BOOK DESCRIPTION
Ari Jackson was looking forward to a lifetime of happiness with the boy she married fresh out of college. She never dreamed that her idyllic life would become a living nightmare - or that she would one day need to escape from her abusive husband. Fleeing from home in the dark night, she stumbles upon Westbrooke Ranch. The ranch offers peace and safety. The majestic scenery soothes her soul.
The only problem is ranch hand Logan Cartwright. The rugged cowboy makes her heart flutter and her toes curl without even touching her. He's tender, but he makes her nervous, too.
After years of living in the fast lane, Logan seeks a simpler life at Westbrooke Ranch. The last thing he’s looking for is a woman, especially one who's as complicated as Ari. The dark-haired beauty is as skittish as an untamed filly. He knows she's been hurt, but as the days pass, he can't fight his feelings for her. Ari’s fragile beauty makes him want to protect her, and the first time he kisses her lips, he vows to make her his.
Forever.
But her vengeful ex isn’t ready to let her go. It's clear to Logan that Ari is in grave danger.
When her ex kidnaps her, Logan must fight for his woman, to keep her safe and finally stake his claim.
Chapter One
Ari had no idea where she was going.
Her feet were carrying her without any real sense of direction other than ‘away’. Away was where she ought to be; very far away. Her lungs fought to keep up, the chill of the night air and the weight of the duffel bag in her hand weighed down heavily on her, battling to slow down the meager progress she made with every painful step she took. As she ran, the stark reality of what she had done washed over her, that too, threatening to stop her in her tracks.
She had escaped!
Her steps slowed with the realization—but only for the barest second. She couldn’t stop now, not when she’d actually gotten away! The knowledge was stunning in itself and the fear of what could still be was paralyzing but she urged herself to keep running. And run she did.
She hadn’t really expected to make it this far. As soon as she made it out of the house, she kept expecting to hear angry shouts close behind her followed by the feel of an iron grip on her arm before her face would be blindsided by a hard fist. The bruise on her cheek still throbbed—a reminder that it could yet get even worse now. Teeth gritted against the cold and her own gloomy thoughts, Ari pushed herself onward with every ounce of strength in her.
“You-don’t-stop-now,” she grated out to herself. She had no idea if she referred to her pounding heart or her aching legs, but she felt she needed to hear a voice telling her to keep going. “You keep running and you don’t stop! If he catches you now, he’ll kill you!”
Saying out the last bit served its intended purpose. Her legs picked up speed even though her heart felt like it would tear into a million pieces already. It took a while before she noticed that the tallest of the grass had cleared away before her and the moonlight lit up the open meadow.
Ari moaned in distress, not stopping still. Now, she was in plain sight for anybody to see. The moonlight couldn’t care less if she would be able to hide at a moment’s notice or not. And why should it care? The moon didn’t owe anybody anything, least of all, her. It had no business with people, and certainly not with anyone who got herself hit by her own husband behind closed doors. Resisting the terrifying urge to look behind her, Ari looked helplessly up at the silvery light. High above the whole world, what did the moon ever have to be afraid of? “Nothing, little lady.” It seemed to leer at her in all its brightness. “You’re on your own tonight and if you don’t want to get caught, you keep right on running.”
Ari didn’t need to hear that out loud.
Tempted though she was, she didn’t look back. She felt sure if she did, if she saw the tiniest movement that wasn’t hers in this bare, open meadow, her strength would be gone. Then her personal hell would sink to the next forsaken level.
If it must be apathetic, she felt grateful that the moon was at least bright enough to show her where her feet were falling. Now she could quickly see and hear if anybody was coming from anywhere around her. Of course, she would prefer that nobody did. As she ran, she tried to come up with some sort of plan. Leaving the house in such a hurry and state hadn’t left time for much thinking on her part, but now she thought frantically of what to do. Where could she go?
Nowhere for him to be able to find her, that’s for sure.
Could she to just live off the land and hope to find mercy from other people? Should she just go to the nearest police station and ask for help? Even as soon as the thoughts came to her, Ari knew she couldn’t trust other people. These days, people told you one thing and meant quite another. He had told her one thing and done the opposite, too. So no, she wasn’t going to depend on people to help her out, even if they were the police.
Then, how far would she have to go before she knew where to stop, what to do? Her feet wouldn’t be able to carry her all night.
As if in answer to her question, the sound of babbling water reached her ears over the hammering of her heart. With barely a thought to consider her options, she turned toward it, hurrying until the grass gave way to various sizes of stone on the stream’s bank. The surface of the water shimmered with the moon’s glow and Ari fell to her knees to drink from it with cupped hands. It cooled her burning throat and relieved the dryness of her tongue. She would have gulped down the river dry, but for the gurgling of the stomach.
