Chapter One

Nash McKenna drove as if his life depended on it. Or rather as if her life depended on it. Because it sure as hell did. She could be dying right now.

Caroline.

He tried to shut out the images of her being attacked. And failed big time. So, he just kept up the bat out of hell pace, speeding toward her place in the Texas Hill Country.

Normally, this would have been a scenic trip, threading his SUV past the chalk-white bluffs, the clear water creeks, the mineral springs, and the fields crammed with spring wildflowers. There was no way for him to enjoy the view now though. Not when there was so much at stake.

He had to get to Caroline before the killer did.

Had to.

His phone vibrated, and like the other messages he’d received in the past ten minutes, this one immediately loaded on his dash monitor. “Status?” he muttered, saying the single word of the text aloud.

The question was from his boss, Ruby Maverick, head of Maverick Ops, an elite team of former military and law enforcement officers who handled everything from life and death investigations to personal security services.

In this case, the personal applied. Man, did it.

Because Caroline was Ruby’s daughter.

Caroline was other things, too. Again, personal stuff. But Nash couldn’t think of that now either. He just kept driving and took yet another turn that would get him closer to her.

“Reply to text,” he instructed his AI program that he recently renamed Oz for the movie that’d had both entertained and scared the crap out of him when he’d been a kid. “I’m two minutes out from Caroline’s place.”

One hundred and twenty seconds wasn’t that long, but it would likely feel like a lifetime or two to the normally unflappable Ruby. To say things were strained between Caroline and her was like saying the ocean had a drop or two of water in it. Still, Ruby loved her daughter, and this threat had to be clawing away at her.

Ruby would have no doubt wanted to make this trip herself, but she was hours away on a business trip in Austin. Nash had just returned from an assignment and had been at his place. Since that put him only about twenty miles from Caroline’s, he’d been the one Ruby had tapped to come after Caroline hadn’t responded to multiple phone calls and texts.

Nash had sent some of those texts to her. He’d made a couple of calls, too, that had gone straight to voicemail. Normally, that wouldn’t have made him curse a blue streak. Or get twisted up with worry. Then again, he didn’t normally make a habit of calling Caroline, but this was nowhere close to a normal situation.

The county cops were on the way to her house, too, but they had been even further out than Nash. Added to that, the dispatcher had apparently told Ruby they were short-staffed and would be sending out only one deputy.

No way had Ruby wanted to trust her daughter’s safety to a single cop. Hell, she would have probably sent out an entire platoon or police squad if she could have managed it.

Nash felt a little relief when he saw Caroline’s mailbox. Her address was on the side, and it had a small red, orange, and purple sculpture on top.

A phoenix.

He knew it was the name of Caroline’s blown glass studio. A studio that just about everybody, including him, considered to be the textbook definition of out in the sticks. She was a good half mile from her nearest neighbor, and while he normally didn’t consider that a bad thing, he did right now.

There’d be no one to hear her scream.

No one to come running to try to help her.

That gave Nash a vicious gut punch feeling and added a spike to the urgency building inside him that in no way needed more spikes. The urgency was already sky-high and bordering on panic.

Her house finally came into view. It was snuggled in between a bunch of trees and a pasture with a pond. The house itself was small, one story, white, with dark green shutters. But the building next to it was the size of a barn.

Caroline’s work studio.

That’s where he parked, and the tires skidded to a stop over the loose gravel surface. Nash immediately drew his Glock, bolted from his SUV, and raced toward the door of the studio. He yanked it hard enough to cause the muscles in his shoulder to protest, and then he cursed.

Because it was locked.

“Caroline?” he called out.

Yeah, he was loud enough to give away his location to a killer, but he’d already done that with his not so quiet approach. He wasn’t going for stealth here. He was racing against the clock to save her.

“Caroline?” he shouted again.

There was still no answer so he used his fist to pound on the door. And pound. When that got him no response, he moved back, ready to ram into it until it gave way. Before he could do that though, the door opened.

And there she was.

Caroline.

“What the heck do you want?” she snarled before she even got a look at him. “I’m working.”

Her face was beaded with sweat, and she had a red bandana headband holding back her short blonde hair. Her amber eyes were narrowed to slits.

Nash could see now that she was indeed working. Or better yet, he could feel it. The furnace she used to melt glass was chugging out a blistering heat that rushed right out at him. But something else rushed out at him, too.

Relief.

God. So much relief.

Nash nearly grabbed her and hauled her into his arms. Not the first time he’d had that urge, but those other occasions had been when he’d wanted her so bad that it’d hurt. But now, it was all about seeing that she was alive, that she hadn’t been sliced to pieces by a killer.

“Nash,” Caroline muttered, and some of the annoyance and anger slipped from her voice and her expression when she no doubt noticed the look he was giving her. “What happened? Why are you here?”

