Chapter 2

Maddie leanedagainst the gorgeous bar, waiting for her water as she watched Piper, Tori, and Keira dance. The four of them had been dancing all evening, and Maddie was dripping with sweat. Her beautiful red silk dress was drenched, but her feet were happy in her sneakers.

She needed to be on her feet twelve hours a day at the store, and she"d learned years ago not to succumb to fashion at the expense of her feet. Violet was lying next to her, a crystal bowl of water between her massive paws.

The event was high class all the way, all the opulence lightened her mood. They were having such fun, like they used to back when they were all living together.

Piper looked over, waved at her, and then came bounding across the floor. Piper was unofficially on duty as a wedding planner, so she"d donned a subtle, but slightly sexy black dress that was drawing attention that Piper completely ignored. She was radiant, moving among the rich and famous like a woman who knew her way around a five-star life.

Only Maddie knew the truth about Piper, shared late one night when they were both tired, tipsy, and afraid. Likewise, Piper was the only one who knew the whole truth about Maddie"s past.

Some secrets were too dangerous to share.

Piper strode up, moving like a woman with purpose. "The band. What do you think?"

"Amazing."

Her face lit up. "Right? I think my bride will love them. I"m putting them on my list." She crouched down and ruffled Violet"s head. "And I didn"t forget about you, darling." Violet"s tail thumped. "And just so you know, don"t let your feelings be hurt by all the jerks who treat you like you"re a monster who"s going to eat them, okay? You are a big, smushy lovebug who takes special care of my bestie, and anyone who counts knows that. Okay?"

Violet slapped a big, smooshy tongue across Piper"s cheek, and her friend laughed and stood up. "I love your dog."

Maddie"s heart tightened. "You"re not even a dog person."

"I know, right? Violet is magical." Piper sat down on a bar stool, and crossed her legs like a woman who knew how to use them, which Maddie loved for her. "Talk to me, girl. You"ve been scanning that crowd tonight like a woman on the run. I haven"t seen that for a while."

All right, so maybe she hadn"t quite moved past the afternoon"s incident. Maddie glanced at the dance floor, but Tori and Keira were still dancing. "I saw a man in the parking lot at Winslow"s Garden Center. I felt like he was watching me."

Piper gestured for a water from the bartender. "Was he?"

"I don"t know. I can be paranoid, as you know."

"I do know." Piper smiled. "Remember that time when you thought you were being watched, and it turned out to be a bronze statue in the park?"

Maddie grinned. "Yeah, that was funny. I couldn't figure out why he wouldn"t look away."

"You think you were being paranoid today?" Piper"s question was casual, validating, and non-judgmental.

Maddie loved her friend so much. Piper"s secrets gave her an insight into Maddie"s past that no one else would have. "I don"t know."

"Did you get a look at him?"

"He had a cowboy hat on, which put his face in shadow."

"A cowboy hat? We"re in a suburb of Boston. Who wears cowboy hats around here?" Piper unscrewed the lid and took a long drink of the water.

"Stalkers?"

Piper pointed the water bottle at Maddie. "Many men with cowboy hats are loyal, honorable, and dusty. A cowboy hat doesn"t make a stalker, necessarily. It could mean nights of romance, moonlight, and making love by waterfalls. Like those Harts. They"re delicious."

The Harts were a billionaire ranching family of formerly homeless kids who had created a found family, given themselves the last name of Hart, and become reclusive, insanely popular celebrities. "I don"t need a delicious man right now," Maddie said, rubbing her sneaker along Violet"s back, both to love on the dog and to reassure herself that Violet was close.

"Au contraire, my darling." Piper had a sparkle in her eyes. "I think maybe you do need a delicious man, one who can show you that not all men are like Adam."

Maddie grinned. "So, then, that means you"re also in the market for a delicious man to erase your recent trauma?"

"Me?" Piper barked with laughter. "My men problems can"t be fixed by finding a yummy cowboy. They go much deeper than that, entwined into the very fabric of all my woman power."

"Ladies!" Tori Cardenas flung her arms around Maddie and Piper. "Isn"t this party fabulous? I"m so glad the world decided to celebrate us by hosting this five-star bash for us! We finally get our recognition!"

Maddie grinned. It was the game they used to play when they were at their most broke, most desperate. They"d pretend they"d made it, that the world was at their feet. "A celebrity jeweler tried to give me a five-hundred-thousand-dollar diamond necklace to wear tonight, but who would wear something so gaudy?"