She was hungry!
Ari looked forlornly at her duffel bag, wishing she’d had room to pack something to eat. Her thoughts hadn’t been particularly organized when she’d filled the case, and she hadn’t had a clear plan other than getting out of the house without a sound and then after that, to hurry out of sight as quickly as was humanly possible. Out of sight and out of harm’s way, far from her bleak home and the man who’d tortured her for the past two years. There’d been no time to think of such mundane things as food.
She stopped drinking and filled her lungs with a deep breath, smelling the scent of potential freedom. The smell of freedom warred with the scent of her own fear and she succumbed, finally daring to look behind her. Ari frowned; she saw little of where she’d come from. In fact, she saw nothing but grass and bare soil here and there. How far had she even managed to get? She’d been running for maybe an hour, two hours, three? She didn’t even know. She hadn’t heard any sign of pursuit. Maybe he hadn’t even noticed she was gone yet.
Oh, how she hoped this was true! Ari heaved a sigh and tried to think. Maybe, even if he’d woken to find her gone, he would go looking for her in some other direction. It would buy her time to get further away.
I need to get further away from here.
She really ought to just keep going but only now since she’d stopped, the aching in her legs wasn’t willing to let her rise up again. Without food in her stomach, how could she find the momentum to keep running?
“Worse yet,” she mused out loud, “what if I keep running and we somehow crossed paths? I’m too tired to outrun him.” She shuddered at the thought. She could already imagine being dragged all the way back to the house, not out of necessity, but as penance. And the penance would be heavy for daring to run.
No.
No more.
Ari shook her head purposefully. She would not be going back.
Ever.
She’d gotten out and now that part of her life was over, she promised herself. Ari took another look around her; the moonlight letting her see quite a bit. She was out in the open. The small hills around her gave her some cover from a distance, but she would be too easy to spot if anyone simply walked close enough. She looked downstream and decided she could follow it for a bit. Based on her knowledge, streams had a way of finding thickets and other brush cover from time to time. Surely, she could walk on for a while until she found something.
She willed her legs to lift her.
Her stomach rumbled as she rose and she crouched right back to drink more water in a bid to fill it up. Just have to make do. She forced herself back on her feet, her duffel bag in her hand once again. Another careful glance behind her and then she followed the water.
It seemed the moon rose higher with each step and now, Ari’s mind became heavy with fatigue. She had no idea how long she’d been moving. Still, she kept on, walking along the stony bank and wishing she could simply find a safe burrow to sleep in with the animals. She’d already heard many small nocturnal animals moving around, running away from her as she invaded their territory. How terrible it must be for them to constantly be on the lookout for predators and mind their own safety like this—never feeling truly safe! One wrong move and it would be all over, the predator would have them for dinner. These thoughts did little to ease her fears and she made herself think of something else. Somehow, she had to find a place to go, and then she needed to explain to anyone who became suspicious of her why she had no place of her own. She heaved a sigh at the thought, not wanting to relive any of her experiences, even to explain her circumstances.
Eventually, she felt her feet wobble and realized she couldn’t keep going for much longer. She hadn’t found any brush cover like she’d hoped. But then, maybe it was for the best, as such places were usually home to things like snakes and spider nests. Ari grimaced and decided a spot on the grass might actually be her best option. But she didn’t want to leave the stream. Alone wherever this place was, the stream surely felt like the only comfort she had.
When she detected a little cutoff of a dusty mound near the bank in the distance, Ari gasped in gratitude and headed for it. Tiny roots hung with clumps of dirt from the grass above, finding anchor in the dry soil. She got to her knees and dug her fingers into the loose dirt, scooping away sand and trying to make a little spot to sleep in, away from the stones. The burrow she was big enough for her to curl up in and stay mostly out of plain sight. Ari looked around again. Feeling hopeful, she crawled around, collecting a few large stones and with them, made a pile around her improvised bed. If anything happened in the night or the morning, these stones would be her only way to defend herself.
With this done, Ari curled into her little bed of sand, bringing her duffel bag close to her. Her bed wasn’t the greatest of comfort but it beat sleeping in a feathered bed and having to wonder when the next blow was going to land. Already feeling drowsy, she brought a hand over one of the stones and clenched her fingers around it several times, testing, and willing her tired brain to remember to use it at a moment’s notice.
She didn’t even know when she succumbed to sleep.