Chapter 1

Chapter

One

Jacqueline Oliver, Jacey to the blessed individuals close enough to earn use of the nickname, ran along a glorious Montana mountain trail. Pine and aspen trees lined the mountain above and below her, and the sharp drop-off granted her a view of a picturesque mountain valley complete with a creek running down the opposite mountainside into a cerulean lake. Cows pastured in lush green fields bordering the water.

A two-story, new-looking log cabin and a large barn were sheltered by the opposite mountainside. She squinted and could see an actual cowboy working next to a corral full of cows. Who could possibly live in such a paradise? She adored the parts of Montana she'd seen over the past year on the Colevilles' ranch. This valley took Montana bliss to the next level.

If only her mother would stay in prison forever and Jacey could stay in Montana. Growing up on Long Island and being a prisoner in her parents' ostentatious mansion most of her life, except the six years she'd attended the university with guards constantly by her side, she couldn't have imagined the wild, vast beauty of the Montana mountains, valleys, and Big Sky as the locals labeled their view of the heavens.

Tilting her head up to the sky, Jacey let the early-morning June sun wash over her. Freedom and sunshine. Heavenly gifts.

Thank you , she prayed.

She prayed every day to forget the horrors of every year of her life, the atrocities done to her brother Quaid and so many others.

Her phone rang in the pocket of her running pants, startling her. She'd only been given a phone by Mama Millie a couple days ago. Millie's husband, Jared Coleville, hadn't wanted to give her the phone or let her run in the mountains by herself. The Coleville men lived to protect others. Lieutenant Miles Coleville originally brought her to the Coleville Ranch as a favor to her brother Quaid, to hide her from her sadistic mother. She appreciated their protection and loved them like the family she'd never had, but she longed for freedom and the ability to choose.

‘Our beauty needs some freedom.' Millie had stood by Jacey's side. ‘She can run up the mountainside by herself and have the phone if she runs into trouble. She deserves at least a taste of running free in our gorgeous mountains.'

Being on the expansive Coleville Ranch, helping with chores, cooking, or cleaning was the most freedom Jacey had ever had. She loved it here. Her only purpose before coming to Montana had been to protect her older brother Quaid Raven, Thomas Oliver by birth. Now Quaid was safe and happily married to the darling Anna Marley. Their mother, Catherine Oliver, the devil reincarnated, was in prison, and she and Quaid were free .

Jacey wondered what the sheep—their dad and oldest sister Elizabeth—were doing with themselves without her mom's instructions. Each moment of their day and each word spoken had been scripted by Catherine Oliver. Her dad loved her and she appreciated him standing up for her and preventing the physical abuse she knew her older siblings had experienced, she couldn't help but wonder if he could've done more for his older children. Elizabeth had been her ‘Lizzy' when Jacey was a young girl and Lizzy was a teenager. During Jacey's teenage years, that all changed. Elizabeth grew cold and distant, only softening with her occasionally and when no one else was around. Was Elizabeth truly as evil as her mother like Quaid thought or was there hope with Catherine in prison that Elizabeth could find her soul again and their family could be reunited?

Jacey prayed for them, but Papa Jared Coleville, Lieutenant Miles Coleville, and especially Sheriff Clint Coleville would never approve of any contact, any risk of her location being exposed. She completely agreed, but not for the same reason. She wanted to keep this family, this mountainous haven, safe from her mother. If Catherine's men somehow found where she was, they'd kill anyone and everyone to get to her and she had no doubt Catherine was still pulling strings from prison.

Trepidation filled her. Someday soon, her mother and her cohorts would engineer an early release, a pardon, or a traditional escape.

She pushed that horrifying thought away and focused on the Coleville family. The overprotective cowboys were unreal—handsome, fun, and hard-working. She suspected the twins Easton and Walker had crushes on her and fist fights about it, but she wasn't ready for a relationship, or the target she would put on a man's head if she fell in love with him. She teased, laughed, was kind, and kept an emotional distance.

