No matter how hard Grayson tried, he couldn’t forget the brown-eyed angel on the plane. Her golden-blond hair had reminded him of a halo. Her tight white shirt had molded to her curves and accented her perfect figure. When she spoke, her husky voice had gone straight to his groin.

An image of Kara floated through his head, causing his pants to tighten.

It had been too damn long since he’d gotten laid. He hadn’t been with a woman since he’d been injured. Even before then, he’d been getting sick of one-night stands. He’d been in the hospital in Germany for three months before he was discharged. Then he came straight home to take over Lazy S Ranch after his father passed away.

Grayson was ready to find “the one.” Maybe when he got home from Wyoming, he would start dating again. No, scratch that. I’m going to set up profiles on every dating website, no maybes about it. I’m not getting any younger.

He tapped his fingers on the center console of the F150 he had rented, waiting for the traffic to clear. The fresh, crisp Montana air breezed in through the open window. The smell of lavender filtered into the truck, reminding him of the blond-haired angel. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get her out of his mind.

The sound of the phone ringing through the car speakers interrupted his thoughts. Clicking the hands-free button, Grayson answered the phone.

“Hello.”

“How close are you to Eagle Ridge?”

“I stopped and picked up a few things for the fishing trip. I should be at Oak Creek in thirty minutes. Are we heading out to the fishing cabin tonight or tomorrow?”

“Bear is finishing up a case as we speak. We were all planning to go up tomorrow. Tonight, I figure you and I could get caught up, and Sadie can’t wait to meet you.”

Grayson had met Hank ten years ago when his SEAL team worked with Grayson’s to retrieve a captured solider in the Paktika province of Afghanistan. The solider had walked away from his post at night to meet a local woman he had fallen for. She claimed her son was missing and needed help to find him. But she turned on him and led him into a trap. The solider had spent three weeks being tortured before they could save him. The soldier they rescued, Travis Carpenter, had never fully recovered from his torture and took his life a few years back.

“Sounds like—”

The door to the truck swung open with so much force that the metal ground in protest. A puff of white shoved into the passenger seat of the vehicle. When the blond-haired angel from earlier that morning peeked through the dress, Grayson couldn’t help but stare in astonishment, but a loud gunshot soon captured his attention.

“Go!” she screamed.

The second shot hit the window and shattered the glass. Cars were coming toward them in the other lane, so making a split-second decision, Grayson jerked the wheel to the right and put his foot down on the gas. Kara let out a loud squeal when the first wheel went over the curb. In his peripheral vision, he saw her hand shoot up to the oh-shit bar.

Once all tires were on the sidewalk, Grayson laid on the horn, hoping everyone on the sidewalk would get out of their way.

He had forgotten Hank was still on the phone until his voice came through the speakers. “What the hell is going on, Gray?”  

Kara startled at Hank’s voice.

“Uh, not much. Bride of Chucky jumped in my car, and then I was shot at. You know, the usual when you’re on vacation.”

Grayson thought he could feel Kara glaring at him. When he glanced her way, his assumption was confirmed. She looked wild, and her eyes burned with emotion.

“Are you headed out to the ranch so we can figure out what’s going on?”

Grayson quickly assessed the woman in the passenger seat. Her face was stained with tears, and her dress was covered in blood. Kara grasped a bloody pair of scissors so hard that her knuckles were white. She needed to be protected, and he would do everything in his power to make sure she was.

“No, but I need to go somewhere.”

Through the phone, he could hear Hank shifting in what sounded like a leather chair. He let out a long breath. “Why don’t you come out here, and we can figure out what is going on together.”

Grayson let out a frustrated breath. “I’m not bringing this to your doorstep. You have a wife and child at your house. I’m not sure what we’re dealing with quite yet. If it ends up being something little, we’ll head out to the ranch. The men shooting at us were on foot when I jumped the curb and took the corner. It looks like we lost them.”

“There is a motel ten miles north of town. It's called Hill Ridge. Get a room, figure out what is going on, and then give me an update.”

