PART ONE: ESCAPE
Prologue
Los Angeles, California – June 2, 2025
There was somebody in her house.
Nina Keller knew this absolutely.
She stood in her spotless kitchen, its big bay windows overlooking the Hollywood Hills, and stared at the three placemats sitting side by side on the counter. One was crooked, and though her militant organizational preferences would never have allowed such a small but glaring slip, that wasn’t the entire reason she knew she was not alone.
Rather, she could feel him in the house with her.
She knew he was there in the same way she had known when to avoid one of her mother’s ‘friends’ as a child.
She felt it in her bones.
In the hair on the back of her neck, which slowly crept to attention.
In the pit of her stomach – that anxious place where her childhood nightmares were stored.
The eighteen years she’d spent as the daughter of a whore had taught her many things. When to trust her instincts. When to hide. When to run. And when her only option was to fight.
Now, she held her breath as she strained to hear, listening for even the smallest sound that might give away the intruder’s location.
She pressed her back to the cold glass window so that she could see in all directions, and quietly fumbled around in her purse for her phone.
She pulled it out, spared one glance at the screen so that she could dial her best friend, Markus, because in her fear, she forgot that she was no longer that little girl who had been systematically trained to never call 911.
Markus answered on the first ring. ‘Baby girl, please tell me you’ve changed your mind about coming out with me tonight?’
Just hearing his cheery voice was enough to take the edge off her panic. Still, when she spoke, she whispered, ‘Markus,’ slowly, and when even that sounded too loud, she lowered her voice, and between deep inhalations, added, ‘there’s somebody in my house.’
Chapter 1
Hunt Ranch, Santa Barbara County – One Week Later
‘I heard Farrah got out again.’
Maverick Hunt collapsed into one of the chairs in his sister’s office and sighed, grateful to have thirty minutes off his feet. Even if it was for a staff meeting.
‘Yeah,’ he replied. The mini horse, who they’d rescued from auction and aptly named Farrah for her thick, blonde mane, was the cutest inconvenience in existence. She lived to wreak havoc – and did so often. ‘And she let the goats and Babe out. By the time I got there, two kids staying at the resort were in the mix too.’
‘Let me guess: the Carson twins?’
‘Yup.’
‘Nothing screams luxury resort like eight escaped animals running wild with the guests,’ Sierra drawled sarcastically.
‘I know. I don’t even know how she did it this time. We’ll add a padlock to the gate.’
‘You got them all back in with no issues?’
‘We did. Babe took some bribing. Benji had to rope Farrah to catch her.’ Mav’s grin was slow. ‘He made a show of it to entertain the Carsons.’
Sierra had nothing to say to that. Instead, she sat at her desk and pointedly started organizing her paperwork for the meeting.
Maverick didn’t say more.
