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There she was, exactly where Liam said he’d left her. The second my eyes fell on her, those long-dormant instincts roared to life. The way she was sitting, she was aware of everything around her. Attentive in a way that most civilians were not. That awareness called out to me. And it reminded me of things that I would much rather forget.
Long, dark hair fell around her shoulders in waves, but her skin coloring was so pale, I wondered if that was its real shade. She was stunning, but also doing her best to disguise that fact. Her clothes didn’t fit well and drew away from the shapes underneath them. Misdirection. I had seen it enough to recognize the signs.
And Liam was correct—she was nervous. Her fingers never stopped moving. Making small circles on the arm of the chair and then on her knees. Picking at an invisible cuticle. Little subconscious movements that only someone with training would be able to hide.
“She didn’t say why she was here?” I asked again.
“No,” Liam said.
“And she asked for me by name?”
He nodded. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Okay, then. It was time to see why she was here.
Deep inside, my instincts were screaming, but I couldn’t pinpoint the reason. The urge to protect and to soothe was there, along with a prickling sensation at the back of my neck like someone was watching.
I hoped she had answers. Because now that I’d seen her, I needed them.
Chapter 3
Evelyn
This was taking way too long.
I forced my body to stay seated despite my nerves telling me I should get up and leave. My fingers wouldn’t stay still. I couldn’t stop them.
I should drive away and find some other place in town that promised a steady job. But this was too perfect not to give it a chance, even if it was a long shot.
It was hard not to let myself hope, but I wanted this to work. Garnet Bend seemed like the perfect place to hide. The few times I’d let myself be online during the trip—libraries and internet cafes only—I’d settled on the small town.
Being in a big city hadn’t prevented him from finding me, so it was time to try the other option. Maybe that would do the trick. I doubted it, but that spark of hope was there all the same.
Whenever I picked a new place, I tried to be as random as possible without also being predictable in my randomness. Last time I’d run, I’d gone diagonally across the map from Rhode Island to Albuquerque. This time, I took a straight line north. Montana seemed like an okay place to try living in a small town. After all, there was nothing out here, right?
It had certainly seemed that way from most of my driving.
I’d sorted towns by population and picked one that was on the smaller end while still being big enough to blend in. The other advantage to a smaller population was that it was easier to see someone like Nathan coming. He’d managed to sneak up on me in Albuquerque. Too many places to hide.
I’d picked this place mostly for the name. And the fact that it was only a couple hours from one of the larger Montana cities, so it wouldn’t be impossible to get to an airport if I needed to. But it was off the beaten path enough that I hoped I wouldn’t be an easy target.
For all those reasons, I needed the job listing that I’d found in town. It was definitely too good to be true, but I had to try. If not, I’d stay at a hotel and see if there was anything else before moving on.
The man and woman I’d spoken to on the way in had been kind, even though I was here to speak to someone else. Another man. That alone made me nervous. But jobs that provided housing didn’t come along very often, and when I’d seen that this place was on the outskirts of town...
I needed it to work.
A silhouette darkened the screen door, and I froze, learned impulses making me go still. A man pushed inside, and he was huge. Tall and broad like a linebacker and definitely, one hundred percent, one of the biggest men I’d ever seen in real life other than Nathan.
Should I have expected that? This was Montana, filled with people who worked the land and spent a good amount of time outdoors. It probably wasn’t a place that bred small, unintimidating men. That didn’t change the creeping dread that slithered up my spine and spun in my gut.
He didn’t move, and neither did I, both of us simply observing each other. And then he sat across from me, well out of reach, and my body relaxed. I was suddenly aware of air in my lungs again—I’d been holding my breath.
If he noticed my nerves, he didn’t say anything. He just looked at me, and once I had enough breath in my chest, I looked back. Not only was he huge, he was gorgeous. Like he could star in a Montana ad campaign featuring a cowboy. Brown hair, warm eyes, and a jaw sculpted with a hint of lazy stubble. He was beautiful.
I stopped any further thoughts on that. I’d been fooled by beautiful men before, and I knew better than anyone that beauty didn’t have anything to do with whether or not someone could be trusted.
Nathan was beautiful. Look where that had gotten me.
