The last few hours had been confusing. Watching Wilder with Renny was truly something special and it messed with Cosette’s emotions. Every crack and creak in the stable had sent Cosette reeling. The painters had showed Renny how they used the paint gun. Cosette and Wilder had talked a little shop about the renovations to the stable, but she was too distracted with the fact that “soon” could be tonight. In an hour. Or two weeks from now.
Wilder’s phone rang and he slipped away to take the call.
“Miss Cosette, I wanna go to the park.”
“When Mr. Wilder gets back, we can discuss it.”
As if on cue, Wilder rounded the stable a scowl on his face. “I have to handle a small situation at the manufacturing company where Evan is point. Can you and Renny hang out inside awhile? Jody’s in there and Wheezer probably has some video games.”
“You said we could go to the park.” Renny pouted and folded her arms over her chest. “Miss Cosette can take me, can’t you?” She looked to Cosette for salvation.
Wilder’s sappy expression toward Renny softened the wall Cosette had built around her heart. He clearly didn’t want to let that sweet child down. But they both knew Cosette didn’t need to be off at a park alone and certainly not with a child. Jeffrey might try to abduct her or maybe even both of them. It was too risky. “Well...” Wilder looked toward the house. “Miss Jody and Miss Cosette could take you together.” He and Cosette shared a conversation with their eyes. He’d give Renny what she wanted and Cosette would be safe.
Yes, she’d be okay with Jody along.
An hour and a half later, Renny was swinging in the sunshine without a care in the world. Cosette couldn’t say the same for herself.
“Who do you keep calling?” Jody asked.
“Kariss Elroy. My patient who gave me the blueberry muffins. But she isn’t answering.” Kariss sometimes got depressed and ignored her friends, but she’d always picked up when Cosette called. A tremor of panic started, but she pushed it down. Kariss might be napping, or may have left her phone in another room while she took a bath...in the middle of the day. It was possible.
Jody clapped as Renny did a cartwheel, but her eyes were constantly scanning their surroundings.
“You want to stop off at her house after we take Renny back to CCM? It’s about time to go. Wilder said Macy called and she’d be back around four.”
“I don’t usually make house calls, but this isn’t a usual situation. Yes, let’s stop by.” Cosette applauded Renny’s continued acrobatics, then called, “It’s time to head back. Your aunt Macy will be picking you up soon.”
The little girl darted over. “I had fun.”
“Good.” Cosette had tried. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the luxury Renny had.
Slipping her hand in Cosette’s, Renny hummed and swung their arms together as they walked across the lot to the SUV, where they’d parked near the tree line for shade.
“When I grow up, I want to be a gymnast. Or maybe take pictures like my mom did. She was really good.”
“I think both ideas are great,” Cosette said, as a light blue car pulled around the corner. She guided Renny to the other side of her. It was going a bit fast for parking at a playground.
Jody paused and that raised hairs on Cosette’s neck. “Cosette...”
The car sped up and came straight for her. But she had Renny’s hand.
Fear shot through her veins and pounded in her ears.
The car was now almost five feet away and full-on panic set in.
“Cosette!” Jody screamed and rushed toward them, while Cosette dived with Renny into the grass beyond the curb as the car raced by.
Jody!
She turned and saw her lying on the pavement. “Jody!” she hollered. Renny was curled up in the grass, holding her knee and crying.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. It’s okay.” But it wasn’t. Cosette never should have come to the park. Jody should have brought Renny alone, no matter how much the little girl protested. Cosette never dreamed Jeffrey would try to kill an innocent child in order to get to her. How far off his rocker had he gone?
Jody grunted and jumped up, a scowl on her face as she rubbed her hip. “Everyone okay?” she asked as she hobbled toward them.
Cosette frantically nodded, her pulse still rocketing.
“Was it Levitts?”
Cosette rocked Renny on her lap in the grass and smoothed the child’s hair. “I didn’t get a look at the driver. But who else could it be?” Wilder was going to be livid. Renny got hurt because of Cosette and Wilder was crazy about the girl. “Are you hurt?”
“Clipped my hip. I’ll live. I got a partial license plate number.” Jody grabbed her cell phone and punched a button. “Hey, babe, I need you to run a partial plate for me.” She rattled off the number to Evan, paused, then proceeded to explain what had happened. “I’m fine...I promise...We’re all fine...Love you, too.”
