“I better get off the phone and finish these cookies so I can put the babies to bed and spend time with my brother before he has to catch his flight,” Kendra said to Chelsea. As much as Kendra tried to smile through it, Kace heard the sadness in her voice. It was impossible not to feel like he was abandoning her.

“Still heading to Alaska?” Chelsea clucked her tongue.

“Afraid so.” He half expected her to volunteer to go with him to keep him warm. Chelsea had made it abundantly clear when she stopped by his place the day after he came home that she was open to, how had she put it?...a no-strings-attached fling, unless he liked to use bindings and then he could bring all the strings he wanted. He’d chuckled and told her he wasn’t in town long enough to think about going on a date. She’d picked up his phone, had him fingerprint ID the password before insisting she put her number in there, just in case he changed his mind.

Normally, Chelsea’s offer would be right up his alley. She was attractive and funny, if not a little too clingy for Kace’s taste. When it came to dating, a.k.a. hot sex, he preferred to spend time with women who needed as little from him as possible outside the bedroom. Inside the bedroom, they could do almost anything they wanted with him after the door was closed. But in that first morning light those bindings came off and he went about his day. Not everyone was okay with that, which was the reason he’d been surprised a couple months ago when he’d come home on leave and had wound up having a smokin’ hot fling with Bree Burke.

He forced the best sex of his life from his thoughts. She’d moved onto his best friend, Zeke, pretty damn fast.

“I’ll ask around tomorrow morning about Bree. Maybe one of her employees will know something,” Kendra said.

Bree’s gourmet popcorn shop was located in downtown Blushing, population thirty-five thousand. It was the kind of town where folks stayed to bring up their children and thought nothing of leaving their doors unlocked during the day while they ran errands.

Bree was most likely sick or had gone out of town. He was tempted to run out and stop by her place tonight to check on her and make sure she was okay. From what he’d heard, she’d taken the news of Zeke’s death hard.

Kace had felt like he owed it to her to stop by while he was in town but could never find the right time or the right words. He’d sat outside her house one night for a solid ten minutes waiting for inspiration.

“Do you mind?” His sister’s voice broke him from his revelry. She nodded toward the phone as she went back to work on the dough.

He hit the red button, ending the call.

Kace lifted his beer to take another pull and caught his sister chewing on the inside of her jaw. The signal was clear. She was about to try to come at him from a different angle. And since the best defense was a good offense, he said, “I’ll run the box of decorations to Trudy’s tonight. That way you’ll have one less thing to do tomorrow.”

“Oh.”

Before she could mount an argument he pushed up to standing. “It won’t take long. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

“Okay,” she drew out the y. “Call if you get,” she flashed her eyes at him, “distracted.”

His sister meant by a beautiful brunette, his normal type, which made even less sense why he’d been so damn drawn to Bree with her wavy blond hair and almost too-serious dark roast-colored brown eyes. Her lashes were long and thick, framing those coffee eyes. “I’ll be back soon.”

When his sister shot him a look, he added, “Promise.”

“You know we have plenty of women here in Texas. I looked up the population in Anchorage. There are one hundred and eight men to every one hundred women.” She blew a blond lock from her mouth that had fallen out of her loose ponytail.

“I’m not going there to date.” Kace set down his beer. “I’ll be back in time to finish that before it gets hot.”

“You’ll wish you had a hot beer to drink in twenty-four hours.”

“I’m pretty sure they have all kinds of beer in Alaska.” He shook his head. “And think of all the money I’ll save on refrigeration. I’ll be able to keep a six-pack tucked into the snow drift outside my igloo.”

Before she could come up with a snappy comeback, he cut across the room and hoisted the box onto his shoulder. After balancing the box, he fished keys out of his pocket with his freehand. “Save me a cookie.”

She grunted before saying she would. Kace booked it out the door before she could figure out an excuse to make him stick around.

There was a chill in the night air as he strolled to his pickup. Kendra had all-but forced him not to sell it. She’d promised to drive it once in a while and keep it in the driveway for him to drive when he returned to Blushing. Said it would be safer for her that way because strangers would always think a man was home. Kace almost laughed out loud. No strangers ever came to Blushing. Not on purpose. The only folks in town either lived here or had a relative who did.

Kace positioned the box in the passenger seat and then climbed into the cab. He turned the key and the engine hummed to life. The company he’d hired on with would take care of his transportation needs to and from the rig. He’d be working fourteen days on and an equal amount off. That was the only problem with his new career. Too many days off strung together.

The twelve-hour days would help ease some of the boredom while he was on shift. His sister had already pointed out there’d be few women to distract him when the noise in his head got too loud or his mind started spinning out of control.

