by Cynthia Eden
Mark glanced around, frantic. Where was Ava? She’d been there just a moment before.
I left her. I thought she was safe. I left her!
“Ava!” That wasn’t his desperate call for her. Someone else was yelling out for her. Footsteps thudded toward him, and a flashlight shone in Mark’s eyes. “What the... Mark?” The light dropped to the ground. “Sully?”
And then Brodie was running forward. Brodie’s voice was a little harder and sharper than his twin’s—that tone was a dead giveaway for his identity. Brodie yanked out his phone. Then he was saying, “I found Sully! West of the bluff, about fifty yards. Get the EMTs out here, now! He’s hurt.” His voice dropped and he added, “He’s hurt bad.”
Brodie tossed the phone aside. “Where’s Ava?” he demanded.
“I don’t know,” Mark said, and the words actually hurt.
Brodie’s head snapped up. “Where is my sister?”
Mark was already on his feet. “Ava!” He roared her name.
More footsteps thundered toward them. Help, coming for Sully.
But where was Ava?
Mark shouted her name again as he spun around. And fear—a dark terror unlike anything he’d ever known—tightened like a fist around his heart.
* * *
MARK WAS CALLING her name. Ava blinked, trying to stop her tears. He was so close—they were all so close. If she just called out to them—
“Mark will be the first to die,” Ty promised her. “He can’t hide behind you now.”
“He was never hiding behind me.”
“He wasn’t worth your time. He was no good, a useless bastard who should never have touched you.” He jerked her back against him, forcing her body even closer to his. “Knew you were meant for me...that very first night... I knew.”
And he was dragging her back. Away from the lights. Away from her family. Away from Mark. Ava knew that if she didn’t get away from him soon, there would be no escape.
“Thought they’d keep me from...you...” His breath rasped out. He was bleeding. She’d felt the blood as he held her so tightly to him. “No one can. Figured out how to slip in...and out of this ranch...”
He lived so close to the ranch. He’d had plenty of time to study the security system and find a flaw there. Her brothers had probably even talked with him about the system. After all, they’d thought Ty was a friend, just like Mark had.
They hadn’t realized the secret side he’d been hiding.
I’ve known him for years.
He stumbled a bit, and Ava used that moment to let her knees buckle. She slid down, acting as if she couldn’t stop herself, and they both fell. The gun slid away from her body. The weapon slammed into the ground and discharged.
The bullet blasted, and Ava screamed. She screamed desperately—because she hoped that her brothers or Mark would hear her, and because that flying bullet had just sunk into her side. The pain was white-hot and burning. Like someone had shoved a fiery poker into her skin. Ty was on top of her, struggling to subdue her, but she was fighting him with all of her strength. Fighting and screaming and hoping—
Hear me over the fire. Hear the sound of that shot. Get to me!
Ty yanked Ava to her feet. He’d grabbed the gun again. “You shouldn’t have done that... You’ll pay for that, Ava.”
And she knew...yes, she would pay.
Because he wasn’t letting her go.
* * *
MARK’S HEAD WHIPPED to the right. A gunshot. He took off running even as Brodie shouted behind him. He shoved his way past the EMTs, and he kept bellowing Ava’s name.
But he couldn’t see her.
And the echo of that gunshot had already faded away.
No, no, he couldn’t let her go.
I love you. Her words whispered through his mind. He’d been stunned when she spoke those sweet words to him. Ava...actually loving him? That was the only dream he’d had. A dream so far-fetched that he’d never dared voice it. When she’d said those words to him, he’d been stunned.
And I didn’t tell her how I felt. He’d been struck dumb. So freaking happy, he’d been at a loss for the first time in his life. He should have held her tight. Kissed her deep and hard and told her that he loved her more than anything. That she was the one thing that mattered most in the world to him.
Ava. Always...Ava.
“Ava!” Mark yelled. “Where are you?”
And if he lost her, Mark knew nothing else would ever matter to him again.