Renny sniffed through tears. “I want Mr. Wilder!”
So did Cosette.
Cosette stayed in the back seat with Renny on the ride back to CCM. As they approached the porch, the door opened. Wilder bounded down the steps, his hair blowing in the wind. “Tell me you’re okay. Both of you.” He glanced down at Renny and she went to crying again.
“Somebody tried to run us over, Mr. Wilder!”
He scooped her up into his arms. “Well, Miss Cosette and Miss Jody were there to protect you.”
Cosette might have kept her from being run over, but Renny was hurt and traumatized. On her account.
“I skinned my knee and it stings.” She laid her head on his shoulder and hiccupped through tears.
His tone gentled as he rubbed her back. “It’s okay, kiddo, don’t you worry. We’ll fix it up, and Miss Amy left cookies in the kitchen. Would you like a cookie for being such a brave girl?”
Cosette’s tummy dipped. Did Wilder realize he’d make a fantastic father? The kind that could chase away monsters from under the bed and make a girl feel like a princess. Cosette had no idea what it was like to feel protected and safe by a dad. Hers had only inflicted fear and anger.
“I would. I think I need two cookies. I was double brave.”
He chuckled and kissed her forehead, then caught Cosette’s eye and held it. “What about you, darlin’? You need a cookie, too?”
“Well, I do. Thanks for asking,” Jody said and rolled her eyes. “Where’s Evan?”
“Right here,” her husband said and swung around the corner, heading straight for her.
“I need a cookie,” she repeated.
Evan raised his eyebrows. “What about something else?”
Jody grinned as he swept her into a hug and laid a kiss on her. Wilder covered Renny’s eyes. “This is a place of business,” he teased.
“We’re totally getting down to business,” Jody retorted and winked. “The business of kissing boo-boos.” She patted Evan’s cheek and motioned with her head toward Wilder and Cosette. “Renny, how about I clean up your knee and then you can get that cookie.”
“I know firsthand that Miss Jody is a great wound fixer-upper,” Evan offered.
Renny nodded and smooshed Wilder’s cheeks together, looking firmly into his eyes. “Two. Cookies.”
He nodded once. “I promise.” He handed her off to Jody, who disappeared with her and Evan.
Wilder took Cosette’s hand, rubbed the back of it with his thumb. “Now that little ears are gone, how are you really?”
She was tempted to lie. To say she was okay, they were safe, all would be well. But she didn’t have it in her. Not in this moment when someone had nearly taken her life—taken Renny’s! Unable to control her trembling lips, she simply shook her head. If words flowed, tears would, too.
“Ah, darlin’,” Wilder breathed and drew her to his chest, wrapping his arms around her and chasing away the cold—the fear. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”
She clutched the back of his shirt and hung on to gain the strength she needed.
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.
The scripture swung into her lungs like a blast of much needed air, sharp yet tender. Entirely beaten down and exhausted, Cosette wasn’t yet able to catch her breath, to renew any strength. She’d been putting on a brave front. Looking to Wilder to keep her standing firm.
But she couldn’t look to him as her ultimate source.
If she asked God for strength and surrendered to letting Him in, would she also be given strength to forgive Dad?
I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.
She would. God would give her everything she needed—she just didn’t want it. She didn’t want the strength to forgive Dad because she had no desire to forgive him. Even now, knowing it was the right thing to do. An act of rebellion. Hardheadedness. Whatever term it could be called. Guilt swam in the icy pit of her stomach. And even still...she couldn’t bring herself to surrender. To forgive. To let go. To give all of herself to God. She wanted to surrender to no one.
“Come on,” Wilder whispered. “I’ll make you some tea and you can have two cookies, too. And don’t say you don’t need them.”
The urge to lean into him for support battled with her will to stand alone. “I can determine what I need and don’t need,” she said softly. Wilder had given her grace and she appreciated that. Renny had been caught in the crosshairs today. But Cosette couldn’t let Wilder decide what was best for her. He might be tender at times and even sweet. But she wouldn’t cave over kind gestures and comforting touches.
“All right.” That’s all he said as he led her to the kitchen. “Tea?”
She nodded and he busied himself putting on a kettle. What kind of man, besides an Englishman, would make a woman tea? One she wasn’t going to fall for, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still curious about a few things in his life. “Wilder?”
