Rosie gasped, and the sound of rushing water met my ears as she stood from the bath. She cried out in pain, and I ripped my gaze from the window. She stood before me with rivulets of water running down her smooth skin, and a part of me momentarily forgot about the threat brewing overhead.

“Rosie, what are you doing?” I rushed to her side and slid my warms around her small waist. She leaned into me, and my entire body went hard at the feel of her slick and naked body in my arms. She trembled and dug her nails into my shoulder as she tried to hold herself steady on her weakened knee.

“Are they here for you?” she asked through her panting breaths. “Or are they here for me?”

I hesitated, torn between coming clean and feeding her another lie. She’d probably put two and two together by now. Rosie Smith wasn’t a dumb girl. She’d figured out I was on the run from the authorities, and leaving Carlsville was the only way I could keep distance between me and a prison cell.

It was time to tell Rosie the truth. Everything would be on the table now. I just hated to see the look on her face when she realized I’d lied to her this whole damn time.

“They’re after me, Rosie.” I kept my arms tight around her. “They’ve been after me for a long-ass time.”

The chopper blades continued to spin overhead, and my body itched to move, to do something, anything at all. Slowly and carefully, I helped Rosie out of the bath and handed her a towel. She pulled the soft material around her and sat carefully on the side of the bath, staring hard at me with an expression I couldn’t quite read.

I glanced away, clenching my jaw. “I’m going to go outside and get a better look at what I’m facing.”

She opened her mouth to say something, but then she must have changed her mind. She pressed her lips tight together in a straight line and watched me leave the bathroom, to let her stew in her own thoughts. The truth was, she was better off with me than she had been with the FBI. I knew that, and she probably knew that, too.

I’d get her son back, no matter what. There wasn’t any agent I knew who would risk a case to reunite a family, other than me.

I paused at the front door and peered out into the dark rain slanting down from the sky. The sound of the chopper grew loud, blades sweeping through the wind. Dirt and leaves blew up all around the house, swirling as the wind picked up speed.

A light shone through the darkness, and I crouched low, pressing one palm flat against the sleek hardwood floor. Frowning, I cocked my head and listened harder. Something about the engine didn’t sound right. It was whinier and much more high-pitched than the agency choppers I’d ridden in before, almost as if it were a smaller helicopter…

Slowly, I eased open the door, still crouched low to the ground. Rain tore down like bullets onto my head as I edged onto the porch. Glancing at the sky, I could see the chopper was somewhere over the woods, slowly dipping behind the trees. They must have found a clearing where they could land.

With a deep breath, I pushed myself off of the porch, grabbed the rifle from the truck, and jogged toward the trees. As I moved silently through into the forest, my mind couldn’t help but drift back to Rosie and how confused and scared she’d looked as I’d left her behind.

She’d be fine though. It would only take me two minutes tops to scope things out.

As I approached the clearing, I heard men shouting over the chopper blades. One of the voices rang out to me, familiar and rough and loud. Ice crept down my spine as I froze in place. I’d know that voice anywhere. It would haunt me to my grave. It was Bobby Maxwell, a man I thought was dead.

A man whose death I thought I’d caused.

This wasn’t the FBI. It was the fucking mob I’d torn down two years before.

And they certainly weren’t here to take me to prison.

Rosie. My breath got trapped in the back of my throat as the realization slid over my skin. She had nothing to do with this, but if they found her here in this cabin, they’d take her out the same as they’d take any other witness out. These men were ruthless, and she was just as unsafe as I was.

Quietly, I ducked back into the trees and ran toward the cabin. My steps were heavy, though quiet, in the deep mud. I flew through the trees, up the front steps and slammed the door behind me hard, flicking every lock and throwing every curtain shut.

None of this would keep them out.

“Rosie!” I shouted out as I stormed through the cabin. When I reached the bathroom, I found it empty. Whirling around, I raced through the cabin, flinging open door after door until the panic gripped my heart so tight, I thought it would crack.

Outside the sound of the choppers faded into the sky, and realization dawned in my head. Somehow, while I’d been out there in the rain spying on one chopper, someone else had snuck into the cabin.

And they’d taken Rosie.

She was gone.

My heart began to shake. This was all my goddamn fault.

I had to save her.

And I’d sacrifice myself if that’s what I had to do.