Both good questions, especially since he didn’t make a habit of visiting her. Or being around her.

Too much temptation.

After all, she was the boss’ daughter, and that made Caroline the kind of forbidden attraction that could get his ass fired the hard way. Even though there’d been times when he would have risked that if… well, just if.

The stars definitely weren’t aligned when it came to Caroline and him.

Since he knew Ruby would be more than eager for an update, Nash fired off a quick text to let his boss know that he’d made it to Caroline’s and, more importantly, that she was all right and that there were no signs of a killer.

Ruby’s response came within seconds. “Stay with her until you hear from me.”

While the text seemed composed enough, Nash figured Ruby was having her own extreme relief reaction right now.

Caroline glanced at his phone, then she took out hers from her pocket. Peering down at her screen, she no doubt saw the missed messages and texts. Obviously, she’d either silenced it or simply hadn’t responded since she’d been working.

She locked gazes with him. “Just say it fast,” she insisted. “Is it my mother? Did something happen to her?”

“It’s Bodie,” he managed to say once he got his throat unclamped.

She flinched. Of course, she did. Flinched and dropped back a step. That’s when her gaze slid to his hand.

To his gun.

“He escaped from prison?” she asked.

Nash nodded. “Yeah, Bodie escaped.”

He couldn’t use the term, my brother, but that’s exactly what Bodie was. An asshole bastard who happened to share some DNA with Nash.

But Bodie was a whole lot more than that.

He was also the man who’d left Caroline for dead nearly eighteen years ago when she’d been a college freshman, ready to start her adult life.

A life that Bodie had come so damn close to ending.

She swallowed hard, and since she looked ready to drop where she stood, he reached out to stop her from falling. No falling though. In a move that surprised him, Caroline whipped out a knife in a leather case from the pocket of her cargo pants. A big assed knife that she unsheathed in a blink. She held it up so the afternoon sunlight glinted off the eight-inch blade.

“He’s coming here for me?” she asked, her voice a little wobbly.

Again, Nash had to nod, and it crushed him to confirm that. Crushed him even more to see the fear that put in her eyes.

“Bodie escaped late last night when he was in the infirmary,” Nash explained. He’d spare her the details of how Bodie had throat-punched a male nurse and used the nurse’s ID and vehicle to get away. “The last sighting was from a traffic camera on the Interstate. He took the exit to your place.”

Of course, that exit was a good ten miles from Caroline’s house, but there was that whole “off the beaten path” thing. Caroline’s wasn’t near a city where Bodie could blend in and disappear. There were no nearby stores or places for him to get supplies and regroup. There’d be only one reason for Bodie to use that route.

To come after Caroline again.

To try to do what he’d nearly managed when she’d been just eighteen.

To try to kill her.

He’d come damn close the first time, leaving her with eleven stab wounds and in a puddle of her own blood. The only reason she’d lived was because her dorm mate had come home early from a date and had walked in on the carnage. The date, a football player on scholarship, had been with the roommate, and he’d managed to knock Bodie unconscious so he could then be arrested.

And so Caroline could be taken to the hospital.

Where she’d stayed for three months, four days, and sixteen hours.

Time when Nash had done a lot praying that she would recover. Time he’d also spent cursing his so-called brother.

“Did my mother send you?” she asked. But Caroline waved that off. “Of course, she sent you. So, what do we do? Do we just wait for him to show up?”

The answer to that was yes. But again, he didn’t spell it out. “If he comes, I will bury him.”

Nash hadn’t meant to use the tone of a cold-blooded killer, but he hadn’t been able to yank back his gut reaction.

Caroline had an odd reaction, too. She smiled. It wasn’t a big one, and it was laced with nerves. But it was there all right.

“You’ll bury him if I don’t beat you to it,” she assured him. “I’m not a defenseless eighteen-year-old girl any longer. I’m a thirty-six-year-old woman with a black belt in Taekwondo who’s had extensive training in hand-to-hand combat, firearms, and these.”

She held up the knife again, and in a move that stunned him, she turned and hurled it toward a wood target that had been fixed to the wall. The target had the outline of a man painted on it, and her knife speared it right in the area where the heart would be.

“I’ll cut him to ribbons if he gets near me,” she added, going to the knife and yanking it out so she could re-sheath it.

Nash had a bittersweet reaction. He was glad Caroline could defend herself. So damn glad that she hadn’t let the attack beat her down. But he hated she had lost a part of herself that she’d never get back.

Hated even more that her world had just turned upside down.

Again.

He had to tell her that they needed to go inside, just in case Bodie had managed to get his hand on a gun and was at this moment taking aim at her. And Nash knew Bodie was a good shot, too. That’d come from being raised in a compound with preppers and survivalists as parents and neighbors. Like Nash and his other two brothers, Bodie had learned to hunt and shoot before he’d gotten out of elementary school.

