THIS TIME IT WAS Abby who slid from the bed before the crack of dawn.
She tiptoed around the room and snatched up her clothes. Stuffing them into her suitcase, she pulled out the camouflage pants and T-shirt she’d buried her first day in town and dressed quickly. Quietly.
She’d just hoisted her duffel onto her shoulders and grabbed her boots when she spotted the red spandex dress laying on the floor where she’d tossed it all those nights ago. Her chest hitched and she had the insane urge to snatch it up and stuff it into her bag.
For what?
She would never wear it again. The dress had been a part of her fantasy and it was time to wake up now.
To leave.
She cast one last glance at the man sleeping on the bed.
He was sprawled completely naked on top of the covers, his arm flung above his head. Her gaze traveled the length of his body, pausing at all of her favorite spots before she worked her way up and drank in his face, his strong jaw and sensual lips. His lightly stubbled cheeks.
He looked like any other handsome, hunk of a man in the hazy gray that came just before dawn.
A man with needs and wants. Fears and insecurities.
And she was just a woman who felt those same things.
Once upon a time.
It was time to hide that woman away once again and get to work. Rayne was coming home today and while she had no clue when, she did have a hunch where he would go.
She intended to be ready and waiting when he arrived.
Unease niggled at her gut and she double-checked the weapon tucked away in a hidden pocket of her bag. Checking the chamber, she slid the gun into the back waistband of her pants and pulled her shirt down over it. Rayne wouldn’t come quietly. Her gut told her that. And so she intended to be prepared for a fight.
She checked the blinds and secured the room against the bright light of day. Leaning over, she kissed Brent Braddock for the last time. She slipped from the motel room, locking the door behind her, and then headed for Rayne Montana’s childhood home.
It was time to complete her mission and head back to South Carolina.
If only that thought was half as appealing as it used to be.
SHE WAS GONE.
Brent paced the floor of the motel room an hour later and ignored the exhaustion that tugged at his muscles. It was daylight and he needed to sleep. To rejuvenate.
She was gone. Friggin’ gone.
He hadn’t meant to fall asleep. But he’d been so tired and she’d been so warm and hell, that’s what vampires did in the friggin’ morning. They slept.
She’d packed up and hauled ass and he’d been none the wiser.
His gut clenched and awareness sizzled up and down his arms. A strange sensation that he knew all too well. He’d fought too many battles and chased too many outlaws not to recognize the current in the air.
Something bad was going to happen.
And he had no doubt it involved Abby, especially if she was headed to Rayne’s old place.
She didn’t have a clue what she was walking into. Neither did he, but he had a hunch. He’d tipped off Cody about Abby and he had no doubt that his brother had forewarned Rayne.
He’d hoped that the vampire would have the good sense to just run.
That’s what Brent would have done, way back when.
No more. He was here. For better or worse.
He just wished his gut didn’t keep telling him it was going to be ‘worse’. He snatched up the phone and tried to call Cody, only his brother’s voice mail picked up as expected. Cody was dead to the world.
And so was Abby if Brent didn’t do something.
She might be able to hold her own in hand-to-hand combat, but Rayne was a vampire. And he wouldn’t give up his new bride, his new life, without a fight. Of that Brent was certain.
If Abby had been his wife and they were building a life together, Brent would have fought until his last breath to preserve it and stay with her.
She wasn’t. She’d made that painfully clear when she’d walked away this morning.
It was over.
She’d left.
And so they were right back to where they’d started despite what they’d shared last night. Blood and sex and a deeper connection that made him want to bust through the door and go to her.
His gaze went to the tell-tale stain on the pillow, proof that he’d bitten her. His nostrils flared and his mouth watered. He could still taste her. Even more, he could feel her. The determination that drove her. The fear of letting go and getting her heart broken and realizing she was as cold and emotionless as her father. The uncertainty of the future should she fail at the one thing she’d always been good at. The only thing.
They were linked now and as much as that should have bothered him, it didn’t.
He loved her. He had from the first moment he’d spotted her at the Dairy Freeze. He’d just been too scared to admit it.
And she loved him.
But it didn’t matter. Because she refused to take a chance on that love.
And she was about to walk right into the line of fire.
Rayne would fight. He would kill. Abby, no matter how strong, didn’t stand a chance against a determined vampire. She would face off with him, but in the end, he would win.
The truth made Brent pace that much faster, praying for the time to pass quicker so that he could get to her before all hell broke loose.
If only he didn’t have the sinking feeling that he was already too late.
SHE WAS WALKING into a trap. The truth struck as she stepped inside the ancient barn and noticed the footprint just in front of her. Just a smudge in the dust that no one else would have noticed except for Abby.
She came to a dead stop.
Her ears tuned to the sounds around her and then it struck her. There were no sounds. No early morning buzz of insects. No birds chirping in the distance. No sizzle of the early morning sun on the frost-covered ground. Nothing.
