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Yet for as much as he’d returned her sentiment, there had been a few times she’d sensed uncertainties within him, as if something deep and personal was going on in his mind that he wasn’t ready or willing to divulge just yet. Then again, there was always the possibility that she might be reading too much into her own insecurities.
With a sigh, she got out of bed and padded to the bathroom. After taking care of personal business, she brushed her teeth and changed into her drawstring pants and a loose, comfy T-shirt. Just as she finished combing out the tangles in her hair, the sound of shattering glass downstairs made her jump, and her heart accelerated to a hard, pounding beat.
Startled, and certain Noah had returned and accidentally broken something, she dropped the brush on the vanity and started out of the bedroom and down the stairs.
“Noah?” she called, and came to an abrupt halt when she saw that the glass from one of the windows flanking the front door was scattered on the floor in the entryway. The door was ajar, and the morning breeze wafted indoors. The cool air caused goose bumps to rise on her flesh, contradicting the hot prickle of unease invading her entire body.
Her gaze shot to the security system on the wall. The red light on the alarm panel flashed, indicating the silent alarm had been set off. Noah wasn’t home, and someone had obviously broken into the house.
The phone in the kitchen rang, breaking through the silence and Natalie’s paralyzed nerves. Praying it was the security company, she leaped over the shattered glass on the floor and ran into the kitchen. Before she could reach the phone, a familiar male figure appeared, blocking her path and leaving her with a feeling of dread.
She screamed in fright and stumbled back a few steps. Terror gripped her as she stared at the man who’d been stalking her—her ex-boyfriend, according to Noah. A man who obviously had no qualms about breaking and entering to get what he wanted.
And what he wanted was her.
Oh, God.
An arrogant smile lifted his lips. “Hello, Natalie,” he said, and though he didn’t make any move toward her his presence emanated an underlying animosity she felt to her bones.
Shaking from the inside out, she curled her fingers into tight fists at her sides as the phone continued to ring. “Ch-Ch-Chad,” she stammered, surprised that her vocal chords worked.
He lifted a blond brow, looking immensely pleased at her recollection. “You finally remember me. I was beginning to think that your amnesia, and Noah’s influence on you, had permanently erased me from your memory.”
His voice was low and tinged with malevolence. Disjointed memories flashed in her mind, of Chad’s face twisted with fury and a temper to match. And then the recollection crystallized. She’d been the victim of that rage before—it was what had caused her to leave Chad and start a new life here in Oakland.
She was stunned by the memory and terrified by Chad’s irrational frame of mind and what he was capable of doing to her. “Get out, now,” she ordered adamantly, just as the phone went silent.
“We’ll be leaving together this time,” he said, too calmly. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to catch you alone? It hasn’t been easy with your watchdog by your side at all times.”
Refusing to turn her back on him, she took a step back, then another, edging closer to her only means of escape—a framed threshold leading to the formal dining room and the stairs that headed up to the second level of the house. She thought of Noah’s revolver in the bedroom upstairs and knew that it was her best source of defense against this deranged man.
But she had to get to the weapon first.
“You’ll always be mine, Natalie,” Chad said possessively, drawing her full attention back to him.
Her chest tightened as his familiar words sank in. They were the same as the words she’d read on the card that had accompanied the bouquet she’d received at the hospital.
Noah hadn’t sent her those flowers, she realized. Chad had.
“You never should have left me,” he chided as he moved around the counter, his steps deceptively slow and unhurried, his gaze dark and direct. “Did you really think that I wouldn’t be able to find you? And I can’t believe that your lover thought that I couldn’t get to you, just because you were locked in his house with an alarm. You’re mine, and this time I’m not letting you go.”
He was too close, too dangerous, and she’d had enough. Taking advantage of the only weapon and distraction she had available to her, she grasped her textbook off the counter and flung it at Chad’s head. The book hit its mark, striking him in the temple. He grabbed his head and howled in pain, and she turned and ran through the opposite doorway and up the stairs, desperate to get to Noah’s gun.
Once she’d made it to the master bedroom, she shut and locked the door. She bolted over to the dresser and rummaged through the drawer where he kept his revolver, her heart beating in time with the heavy, angry footsteps of Chad coming up the stairs.
She tossed Noah’s cotton undershirts onto the floor in her frantic search, and a sob of despair caught in her throat when she realized that the gun was gone. He must have put it on this morning, though for the life of her she couldn’t remember him wearing his holster, which didn’t mean much. She’d grown so used to the weapon being a part of him that she hardly noticed it anymore.
But the fact remained that the gun was gone, and she was trapped upstairs with a crazed man after her.
The bedroom door rattled as Chad tried to kick in the sturdy wooden panel, spurring Natalie to find another means of defense. She’d gone through two other drawers for something sharp or blunt to use when the door cracked and splintered from the force of Chad’s repeated blows, then crashed open.
She jumped back with a gasp, while he stood there in the doorway, the cut near his temple oozing blood down the side of his face. His features were filled with violent rage.
Fear swelled within her. “I’m expecting Noah back any minute,” she blurted out, hoping and praying it was true. Or at least that the alarm company had dispatched the police since she hasn’t answered the phone. “I suggest you leave before he returns.”
r /> Chad strolled into the room, seemingly unfazed by her threat. “Ahh, Noah, your fiancé,” he drawled in a chilly tone, and smirked. “Do you really believe that lie he told you?”
She shook her head in confusion as she backed toward the far side of the room to keep distance between them. Knowing conversation was her best stall tactic until she could figure out an escape, she asked, “What lie?”
