Once I was done and dried off, I let Trip out before going around the house and locking up. From experience over the last few months, I doubted Kash would be home anytime soon. It was close to midnight, so there was no way I could wait up for him. Placing Trip on the bed, I crawled in after him before grabbing my phone.

Just so you know . . . cleaning up from a whipped cream war without you isn’t nearly as fun. See you when you get home. Love you.

I knew better than to wait for a response, he probably wouldn’t get the text until they were done. But I couldn’t help but sit there and stare until my screen went black, wishing for anything from him.

I was proud of him, and I knew he loved what he was doing. But nights when he was gone were really lonely. With a sigh, I turned off my lamp and plugged my phone in to charge before pulling an already snoring Trip close and closing my eyes.

MY EYES FLEW OPEN and my body stilled. I didn’t know if I’d been dreaming or if Kash was home and I’d heard him, but my arms were covered in goose bumps and I held my breath as I waited for another sign of what had woken me. I started to think it was a dream when I didn’t hear anything else, but my body locked up again when I noticed Trip standing at the foot of the bed growling low and as fiercely as a puppy could. Sunlight from the windows was filtering into the bedroom, and I quietly reached behind me for my phone. Kash always texted me when he was on his way home for this exact reason . . . he didn’t want me to freak out if I was asleep.

My text from last night had gone unanswered.

“Trip,” I whispered and sat up, my eyes widening when I saw the ridge of raised hair along his back. “Trip, come—”

A loud boom sounded from the front of the house, and Trip began barking. I froze for all of three seconds before grabbing him and shutting his mouth as I failed miserably at dialing 9-1-1. It shouldn’t be that hard, three numbers and the CALL button, but it took me four tries before I got it. In that time I heard two men talking low in the front of the house as I turned in circles, trying to figure out where to go. Closet? Under the bed? Out the window?

“Tampa Bay, dispatch. Do you need fire—”

“Police! Please send police.” I quickly and quietly spouted off our address as I tried to keep Trip in my arms. “Someone just broke into my house. This is Rachel Masters, my fiancé is Detective Logan Ryan, and he’s out on call right now for a double homicide, and I don’t—”

“Ma’am, ma’am, I need you to calm down and speak slowly. Someone broke into your house? Is he or she in there right now?”

“Yes, I hear at least two males.” I inhaled sharply when I remembered the fake wall in our closet. Thank God for Kash being paranoid!

“Ma’am, are you okay? What just happened?”

“Nothing! Are you sending someone?” I hissed as I quietly ran to the large closet in the master bathroom.

“I dispatched officers as soon as you gave me the address, Miss Masters. Do you have somewhere you can hide?”

“Yes, I’m getting in there now.” My entire body was trembling as I strained to listen for the men. I couldn’t hear anything anymore, but that didn’t mean much. “How far out are they?”

“About eight minutes. Are you in your safe place now?”

“Yes,” I whispered and set Trip down next to me. Please hurry, please God, hurry.

“Can you still hear the men, Miss Masters?”

“No.” All I could hear was my breathing, which sounded disturbingly loud, and the pounding of my heart. Thank God Trip was staying quiet as he huddled back into the corner.

“Okay, well I need you to stay where you are until officers get there, just in case.”

I jumped back into the wall and slid down to a sitting position when a loud crash came from the bedroom, followed by more sounds of furniture being flipped over. My body was vibrating and it took everything in me to keep quiet and keep the phone to my ear. Tears were pricking the back of my eyes, and when Trip softly growled I threw my hand over his nose and mouth, praying he understood my silent plea.

“Miss Masters, are you still there?”

“Y-yes,” my voice so breathy, it was barely audible.

“Is that you making the noise?”

I knew she couldn’t see me but I couldn’t do more than shake my head back and forth as the tears spilled over. I looked in front of me, and my heart skipped painful beats when I saw the edge of the fake wall had caught on one of my shirts. I quietly leaned forward and strained to hear absolutely everything as I reached for the corner of the material.

“Miss Masters? If you can, let me know you’re still with me.”