* * *
THE EMTS WERE forcing Davis into the back of an ambulance. He didn’t want to go. Ava was missing! He needed to search for her. He needed—
“Get in,” Jennifer told him flatly. “Before you pass out.”
And then he saw Sully being loaded into the same ambulance. Only Sully looked bad. Scary bad. His skin was ashen, and the bright lights in the ambulance showed the blood that was pouring from his wounds.
“No,” Davis gritted out. This couldn’t be happening again. He tried to go to Sully, but the EMTs shoved him back.
“Mark hasn’t found her.”
His head snapped up at Brodie’s words. His twin stood at the back of the ambulance, fear stamped on his face. Jennifer reached for him, curling her hand around his arm.
“He’s searching—running around like mad, but she’s vanished.” Fear cracked in those words. “I called Grant. He’s coming...but she’s gone.”
Rage was giving Davis the strength to stay upright. His head still pounded as if a sledgehammer was shoving against his skull, but he had to say this... “Alan... Channing...” The stalker had to be that jerk. “He...took...her...” If they could get an APB out on the guy, then they could track him. They could find Ava. They could—
“No...” That weak rasp came from Sully.
Davis looked over at him. Sully’s hand had risen and locked around the wrist of the EMT. The guy held a syringe in his fingers, but Sully was stopping the him. He was saying— “I...saw him... Not Ch-Channing... Tell Mark...it was...Ty...”
Ty?
Davis shook his head.
When he looked back out of the ambulance, he saw that Brodie had already whirled away. The guy was running for the cops.
Another EMT started to slam those doors shut. Davis lurched forward and out of the ambulance before they could close him inside. He nearly fell on his face, but Jennifer helped to catch him. Davis looked back at the stunned EMTs. “Take...care of my brother...” Davis said.
Because he was going to help his sister.
* * *
MARK RAN INTO the stables at the McGuire ranch. The horses were crying out, no doubt scared by the flames and the smoke. He rushed through the stalls, stopping only when he neared Lady.
Ava’s horse. A beauty who wasn’t shaking like the others. She came toward him, lowering her head. He reached out to her. “Help me find her.” Because he could cover so much more ground on that horse’s back.
In moments, he had her saddled up and ready to go. He urged the mount forward, and Lady galloped out of the stables. He could barely breathe because fear was clawing into his chest. Ava’s image flashed in his mind. She’d been so determined to protect him and her brothers and so sure that the stalker wouldn’t shoot her...
I hope she’s right. Please, God, let her be right. Maybe the stalker wasn’t hurting her. If Mark could just get to her in time...
“Mark!” Brodie ran toward him. “It’s Ty! He’s the one who took Ava! Sully told us...it was him!”
The fury within Mark coalesced, seeming to freeze his heart with an icy fire. He went numb then, operating on pure, cold instinct.
Brodie’s breath heaved out. “Where would he take her?”
Someplace close. Someplace where he could hide her. Maybe
he thought Sully was dead. Maybe Ty thought no one knew that he was the one who’d attacked that night.
“The security system is back up and running,” Brodie said. “It looks like he slipped in via the south gate.”
The south gate. The gate that was closest to Mark’s property.
“Then that’s how he’s going to try to get out.” Mark urged the horse onward. “I’ll get her back,” he shouted to Brodie. Brodie was running into the stables, too, and so was...Davis? Staggering, yes, but still trying to follow his twin.
Mark leaned low over the horse’s mane. He urged Lady to go faster. To run harder.
Years ago, Ava had made that same desperate night journey with Lady. She’d gotten to him safely, and now Mark was frantic to get to her.
I’m coming, Ava. I’m coming.
* * *
TY WAS DRAGGING AVA, pulling her and trying to force her to run, but every step was agony for her. She was sure the bullet was still inside her. She hadn’t felt it come out, and the pain wrenched through her.
“We’ll get clear of the McGuire ranch, and then I’ll take you away,” he said. He’d been talking to her, muttering constantly, as he hauled her through the darkness. “It’ll be just you and me, Ava. The way it should have been. Then I’ll get rid of Mark, and everything—everything will all be mine.”