Fourteen days was enough time to hit the lower forty-eight. Maybe Seattle? His passport was up to date. Vancouver wasn’t far. He didn’t need to save all the money he’d make working on the oil rig. There’d be more than enough left over for entertainment purposes.

Kace navigated onto the gravel road toward town. Trudy’s place was a good twenty-minute drive. He’d only had one beer, not even that much, so he was good behind the wheel.

He turned onto Farm Road 12 a few minutes later, his headlights illuminating a patch of road in front of him. Trees and underbrush lined the road due to recent rains.

A deer shot out from nowhere. Kace swerved, heard a thud. He was out of his truck and around to the passenger side in a heartbeat. The deer took a couple of steps back before regaining its senses and sprinting in the opposite direction.

Kace fished his cell from his back pocket and flicked the flashlight app. No harm. No foul. And the deer didn’t seem worse for wear. Lucky buck.

Climbing back into the cab, he shut the door and buckled in. There’d only be black-tailed deer where he was heading in the morning. It was strange to think of calling another state his home. Part of his soul would always be in Texas. So would all his memories and many of those he could live without.

Blushing reminded him of Zeke. The two had grown up together. They’d met in football practice and Zeke had hated Kace the first time they’d met. Kace had strolled into the head coach’s office freshman year at six-foot-four-inches and with muscle to back up his tall frame. Having someone cut in on Zeke’s starting spot freshman year in a town where Friday Night Lights was the way of life had seemed to set Zeke off.

From day one the pair had butted heads, literally and figuratively. One night, Kace had drawn the fury away from Kendra and taken a beating from one of the uncles his mother had brought home.

The next morning, Kace had walked into the dressing room at five a.m. The welts on the backs of this thighs had made walking hard as hell. He’d made up an excuse before refusing to change out for football practice. Coach had bought the excuse too easily. No one seemed to want to rock the boat or risk losing the star quarterback if the state pulled him from his mother’s care. Teachers and administrators had turned a blind eye. Not Zeke.

Zeke stood in the opposite corner of the dressing room, arms folded, staring Kace down as usual. An emotion flickered across his face when Kace winced as he sat down.

Zeke walked over and sat down beside Kace. Neither spoke right away.

Kace leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees with his hands clasped. He readied himself for the insults Zeke should’ve hurled about Kace’s dedication to the team and how the star quarterback couldn’t afford to take a day off.

Instead, he bowed his head and closed his eyes. “My dad likes to use the belt buckle on me he won during his rodeo days. Says he’s making me a man.”

The words sat thickly between them. Kace didn’t do emotion. Not then. Not now. If he did, he would’ve thanked Zeke for sharing what Kace knew firsthand was rough to talk about openly.

A few more minutes passed as Kace had tried to find the right words. He’d never told a soul about what he’d suffered.

“He started to go after Kendra again.” His sister had screwed up royally in the man’s twisted mind. “She got behind on her chores. He walked in hot from work.” Kace shrugged. “Figure I’m a better punching bag than a little girl. That’s all.”

One look from Zeke and Kace knew he didn’t need to explain further. Zeke nodded, stood up and walked toward his locker. He finished getting dressed before half-turning his head to say, “You want to grab a bite after class today?”

“Sure.” Kace had played the whole beating off like it was no big deal. It was.

The two had been inseparable ever since that day. Zeke had signed up for the military on the same day Kace had. Zeke said it had been his plan all along but somehow Kace doubted it. The two had made some ridiculous teenage pact to always have each other’s backs.

Kace veered left at the fork in the road. Wrong direction for Trudy’s, he knew. There was something he needed to do first, a place he needed to go. His talk with Kendra had him feeling sentimental.

The winding country road led Kace to the pond where he’d spent time during his high school years. He figured teens still came out to the Hollow to blow off steam on Friday nights after games. He parked the truck, dimmed the headlights and got out.

Walking the short path brought back a whole mess of memories. The first time Zeke had shown Kace this place. The first time Kace drank a beer. The first time Kace lost his…hell, he didn’t need to continue that walk down Memory Lane. Thinking about sex always brought him back to his weekend fling with Bree. She’d pretty much ruined him for casual sex ever since. Moving on after mind-blowing sex had never been an issue before her. He chalked it up to nostalgia or history.

She belonged to Zeke. And he was gone.

If Kace had told his buddy about the weekend he and Bree had shared a couple of months ago, would Zeke have dated her last month when it had been his turn to come home on leave?

Probably not. Zeke never would’ve made a move on someone Kace was interested in. And vice-versa.