"Right?" Piper laid her open hand across her bare neck. "Nothing under seven figures ever touches this precious body of mine."

"We have to have standards," Tori said. "If we settle for hot dogs, cheap beer, and polyester clothing, we"ll be eating hot dogs in used cars wearing our clearance-rack dresses for the rest of our lives. And who wants that?"

"Not me!" Maddie said.

"Hell, no." Piper raised her bottle of water. "Here"s to standards!"

"Red silk rope, baby," Tori said. "No one and nothing gets past our red silk ropes unless we invite them." A red silk rope was their fancy, high-class way of referring to personal boundaries. It felt more elegant and concrete than just saying boundaries.

"Amen, sister." Maddie tapped her water against her friends" drinks. "If we don"t create our life on purpose, then one will be created for us."

"And it might not be the one we want," Piper finished.

Her words settled deep, and suddenly the energy of the trio became more serious. They looked at each other, because they all knew that it was almost ten years later, and they were all still trying to create the dreams that hadn"t seemed so far away back then.

"Are we too old for this?" Maddie asked. "For pretending like we made it?"

"No." Piper shook her head. "We"re not giving up."

Tori nodded. "We keep going for as long as it takes."

Maddie took a breath. "Sometimes it feels like I"m going backwards." She held up her hand, which was no longer sporting an engagement ring. Not that being engaged was everything, but after her experience this afternoon, and her dad not doing well, she felt like things were getting worse, not better.

Tori held up hers, which had held a wedding band not too long ago. "I feel you, babe."

Maddie"s heart tightened. She knew what Tori had gone through, and she squeezed her friend"s hand.

Piper fluttered her left hand, which was also more barren than it had been recently. "It"s our girl power time," she said. "We have each other."

Maddie raised her brows. "I love you, but I don"t want to share a loft with you guys again," she teased, mostly because a part of her really did want to creep back into that old life, where she didn"t have to face the harder truths of being ten years older and still being who and where she was.

Tori laughed. "We"re not broke anymore, so at least we don"t have to do that."

"I think Keira"s broke," Maddie said.

"Yes, true. Keira might have to live in one of our closets," Tori said.

At that moment, the almost-broke member of their squad, Keira Kingsley, came running up. Her dark hair was curled in tight, sweaty ringlets around her face, and her light-brown skin was covered with a sheen of sweat. "You guys! I was in the bathroom, and I heard these women talking! They said that Lucas Hart is here!"

Maddie sat up and shot a look at Piper. The Hart men wore cowboy hats. What were the chances that Lucas Hart had been the one watching her today? "No," she said, at Piper"s look. "No way."

"Yes, way." Keira missed the look that passed between Piper and Maddie. "Apparently, he was seen skulking around in the hallways."

"Skulking?" The word wrapped around Maddie"s chest with much too much power.

Keira rolled her eyes. "That"s what the Harts do. You know they hate publicity."

"Which makes them all the more interesting to all the paparazzi," Tori said. "Look! He must have walked in."

Maddie followed Tori"s gaze, and she saw heads turning toward the rear of the ballroom. The buzz of conversation began to hum, and people paused, trying to see. A few people pulled out their phones to try to take a picture. "I could never live like that," she said. "In the spotlight all the time? This is a private event, and people are still trying to take pictures and bother him."

Keira put her arm around Maddie and kissed the top of her head. "Don"t sound so worried, sweetie. No one"s going to put you on their social media accounts just because Lucas Hart is here."

"I could get caught in the background of a picture." Only Piper knew the full truth about why Maddie never let her picture be posted anywhere on the internet, but she"d hinted enough to the others that they respected her choice.

"We"ll shield you," Tori said, completely serious. "We"re your human blockade."

"There he is," Keira whispered. "Damn. He is so tall in person."

"Smoking hot," Tori said. "That"s unnatural."

Maddie kept her gaze on Piper, not wanting to look across the room. Afraid that the man she"d see was the man who had been watching her in the Winslow"s Garden Center parking lot.

Piper met her gaze, her gaze understanding. "Why would Lucas Hart have been watching you? Why would he be following you?"

"I don"t know," Maddie said. "You know I don"t know." That was her problem. All her secrets, hidden even from her. She turned her back on the room, leaning on the bar. "I think I"m going to leave."