Just the stillness and the inexplicable feeling that someone was waiting for her.
The barn door slammed shut behind her, plunging the barn into near darkness, and Abby knew her hunch was right.
Someone was already here.
“I see you came back early,” she called out, her gaze spanning left and right. “Who tipped you off?” She blinked, adjusting her eyes to the faint light. Only a spiral whispered through the cracks overhead and she wished she’d thought to grab her flashlight.
But then she’d been certain she would be one step ahead of him.
“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you’re here now and you’re going back. Jimmy and Mac almost died because of you. Because you just took off and left them without any extra ammunition.” She reminded him about their mission. They’d been doing recon, staking out a local militia. She’d taken half the team and circled back to an opposite vantage point. Rayne had followed so that he would know their location. He’d been expected to circle back around. To take extra weapons and join the two they’d left behind. To fight. “You left them there to die.”
But they hadn’t died.
They’d been captured.
They’d been spotted and attacked, and they’d run out of ammo in the first fifteen minutes trying to defend themselves. “You abandoned them.”
“I didn’t mean to.” Rayne’s voice carried from the dark rafters. “I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t get to them. I was attacked myself.”
She had to keep him talking. Then she could pinpoint his location and get the jump on him. “You were captured?”
“Changed.” The voice came from the opposite side of the rafters this time and stopped her cold.
Wait a second.
She whirled, her gaze trained overhead, searching for a glimpse. The hair on the back of her neck prickled and her hand went to the gun she’d stashed in the small of her back.
“I didn’t have a choice. I had to leave the unit.”
“For Lucy,” she reminded him, eager to keep the conversation going. To find him in the darkness. Her interrogation certainly had nothing to do with the fact that she wanted to understand what had happened to him. “There’s no explanation for poor performance.” Her father’s voice echoed in her head. “No room for mistakes or excuses.”
“Lucy came later. After what happened outside of Kabul.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I don’t expect you would. I’m AWOL and you’re worried about covering your ass. It’s that simple. You’ve always been a stickler for following procedure. I had no doubt you would show up here. I just didn’t think it would be so quick. I figured you would follow my fake paper trail like the MPs.”
“I’m smarter than they are and I know you better.”
“Then you know that I’m not going back with you. If you’re as smart as you think you are, you’ll walk away and forget you ever found me.”
“That’s not a possibility.”
“I don’t think you understand.” From the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of black and then just like that, he was standing in front of her. “You don’t get to make the call on that, chief. I do.”
“You are going back,” she told him. With the flick of her wrist, she pulled the gun free and aimed it at him.
He smiled. “You really don’t understand what happened to me, do you?”
She cocked the trigger and held steady. “Should I?”
“Considering you’ve been shacking up with a vampire for the past few days, I would expect that you might.”
The comment sent her reeling, but she didn’t so much as blink an eye. She held her hand steady. The gun ready.
Her gaze narrowed. “How do you know about Brent?”
“He’s one of us.”
His words echoed, followed by his earlier comments.
“Attacked.”
“Changed.”
“You’re a vampire,” she murmured as the pieces all fell together and started to fit. “You didn’t leave the unit willingly. You were attacked.”
“And killed. But then my attacker decided to really punish me by feeding me his blood, so here I am.” His gaze met hers and she saw a flicker of the old Rayne. The man who’d fought beside her and had her back for so many years. “I had to leave. I couldn’t endanger the team. I didn’t understand what had happened to me. I just knew that something was wrong and that I couldn’t control it. The hunger was overwhelming. It still is at times, but it’s different now. I call the shots. I learned that from Cody.”
“Brent’s brother?”
Rayne nodded. “My wife is Miranda’s sister.” He held up his hands and stepped toward her. “I don’t want to hurt you, Abby, but I will. I won’t leave my wife to go back and face charges for something that wasn’t my fault.” He took a step forward, but she refused to be intimidated.
She held her ground. “You can explain what happened.”
“And end up in a county hospital somewhere, locked in a padded room? That’s not going to happen.”
“They won’t think you’re crazy when they find out there are others like you.”
“No, they’ll torch the entire town.” Determination fired his expression. “I won’t endanger my friends. And I won’t let you jeopardize everything they’ve worked so hard to build. This is their home. My home.”
“So what are you saying? That you’re going to kill me?”
“That you’re going to walk away from here and forget all about me.” He stared deep into her eyes as if trying to impress his will.
Which was exactly what he wanted to do, she realized.
It didn’t work for him any more than it had for Brent. He glared and stepped forward.
“Don’t.” She held the gun steady. “I’ll pull the trigger if I have to.”
“No, you won’t.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Because I won’t let you,” came the soft, determined voice directly behind Abby. “I won’t let you take my husband and punish him for something he didn’t do.”
A crack on the head punctuated the sentence.
Abby felt her knees wobble and the ground tremble. And then everything went black.