She'd never been in a relationship of her own choosing, always forced to date whoever her mother deemed would further her control and influence. The foul Richard Napoleon sprang to mind—almost twice her age, slimy, and his kisses had made her gag.

Jacey shuddered. Those days were behind her. She was safe. Quaid loved her and had given her an entire family of tough cowboys to watch over her.

If she ever chose someone to date, it would unquestionably be a cowboy. She was enthralled by them. The one real gift her father had given her and somehow her mother had allowed was a love of horses and the ability to ride when she spent time at their Virginia estate. Horses and cowboys—more enchanting than any wealthy businessman, celebrity, athlete, or even a prince.

A romantic relationship was uncharted territory and not in her future. She doubted she'd ever have that opportunity or choice and she wouldn't dare expose someone she loved to her mother's machinations. It was enough right now to relish freedom, sunshine, and …

The phone had stopped ringing, then began anew. She had to answer it and not lose her solo running privileges on day one. Obedience had never come naturally to her; she had the mental scars to prove it.

Pushing the green button, she stopped walking. "Hello?"

"Jacey." Her brother Quaid's voice came through the speakers. She adored her big brother. He'd protected and loved her their entire lives. He'd escaped at eighteen, with her help and blessing. Those nine years without him were the darkest she had ever known. He'd come back for her, rescued her a year ago. Quaid was the only solid family she had, besides their nanny Maria who'd been murdered by her mother for trying to rescue them.

"Quaid! How are you? How is Anna? How are the little ones?" Anna ran daycare centers and had loads of nieces and nephews. If only Jacey could meet some of them, but she had to stay in hiding for now. Maybe forever. If she could stay in Montana and find a cowboy to love and keep hidden from her mother, she wouldn't complain.

"Jace!" Quaid's voice was sharp.

"Good morning to you too, Lieutenant Raven," she teased back.

"Catherine has escaped."

Quaid didn't call her ‘mother,' and Jacey didn't blame him.

She sank onto the dirt trail and put her head between her knees, clinging to the phone with trembling fingers. Escaped? The ‘witch' as they'd bravely called Mother behind her back had escaped?

Please no.

Bile rose in her throat, worse than kissing Richard.

"Miles swears you're safe there," Quaid continued, clearly focused on business and her safety. Her brother loved her, but he was a man. "We have no indicators that your location has been leaked. I'll get in touch with Jared and Clint and get their take on it."

Clint was Jared's oldest son, a standoffish military type who they claimed had never served in the military. He was the county sheriff, and the role fit him well. When Jacey first came to the ranch, he'd been dating a lady named Sheryl, became engaged, and then been dumped harshly. She'd never met Sheryl, but she never met anyone besides the Colevilles and a few trusted ranch hands.

"What are your feelings, Jace? Do you want to go into hiding with Anna? I'm working with Aiden Porter, and he's been in contact with Navy SEALs Captain Jagger Lemuel and Lieutenant Hays West to see if we can't use multiple resources and angles to help the FBI track down Catherine."

"Hays West?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah. One and the same."

"Can you trust him? He loved Elizabeth in high school, but Mother found out and …" That was one of the times she'd witnessed Elizabeth being beaten. She'd cried for her sister. Now her sister was chilly, distant, and evil. She shivered. She blamed her mother, but it still hurt that she'd lost her Lizzy. Her big sis.

"I know. He doesn't have much love lost for Catherine or Elizabeth."

"That's good. What about Dad and Elizabeth?" She stood on shaky legs and started heading down the hill. Her freedom to run in the mountains was racing to its conclusion. The Coleville brothers would stand guard outside her bedroom door and window following this devastating news.

She wanted to think of ways to tease and laugh with Quaid, but this was not the time. Her gut churned and sweat she didn't earn leaked down her back and chest.

Catherine Oliver. Escaped. How could Satan's team win again?