Bree must’ve realized what a huge mistake she’d made in sleeping with no-commitment Kace and had decided to move onto the stable friend. Zeke had said he loved her and wanted to make things permanent while Kace had made it clear to her that he didn’t do repeat performances.

The news about Zeke and Bree had come as a shock, though. Zeke would’ve worked his butt off to make Bree happy. Kace had nothing to give except disappointment and pain.

Case in point, look how much he was hurting his baby sister by moving away. Was it stopping him? Nope. He was a bastard who was only capable of hurting those closest to him, those who cared about him the most.

He shoved those thoughts down deep as he stood on the water’s edge, looking across the pond. He couldn’t stop the smirk from turning up the corners of his lips with all the good memories. Blushing High Football Star Trades College Ball for Service to His Country. It was a headline that had gotten him laid more times than he cared to count.

A noise jerked him from his revelry. An animal? Was it hurt? The sound echoed through the barren corn field. Kace glanced toward his still-running truck before taking off in the direction of the cries. There was no one else around for miles. It was night. If he could help the poor animal, he felt a responsibility to try.

He fished his cell phone from out of his back pocket and flicked on the flashlight app to steer the way toward the sound.

After a couple minutes of jogging through an empty field, he stopped and listened. He listened carefully but didn’t hear the noise again. He stood still for a minute.

Nothing.

His flashlight app gave him a field of vision of roughly seven feet, give or take. Not much to go on. Kace increased his pace, a wave of frustration crashing into him that he couldn’t find the hurting animal.

A jolt of anger blasted his chest. The accompanying feeling of helplessness brought him back to that transport last month, to watching his best friend as he was blown to smithereens not a hundred feet away.

Kace dropped to his knees. Unbridled anger fired holes through him like AR15 bullets; rapid, random and relentless.

A scream tore from his throat as he pounded the unforgiving soil with both fists.

And then he heard the sound again. It could be an echo or his mind playing tricks on him. In the next second, he was to his feet with his boots moving in the direction of the wounded animal.

Determination and focus had him stalking through the darkness. An old barn came into view. Was the animal trapped inside? Hurt? Kace doubled his pace.

As he neared, he saw that a word had been scribbled backwards in the dirty window. He mentally rearranged the letters to read…H E L P.

Kace mumbled a slew of swear words. Going inside without thoroughly casing the place first or collecting intel could be a costly mistake. He had no idea what waited in the barn. All he knew was the strangled cry would haunt him if he didn’t act fast.

He crouched low. His pulse pounded as an all-too-familiar surge of adrenaline thumped through him. He felt alive again. Coming out of his old life—the only life he knew for well over a decade—and into the real world after fourteen years of service was a bigger shock than he’d expected.

With the swipe of his thumb, he cut off his cell’s flashlight. One more swipe and the volume control was muted. He crawled toward the building keenly aware of every noise. The winds gusted and blasted against the window.

He hadn’t expected to need to rely on skills gained in the military here in Blushing. This whole situation had caught him off guard.

Instinct took over and he prepared to face an unknown enemy. This he understood. This had been his life for the past fourteen years. This made him feel like blood pumped in his veins again. Lotta good any of it did. Come morning, he was getting the hell out of Blushing and onto a new life.

After waiting silently for minutes that ticked on, Kace moved to the barn door. The barn itself was old, abandoned. Wood had splintered and yielded to the harsh elements.

The creaky door threatened to give him away as he opened it enough to slip inside. It was pitch black. Kace’s eyes had adjusted to the night a long time ago but the moon had provided some light out there.

He swiped in front of his face in case of cobwebs. Spiders gave him the willies. He moved left, slow and methodical, checking one corner then the next. On the third, he touched a leg. The ankle was feminine. Whoever she was didn’t budge. And then it struck him who this might be.

Bree.

Was she alive? Kace located her wrist—which was far too cold—and thankfully found a pulse. There was no way Bree would come to a place like this of her own will. The fact that she wasn’t moving even after he’d touched her sent his thoughts spinning.

He swept the area, checking the final corner until he knew for certain no one else was inside the barn. Senses heightened, he moved back to where she lay in the third corner. Taking out his phone and shining the flashlight on her was a risk but he needed to see what he was dealing with before he moved her. If she was injured he could do serious damage.

He cupped his hand over the screen and dimmed the light on his phone. Bree was curled on her side, arms and legs limp. He watched her chest for signs of breathing, relieved when he saw it move in a steady rhythm.

“Bree,” he whispered, not wanting to scare the life out of her if she stirred. She was dressed in jeans, a flannel shirt and socks. No boots, which was odd for her. Then again, nothing about this situation was right.

