Keera hid beneath a desk in Arden’s house, for once grateful for the size of the place. She knew she couldn’t hide much longer, had to go check on Angela, but she’d barely managed to get away from her potential killer, and she needed a few minutes to clear her head to figure out what to do next.
Would Arden come back in time? Could she save herself and Angela? Or was Angela already dead? This man wanted something from her, even if that was simply to kill her. She should have listened to Arden, shouldn’t have buried her head in the sand and thought it would all work out.
But she was apparently no safer in Arden’s house than she’d been in her own place. This man had penetrated Arden’s fence, and he’d come straight into the house. She wanted to know who he was, what he was doing there.
“Keera, come out, come out, wherever you are,” the man called, his voice a taunt. She shivered as she fought back the overwhelming fear.
As her life hung in the balance, she realized on so many levels what a fool she was. She might never get to see Arden again, might not get to apologize to him. He’d shown her so much kindness, and she knew in that moment that he was real, that what he said was real. She knew she loved him, but he might never know that. She feared if she died on this night, he’d forever blame himself.
Instead of hiding, she should be looking for a phone, calling Arden, telling him she loved him and it wasn’t his fault. She didn’t think there was a chance of him making it back to the house in time.
The man sounded closer as he called out her name again, more anger in his tone instead of the taunting it had been for the past five minutes. He was growing frustrated at not being able to find her.
Then she heard him retreat, and she climbed out from under the desk and quietly snuck into the next room to find Arden’s house phone. She heard a noise, like something being dragged, and froze when she heard the heavy breathing of the intruder too close for comfort.
“You have five seconds to come out or your little friend gets her throat slit,” the man called.
All the blood in Keera’s body went icy cold. He could be lying. Angela might already be dead. But Keera couldn’t take that chance, couldn’t play with another’s life.
With terror clogging her throat, she stepped from the room and made her way down the hallway. The man was standing in the living room, holding Angela in front of him with a knife to her throat. He hadn’t been bluffing. Keera could see Angela’s chest moving in and out, and for now at least, she was alive.
“Please let her go. It’s me you have a problem with,” Keera said. He had to have knocked Angela out because she didn’t move, didn’t open her eyes, didn’t try to get away from the man.
Keera prayed Angela would be saved from this, that she’d sleep through the entire event and wake up a little traumatized, but at least okay enough to get home to her child. If Keera thought it would help, she’d tell the man Angela was a mother—to please have mercy on her. But he didn’t care. That might make it worse.
“You have something I want,” the man said, not releasing Angela.
“Anything I have is yours,” Keera assured him. There was nothing worth keeping—nothing other than human life—that wasn’t replaceable.
She couldn’t see the movement of his mouth, as the mask completely covered his face. She didn’t recognize his voice, either, though she was trying to memorize every single detail about the man she could, just in case she somehow made it out of this alive.
“The necklace your brother gave you,” he snapped. “You don’t wear it, and it hasn’t been anywhere you spend time.” He was utterly frustrated. It appeared he’d been looking for this item for quite some time. But why? It wasn’t of that much value. She was utterly confused.
She also knew exactly where it was, but she had no doubt the moment she gave it to him, he’d be finished with her and Angela. She tried figuring out how to delay this moment, hoping and praying Arden would soon be there.
“It’s worth nothing,” she told him.
“It’s worth so much more than you can imagine. Is it worth her life, though?” he asked. She could hear the lust in his tone, how he wanted to plunge that knife into Angela and then her. He’d killed before. She had zero doubt about it. She also knew he would take her life the moment he was finished with her.
The only thing she could hope for at this point was to save Angela.
“I have it in my room,” she said. “Let Angela go and I’ll get it for you.”
The man shoved Angela away from him, her still body crumpling to the floor. Keera was worried about her friend, but grateful when a slight whimper escaped Angela’s mouth. She shifted as if trying to wake up, and Keera knew she had to get this man away from her.
“Let’s go,” he snapped.
Keera turned, knowing he was on her heels. She also felt a pinch of pain as he jabbed something against her back. She realized he’d put the knife away and was holding his gun again. The knife was terrifying and a horrific way to die, but the gun was so final. She didn’t have a chance to fend him off with that weapon.
Stepping into her room, Keera went over to her purse and picked it up. She’d worn the necklace around her ankle for years. It had been the last thing her brother had given her. It had hurt too much to keep it next to her heart, so she’d worn it beneath her socks instead.
“Give it to me!” the man cried, growing more agitated.
“Why do you want a cheap necklace?” she demanded.
“You’ll find out,” he said.
Keera knew the second he held this necklace in his hands, he’d be done with her. One bullet to her head would solve his problems, making it impossible for her to tell anyone what he’d been after. Not that it would matter for her to tell anyone. It was just a stupid necklace, worth no more than a couple hundred bucks. Sure, that was a lot of money for a lot of people, but it wasn’t an amount worth killing over.
His eyes were on her, the gun at his side. Keera made her move. She threw the purse in his face, shocking him. She then took off, planning on going around him. She managed to get out of the room. She was rushing through the living room, heading for the kitchen, when she felt his steely fingers wrap around her arm, halting her midstride. He’d recovered far faster than she would have imagined.
