CHAPTER
ONE
Noelle Purdy paused as she walked through the woods. Fear pricked her spine and made the hair on her arms stand on end.
Woods would be an overstatement. Really, the landscape around her was more of a small swath of short and shrubby trees.
They were typical for the coastal climate. Lantern Beach, North Carolina, was basically a sandbar, a stretch of shifting grains with limited vegetation scattered among the many vacation homes and small businesses that had sprung up in recent decades.
None of that really mattered right now.
Only the impending sense of danger did.
Noelle slowly turned her head and glanced behind her.
She saw nothing of concern, nothing that should cause her apprehension.
Still, her heart raced as her synapses fired, indicating a threat could be close.
Noelle had thought being on this trail in the middle of the day should be safe.
All she’d wanted was to clear her head. Being alone in nature usually did the trick.
But now—Noelle couldn’t be certain—but she thought someone was behind her.
Following her.
Stalking her?
She swallowed harder.
The sandy path concealed the sound of any footsteps. Most of the growth along the walkway appeared fresh. If it had been winter, the trees and their leaves might have been dry and noisy underfoot.
Not now. In June too much greenery covered the ground.
Nature had created the perfect scenario for someone to follow her in ghostlike silence.
Noelle’s throat tightened.
She glanced behind her again but saw no one.
Now she was fully spooked.
She wanted out of these woods.
She hurried across the sandy landscape. The sooner she escaped this area, the better.
Maybe she was being paranoid. So much had happened since Noelle had moved to Lantern Beach to take a position as the lead scientist at the Ocean Essence laboratory. Only a month ago, her mother had disappeared from the memory care facility where she’d been living. They still hadn’t found her, and Noelle could only assume the worst.
That fact haunted her every day.
Then at work, it seemed like everyone was on edge—especially after a company board member had been arrested for murder earlier in the year.
Then, just last month, investigators had begun asking questions about a potential chemical dump into the island’s waterways. Someone at Ocean Essence was their main suspect—though police still hadn’t discovered who.
The company seemed to be hit with problem after problem.
Adding to all that, an uneasy feeling had haunted Noelle for the past couple of days.
She’d tried to ignore it. There was no evidence to prove any of the scenarios popping into her mind were correct.
No one was watching her. Trouble from her past hadn’t suddenly reappeared in her life.
Why would it?
So Noelle had dismissed the apprehensive feelings, passing them off for exhaustion. She had been working long hours on a new project.
But she couldn’t dismiss the sense of foreboding.
At the moment, all she wanted was to get out of these woods. But she couldn’t turn around and head back toward her car.
If she did, she’d be walking right into her fears.
If she continued forward, she’d eventually reach the beach and the vast ocean stretching across the horizon there. This part of the island didn’t contain any homes since it was preserved as part of the national seashore and officially part of the property around the historic lighthouse.
At least in the woods the trees provided cover. Out on the shore, Noelle would be completely exposed.
Her heart pulsed faster at the thought.
She should have simply stayed inside today with a good book. But doing so would have reminded her of how alone she was.
She knew it was better that she remained single. But that didn’t mean she didn’t miss companionship. Having someone in her life who cared about her.
After she and Josh had split, she’d felt such a sense of emptiness.
An ache formed in Noelle’s chest at the thought.
She pushed a branch out of her way as her frayed nerves continued to unravel.
Dear Lord, am I in danger? What should I do?
Before she finished her prayer, a noise rattled the brush behind her.
A thrashing sound.
Almost as if something—or someone—were charging toward her.
She glanced over her shoulder.
A man wearing some kind of mask darted onto the pathway.
Noelle screamed when she realized his gaze was on her. She shouldn’t have second-guessed herself moments earlier. Her intuition had been correct.
Someone was after her.
She sprinted toward the beach. She had no other choice but to run.
Her next decisions would determine whether or not she escaped . . . and maybe even if she survived.
Noelle felt certain of it.
Just as her feet hit the sandy beach, the man lunged at her. His body collided on top of hers, and she hit the sand.
The air left her lungs as she struggled to breathe under his weight.
This guy was strong and heavy. Noelle couldn’t fight him off.
As he pinned her arms behind her, her face pressed into the sand.
She turned her head, panic scrambling through her nerves.
“What do you want from me?” she rushed.
“Everything,” the man muttered with a thick accent. “I want everything.”
As Gunner Mathias walked the shoreline, he frowned and fought the urge to feel sorry for himself.
His current situation wasn’t what he’d envisioned for his future.
But life had different plans.
As he took another step across the sand, his body shifted unnaturally. Though the prosthesis on his right leg fit him like a glove, he still resented wearing it. He felt like less of a man with it on.
He took several more steps as he tried to walk off some of his frustrations.
He’d been trained to be a warrior. Warriors didn’t feel self-pity. But that was exactly what he’d been feeling lately.
He hoped his time in Lantern Beach would help redirect his thoughts. Would help him refocus and find the joy in life again.
So far, it hadn’t.
Maybe that was because no one else could change his thought processes. He was the only one who could do that. Yet, at times, he felt powerless to fight the despair that had been chasing him.
He’d been going through the motions without really living.
He wanted to change that. But how?
Gunner took another step, his leg not moving the way he wanted.
He’d been through intense physical therapy for the past two years.
Those had been some of the hardest months of his life—months he’d endured alone. Family and friends had tried to help, but he’d pushed them away. He didn’t need anyone feeling sorry for him.
Gunner mourned for what he’d lost. For what he had to give up because of that loss. The ripple effects couldn’t be counted.
It wasn’t only his career he’d lost but also his fiancée. All the future plans they’d made together had vanished, leaving a gap filled with an empty unknown. Maybe he’d even lost his self-respect. Most definitely his purpose.
He knew he could have walked on the beach in front of Hope House, the place where he’d been staying for the past two weeks. The current session at the retreat center had just wrapped up, but he’d decided to stay a little longer.