“Hmm?”
“How close were you with Allie Moore? You routinely visit her daughter and clearly have a special relationship with her family. Is Renny...?” The thought had been on her mind and she hadn’t had the moxie to ask.
“Is Renny mine?” Wilder asked softly and leaned against the counter.
“A dad hasn’t been mentioned. By anyone.” Not even Renny.
“You think if I had a child with someone, I’d let him or her be raised by an aunt?”
It sounded horrible. “You were on tours. Who else would have raised her?”
His nostrils flared and he opened the cabinet, retrieved a mug and tossed a tea bag in it. “Is that what you really think of me?”
Throwing her own words back in her face.
“Observing facts,” she murmured. In dire situations, not everyone made the right or best choice. Cosette wasn’t immune. No one was. Not unbelievers. Not believers.
“Renny isn’t mine, Cosette. Allie and I didn’t have that kind of relationship. She married a lawyer. He was in a car accident and died right before Renny was born.”
The kettle whistled and Wilder poured the steaming water into the cup, the chamomile fragrance wafting through the modern farmer’s kitchen.
“What kind of relationship did you have?”
Please open up, Wilder.
He huffed, raked his hand through his hair. The telltale sign he was frustrated. “The kind that might have gone somewhere serious if our career choices hadn’t separated us, but who knows?”
Wilder might have been married when Cosette had first met him. She couldn’t imagine it. Not with Allie...not with any other woman. These thoughts had to stop. “You were in love with her?”
He removed the tea bag, added two heaping spoonfuls of sugar and gave Cosette the cup, their fingers brushing. “I wouldn’t say we were in love, but we cared about each other.” He shrugged. “We were kids. Then we chose careers over each other, so that says a lot, don’t you think?”
“Why do you make it a point to spend time with Renny?” At first, Cosette had assumed Wilder was interested in Macy, and Renny was a side benefit. Now, after seeing him with the child, Cosette knew she was his priority, and not because he was her father.
Pawing his face, Wilder sighed and pushed himself off the counter. “When I was seventeen, me and my buddy Alan used to do some joyriding. On a Friday night in December, he wanted to go out on the ice—rarely any of that here, but that year we had a terrible ice storm. I told him I’d go, but I got hung up...in a ditch. So Alan came to pick me up. He was killed in a car accident on the way.”
“I’m sorry.”
Wilder let out a slow breath. “He had this ridiculous set of dice hanging from his rearview mirror. I gave him nine kinds of you-know-what about it. But after he died, I took them and hung them from my rearview mirror.”
Cosette hunted for the story within a story. Wilder was famous for dancing outside of straight talk. “Where are they now?”
“In the glove box of my personal truck.”
“Mr. Wilder! I’m all better and I want my cookies.” Renny raced into the kitchen, breaking into the moment. Maybe Wilder had been on the cusp of revealing more. This was a step. Cosette just had to decipher the puzzle.
* * *
Wilder sat on his leather couch, feet up on the ottoman as he mindlessly surfed TV channels. Macy had taken what happened to Renny better than expected. He had her complete trust. But then, she didn’t know the full story behind Allie’s death. No one did. Just him. And he was taking that to the grave. Too many people relied on his protection, and if they knew what he let happen, they’d never look to him as a competent leader again.
But he’d come dangerously close to revealing the truth in its entirety to Cosette earlier in the kitchen. She’d jumped to conclusions that Renny belonged to him; he couldn’t be mad for the assumption. His attachment to Renny was stronger than his attachment to the fluffy dice he couldn’t let go. That would mean letting go of Alan, and it was his fault his friend was dead. Renny was his way of hanging on to Allie. Taking care of her was the next best thing he could do to make up for his mistakes in Istanbul—for not coming through for Allie. Money each month wouldn’t bring her back, but it did assuage some of Wilder’s guilt.
That tragic night had replayed in his head thousands of times, and each time he’d done something different to save her. She hadn’t died in his arms. Meghan’s death had replayed, too. Was having Beckett work for him part of his way of hanging on to Meghan? Wilder sipped his sweet tea and pondered that. No. Beckett wasn’t his dice in the glove box or his human connection.