He was insane. Straight-up certifiable.
Ava slipped and fell, but this time, the stumble wasn’t a fake-out designed to gain her freedom. Her legs just wouldn’t go anymore, and she hit the ground.
“Get up!” Ty screamed at her.
Ava tried, but she couldn’t.
“Get up!” He grabbed her hair, jerked her head back and put the gun in her face. “Or I will shoot you!”
She stared up at him. “You...already did.”
“Wh-what?” And there was fear in that one word. He’d hurt so many people—and yet he sounded terrified in that moment. “When?” His hand flew over her, and when he touched her wound, Ava hissed out a breath. “No!” Ty bellowed.
No? He was the one screaming as if he were in agony, but she had the bullet in her side.
He hauled her to her feet. “You’ll be okay.” Was he saying that to convince her or himself? “Bullets grazed me, too. I’m still going...” The words came faster. Faster. “You’ll be okay...”
“Didn’t...graze me.” She swallowed, trying to clear the thick lump in her throat. “It’s...in me.” She sagged to her knees before him.
He froze. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” The words were low and hoarse and so absolutely insane that she had to bite back the hysterical laughter that rose to her lips. “You shouldn’t have fought me. You should have just come with me.”
And he shouldn’t have tried to kill her brother. Or set fire to her family home. Or terrorized her for so long.
Ava stared up at him. The moon was behind Ty. Big and full and bright. “Why?” She just didn’t understand. “Why...me?”
His hand stroked over her cheek. “Because you’re just like her.”
She shook her head, not understanding.
“He was obsessed with her, and I’m... I’m consumed by you.”
Her body shuddered.
“He couldn’t have her, and it drove the old man crazy. I’ll prove that I’m better than he ever was. I’ll have you.”
The old man... Understanding clicked for her. “Gregory? Gregory Montgomery?” He’d been—wait, he’d dated her mother but—
“He wanted her, always her. My mother wasn’t good enough. He treated her like garbage.” His fingers slid down her jaw. Tightened. Bruised. “He hurt her. Again and again...because she wasn’t the woman he wanted.”
Gregory had been involved with Ty’s mother?
“I’ll have you...you’re the one I want. Mark thinks you’re his, but he’s wrong. He got everything else. Even though he wasn’t the bastard’s real son. Everything else, but he won’t get you.”
She heard the thunder of approaching horse hooves pounding across the earth.
“That’s him,” Ty said. He uttered those words with such certainty, and when his head moved just a little bit, she realized he was smiling. “He thinks he’s coming to the rescue. He doesn’t know that I’ve planned for him to die all along.”
Ava shook her head. “Please don’t.”
“Don’t beg for him!” His fingers were so tight she feared he’d break her jaw. “He’s nothing! He got my life, and he should have been tossed into the streets years ago!” His voice was cracking. “Then he locked his sights on you. He wanted you... I knew it... Mark wanted you more than anything. More than my ranch. More than the life that was mine. And I wasn’t going to let him have you. I was going to show him—the thing he wanted most was mine!”
The horse and its rider were getting closer. And Ty was still right in front of her with his gun. Ava gathered her strength. She wasn’t going to let Mark die. Any pain, any sacrifice, would be worth his life.
“You can watch him die,” Ty told her. He said the words as if he were offering her some kind of gift. Maybe in his messed-up mind, he was. “Then you’ll know...it will just be you and me. Forever.”
No, it wouldn’t be.
“Ava!” That was Mark’s voice. So strong. So fierce. He’d spotted them. Did he see Ty’s gun? “Get away from her!”
But Ty just slid closer to her. “Watch closely,” he told Ava. “Sully didn’t see my weapon, either, not until it was too late.”
Sully. She pressed her lips together to stop their trembling. She wasn’t going to watch anything—especially not Mark’s death. “You said...you didn’t mean to shoot me.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered.
