Chapter 1
A pristine bouquet of white roses lay gently across the Happy Autumn welcome mat on her weathered front porch. Mariana froze mere feet away, grocery bags in her hands, as the breeze lightly lifted a couple of petals.
He’d found her.
She dropped the bags and dug her gun out of her purse, swinging her gaze around the peaceful neighborhood. Nothing but lively trees bursting with red, orange, and yellow leaves met her gaze as the clouds rolled in above. The houses were spaced a couple of acres apart, and from what she could see, most folks were still at work for the day. As usual, the traffic on the country road was non-existent.
Even so, she side-stepped carefully, gun pointed at the ground, up the stairs and to her door. It was locked. Good.
Entering the cottage, she locked the door behind her and swept the one-story, two-bedroom home. Even though she’d practiced for this, she still held her breath before looking under the beds and behind the shower curtains.
Nothing. She was alone.
Thunder rolled outside, promising a good storm.
She sagged against the wall and let her arm drop. Okay. She was all right. So much for statistics. Usually a stalker gave up and found somebody else to harass when his victim moved across the country. Not this time. She ran for the closet in her bedroom and whipped the doors open to reveal the camera system and punched up the video. Blank. They’d been wiped clean. Her ears started to heat, and she shrugged out of her jacket. She fumbled for her phone in her back pocket and dialed a direct line in the Dallas Police Department.
“Cooley,” came a distracted voice.
“Hi, Laura. It’s Mariana.” She slid down the wall to sit on the polished wooden floor.
Silence erupted across the line. “M? What the hell? Why are you calling? We decided—”
“He found me. White roses across my front porch,” Mariana said wearily.
Papers rustled. “Shit. How did he find you? Have you kept in touch with anybody?” Laura’s voice lowered.
“No. I stuck to the plan.” Most of the plan had been over the top, as far as Mariana had thought. Turned out she was wrong. “I only have a burner phone, and I change it every month. Haven’t talked to a soul from Texas, haven’t used credit cards, and I’ve stayed off the Internet. He’s better than we thought.” Her stomach cramped.
“Crap,” Laura muttered. “I’ve continued working the case, but I have nothing. No clue who this guy is, still. If it even is a guy. If I can’t find him, how did he find you? I don’t even know where you are.”
“Indiana,” Mariana said quietly. “Nice town. You should come visit.” While her knees were trembling, it was still nice to be talking to her best friend again. “We were wrong that he’d move on to somebody else.”
“No kidding,” Laura said. “Tell me you caught him on camera. Tell me you installed cameras first thing.”
Mariana set her head back and shut her eyes, trying not to vomit. “I installed cameras, and I did not catch him. He found them and wiped them clean. I bought the best I could afford.” Which hadn’t been much, unfortunately. She opened her eyes and laid the gun on her thigh. “What now?”
“Well, you could come home,” Laura said. “If he found you, I’d much rather you were here with me. You can have my spare bedroom.”
Mariana stared at the floor she’d lovingly restored after hours and on weekends. She’d made this home hers. “No, but thanks. I obviously can’t run from this guy, because he’ll keep finding me. I love this small town, and I’ve gotten some good clients even without using my credentials. Since he’s found me, I can register and get licensed with the state and really get back to work.”
“You are a great shrink,” Laura agreed. “I don’t have any time off, or I’d head your way and help you. For now, how about I reach out to the local authorities and collaborate?”
Mariana let a small laugh escape. “Give it two weeks, would you? The current sheriff is a dumbass, but the guy running for the position is excellent. I’m actually helping with the campaign.” It probably wouldn’t hurt to let Evan in on her problems, since he’d been a good cop before being fired. Especially since he’d seemed so much healthier the last couple of months than when she’d arrived in town. For a bit, she’d been afraid he was really ill. Guess not. He would make a great sheriff, if he won.
“If the horse you’re backing doesn’t win, you have to promise me you’ll come home. In fact, why don’t you head this way for the next couple of weeks?” Laura asked.
Mariana shook her head. “This guy will find me again, and I’m done running.” Although she wasn’t a moron and would definitely ask Evan for help.
Laura hummed quietly. “I don’t suppose you’d hire a bodyguard?”
Now Mariana barked out a full laugh. “With what? My sparkling eyes and great sense of humor? It took everything I had to repair this place and get it up to snuff. Aunt Florence let it go a little bit.”
“There had to have been a connection we missed between you and Florence that made you traceable,” Laura mused.
“Nope. Florence was my grandma’s best friend, and I called her Aunt Florence, but we weren’t related in any way. She lived all over the world and just moved here a few years ago, and while we somewhat kept in touch, it wasn’t much. I was shocked she left me the house after she died.” The woman had sent Mariana the documents in the mail right before dying. Mariana eyed the gun on her leg. “I haven’t recorded the quitclaim deed, so there’s no public record that I own the property. I can’t be traced to this home, so that’s not how he found me.”
Laura sighed. “All right. I take it you also haven’t changed your driver’s license or anything else?”
“Nope,” Mariana said, her senses heightened as she listened for any sounds outside that shouldn’t be there. “I need to go and make sure the house is locked up tight.” Although she’d just checked. “I’ll call you first thing tomorrow, and maybe we can figure out a game plan.” Since the guy wouldn’t give up, she had no choice but to find him.
“Promise you’ll call your friends—especially the ex-cop guy who’s about to be the sheriff,” Laura said.
“Definitely. Bye.” Mariana ended the conversation and quickly dialed Evan to leave a message for him to call her back as soon as possible. Then she stood, slipped her phone into her pocket and her gun into her waistband, and double-checked the locks on all windows and the two doors. Okay. She was secure. Her heart still beat too fast and her head ached, but for now, she was safe.
The kitchen door to the garage burst open with a loud clatter and bounced against the fridge.
She screamed and reached for her gun, but it was too late. A hood was slammed on her head, and a man who felt to be at least twice her size turned and carried her into the garage and out the side door to a quietly running vehicle she hadn’t seen beyond the thicket of trees. She blinked but only saw darkness. She hadn’t even seen his face.
* * * *
Raine Maxwell was going to kill somebody. At the moment, with a hood over his head, he wasn’t sure who. Even though he was just regaining consciousness, he already had an idea, though. “Whoever darted me is going to pay. Take the hood off. Now,” he growled. His hands were tied behind his back, and he sat on a cold dirt floor. As the sedative coursed through his system, his strength began to return. The wind whispered her secrets through slats of wood at his shoulders, and if he pushed hard enough, he could go right through to the rainy night outside. Yet he remained still. “Last chance.”