CCM was his connection to Meghan. He called it a memorial, and while that was true, it was so much more than that. Cosette might call it unhealthy. Obsessive. Like keeping these people as possessions that he couldn’t part with. But how did one let go of a loved one? Was it any different than Cosette visiting her mother’s grave with flowers every single Mother’s Day? Like trying to relive one last day with her?
He couldn’t give up these connections. Couldn’t move forward. He was stuck in regret. Stuck replaying the tragedies with better outcomes, where everyone lived. Everyone was happy. No one was scarred.
What he wouldn’t give right now to have someone to lean on. To confide in. But there was no one. He was the top of the tier. The leader. The strength of his team. His family.
Questions would have to remain unanswered.
Questions like how to let go. How to move on. How to fight fear when you were supposed to be fearless. How to admit weakness when you were supposed to be strong. How to admit failure when you were supposed to always succeed.
He hadn’t succeeded in finding Jeffrey Levitts. But then he hadn’t given the signal to hack into his financials and track him. He had to play this by the book, so when it came time to put this creep away, nothing would be inadmissible in court. Aurora had made the boundaries clear. The woman was an astute attorney and had immersed herself in Georgia law since moving here and marrying Beck.
Beck had moved on. He was happy and building a life with Aurora on a farm with chickens. A baby was coming soon for them. Wilder didn’t hold it against him. Had never expected him to pine over Meghan forever.
A quiet knock sounded on his door. He checked the time: after 9:00 p.m. He raised himself off the couch with a grunt. Wilder’s knees were beginning to protest how hard he had worked them. He opened the door.
Cosette stood before him. She’d changed into jeans and an oversize T-shirt. Her hair was plopped in a mess on her head, revealing a slender neck.
“Everything okay?” he asked, and invited her inside with a sweep of his arm.
She glanced into the room, hesitated. He wouldn’t try to kiss her again. Wouldn’t lose control. But those lips coated in cherry red teased him. Did this woman’s lipstick never come off? “I’m not sure. I was planning on going by Kariss Elroy’s place with Jody this afternoon, but then we were nearly run down. I’ve called a few times this evening and I’m still getting voice mail. That worries me.”
Cosette’s concern for everyone touched Wilder in deep places. She paused at the piano, ran a hand along the sleek edge, then turned.
“Would you like to go by there?” he asked.
The uncertainty and fear in her eyes had him itching to pull her close, but she wanted a professional protector—even if they were friends—and lines couldn’t be crossed again. She’d pulled away from a kiss. Cosette thought he was a hovering bonehead like the others she’d fallen for in the past. Men who had destroyed her. No amount of higher education was going to pull that pain away and blast the iron around her heart.
“Not every man will fail you, Cosette.” The statement rushed out before he could contain it.
She half smiled. “I’m not prepared to take those chances. I’m happy on my own.”
“Are you?”
“Yes. I like belonging to myself.” Doubt laced her words. “I make the calls in my life. I decide what I want and when I want it. I answer to no one.” She lifted her chin.
His laugh was humorless. “You make it sound like a relationship has to be about a man being in charge of the woman.”
“It doesn’t have to be. I know that. But I seem to...”
“Seem to what?”
She closed her eyes and sighed. “Fall for the wrong men.”
“Men like me?” Cosette had compared him to all the other wrong men in her life. It still rankled.
“I’m not falling for you,” she said with force.
He wasn’t implying that, and started to say so, but she didn’t give him a chance.
“But if I’m being honest, yes.”
That stirred up his dander. “You think I’d stalk you? Terrorize you? Manhandle you?” What was this woman thinking?
She glanced away, then met his eyes. “No, but you’re controlling, obsessive and intrusive.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but was stunned speechless. He clamped his lips together and silently counted to ten. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing you’re not falling for me then, isn’t it?” Wilder tried to control his clipped tone, but it edged out.
She smoothed invisible wrinkles on her sleeve. “I guess so. Besides, even if I were, you don’t date employees.”
“Or mouthy, opinionated, pushy women. You fall under all three of those.”
“I’m...” She blew out a heavy breath, reeling in the fire in her eyes. Yeah, it stung to hear false accusations. Though she was all those things, but he never saw them as weaknesses. He admired and respected every one of those attributes. Flat out enjoyed them at times.
“Drive me to Kariss’s?”
Conversation over. It was going nowhere fast, anyway. He slipped his shoes on and grabbed his keys, wallet and gun. The ride to Kariss’s small home in a shoddy neighborhood was relatively quiet.