She tipped her head back even more. Could he see her smile as clearly as she’d seen his? “Guess what? I do want to hurt you.” Then Ava surged up. She ignored the pain of her wound. She pushed her fear away. And she hit him. Ava slammed into him with all of her might. Her head hit his nose, and Ava was sure she heard the crack of his nose breaking. He howled and tried to strike out at her.
The gun was coming close to her, but he was falling back. Falling—and crashing into the ground. Ava leapt away from him and started running toward Mark. “Go back!” Ava screamed. “He’s got a gun! Go back!”
Mark was racing forward on the horse.
Her legs were shaking and—
“Down, Ava! Down!” Mark’s wrenching cry.
Ava fell.
And Mark—Mark fired the gun he held. Boom. Boom. Her hands pushed against the earth, and she glanced over her shoulder. Ty was on his feet, the gun in his hand. Had he been about to shoot her? Or Mark?
As she stared at him, Ty staggered. The gun fell from his fingers, and his knees hit the ground. “You...were...mine...”
Ava shook her head. “No, you bastard. I wasn’t.” She rose, slowly, her hand pressed to her side. She could feel the blood spilling through her fingers. Lady neighed behind her, but Ava didn’t look back. She was afraid to take her eyes off Ty. Afraid that he’d be like one of those horrible movie monsters that just rose again and again and kept attacking until everyone else was dead.
“Ava!” Mark was there, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight. She still didn’t look away from Ty. He was sprawled on the ground now, his body heaving. He’d hurt so many people.
“I was afraid I wouldn’t get to you in time,” Mark rasped. He pressed a kiss to her cheek. “I think I lost about fifty years of my life when I was racing on Lady.”
She wanted to look at him. She needed to hold him.
But her body had frozen. “He’s not dead,” she told Mark. Her voice sounded too husky. As if she’d been screaming for hours, but she hadn’t. Her knees had locked so that she wouldn’t fall. She didn’t feel
cold any longer, and her wound didn’t ache. She didn’t feel the wound at all.
More hoofbeats thundered toward them.
Mark pulled Ava back. His touch was so careful and gentle. He didn’t know just how much Ty hated him. Not yet. Ava found herself easing over, trying to stand in front of Mark.
“No.” Now his voice was hard. “Don’t ever risk your life for me again.”
“I love you.” Again, her words were too soft. “It’s what I do.” You protected those you loved. It was a McGuire rule.
Brodie ran past Mark, heading toward the prone figure of Ty.
Mark stepped in front of Ava, finally blocking her view of the fallen man. “Ava, please, look at me.”
Her gaze rose to his face. The moon shone down on them.
“I love you,” he said, his voice strong and clear. “And that’s what I do.”
A sob built in her throat, but she wouldn’t let the sound escape.
“I would risk my life for you in an instant. I would kill for you. Baby, I would do anything for you.” His lips came down and touched hers. “Because you are the one thing in this world that I cannot live without.”
And she didn’t want to live without him.
The kiss was bittersweet, and the ice around her began to melt as he held her close. Mark—he was safe. Brodie was safe. Ty—
“He’s still alive,” Brodie snarled.
Mark pulled her close. He turned his body as he glanced over at Brodie, and Ava saw her brother’s hands fist in Ty’s shirt as he yanked the other man up to a sitting position and cursed. Brodie’s voice was a low, lethal drawl. “You are going to rot in prison for what you’ve done to my family!”
Ty laughed. “You...need me. I...know.”
“What do you know?” Brodie shook him. “You’re a psycho who doesn’t even—”
“I know...who killed them.”
Ava’s heart slammed into her chest. Her fingers pressed harder to her wound. She still didn’t feel the pain. What had happened to the pain?
“I was...watching Ava. Saw them.”
She shook her head. No, no, he’d been at the Montgomery ranch when she rushed over there that night—right? But when she tried, Ava couldn’t remember seeing him that long-ago night. She’d just seen Mark when she arrived at the ranch. He’d sent out his men. She’d assumed Ty had been sent then, too.