“I’m here, the—” The faux-wall was thrown back, and a scream tore through my chest as a large man’s frame filled the closet, but I couldn’t make out his face. It was dark in the closet, and with the light coming in from the bathroom behind him, it made a strange halo of light around him while darkening his features.

His hand slammed over my mouth while his other arm reached out for me. I kicked at him, and when both hands went for my foot, I screamed help me and hurry into the phone over and over as he dragged me out of the closet. I dug my nails into the short carpet helplessly as he pulled me into the bedroom and flipped me onto my back. Before I could attempt to kick at him when he let go, he dropped all of his weight onto me and started yelling.

“Bring it now!” he yelled and turned to look toward the center of the bedroom.

Another smaller man came into view, and I tried to scream, but the first man’s hand covered my mouth again as the second handed him a small towel. He brought it toward my face and I tried furiously to turn my head to the side, but it was useless. The cloth was pressed over my nose and mouth, and before I could comprehend the odd smell, the room was blurring.

The last thing I heard before the darkness consumed me was a sincere, “I’m sorry.”

MY EYES SLOWLY CRACKED OPEN to the foreign room, and it took my mind a few minutes to process that I shouldn’t be here—that wherever here was, wasn’t good. I jolted upright and immediately wished I hadn’t as the room tilted to the side and my stomach rolled. Falling toward the side of the mattress in preparation for whatever was about to come up, something caught my shoulders, and I hung there limply as a deep voice spoke softly.

“Whoa, easy, easy, easy. You’re okay. Let’s sit you back up and I’ll get you some water.”

My body hunched over as I dry-heaved against his arms, and he never once moved as my empty stomach tried desperately to get rid of anything. When I quieted, he started pushing me back into a sitting position, and I flew back and away from his arms. The room tilted again, but passing out wasn’t an option, I needed to get out of there. He reached for me when I swayed back, but I used my legs to launch my body in the opposite direction, and off the mattress.

I took off for the door, but my feet hadn’t touched the ground twice before he had his arms wrapped securely around me, holding me to him as I swung and kicked, and screamed for someone to help me.

“Calm down, I won’t hurt you.” He grunted when one of my flailing limbs connected. “Please calm down.”

“Let go of me! Help me! Someone help!”

“I won’t hurt you, but I need you to calm down,” he gritted, and when I kept trying to get away, he continued to stand there holding me to him.

The nausea and dizziness came back quickly, and soon my arms and legs felt like dead weight. I wanted to keep fighting against him, needed to keep fighting against him—but I was losing strength fast. Images of Blake on top of me were flashing through my mind and fear clawed at me. I needed to stay awake, and I needed to get out of here.

“Help . . . me,” I pleaded to the door and scratched against my captor’s arms. For the first time, I agreed with Candice that I should have let my nails grow long. My legs gave out and the captor easily held my weight as he backed us up to the bed and I struggled to get his arms away from me. This couldn’t happen. Not again.

“You ne—” A deep growl worked up his chest when I dropped my head and bit down on his hand as hard as I could. He took a few deep breaths in and out as I futilely attempted to claw my way out of his arms before he spoke again. “I’m not going to hurt you, stop hurting me.”

Tears fell freely down my cheeks the minute he sat down, and he pushed himself back until he was sitting up against the wall, with me still in his arms. I tried calling out for help again—even though I somehow knew that if anyone was on the opposite side of that door, they weren’t going to help me—but nothing came out.

There was no fight left in me. There was nothing but the purest form of terror. I’d faced Blake, but I’d been prepared for some of his crazy and I’d known him most my life. I didn’t know the man keeping my body still against his, I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t know what I was up against . . . and I didn’t know if I would ever see Kash again.

That thought broke me and my body sagged under the stranger’s firm hold as tears alternated hitting his arms and falling onto my bare legs.

“Please,” I forced out and tried once more to remove his arms. They didn’t move, and he didn’t respond for countless minutes as the dizziness and weariness won out.

My eyes shut against their own will, and like back home, the last thing I heard was his voice. “I’m sorry.”

5

Kash

“YOU GOOD?” I asked Mason as we headed back toward the elevators.