“Grayson!” she screamed in a hoarse voice.

When he glanced into the rearview mirror, he saw a black town car was close to rear-ending the truck. “Hank, I’ll call you later tonight. I have a tail to lose.” Not waiting for an answer, he clicked the end-call button on the steering wheel.

“You want to tell me what the hell is going on?” Grayson growled. “Hold on.”

Before she could reply, he took a sharp right. The truck’s tires squealed around the corner. One side of the vehicle rose from the street, and the smell of burned rubber wafted through the window.

The black town car didn’t have time to react and missed the turn. Grayson heard the tires of the car squeal to a stop and start to reverse. Before the goons had time to make it back to the intersection, Grayson turned down a side street. He hauled ass down the block and flew through the intersection without looking. An oncoming car screeched to a halt only inches away from the driver-side door.

Clearing two more blocks, Grayson pulled into the parking lot of a local diner and hunched down in his seat.

“What the hell is going on?” Grayson asked. “Why do you look like the Bride of Chucky?”

She picked at the bloody dress. “I don’t even know where to start.” She threw her hands up in the air. “This day has been a total cluster fuck.”

Grayson pinched the bridge of his nose. His nerves were running thin. “Start from the beginning, and I want to hear everything, including why you are covered in blood.”

Her eyes were glued to the review mirror. He could see the worry swimming through her brown eyes. “After our flight, I went to baggage claim, where I was kidnapped by two Russian thugs.”

“Are you sure they were Russian?” he asked.

Kara leveled her eyes at him. “Yes. Are you going to let me tell the story, or are you going to stop me every few seconds?” When he gestured for her to go on, she continued. “I tried to escape, but they put a gun to my back. They shoved me into a limousine. Rovshan Nikitovich was in the car. He informed me that we were getting married today.”

Grayson couldn’t believe his ears. He knew who Rovshan Nikitovich was. Anyone who watched the news knew the Nikitovich family. They ran Vegas. Anyone who crossed the family ended up dead.

“Are you sure it was Rovshan Nikitovich?” The words came out before he could stop them.

Kara rolled her eyes and said, “Yes.”

Realizing they were sitting ducks in the parking lot, Grayson put the truck in reverse and headed north toward the motel.

“Don’t you want to hear the rest of the story?”

“Yes, but this is worse than I originally thought. We need to ditch the truck and go to the motel, where you can tell me everything else. Then we can come up with a game plan.”

Grayson heard Kara huff. “The gunshots weren’t a clear indicator that this was a bad situation?”

He stayed quiet for a moment, trying to process the situation.

“Angel, you realize you have the biggest crime family in the United States after you, right?”

“I don’t need a reminder,” she grumbled.

Grayson drove until he figured they were about a mile from the motel. He made sure to park it behind an abandoned building that was surrounded by trees so it couldn’t be seen by cars on the road. Luckily, the road to the motel wasn’t very busy. Kara stuck out like a sore thumb in her wedding dress. Grayson reached into the back of the truck, dusted the broken glass off his duffel bag, and grabbed his stuff.

When he turned and saw Kara shivering from the cool spring air, he reached into the bag for one of his flannel shirts. He handed it to her, and she wrapped it around her arms and shoulders.

The walk to the hotel went quickly. Behind the building was a fenced-in area near a pool. It was too cold to use the outdoor pool, so no one was near it. He grabbed Kara’s arm and moved her behind it to shield her from the road and people walking by.

“Stay right here. I will get us a room.”

When she started to protest, he continued. “If Rovshan’s men come asking the front desk clerk if he recognizes you, I don’t want him to say he saw you.”

“Fine. Hurry. I don’t want to be left alone.”

Kara voice was shaky for the first time. Grayson assumed her adrenaline was wearing off and expected she would crash very soon. He needed to get her into a room before that happened.

“Don’t leave this spot.” He turned on his heel and ran toward the entrance of the motel. He was determined to secure a room in record time.

When he made it back to where he’d left Kara, she was gone. There was no sign of her anywhere.