Hannah stood stock still as Maddox closed the door behind him. She could barely breathe. Her head was spinning, and her heart ached. I give you my family.

He wasn't coming back. Not only to her house, but to his brother's ranch.

She thought of how Lissa's face had lit up when he had walked in the café. She remembered how Lissa had said how much they all wanted him to move onto the ranch. She recalled so clearly his protectiveness of Lissa. The love he and his brothers had for each other was so evident in every interaction they had, including the discussions in the living room about how to protect her and Ava.

And he was going to walk away from all of that, because his brothers had taken her into their circle of protection, and he didn't want to interfere in her ability to move forward.

Tears filled her eyes, and a gaping sense of loss seemed to crush down upon her. She was the one who didn't want a family. She was the one who didn't know how to relate to a whole bunch of people wanting to be close to her. And yet he was the one that was going to walk away from it all for her.

There was only one reason he would do that.

He loved her.

He loved her.

Dear God. He didn't just love her in some superficial, shallow way. He loved her so much that he was planning to walk away from what little goodness he had in his life, on the slight chance that it would make her happy.

Maddox.

She heard a car door slam outside, and she raced to the window. The inside light reflected on the window, making it impossible for her to see what was going on outside, so she ran back to the door, flipped the light switch off, and then hurried back to the window.

It was dark outside, but the spotlight above the front door cast a warm, yellowish glow on the driveway. Her heart seemed to stop as she saw Maddox jog down the stairs, wearing his parka, his cowboy hat, and his heavy gloves. He looked strong, confident, and dangerous. She couldn't take her eyes off him as he walked over to the men climbing out of a large, black pickup truck that had Stockton Ranch written on the side.

She realized that Maddox must have arranged for the truck to be waiting at the airport for the Harts when they arrived. She kept her gaze on Maddox, unwilling to look at the other men standing there, the men who had been boys the last time she'd seen them. Looking at them would make her think of a time when she was a victim, when she was lost, when she had a little sister to take care of, a sister she would never hug again.

Maddox shook hands with them, and she could hear the low rumble of their voices. What would they say when Maddox told them she wouldn't see them? God, she felt so stupid, hiding in that room while they talked outside.

The conversation went on for several minutes, and she kept her gaze riveted on Maddox, needing to see his face, knowing it would be the last time she would ever see him. God. To never see Maddox again? Somehow, after his declaration that he was giving her his family, she couldn't find the anger and betrayal that had gripped her so tightly when he had first said that he'd called the Harts.

There was a burst of laughter, and her heart catapulted at the sound of Brody's laugh. Instinctively, her gaze leapt to the man facing Maddox. The world seemed to stand still as her gaze settled on the face of the boy who'd been her salvation that night in that dark, rainy alley.

She gripped the windowsill, her face pressed against the glass as she stared at Brody. He was taller than he had once been. His shoulders were so much wider. He held himself with the fierce arrogance of a man who knew his strength and his power. There was nothing small or tentative about him. He was pure strength, pure man. But his face, God, his familiar face. She'd recognize him anywhere.

His jaw was more angular than it had once been. There were the heavy shadows of thick whiskers lining his jaw. He was pure man, but at the same time, he looked exactly as he had when he was seventeen. She couldn't see the color of his eyes from where she was, but she could picture the exact shade of green, like the color of moss on a rainy spring day. His nose was still slightly crooked, as it had been way back then, from some accident that he had never explained. His hair was even the same length, just long enough to curl over the back of his collar, that same light brown that had always reminded her of the puppy that she had tried to get her mom to let her keep when it had followed her home one day when she was ten.

She remembered the way he'd made Katie laugh, when her sister had been so scared that she couldn't stop crying. He had made Katie smile, and for that, Hannah had always loved him.

But now Katie was dead, and she was the one crying.

"Brody." She whispered his name, unable to keep the tears from drifting down her cheeks. Her gaze slipped from him to the others, all of whom had become men, but who were the same as the boys she had once known.

Keegan, with his dark hair and dark eyes. Jacob, who had made her laugh so many times. And Lucas, who had fought the hardest to convince her not to leave. God, Lucas. She'd been so close to him. They'd sat up for hours under the bridge, talking when everyone else had gone to bed.

She pressed her hand to the windowpane, as if she could reach out and touch them...but she had no idea how. She hadn't known how to connect with them when she'd lived with them. And now? They were strangers.

Strangers who had dropped everything to fly to Wyoming to help her. Why? Why had they done that? Why were the Stocktons gathered in the living room to protect her and Ava? Why was Maddox willing to give up his family for her? She didn't understand why everyone had come together to help her and Ava. Why would they do that?

The Harts turned back to the truck and got in. Hannah gripped the windowsill tighter, her heart pounding as the men who had once saved her life disappeared from sight.

Maddox swung into the passenger seat, and a small cry of protest escaped from her throat. "No! Don't leave!"

Maddox paused, staring straight at the window, and she realized he had known the whole time that she was there. He stared at her for a long moment. Her fingers pressed into the glass, as if she could reach through it and touch him.

He gave her a brief nod, then climbed inside and shut the door. The sound of the door closing made her jump, and she stayed glued to the window as she watched the pickup truck do a three-point turn, and then head back down the snowy driveway, carrying five men she loved away from her.

Forever.

To face a murderer on her behalf.

While she stood in that room by herself, shutting out everyone who was trying to help her.

Silently, she leaned her forehead against the glass, unable to stop the tears from sliding down her cheeks. What was wrong with her? Why was she so unable to reach out to all these people who wanted to help her? What was so broken inside her that she chose to stand alone in the darkness, instead of in the light with the Harts, with the Stocktons...with Maddox.

He loved her.

He loved her, and she'd told him that he'd betrayed her by doing whatever it took to keep her safe?

Dear God. She'd treated him just like Beth had, seeing his love as a sign of something being wrong with him, exactly as he saw himself.

She closed her eyes, suddenly feeling more alone than she had in her whole life. Katie gone. Her mom gone. Ava in the other room, lighting up in a way that Hannah hadn't been able to do herself. The Harts, so close and already gone. Maddox, gone. All she'd had to do was open her hands and reach out and they all would have taken her hand...but her hands were fisted in tight balls by her sides, trapping her.

So, here she stood. Alone in the darkness. Hiding while everyone else took care of her problems. Maddox and the Harts facing a man who wanted to kill her. The Stocktons making Ava feel safe. She stood there alone, just as she'd stood there alone when Katie had gone off to meet Rick, just as she'd stood there alone when her mom had gone off in the car with her drunk boyfriend. She'd run from Boston. She'd run from her job, from the memories, from the past, from her own guilt...

She'd spent her life on the outside, trying to protect her heart by staying isolated and alone, and yet, despite all of that, her heart hurt more than it ever had in her life.