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“You haven’t given up on them?”

He paused halfway in the door. “I haven’t given up on anything, Charlotte.”

He limped in on his crutches and shut the door behind him.

I waited a moment, standing there at the top of the stairs, leaning on the baseball bat. I looked out over the view I’d fallen in love with over the last three days.

I was going to miss sitting out here. It wouldn’t feel safe now. But I really did love it while it lasted. The clouds against the blue sky, the palm trees swaying.

I wanted more.

I wanted to go with Seth to the pool—a real one. Or walk with him in one of his parks and let him show me his trees. I wanted to say yes when a boy I liked asked me on a date. I wanted—

Something moved at the edge of the property line. The hairs on my arms stood up.

I think I sensed him before I actually saw him. An unnatural energy that made my skin prickle.

George.

He came out from some bushes lining the parking lot. Dirty, ragged, looking like he’d been living on the streets for the last month. I wouldn’t have even recognized him if his eyes didn’t haunt my nightmares.

I watched him stride across the lawn, making a beeline directly for me.

He had a box cutter in his hand.

It was weird I wasn’t more scared. In fact, I wasn’t scared at all for some reason. My heart was pounding, and adrenaline flooded my system. But I wasn’t afraid. Something else was happening. Something unexpected.

Rage.

Pure, unadulterated feminine rage.

How dare he.

How dare he come here, to this place that I’d started to love, to my home, to hurt me or hurt Seth, to steal my peace, to rob me of more than he already had.

The last two years flashed before my eyes. I saw every time he made me uncomfortable. All the times he came into my work, and then all the times he made me scared. Standing by my car, looking into my windows, staring back at me from a mug shot.

All the times I couldn’t see him at all, when nothing but the thought of him shrank me and pushed me into a corner and backed me in. The jobs I couldn’t have, the experiences I couldn’t enjoy.

The man I couldn’t date.

Angry didn’t cover it.

I was a ball of fury. A supernova.

I was the one who was dangerous.

Izzy was right. I wasn’t the same woman I’d been when he first laid eyes on me. I knew how to protect myself now. I knew how to fight, I was fit and strong. I was underestimated and beyond done.

All the self-defense training I’d learned over the last two years activated, except for one core thing Izzy drilled into me.

I ran in his direction instead of away.

I jogged down the steps and stalked toward him, bat in hand.

He looked almost elated. What a thrill to catch me out in the open, full view. How lucky. But when he got close enough that I could hear him rambling about prophecies and whatever the hell else he liked to go on about, I stopped and held my ground.

“Do not come any closer to me, or I will defend myself,” I said, firm and clear.