Samantha wiped the sweat from her brow and stared at the gleaming kitchen she’d just cleaned. She was on another island preparing for another party. This one was being thrown by a father who wanted to celebrate his daughter turning sixteen.
She’d gone back to her job at Evergreen Catering because she liked it. This was her life now. Even if Eric did eventually leave Cambridge Heights, she knew she couldn’t return there. She was not the same person, and she didn’t want what Cambridge Heights offered.
She gathered up her cleaning supplies and stepped out into the sunlight. There were residents on this island a few miles away, and the event facilities were certainly more pristine than they had been at the island where she’d met Diego.
It had been a month since she’d awakened as the Coast Guard boat pulled into the harbor. By the time she’d got on deck, Diego had already disembarked. Maybe it was better that way. No awkward goodbye, or worse, a weak promise to get together for coffee sometime in the future. How could they do something as ordinary as have coffee together after all they had been through?
She missed him. The memory of the one kiss they’d shared was seared into her brain. She walked across the grounds to the car she’d brought with her on the ferry. She put the cleaning supplies away and walked up to a cliff that looked out on the ocean. She sat down on a bench, closed her eyes and thanked God for the beautiful day. It was good to be talking to Him again.
“I’ve been watching you. Waiting for a chance to find you alone.”
Her blood froze in her veins. “Eric.” She didn’t turn around. Seeing his face would only drive the terror deeper into her psyche. “How did you find me?”
“An FBI agent called me, trying to figure out who you were. He was doing some kind of background check on you. I told him how bad I wanted to find you. I was able to get the information from him that you worked at a catering company. Took me a while to figure out which one. Apparently, you took up with some drug dealer.”
Anger surged through her at the misrepresentation of Diego’s character. She purged her voice of all emotion. So that was what Agent Brown’s threat meant. He must have picked up on Eric’s vendetta for her and given Eric enough information to find her. “There are people here on this island.”
He leaned over her and spoke in her ear. “They’re quite far away, my dear.” His hand wrapped around the back of her neck. “Nobody leaves Eric James. I told you that. Do you know what you did to my reputation?”
She knew the smartest thing to do would be to appear to cooperate and wait for the chance to get away. “I’m so sorry, Eric. Clearly, I’ve hurt you deeply. I’ll come with you.”
She stood up with his hand still clamped around her neck. He came around to her side of the bench and shoved her toward the edge of the cliff.
“It would be so easy to kill you.” He ran a finger over the scars on her neck and chest. The touch was his way of reminding her what he was capable of. His hot breath pummeled her ear.
She swallowed her fear. “Eric, I said I would go with you.”
He spoke through gritted teeth. “Yes, you will.” He shoved her hard.
Her feet reached the edge of the cliff, pushing loose rocks that tumbled down the steep incline. She wobbled. Down below, two people walking on the beach stopped and stared up at her, shading their eyes from the sun. He yanked her back by the collar of her shirt and then gave the walkers a friendly wave as if to say everything’s okay up here.
“It would be that easy, sweetheart.” He spit out his words as though they were rocks in his mouth. He wrapped his hand around her hair, drawing it up into a ponytail.
Had he meant to kill her or just scare her? She wasn’t sure. When they were married, he had kept her in line with words and the threat of physical violence. But today, he seemed angrier and more out of control than she’d ever seen him. “What are you going to do, Eric?”
“Don’t ask any more questions. Just walk down this hill.”
She trudged forward. She couldn’t hope to get away as long as he held on to her hair. Or could she? She was a different person from the frightened child who had run from him over a year ago. Her time with Diego had taught her that she was stronger than she realized. She could fight her way free if she had to. She didn’t have to be stronger than Eric; she just had to be more clever.
She quickened her pace down the hill.
“Slow down,” Eric said.
She stopped abruptly. In the moment that Eric was caught off guard, she twisted around and punched him in the stomach. He let go of her hair. She darted away and raced toward her car. She’d left the keys in the cup holder. If she could reach the car, she’d have a fighting chance for escape.
His feet pounded behind her. She ran faster, her leg muscles on fire from the exertion. The car was twenty feet away. She reached out for the door handle. His fingers grazed her neck. She whirled around and kicked him in the shin and then pushed him before he could recover from the first blow.
The look of shock on his face as he tumbled to the ground was worth a million dollars.
That’s right, Eric. I’m not the same shrinking violet you nearly destroyed.
She yanked open the door. Eric crawled across the ground and grabbed her ankle, pulling her through the dirt. Terror seized her heart. Now she saw the rage in his eyes. She tried to twist away, but he put all his weight on her chest. He lunged at her neck, clamping on and squeezing.
She clawed and scraped his hands as black dots appeared around the edges of her vision. She fought for air.
“No one crosses Eric James.” His teeth showed, and he squeezed tighter.
She wasn’t going to let him win. She would fight him to the very end. Even as she struggled for breath, she lifted her leg in an effort to knee him in the back. The action only made him angrier. Her vision had gone almost completely dark.
Then suddenly the pressure on her neck evaporated. She took in her first rattling breath and blinked in an effort to focus. The thumping and grunting of two men in a fight reached her ears. Her vision cleared.
Diego had pinned Eric to the ground.
A hundred questions raged through her as she pushed herself to her feet. What was he doing here? How did he know she needed him? Diego managed to subdue Eric.
“Let me guess—you want something to tie him up with?” she said.
Diego’s chest heaved from the effort of the fight, but he managed a nod. “We seem to be making this a habit.”
She rifled around in her car until she came up with a bungee cord.
“You won’t get away with this.” Eric lifted his head, spitting out his words. “Assaulting me. Tying me up.”
Samantha rolled her eyes and shook her head. How convenient that he forgot that he nearly choked her. That was typical for the sociopath. Nothing was ever his fault. Eric was always the wronged one.
Diego stood on his feet. “Actually, you’re the one who is going to have assault charges filed against you, my friend. I saw what you did to her.”
Diego stepped away from Eric, who let a string of curses fly from his mouth. He led Samantha away and pulled out his phone. “I think there is a deputy or some sort of law enforcement on the island.”
He called for help. They waited until the deputy showed up and hauled Eric away.
She stepped toward Diego. “What made you come out here today?”
“I got a call from a man earlier today asking questions about you and me, like how we were connected. He didn’t identify himself, but I had a feeling it was Eric,” Diego said. “I remembered where you worked. When they said another man had been by earlier today asking about you, alarm bells went off.”
“And so you found me.”
He reached out and touched her cheek with the back of his hand. “I think I would have come for you sooner or later even if it wasn’t an emergency.”
She tilted her head to one side as her heart fluttered. “What do you mean?”
“All this time, I thought I either had to fit into your world or you had to fit into mine. Then I realized, why can’t we make a whole new world together in another city helping gang kids?” His stare was pensive as he waited for her answer.
Was he asking to marry her? She wasn’t sure.
“You said the time I seemed the happiest was when I was playing B-ball with those boys. I don’t know why we can’t just work this problem from the other end. Keep them from ever breaking the law.”
“Yes, of course. I can see how that would work.” She was still trying to understand what he was saying. “And you want me to be your...partner?”
Diego slammed the heel of his hand into his forehead and said something in Spanish. He grabbed both of her hands and looked into her eyes. “No, I’m an idiot who’s explaining this very badly. What I want is for you to be my wife.”
She felt suddenly breathless. Wasn’t this what she had wanted, too? She nodded.
He gathered her into his arms, kissing her hair and then her lips. She rested her head against his chest as the strong arms of the man she wanted to spend her life with surrounded her.
* * * * *