We’re just visitors who have invaded this paradise Mother Nature created for them, and there’s every chance it’s a bear or coyote wandering near the cabin that caught Gizmo’s attention.
It could be something passing by on its way to the river or out hunting some late-night prey. But as Giz releases another low growl from where he stands at the base of the steps with his hackles raised, my gut tells me otherwise.
Oh, God…
I glance down at Liam where he sleeps soundly beside me, spread out across the bear skin rug with the blanket draped over him, his tattooed chest rising and falling gently. He looks so peaceful, the same way I was lost to the world only a few minutes ago.
Completely content in the safety of his home, where he never thought anything bad could ever touch him.
I’d give anything to be able to snuggle back up against him and ignore Giz. To tell him to go back to bed so I can do the same and pretend that there aren’t worse things than the wildlife on the mountain that could be outside stalking us.
That isn’t an option, though.
Not when I know the kind of danger I brought with me when I came here. Not when all those instincts developed over all the rough years of my life are screaming that danger lurks just outside the door—of the human kind.
The kind I should have seen for what it was from the moment it walked into the store and flashed that too-perfect smile.
Bradley Ryan wasn’t who he pretended to be.
And he wasn’t just some random dude who decided to rob a bank.
I might not have fully understood the seriousness of what getting free from that locker meant…
If I hadn’t found that single slip of paper at my studio apartment when I was scrambling to pack and get out of town.
If I hadn’t seen his real name in black and white on something he thought he had thrown away the last time he was there and recognized it—or at least, the last name.
Lorell…
Everyone on the eastern seaboard knows that name for the same reason—because they’re one of the most notorious and ruthless criminal organizations in existence today.
RICO cases against them have crumbled countless times as witnesses vanish. The list of their alleged crimes has grown and grown until they now rival the five families in New York in both size and power all along the southern coast.
And he is one of them.
Somehow connected to the crime network powerful enough to make people disappear, and to rob a bank like it was a simple walk through the fucking park without leaving a single shred of evidence.
Except me.
I’m the loose thread.
One they won’t hesitate to cut if they find me.
Which is why I know, deep in my gut, that it isn’t a wild animal outside. It’s the worst kind of animal.
I nudge Liam as my panic grows, my ribcage tightening and making it difficult to breathe.
He shifts somewhat restlessly, wrapping his arm around my waist and squeezing me against him, trying to draw me across his warm body. “Mmm…come back to bed.”
Shit.
I shake him harder, pushing on his shoulder until he finally lifts his head groggily, blinking as he tries to wake up.
Those mossy eyes attempt to focus on me, his lips turned down slightly. “What’s wrong?”
Tugging the blanket up around myself against the sudden chill, I glance toward Giz and the door where he still stands sentinel. “I don’t know. Giz heard something.”
As if on cue, he releases another low growl.