Forgive me. I just don't want her to hurt anyone else.

"They're Catherine's minions. There's nothing you can do about that, Jace, and don't you dare contact them."

"I know who and what they are." It was a miserable thing to admit, but then she got fired up. "I would never contact one of them or do anything to risk you, Anna, or any of the Colevilles."

Sometimes Quaid acted like she hadn't seen the murder and torture and manipulations he'd been subjected to. The years he'd been in the military, she'd experienced horrors she would never tell another soul about.

"I know. I apologize," Quaid said. "It's unnerving the power she has."

It was. Their mother had unlimited power and loyalty created from years of using her money, manipulation, control tactics, and blackmail. She was horrifying. The witch wasn't a strong enough title for her, but Jacey had given up her pet sin of cursing when she'd been rescued from purgatory.

"I need to call Clint," he said. "He gave me this number for you yesterday."

"I was your top priority? Thank you, brother. I'm touched." At least she could try to tease.

"You should be." His voice softened. "Be safe, Jacey. I love you."

"I will." She didn't tell him she was high on a mountain trail all by her lonesome. Clint would probably let him know and she'd have Coleville brothers running in her direction the moment they found out the danger scale had gone from one to ninety-nine in minutes. Clint would descend upon her in the county's helicopter. Easton and Walker would race up the mountain on their favorite horses. Rhett would climb in his big truck, leave whatever construction site he was on, and ruin this mountain trail with those ostentatiously big tires. Houston was in Nebraska finishing his residency and Miles was in San Diego with his Navy SEAL team. Two brothers down, at least .

Ah, brothers. She loved them and would've felt smothered, but they were keeping her safe from a monster.

She'd call them as soon as she hung up with Quaid. On second thought, she'd give them a minute to hear the news. Then she'd reassure them she would sprint down the mountain. They'd have her location with the phone, but no need to worry them. She liked to tease and she was naturally sassy, but she hated worry. She'd spent her life worrying about her Lizzy and her brother Thomas. Now Elizabeth had gone to the dark side and her brother was a hero named Quaid.

"Love you," she said, then hung up.

Clinging to the phone, she raced down the incline. She'd been going for hours, farther than she'd run before and slower going mostly uphill into the valleys and the peaks of the mountains behind the ranch. It would be at least an hour to get back.

Descending toward the wide, picturesque valley she'd been admiring, she hated that her hands trembled and tears escaped her eyes. Petrified. Anger filled her next. She'd continued to tease and maintain her ‘spice', as Lizzy used to affectionately call it, even through years of mind-manipulation and mental abuse. She couldn't succumb to her mother's power again.

If her mother found her, Catherine would use her as a lure to get Quaid back. For Quaid and Anna's sake and her own sanity, Jacey had to stay free. The Coleville Ranch was massive and well-protected by an electric gate, cameras, sensors, men, and the natural landscape of trees and mountains. The Colevilles were tough, brave, and willing to battle for her, but Jacey had seen her mother's men in action. Highly trained and either barbaric by nature or chained to her mother because of something she held over their heads, they'd murder everyone in their path to secure Jacey and carry out her mother's orders.

What if they killed one of the Colevilles? She couldn't live with herself. Should she leave this mountain paradise? The first place she'd felt safe, happy, loved, part of a family. To protect the Colevilles from a what-if? They'd say no, but she should make that choice to protect them.

Choice.

It wasn't part of her skill set. Even the ability to eat what she wanted and choose her clothing each day had been a luxury this past year.

Her toe caught on an exposed root. Jacey screamed in surprise as she pitched forward. She tried to catch herself, but she flew off the side of the trail. Her scream grew louder as her leg slammed against a tree. Pain radiated through her thigh. The tree changed her trajectory, and she flipped head first. She was sliding down the viciously steep mountainside, but at least she wasn't free-falling.

Her head slammed into another tree and darkness embraced her.