He slammed her head into the wall, and Keera’s vision blurred as blackness threatened to take her under. She fought with everything she had not to give in to the darkness, even though that would give her a blessed escape.
She crumpled to the floor as she tried to keep herself awake, alert. She was losing on both counts. But she could see him dump the contents of her bag before he tore open the purse with his knife, crying out with triumph as his fingers wrapped around the thin gold chain with a heart attached to it.
The charm wasn’t meant to be opened, but he took his knife and pried it apart, and much to Keera’s surprise, a small piece of paper fell out. There was no way for her to see what was on it. The man laughed as if he’d found a priceless treasure.
He put the paper in a plastic bag and sealed it, then tucked it safely in his pocket before he turned his attention back to her as he raised his gun, aiming straight for her head.
“I have no further use for you,” he said casually, as if this was just another day on the job. She could almost feel him smiling beneath his mask.
“Can I at least know why I’m going to die?” she asked.
There was no point in begging for her life. But she did believe in an afterlife, so she’d love to have the answer of her death before she went on to whatever came next for her. She wasn’t sure she’d earned a ticket into heaven. She hoped so, but she was so far from perfect, it wasn’t even funny.
“This is the code to a vault that holds a hell of a lot of money,” the man said.
“What are you talking about?” She was so confused.
“Your brother found your dad. He stole a lot of money from him, was going to make sure you were taken care of. He messed with the wrong people, and it cost him his life,” the guy told her.
“No, you’re wrong,” Keera said. She was trying to remember what her brother had said to her when he’d given her the necklace. It had been so long ago, and her brain was already fuzzy from the trauma she’d been through this night.
“I’d love to keep playing with you, but it’s time for me to go,” the man said. Even though he’d gotten what he’d come for and he could safely disappear, he took pleasure in taunting her in her last moments on this earth. His evilness knew no bounds.
She wished she’d made that call, or even written a quick note to tell Arden how she felt. It was too late now, far too late. She did look into the black material covering the man’s eyes. She wouldn’t weep, or beg.
She wanted to look down at his hand, wanted to see the moment his finger began pressing that trigger inward, but she wasn’t giving him the satisfaction of looking away from his face. She didn’t think he had a soul, didn’t think it would be difficult for him to kill her, but this was her last moment, and she needed to be strong.
Instead of the bang of the gun, the earsplitting noise of vicious barking erupted in the room. She was gazing at her killer’s face and saw instantly how his body tensed as he looked away from her to see Max racing across the room, straight for the man in question.
Arden called out from behind Max, his voice filled with fury. “Drop the gun now!”
Keera had never heard that steely edge to Arden’s voice before, and it sent a shiver down her spine. She was so grateful to hear his voice, and Max’s deadly growl.
The man in the mask stepped back, his gun wobbling as he tried to figure out where best to aim it. Was it at the dog about to rip his throat out, the man behind her, who Keera was sure was also holding a gun, or at his original target?
The man must be thinking he had one shot here.
A gun went off, the sound intolerably loud. She gazed at the man in front of her, waiting to see him crumple to the ground. But instead, his arm moved quickly as he took another step back, Max flying through the air at him.
The gun went off again, and Max let out a horrific cry. But he didn’t stop. He jumped at the man, his teeth tearing into the killer’s wrist, trying to stop him from using his weapon.
The man must have a steel resolve, and Max was obviously weak from his injury because the man shook Max off him, blood dripping from his fingers where Max had punctured his hand.
He lifted his gun again, pointed it at Keera. A round went off again, but this time she watched the man in front of her crumple to the ground, the deadly gun finally falling from his fingers.
Blood dripped from Max’s shoulder, and tears streamed down Keera’s cheeks as he belly-crawled over to her, laying his head in her lap.
“Please don’t die,” she sobbed, and she ripped off her shirt and placed the material over his wound, trying to help him.
That’s when she turned and found Arden on the floor, blood spilling from his shoulder, almost in the same spot as Max’s wound. Declan was holding a cloth over his brother’s wound as he looked up at Keera.
“They will both be all right,” Declan promised.
“You can’t guarantee that,” she cried, her words barely audible. She needed to go to Arden, needed to tell him how much she loved him, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t risk Max losing any more blood.
“Please, please don’t die,” she cried, her pain for both Arden and Max unbearable. “I can’t lose either of you. I love you both so much,” she said, her words a slur no one could understand.
Max whimpered as his tongue came out and he licked her leg. He was in so much pain, and still he was protecting her, still he was comforting her. She held the shirt tightly over his wound as the paramedics rushed into the room, two of them immediately going to Arden.
“Max needs help, too,” she said as two more ran inside. “Please, please help him. He saved us,” she begged. If they refused because he was a dog, she would pick up the gun and shoot someone.
But she didn’t need to worry. They rushed to her side and immediately assessed Max’s injury, speaking to each other as they talked into the mics, calling for two beds and Doc Evan. Max was a retired police dog, and he’d earned their respect.
“Thank you,” she said, her attention going from Max to Arden and back again. She knew she couldn’t leave either of them. She’d tried to guard her heart, and she’d failed miserably. It didn’t matter how much she had to beg, she’d drop to her knees and grovel if that’s what it would take, because she hadn’t realized how alone she’d always been until one man and one dog had come into her life and saved her in more ways than one.