The Craftsman house had peeling paint and overgrown bushes out front. Darkness permeated the inside. In a burst, Wilder felt the hairs on his arms raise. “I don’t like this.”
Cosette clutched her purse. “I don’t, either.”
He exited the SUV, gun drawn. “Stay right behind me.” He ought to leave her in the car, but if someone was lurking, the minute Wilder disappeared into the house, Cosette would be at risk. He couldn’t imagine coming out to find her missing. Sidling up behind him, Cosette briefly touched his upper arm.
Wilder crept to the front door. Knocked lightly. Turned the knob.
It was locked. The blinds had been drawn. He paused. Listened.
Frogs croaked.
Cosette’s breathing was shaky.
Leaves rustled in the trees, but no sound came from inside. Not even a TV. It wasn’t that late.
“Let’s go around back.” Wilder unlatched the metal lock on the chain-link fence and surveyed the small backyard. “Okay,” he whispered and headed for the rear entrance. The hinges screeched as he opened the screen door, before testing the wooden one. “Unlocked. Stay behind me.” He’d shelter her if anything inside was hazardous.
He stepped into a kitchen smelling of Mexican spices. Dinner dishes had been left on the counter. Tacos. Ice dropped into the holder in the freezer with clinks and clanks. Otherwise, the place was silent.
No. There was a sound.
Cosette must have heard it, too. She clutched his biceps. “Wilder.”
Grasping the knob on the door that led to the one-car garage, Wilder flung it open. Fumes racked his senses and he covered his nose.
Kariss’s car was running.
“Oh, Wilder,” Cosette whispered frantically through her shirt, which she was using as a mask.
Feeling along the wall, he found the garage door button and punched it. The familiar squeal of it opening sounded and the automatic light kicked on.
Bounding down the steps, Wilder yanked open the driver’s door.
Kariss Elroy’s head rested back against the seat as if she was sleeping, but Wilder knew better even before he checked for a pulse.
“Wilder, is she...” Cosette’s voice shook.
He turned off the engine. “Call the police.” He started CPR, knowing it was a lost cause, but he had to do something. Cosette gave the dispatcher the information and called for an ambulance.
Wilder glanced up and met her eyes.
Cosette was studying the car, her lips trembling and her eyes as wide as saucers. “What’s the matter?”
“Wilder. This is the car that ran us down earlier.”
Wilder held a lifeless Kariss Elroy in his arms. “Are you sure?”
“I’m positive.” She covered her mouth, pain etching her lovely facial features. Tears pooled in her eyes and she shook her head. This entire situation was confusing, frightful and seemingly endless. People she cared about were dying, and judging by the paleness in her cheeks, and her shaking shoulders, Cosette was expecting her own outcome to be the same as Kariss Elroy’s. Wilder gently laid Kariss back against the seat as the ambulance sirens let them know they were close.
He closed the distance between them and drew Cosette against his chest. “It’s going to be okay. There was nothing you could do.” He stroked her hair.
She shook her head. “I could have checked on her earlier. I could have... I don’t know. Why would she run me down? Did Jeffrey convince her, somehow, and then guilt drove her to this? I don’t understand.”
Wilder didn’t have all the pieces, either. “Did you see if the driver was male or female? Jeffrey could have ‘borrowed’ her car, or stolen it and framed Kariss, then silenced her to keep her from talking.”
Cosette peered into his eyes. “You think this was a homicide?”
“I don’t know.” Nothing was adding up, but his stomach twisted in tight knots. Things were going to escalate even further. He had to stop it.
The ambulance and police arrived.
Officers questioned them. Cosette explained why they had come to Kariss’s.
“Did you report the almost hit-and-run?” an officer asked.
They should have, but it was easier to have Wheezer pull the partial plate number. Wilder spoke. “No. I’m officially investigating the case. It’s documented in my notes.”
The officer raised an eyebrow and scribbled on his notepad, then took their personal information for follow-up questions.
“Can you get a forensics team out here to take a look? It’s possible this isn’t a suicide,” Wilder offered. If the guy wouldn’t acquiesce, he’d call in a favor from a friend at the Atlanta PD.
“We’ll make a note.”
And Wilder would make a call.
When the questions were over, Wilder led Cosette to the SUV. “What would Jeffrey have to gain by using your patient to bring you muffins and then killing her—if he did?”
