. If he did anything, anything at all, to your parents, if he was involved in any way, I swear to you, I will find out the truth.” His breath heaved out. “I protected that SOB while he was alive. I did it for my mother’s sake.”
A mother who’d passed away when Mark was a teen, right before his eighteenth birthday. Mark had vanished for a time after that and had only come back...right before Ava’s parents had been murdered.
She wasn’t sure what he’d done in those years, but judging from the way Davis kept talking about Mark, she strongly suspected her brother was aware of his secrets.
“He liked to hurt people.” Mark’s shoulders rolled back. “Me in particular. And yeah, you probably already know that he hated your father. He blamed the man for taking the one woman who Gregory said was perfect.”
Ava couldn’t move.
“He loved your mother, or at least, as much as he could love anyone. When my mom came around, he thought she was beautiful. I heard him say once that he had to claim the most beautiful woman around. That it would show the McGuires. I don’t even know if he ever loved my mother. He sure didn’t love me.”
Ava broke from her stupor and hurried toward Mark. He was baring his soul in front of them.
“I stayed until she was gone, and I came back—because I knew he was bad. I was taking steps to get him in rehab, but he didn’t want help. He just wanted to die.”
And he had. Ava stopped at Mark’s side. But then she realized that wasn’t good enough. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
She and her brothers had been caught up in their own pain for so long. What about Mark? What about his pain and his life?
Even heroes needed help.
He was tense against her. “If he was involved, I’ll find out.”
She pulled back just enough to look up at his face.
Their gazes locked. Tension thickened in the air.
“Um...right...” Jennifer cleared her voice. “I think we should probably pack it in for the night. Brodie, Davis, how about we head up to the main house? Let’s give them a chance to...to talk.”
“Yes,” Scarlett agreed instantly. “Grant, we should leave and head home, too. You’re supposed to call your other brothers, remember?”
Because Sullivan and Mac were out working cases, they hadn’t been able to join the dinner-slash-grilling-Ava-with-questions event.
Footsteps shuffled forward. Ava glanced over and saw Davis hesitate. He inclined his head toward Mark. “I know what he did to you. I hated it. I saw the scars, man. Not until too late, but I saw them. By then, he was already in the ground.”
And Ava remembered touching Mark’s back, feeling the raised flesh beneath her fingertips. Scars?
A dark picture formed in her mind, and nausea rolled in her stomach. If her suspicions were right, then Mark had suffered far more than she’d realized.
“I thought about putting him in the ground myself,” Mark admitted starkly. “That’s why I left.”
Davis glanced at Ava once more. They’d moved away from the light, so it was hard for her to see his expression.
“Ava has nightmares,” Mark murmured. “I just... I want to make sure she’s okay before I leave.”
Jennifer was pulling Brodie toward the main house while Scarlett dragged Grant to their car.
Davis exhaled. “I guess Ava’s always safe...when she’s with you.”
“I’d protect her with my life.”
No, that wasn’t something she wanted to happen. She never wanted him to be put at risk for her. She didn’t want any of them put at risk for her. She had enough guilt on her soul to last several lifetimes already.
“So would I,” Davis said softly. Then he turned and walked away.
That was the problem—they were all willing to risk too much for her. Didn’t they get it? She was determined to protect them, too, at all costs. They all mattered to her. Her family. Mark. She’d protect them with her life. Because she would never run while someone she loved died. Never again.
She and Mark stood in silence for a few moments. Ava was waiting for the others to clear out before she spoke. There were some things she just didn’t want her brothers to hear.
Like...
“How many secrets do you have?” Ava asked Mark, her voice quiet. The others were far enough away now that she didn’t think they would overhear her. “I used to think that, with you, what I saw—”
“Surfaces lie. People lie.” His words sounded gruff. “You should be careful who you trust in this world.”
“I trust you.” With no hesitation.
His hand lifted. His knuckles slid over her cheek. “I know.”
“Are you trying to tell me that this is wrong? That I shouldn’t?” Ava shook her head. “Because if that’s the case, you should save your breath.”
Then she turned and headed back to the guest house. He didn’t follow her. Sighing, she stopped near the door. “Are you coming inside, Mark? Or did you drive all the way over here just so you could hang out in the dark?”
But I want to laugh again. I want to laugh and be happy and fall in love. I want to be just like everyone else. She was tired of feeling like a ghost, just drifting through the days. She wanted more from life.
I want to live and not just go through the motions.
“As tempting as the dark is—” his footsteps padded closer “—I came to see you.”
Now that was what she’d hoped to hear. Ava opened the door and slipped through. Mark followed her. And as soon as he stepped inside, the guest house seemed even smaller.
No, she was just far more aware of him. Because they were alone now. No prying eyes. No overprotective brothers.
Time to find out just how much Mark would truly reveal to her.
Ava shut the door behind him. Then she braced her back against the wood and stared up at him. “I don’t know how to play games.”
He raised a brow as he gazed at her.
“My last boyfriend...that was Alan Channing. You know how that ended.”
“Your last—” he began, voice incredulous.
“I’ve tried dating a few times,” she said, cutting through his words. “But nothing clicked for me.” Because by then...she’d already been comparing every man she met to Mark. “So I’m not used to all the sweet little lies that lovers are supposed to tell one another. And...I don’t want to lie to you, Mark.”
His expression hardened.
“So I’m just going to say this...I want you.” She could feel her cheeks heat with her confession. “I know things are crazy now.” When had they not been for her? “But when I kiss you, I’m not playing some kind of game. I’m kissing you because I need to do it. I ache when you’re near.”
His eyes squeezed closed. “Ava...”
“Why do you kiss me, Mark? Do you want me, too?”
His eyes opened. Desire was there, burning bright and igniting the blue of his stare. “More than you can even imagine.”