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“You can love someone without wanting to take care of them.” My parents come to mind. In their own way, I do believe they loved me—and probably each other on some level. But that didn’t mean they wanted to be responsible for another person. Though my mom certainly didn’t hire a nanny. She just stopped taking care of me once I was old enough to smear peanut butter and jelly on bread.

“Look, Sadie is just important. I really think she might regret it if she doesn’t come home. I know I’ll regret it if I don’t at least try to convince her.”

His voice takes on a tone that makes me uneasy. I uncross my arms and square off. “She is home.”

“You don’t even know her,” he snaps. “You met her—what—a week ago?” The possessive tone in his voice makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I clench my hands into fists.

“She made it clear she’s comfortable here. Now, take your jackets, and get out of my bar before I make you leave.”

“Fair enough, I’m sorry.” His tone is softer now, but there’s still something there. Something that has me regretting ever opening that door in the first place. “I just really don’t like my wife being upset.”

“No offense, but your wife seems like she’d get upset if the wind blew the wrong direction.”

“You have no idea.” He starts toward the door, so I follow, then grip the edge of it after he’s pulled it open. Just before he steps outside, though, he turns. “I really am sorry, Maverick.”

He throws the jackets at me. When I reach my arms up to block them, something sharp pierces the side of my neck, and my skin burns in response. A tingling spreads from my neck down, along with the awareness that I don’t have long.

Whatever he gave me is going to work fast.

Adrenaline surges through my system. “Sadie, run!” I yell.

Can she even hear me?

I stumble backward, vision swimming, legs going weak. I grip the back of a chair for support. No matter what, I can’t let him leave this bar with her.

I can’t lose her.

But as I fight to regain control, it slips further and further away from me.

Darren rushes into my bar and slams the door behind him.

“You made a mistake,” I slur. My limbs grow heavy, my body unresponsive.

No! I can’t leave her alone. I can’t fail her.

Darren replaces the cover on a syringe in his hand. “A few seconds now, and it’ll be lights out for you, bartender. But you really brought this on yourself when you thought you could keep what wasn’t yours to have in the first place.” His neutral expression has morphed into something else.

A darkness that slithers just beneath the surface.

How did I not see it?

“It was you,” I say. The words slur together, becoming inaudible, and I reach out to grip the chair as the room around me shifts.

The chair falls, and I drop to my knees. Panic pounds through me, but I can’t even process it. Because I’m about to lose everything, and there’s not a single thing I can do about it.

“Sadie is special.”

My arms fall limp at my sides, my head hanging low. How I’m still on my knees and not flat on my back, I’m not sure. But I have zero control over my movements.

“She is mine,” Darren snarls and squats down into my face. “I knew it the moment I hired her, but the timing wasn’t right. Life just kept getting in the way. She was always so busy with those kids.” He shakes his head. “Well, you know the rest. Sorry you got caught up in it, but a man in love will do anything, am I right?” He grins, a savage, victorious smile. “Don’t you worry. Once that wears off, you’ll be good as new. I could kill you, but knowing that you’ll live the rest of your life knowing what you lost, imagining her with me, is a far better punishment than death.”

Then he rears back his fist and slams it into my face.

I fall backward, unable to feel anything.

Not the pain.

Not the cool floor.