Cosette rubbed her hands on her thighs and shivered. He cranked up the heat, knowing she was shaking from fear, but maybe the added warmth would help. He hated seeing her this frightened and unsure.
“Jeffrey is calculating. Arrogant. He might have used Kariss just to see if he could. To torture me. Because this is torture, Wilder. Kariss was fragile. And she’s dead because of me, and he’s coming... He’s going to kill me,” she squeaked. “He’s gone off the deep end. I knew it for sure when he was willing to take out an innocent child. There’s no one he won’t kill to make me his. Wilder...you should send me away. To a safe house or something.”
Wilder gritted his teeth. This man had terrorized Cosette long enough. He grabbed her hand as they pulled into the circle drive at CCM. He squeezed it and waited for her to make eye contact. “I will not let him get his hands on you.”
“He’s cunning.”
What was it going to take to make her understand that Wilder would die in order to keep her safe? He had to calm her fears and doubts about his abilities—and revealing the truth about Allie and Meghan wouldn’t do that. He regretted now, on some level, confiding in her about Alan. “Cosette, I don’t care how cunning he is. I will protect you. Please believe me.”
“I do.” She wiped a tear from her cheek. “But I’m losing my mind. I’m in a constant state of fear and I’m trying hard to be brave, but I’m wearing thin. He’s around every corner. He’s every shadow. Every creak and pop. He’s murdering people I—I care about. I don’t know how much more I can take before he breaks me.”
Wilder framed her face, wishing there was more he could do. Maybe there was. “Do you want to sleep at my place tonight? I can take the couch.”
Her teary eyes had washed some eyeliner down her cheeks, but that cherry red lipstick stayed strong. It was a sight to behold—beautiful and pitiful at the same time. “You don’t mind?” she asked.
“No.” Whatever she needed to feel safe.
He led her into his apartment and locked the door behind them. “You’ll be safe here. Not that you wouldn’t be upstairs, too...”
“Upstairs feels pretty far away.” Cosette slipped off her shoes.
Being near him made her feel safe. Good. “Do you want to go get pajamas or something? I can walk you up. Wait for you.”
She half smiled. “Thank you, but no. I’m exhausted. I can’t believe Kariss is dead. I didn’t see any suicidal signs, Wilder. She’s struggled with them in the past, but her therapy was going well. She was healing. Making strides toward a new and better life. Which is why I know she was murdered. What if the police rule it a suicide?”
“I’ll stay on top of it. We’ll find the truth and bring her killer to justice.”
He led her into his bedroom, switched on the lamp at the dresser by the door. “I’m only a few feet away. You can sleep peacefully. If you need me...”
She slowly surveyed his bedroom, then turned to him. “Thank you.” Her voice was thick with emotion. “For keeping me safe. For giving up your bed.”
He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Good night,” he whispered and shut the door behind him. He padded to the linen closet in the bathroom and grabbed a blanket and extra pillow. Tossing them on the couch, he sighed and collapsed.
Cosette LaCroix was ten feet away, in his home.
But only for protection. That wasn’t exactly how he’d pictured it. He couldn’t afford to imagine her as his wife. But lately, the thoughts had come more often. Sharing a home. A family. Even a dog.
Tomorrow, he’d strip off the sheets and wash away her sweet scent. No point enduring torture if he didn’t have to.
Sleep wasn’t going to come. One hour ticked into two, into three. He tossed off the blanket and tiptoed to his bedroom. Cracking open the door, he peeked in on Cosette.
The soft glow of light coming from the bathroom illuminated her form. She was swaddled in his thick brown-and-blue comforter, her hair fanned across his pillow. Quietly, he closed the door.
He needed fresh air. Needed to escape this scene and she didn’t look like she’d be waking up soon. She’d never know he was gone, and he’d be back before she woke.
He set the alarm using his phone. If anything was off it would alert him, and he slipped from the house. He paced the porch and wandered out to the stable. Before long, Cosette’s mark would be on this property more than his own. Her offices. Her private road. Chances were she’d move back into her old apartment upstairs for good, to be closer to patients and the office.
And every day Wilder would have to watch the life he longed for but couldn’t have slip away.
Hay rustled. Wilder turned, but something smacked him upside the head, leaving him in darkness.