Nash was about to get her moving inside when the sound shot through the barn. His first thought was that it was gunfire. But it wasn’t.

He looked past her shoulder to see the concrete floor covered with glass. Caroline groaned, muttered some profanity under her breath, and went closer to look down at the mess.

“This is what happens when a piece cools too fast.” Caroline sighed, and then did more cursing. “I was about to get it in an annealing oven when you banged on the door.”

“What was it before it broke?” he asked, closing the door behind him and locking it. It was seriously hot in the studio, but it was better to risk heat exhaustion than a bullet to the head.

“A tropical ocean wave at sunrise. A commissioned piece,” Caroline added in a mutter.

Nash would never admit it to her, but he’d done some research on her and knew her commissioned art earned her a six-figure-plus living. And from what he could see of the glistening shards of blue, green, and gold, this creation would have been up to her usual beautiful standards.

Like some of the other pieces in the room.

He glanced around at the shelves stuffed with all sorts of glass sculptures, vases, and bowls. Again, he knew that some of them would be going to gift shops in San Antonio and Austin. Others would be shipped all over the world.

Caroline stood there, her back to him, staring at the ruined sculpture. Even now, when things seemed to be racing to the hell in a handbasket arena, he could feel the heat.

The lust.

Yeah, that was it. Lust. Probably because of the forbidden part playing into it. But he thought maybe it was something that went deeper than that. All the way to the marrow of his bones.

He’d felt it the first time he’d laid eyes on Caroline.

She hadn’t been standing then but had rather been in a hospital bed. Six weeks into that three month and four day stay. Nash had been about to head out on his first deployment as an Air Force Combat Rescue Officer, but he’d made a detour to the hospital to try to tell Caroline just how sorry he was that his dick of a brother had done this to her.

Nash hadn’t gotten past the door.

He’d seen her sleeping. Just lying there. So beautiful. Still so damaged and recovering from her most recent surgery. He’d stood there, silently cursing what’d happened to her.

Silently cursing the lust, too.

After all, he’d been twenty-three. A big age gap, considering Caroline had been just eighteen. But even that wasn’t the biggest obstacle. No. Not when his brother had come so close to ending her life.

Nash had been contemplating that. His dick brother. Her injuries. Her amazing face. And the lust.

When Ruby had stepped up beside him.

Because Nash had researched Caroline, he’d also known who Ruby was. A lieutenant colonel in the Army. Former special ops. All hard-assed. And she had advised Nash that now wasn’t a good time to spill his apology. Ruby and he had been discussing that when Caroline had woken up and asked who he was. After Nash had drawn in enough air to speak, he’d told her.

Caroline had been more than civil, but he’d also seen the wariness in her eyes. Even though he didn’t have a close resemblance to Bodie, they did have the same black hair, the same build. That must have given her flashbacks from hell.

And it was the reason he’d avoided her from then on.

The avoidance had lasted until three years ago when Caroline had run into him at a Christmas party. Nash and she had talked. Even danced. And he was certain she’d felt the same pull of heat that he had.

Certain, too, that she had put up an equal resistance.

There was some of that resistance in her now as she turned toward him. “Is Bodie still obsessed with me?”

That was a good word for it. Obsession. Caroline had gone out with Bodie once, but after she’d declined another date with him, he’d stalked her. Harassed her. Terrified her.

And then tried to kill her.

“I haven’t had any contact with Bodie for years,” he replied. “I went to see him in prison after…afterwards,” Nash settled for saying. He’d wanted to know why Bodie had done it.

Nash had gotten an answer he’d take the grave.

Because if I can’t have her, no one else will. No one. Caroline is mine.

A sick asshole response from a sick obsessed asshole, but Nash had no idea if Bodie still felt the same way. Considering the exit Bodie had taken, Nash was thinking the answer was yes.

“Have you had any contact with him?” Nash asked her.

She shook her head, peeled off the bandana, and repeated the headshake. “Thankfully, he wasn’t allowed to send me letters, emails or such.”

The words had barely left her mouth when Nash heard something. The sound of a car engine, and it was making a fast approach toward them. He didn’t have to draw his gun since he was already holding it.

“Move back,” he told Caroline, and he made sure it wasn’t a request but rather an order.

Did she listen?

Of course not.

She was right next to Nash when he hurried to the door. Since there were no windows or even a peephole, he eased open the door, hoping he’d see Ruby or one of his Maverick Ops teammates.

But it wasn’t.

The sleek silver Mercedes skidded to a stop next to his SUV, and someone hurried out. Not Bodie. This was a tall brunette that Nash didn’t recognize.

Nash couldn’t see if she was armed, but he stepped in front of Caroline anyway. “Who are you and what do you want?” he demanded.

The woman ignored him, instead pinning her attention over his shoulder and directly on Caroline. “Where’s Bodie?” she shouted. “What the hell have you done with him?”