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“You promise?” she asks, and tears well up again.
“I swear it.”
She holds her eyes closed tightly for a moment, and then she opens them and stares into mine. “Make love to me, Jake.”
I slam into her, and she takes me to the hilt. I kiss her to quiet her, and she whimpers against my lips with each deep stroke into her body.
“I’m going to…” She gasps. Her lips fall open and her sweet breath warms my chin. “Oh, God, Jake,” she says and then she comes apart around me. She squeezes me tight, shuddering as she takes me in, and when she relaxes around me, I come too. Deep inside her, with her, on top of her… God, it’s just her.
“Jesus,” I say, as I let my weight fall on top of her. She pulls my lips to hers and kisses me. “That was amazing.”
A knock sounds on my door, and I drop my face into Katie’s neck. “Oh, my God,” I whisper. “Not right now.”
“Jake,” a voice calls out. “Do you know where my mom is?”
Katie shoves my shoulder. “That’s Gabby. Move.”
Katie covers my naked body, grabs my robe off the door and shrugs into it. She opens the door for Gabby, and when she turns back to look at me a moment later, her face goes completely white. “Jake,” she says, “Gabby thinks someone is outside her window.”
I try to shake the post coital laziness from my brain, dispose of the condom, and get dressed. Then I get my gun out of the locked box I put in my closet last week, and check to be sure it’s loaded.
“What are you doing, Jake?” Katie asks.
“I’m going to see who’s outside.”
Katie grabs my arm. “Don’t go outside.”
“It’s fine, Katie,” I tell her. I kiss her quickly. Then I let myself outside.
I walk quietly to the window, and get out my small flashlight.
And my blood runs cold. All the flowers under Gabby’s window have been stomped flat. Someone has been here.
Aside from Pop, there’s only one other person in the world I would trust to protect my family. Despite everything that happened, he will protect them.
I hurry to Fred’s cabin and knock on the door. He opens it a crack, and I say, “I need your help.”
Together, Fred and I search the campground, the lake area, and part of the woods.
While we search, I tell Fred the story of Cole and explain what’s going on.
“He’s gone,” I tell Fred. “At least for tonight.”
“He’ll be back,” Fred replies. “What are you going to do?”
I shake my head. “I have no idea.”
“Well,” Fred says, “when I go quail hunting, I don’t just sit there and wait for them to fly up so I can shoot them. I flush them out.”
“What do you mean?”
“What does Cole want more than anything?”
A shiver runs up my spine. “Katie.”
“So, you plan the biggest wedding you can, set a date, put announcements in the papers here and at home, and then you wait. Flush him out. He’ll show up. He won’t let her marry you. Not without a fight.”
Katie walks up behind me. The moonlight shines on her face. “Hey, Katie?” I say.
