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“Do you love the future queen with every fiber of your being? Is this true love?” She was semi-teasing, but it was terrifying to think of being queen. With Tristan by her side, she could do anything, and with God on their side, they could do all things.
“I do.” He kissed her long and slow and deep. “I love you, Jenn.”
She smiled. “Truth or dare.”
“Dare.” His scars crinkled as he smiled.
“I dare you to kiss me until our food grows cold and our clothes are no longer wet.”
He chuckled. “Dare accepted.” He drew her close, and his lips lit her up from the inside out.
“Oh my, Mr. Crown Prince, what lovely lips you have,” she murmured against his mouth.
“All the better to kiss you with, my dear.”
And kiss her he did. The sun set and Jennifer was still kissing the future king, the love of her life, her Big Bad Wolf. Food would have to wait.
They finally pulled apart and ate a delicious but lukewarm salmon and steak dinner. The roar of an engine announced General Ray himself had come for them. Jennifer and Tristan shared a smile as the general gruffly reminded them Naomi was still at large and their safety had to come first.
Safety was important, but Jennifer’s love for Tristan topped everything. She saw him deeply, and he knew her just as well.
True love would stand the test of time because it was her Big Bad Wolf’s love.
The Police Chief and the Musician
Chapter One
PRINCE DEREK AND ELLERY MONSON’S WEDDING DAY
Livvy Moser, Alivinia to only her mother, listened to twelve-year-old Gabby play the closing notes of Rachmaninoff’s “Second Piano Concerto” with tears in her eyes. Gabby did not have the natural talent of many of Livvy’s students, and that made this almost flawless performance in Livvy’s living room all the more beautiful. Gabby had a don’t quit attitude and knew how to work hard. She’d taken lessons since she was five, the past two years from Livvy, and she’d overcome her lack of natural intuitiveness and talent—the child couldn’t even hear pitch and had very little rhythm—to succeed as a pianist.
Her student was Livvy’s motivation to do the scariest thing she’d done since Naomi and Treven Rindlesbacher refused to give up on their decade-long quest for her to become Treven’s wife. When she was seventeen, she’d gotten a restraining order against Treven after he cornered her and told her she would marry him or he’d kill anyone she dated. Her parents had recognized he was a dangerous psycho and cut ties to the Rindlesbachers. She’d thought he and his family would realize she’d never marry him.
For the next ten excruciating years, Livvy had learned that Gabby wasn’t the only one who refused to quit. Treven hounded her throughout her university training and building her portfolio as a musician while she lived in Traverse. While she was out running errands, on campus, or walking by the river, random men would pass her and whisper, “Treven’s coming.” It was never the same person, and she shared description after description with the police, but they never found them. She often saw Treven in places he shouldn’t have been. He’d always keep his distance but smirk and mouth the same thing every time: “I’m coming for you.”
Finally, around the time she finished at the university, Treven was arrested as an accomplice to murder. She’d finally been free to live her life and pursue her dream. After countless hours of practice and lessons and sweat and prayers, she’d achieved the seemingly impossible—performing with symphonies all over Europe. It was a one in a million chance, and she’d accomplished it.
She assumed traveling and not being in Augustine very often, she’d finally be free of Treven’s taunts. After every show, however, as they bowed and the lights panned the audience’s standing ovation, someone in the crowd held up a piece of paper that said Treven’s coming. Security only caught a few of the sign holders, and the story was always the same—somebody had given them twenty bucks to hold up the paper, saying it was for their girlfriend. The description of the person who paid them was always different and no connection to the Rindlesbachers was ever made.
It scared the people Livvy performed with, and she began to succumb to her anxiety and fear, trembling as she played and sometimes making mistakes. Soon, the requests to be a guest with the top symphonies, operas, and even some pop bands stopped coming in. She finally had no choice but to give up her own hard-earned accomplishment, buy a charming cottage in Traverse, ten minutes from her supportive and loving parents and brother, and teach children.
Then the random emails started coming in, never from a traceable address and always, I’m coming for you. She wanted to be strong and brave, but it was horrifying. Being back in Traverse, she also had the whispered, “Treven’s coming,” whenever she went anywhere.
To her surprise, Treven hadn’t approached her during his brief release from prison, but he left a gruesome reminder of his intentions on her porch. A dead collared dove, because he knew how much she loved them, with a note:
Thank you for waiting for me, beautiful. If you would’ve dared marry any other man, he’d be as dead as this bird. Not much longer and your patience will be rewarded. We’ll finally be together.
She’d called the police, wishing she’d dare call Chief Jensen personally as he’d asked her to each time he’d stopped by to briefly check on her and her case throughout the years. The two officers who’d come by took the evidence and wrote down everything she said, but then they both whispered to her as they walked away, “Treven’s coming.”
Of course Officers Bradford and Palmer both denied saying any such thing, but Chief Jensen reassured her they were being watched carefully and wouldn’t come near her again.
After that, her cousin Mia Burton’s husband, former Navy SEAL Captain Zeke Hendrickson, taught her basic self-defense, how to use a pistol and knife, and installed her security system. She practiced her self-defense moves every day. Still, she was afraid to leave home and risk running into Naomi or William Rindlesbacher or one of Treven’s lackeys.
Livvy shuddered, closed her eyes, and said a prayer for strength. Treven was back in prison and William and Naomi were on the run, having finally been exposed for the sadistic psychos they were. They might have the reach, money, and power to taunt or intimidate her, but she had to believe they could no longer do any real harm.
Today was the day Livvy would finally be brave again. Braver than fighting to be a top pianist and strutting onto stages throughout the world. She would confidently waltz into Prince Derek and Ellery Monson’s wedding this afternoon and trust General Raymond’s top-notch security. Maybe she’d even get the chance to prove she was stronger than anybody knew and flirt with one irresistible chief of Augustine’s police force.
Chief Jensen Allendale.
