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She glanced back over her shoulder. “Mark?”
It was just like before. Small things. Things that most people would overlook. But after a while, those little things had started to add up.
Ava pulled in a deep breath. Then her hand slid out, moving along the wall near the door. Her fingers touched the light switch. She flipped it on, fast, and illumination flooded the room.
The bed sheets were still tangled. Her purse was on the chair in the right corner—just where she’d left it.
The windows appeared to be closed and still locked.
She crept forward. Her body was tight with tension and fear. They’d searched the perimeter for the prowler, but maybe they hadn’t found the intruder because he hadn’t been outside. He’d been inside. The ranch house had been empty. It would have been the perfect time for the guy to sneak in.
No, I must be wrong. I left the lights off.
She bent and searched under the bed. Nothing was there. The closet was empty. She turned toward the bathroom. The door leading to the bathroom was shut, too. Ava tried to remember...
Did I leave it open or closed? She inched forward.
Open?
Another step.
Or closed?
* * *
DO NOT GO back to her. Do not. The chant echoed in Mark’s head, but his body wanted to turn around and go after Ava. She’d just looked so hurt.
And he’d never wanted to hurt Ava. He wanted to protect her. To keep her safe, always.
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?”