"No." Piper leaned in, putting her arm around her. "If Lucas Hart is following you, then he"s found you twice. You need to know, because he"ll find you again."

Fear gripped Maddie, and suddenly Violet was on her feet, nudging at her hand. She snapped her fingers and Violet stood up on her back legs, her paws on Maddie"s chest, her big tongue flapping, her brown eyes gazing at Maddie like a promise to keep her safe.

"What"s going on?" Tori turned back to them. "What"s wrong, Maddie?"

Keira looked over, and then frowned. "Panic attack? Let"s get you out of here."

Maddie felt tears burn in her eyes. She loved her friends so much. Their support was amazing. "There was a man in a cowboy hat earlier. I felt like he was watching me. It was creepy."

Tori and Keira"s eyes widened, then they both looked across the room. "You think it was Lucas Hart?" There was no disbelief or doubt in Tori"s question. Absolute acceptance that one of the country"s most famous celebrities could be randomly stalking her friend.

Everyone needed friends like that, and she was so glad she had them.

"I couldn"t see his face." Maddie continued to keep her back to the room. "I want to leave."

Piper shook her head. "You"re safe here. If it"s him, we need to find out what"s going on right now, because you have all of us and a room full of people around."

Maddie bent her head.

"He"s scanning the room," Tori said. "He looks like he"s looking for someone."

Oh, God.

"Why would he be looking for you?" Keira said.

Maddie met Piper"s gaze, at the secrets Piper was holding for her. "I don"t know."

"Does this have anything to do with your panic attacks?" Tori asked. "He"s looking at Violet right now."

Violet had been with her earlier. How many huge, black pit bulls wearing therapy vests were around? "Yes," Maddie said. "I…" She paused, and suddenly, she wanted to tell them her truth. She didn"t want to hold it to herself anymore. "Squad promise."

It was their code for a secret that could never, ever, ever go beyond them.

Both Tori and Keira turned to face her. "Squad promise," they agreed, their faces solemn.

Maddie took a breath. "When my dad was an FBI agent, he was undercover trying to break up a drug ring." She talked fast, in case Lucas Hart was heading their way as she spoke. For some reason, she needed her friends to know. Maybe in case she disappeared after tonight. "He stumbled across me and a boy being held in a drug house. He bought me to get me out."

"Bought you?" Keira looked stunned.

Maddie nodded. "It was the only way. They couldn't find where this man got me from, so the courts allowed my dad to adopt me. I was six at the time. I don"t remember my life before my dad, but I had night terrors for years and years, so it wasn"t good." She looked at them. "I don"t know where I"m from, and I"ve lived in terror my whole life that someone from my past will find me and try to take me back."

They all stared at her. "It could be anyone," Tori said.

Maddie nodded. "Based on what my dad said, he thinks I might have been stolen from another drug dealer and used to try to gain power. But we don"t know." She shrugged. "Once I turned eighteen, I knew that they couldn't legally take me from my dad, and that helped a lot. But…" she shrugged.

"Holy shit, girl." Keira grabbed her and pulled her into a big hug, squishing Violet between them. "You need to tell us these things so we can help!"

"We love you so much." Tori also wrapped her up in a hug, and then Piper threw her arms around all of them.

"No one will get through us to you!" Keira said.

Maddie started laughing. "I"m sorry I didn"t tell you. It was just…I guess I was scared that if I told anyone, then someone would overhear and then word would get back that the missing girl named Sienna is actually Madison Vale, living outside Boston and running a flower shop."

"Sienna?" Tori pulled back. "That"s your real name?"

"No," Maddie said firmly. "My real name is Madison Vale. Sienna is a girl who used to exist." This was why she hadn"t wanted to tell anyone. The statement that Sienna was her real name. The next one would be that Huck wasn"t her real dad.

People who weren"t adopted didn"t understand how it worked. She was Maddie Vale. Huck Vale was her dad. The past was simply a story. A story that still haunted her, but a story nonetheless. A story that would someday not have any power over her anymore.

A story that she would take control over, starting now, by facing it.

Her arms still around her friends, she turned her head to scan the ballroom. She found Lucas Hart almost immediately. He was standing halfway across the room, tall, muscled, wearing jeans and cowboy boots at this black-tie affair, because he was a man who could do whatever he wanted.

His jaw was hard. His face sculpted. He was breathtakingly vibrant, his energy cascading across her even from a distance.

He was wearing the same cowboy hat as the man from the parking lot.

And he was staring right at her.