Just another few steps and she’d be at her truck. She kept the men in view but continued backing toward the driver’s door. They were in a dark corner in the back of the parking lot where no one would hear her call for help. And even if she’d parked closer to the bar, the music was so loud that it was unlikely that anyone would hear her. She was going to have to do this alone.
“Stop right there, Bailey. We just want to talk,” Ziegler said.
Her back hit the side of her truck. She realized too late that she had made a tactical error by effectively trapping herself between the truck at her back and the men in front. Now there was no way she’d be able to get herself into the safety of her truck without turning her back on her enemy. A rookie mistake. She’d spent too many years behind a desk, after all.
She was out of time. She needed to do something.
Fast.
With one final deep breath she swiveled her upper body as quickly as she could to reach for the door handle. But it wasn’t enough. She heard someone move and in the next moment she was slammed into the side of her truck with the men crowding her on all sides. She felt hands groping her, someone yanking her head back, hot breath on her neck, and then someone smashed her head into the side of the truck. The hit was hard enough to stun her, and caused her to groan in pain.
She could hear the men murmuring at her back and everything started to spin as she was quickly whipped around to face them. Spots danced before her eyes and a flash of somethingshiny—a knife? —was coming toward her. It was the last thing she saw before everything went black.
Bailey slowly regained consciousness, moaning at the pain racking her entire body. Her head was pounding and she could tell her leg was bleeding, but beyond that, she had no clue what the damage was. Just that everything hurt.
One thing she did know—she needed to get off the ground and get out of that parking lot immediately.
She got herself into a sitting position, trying to clear the cobwebs from her head. She looked around, taking in her surroundings as best she could. Cars were still in the parking lot and music was still blaring from the bar. She must not have been out for too long. She didn’t sense anyone nearby, but she still felt an urgency pushing her into action.
Leaning heavily on her truck, she pulled herself up to standing and gripped the side panel when everything started to sway. Concussion? Probably. Blood loss…definitely. She untucked her shirt and ripped the hem so she could make a tourniquet for her leg. She’d figure out the rest of her injuries later but she needed to stop the bleeding now.
Once she had her leg wrapped, she worked her way to the driver’s door and slid into the seat. She had no idea what had just happened, or why. But she knew one person who would be able to shed a little light on this whole situation. The one person she had sworn she would avoid as long as possible.
Aaron.
Chapter Two
Aaron hissed with pain as he felt a sliver slide into his palm. He really should have been used to it by now, but the splinters always got him. That’s what he got for not wearing gloves. Leaning down, he drew his hand into his mouth and sucked until he felt the splinter dislodge, and spat it to the ground before he stood back to admire his handiwork.
See, nowthishad been worth a few splinters. For the last few months, he had been working on rebuilding the outbuildings for the horses here at the Warrior Peak Sanctuary. He was fixing them up so they could keep the hay dry during the spring, and so the horses would have somewhere to shelter out of the heat of the sun. It would be summer soon and he didn’t want to leave them with nowhere to rest on a hot day.
And he had done a pretty good job of it, if he said so himself. It had been almost relaxing for him, being able to come out here every day and enjoy the peace and quiet as he set to work with his hands. As the end of spring approached, it seemed like the whole landscape was blooming to life around them, green punctuated by purples and reds as flowers began to blossom. Against the clear blue sky above, it was downright gorgeous. Another reminder as to why he had come here—and why he had been so willing to leave his old life behind to do so.
He was about to get back to work when he heard a whistle from behind him, and he turned to see Lawson Davies, one of the owners of the lodge, striding toward him through the long grass.
“Hey,” Aaron called to him.
Something shifted as Lawson got closer to him, a tingling in his palms—it was something he’d learned back in the day that meant he should be worried. He tried to push that aside, reminding himself he was safe here. At least, that was what he hoped.
“Hi,” Lawson replied as he glanced over to the work Aaron had been doing. “It’s looking pretty good out here.”
“Just ‘pretty good’?” Aaron shot back.
Lawson grinned. “Hey, I actually came here for a reason,” he remarked. “There’s someone up at the main lodge asking for you.”
A ripple of uneasiness pulsed through Aaron’s body. “Who is it?”
“I don’t know,” Lawson replied with a shrug. “But they came asking for you specifically. Seemed pretty important.”
Who the hell could have found Aaron out here? The whole point of coming to this place was that it was in the middle of nowhere. Nobody should have been able to find him out here. His eyes darted back and forth, looking around as though the answer to his question might have been somewhere in the forest surrounding the field.
“Should I be concerned that there are strangers asking for my handyman?” Lawson asked, clocking Aaron’s body language.
Aaron tried to relax and shook his head quickly. The last thing he wanted was for any of them to second-guess his presence here. This place was the best thing that could have happened to him in the aftermath of his life imploding, and he wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of it.
“It’s a woman, if that changes anything,” Lawson offered. “Pretty, red hair, green eyes. She didn’t give a name and it looks like she’s been through it.”
“‘Been through it’? What does that mean?” Aaron asked.