Kace moved the light to her face, ignoring the inappropriate attraction stirring in his chest at seeing her again. He’d managed to avoid her for the past two weeks while he was in town. Seeing her like this was a shock to his system. Chelsea said Bree had been missing for three days. Damn.

There were bruises on her face. Cuts. A knot tightened in his gut at the thought someone knowingly did this to her.

“Wake up, sweetheart,” he said in a low voice.

When Bree didn’t so much as bat those pretty eyelashes, the knot tightened another notch. Dried blood caked to her neck. The person who did this to her would have the upper hand if Kace was caught unaware. The twisted sonofabitch could show at any second. This wasn’t the time to regret leaving his shotgun locked in his truck back at the pond. Moving her was a risk he had to take.

Kace hit 9-1-1 on his phone and tucked it inside his jean jacket pocket. Scooping Bree up, she was dead weight in his arms.

The dispatcher’s voice came on almost immediately.

“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” He recognized the voice as Holly Corden’s.

“I found Bree Burke in a deserted barn near the Hollow. She’s breathing but unconscious. Physically, she seems fine. Legs and arms are in order. She’s been doped maybe. She’s not responding to my voice and I’m currently carrying her, running through the corn field toward my vehicle which is parked at the mouth of the path to the pond out at the Hollow.”

“Confirming this is Kace Fox on the line.” Holly’s voice was all-business.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Okay, good.” Even through the muffled jeans pocket he could hear her typing. “I’m sending emergency personnel your way, Kace. I’m alerting the sheriff’s office right now.”

“Get ’em here fast.” It wasn’t a good sign that Bree didn’t so much as stir with as much as he jostled her around. He didn’t have time to be gentle and still book it out of there.

“Can you stay where you are?” Holly asked.

“Once I get to my vehicle. I don’t know who did this to her but he might still be in the area. I’m sure he planned to come back for her.” Kace wasn’t breaking a sweat. His training kicked in and he was used to carrying heavier soldiers plus eighty pounds of gear. He was vulnerable while she occupied his arms and his only weapon was inside the truck.

“Can you stay on the line with me, Kace?”

“I’m here.” He reached his truck on the passenger side and managed to retrieve his keys from his pocket. He clicked the key fob to unlock the door. A few seconds later, he tucked Bree inside. He crawled over top of her and slammed the door shut, immediately locking them both inside. He started the engine to get some heat going. “She’s cold.” Too cold.

“Are you inside your vehicle?” Bluetooth picked up and Holly’s voice boomed through the speakers.

“Yes.”

“Do you hear sirens yet?”

Kace strained to listen. It took a few seconds, but he heard them. “Yes.” He grabbed the fleece blanket he always kept tucked behind the seat and unfolded it before covering her. He checked her pulse again. It was weak, at best.

“Do you see lights, Kace?”

Swirls brightened the night sky. “Right on time. Thank you, Holly.”

Bree was in trouble. The fact that she’d been missing for three days in the cold wasn’t lost on Kace.

“Come on, sweetheart.” She couldn’t die on him too.

Bree blinked. Movement hurt. She heard a familiar voice, a calming voice, his voice. Kace. Was it a hallucination? Kace would be long gone by now. Wouldn’t he? She had no idea what day it was and her head hurt. Everything hurt.

Her heart wanted the voice to belong to him even though logically she realized it was impossible. The memory of being assaulted in her own home crushed through her thoughts. The corn field. The barn. The beating.

Then, the silence.

She’d felt strange ever since. Bits and pieces came together. Being knocked off her feet by a crushing blow. Her head slamming against splintered wood. Blacking out.

When she’d come to—she had no idea how long she’d been unconscious—her brain had been fuzzy, off balance, and it had been that way to varying degrees ever since.

Bree couldn’t seem to break the heavy fog coating her brain.

There’d been a man. Icy fingers gripped her spine remembering him. Her body shivered. It had been so cold. She was so cold. Her ankle hurt.

Her thoughts bounced back to the man who’d attacked her. Did she know him? He’d seemed familiar. She couldn’t put a finger on how she knew him. His face had been hidden the whole time.

She racked her brain trying to pull a description. Nothing. Only blankness and blackness where there should be something besides fear. Blackness and pain. Her heart still hurt. Her ankle felt angry.

Bree had summoned enough energy to scream before she blacked out again.

And then there’d been warmth and lights. Voices.

A warm, masculine—familiar?—hand held hers, tethering her back to reality. It felt like a lifeline and kept her a notch below panic. She tried to move her fingers, to connect to the life force she felt so strongly against her fingertips.

Sirens made her skull pound.

Bree tried to force her mouth to move, to form words. Exhaustion dragged her under again. And, again, everything faded to black.