She’d seen a few since her arrival. Young men often liked to impress their dates with a beautiful sunset, followed by some steamy make-out time.

Kinsey took a couple steps around the chair, trying to place distance between her and the crazy man. His eyes were surprisingly alert for as drunk as he obviously was. They darted after her, watching her every movement.

She looked up the hill in anticipation of bolting to the top. Hopefully, in his condition, he wouldn’t be able to catch her. She hadn’t exercised nearly as much as she should lately, but she was in pretty good shape.

“I’m running late. It was good talking to you, but I have to go…”

She turned toward the house and took a few steps, when her arm was gripped so tight she was sure it would bruise, and her body whipped around to face him. He was inches from her as he glared in her face, his breath was making her stomach roll, causing her to fight the urge to throw up. She didn’t know what he’d do if she puked down the front of his shirt.

“Wait. Why are you in such a hurry? Are you one of them?” he thundered, spit flying from his mouth in his fury.

Kinsey froze, going from frightened to terrified. This guy wasn’t in control of himself, and she was afraid he was going to snap, if he hadn’t already. She didn’t want to provoke him any further.

“I just have to go,” she said, trying to sound calm.

She felt the bile rising in her throat and tried to hold her breath.

“I need to see the Andersons. They… they did something bad, really bad. I gotta settle a score. Are you a friend, maybe a wife or girlie friend?” he asked, his words picking up force as he finished.

He eyeballed her as if seeing how much she was worth, what use she could be to him. She decided to be somewhat honest. Then maybe he’d let her go.

“I just work for them. I’m not involved or anything. I only work for them temporarily. I barely just started,” she explained quietly.

Her words seemed to send him into a whole other realm of anger, which she couldn’t understand. Why would he be mad that she worked for them?

“Did you take my job? Are you my replacement!” he screamed.

The fury on his blotched face left her speechless. He was going to hurt her, hurt her badly if she didn’t manage to get away.

Kinsey tugged on her arm as she moved her foot backward, pulling for all she was worth. His fingers just tightened more, trapping her. He was too strong. The situation began to feel hopeless.

He took a staggering step toward the water, dragging her feet in the sand. Her body shook with real fear at the thought of him throwing her in, or worse yet, holding her under.

“No, no I didn’t take your job. I’m a nurse, that’s all, a nurse,” she said as she finally found her voice.

“A nurse? Is one of ‘em sick?” he asked, an evil sort of glee filling his eyes at the thought.

“Yes. Joseph’s very sick,” she replied. All she needed was for him to be distracted for a couple seconds, just long enough for her to get free. She’d run for all she was worth.

“Good, good, that’s good,” he kept repeating.

Kinsey continued to tug on her arm, but it was useless. Her fingers were starting to tingle from the lack of blood circulating to her hand. At least he’d been distracted enough to stop moving. She eyed the water, only a short distance away. If he lowered her in it, she… She couldn’t even begin to have those thoughts.

“Why don’t we walk up to the house together? You can talk to whoever has upset you,” she tried to reason.

“Why would you want to do that for me?” he asked, looking at her suspiciously. He was so drunk, he couldn’t properly reason.

“Because you look like you need to talk. It sounds like whatever they did, really upset you.” “Yeah, yeah they did me wrong. I was just trying to make some extra money, that’s all. They have themselves tons of money. Way more than one family needs or deserves. Why’d they have to fire me over a few lousy bucks! It didn’t hurt them any,” he slurred, his words jumbled and hard to understand.

“Yes, too much money. Let’s fix this,” she urged.

“Okay,” he agreed. As he released her, she felt a shooting pain in her arm, where the blood rushed back through. It hurt almost worse than his grip had. She couldn’t focus on that, though. She had to get away from him before he changed his mind. She had to get to the house and warn the family he was there.

Kinsey took off running, not taking even a second to turn around and check on him. She knew that giving him any advantage could cost her, her life.

“Stop!” he shouted, his voice sounding too close. Her vision blurred as tears welled up in her eyes, then spilled over. How was he moving so fast? He could barely even walk, but he was right behind her.

Kinsey screamed out in pain as his fingers gripped the back of her hair, quickly halting her forward motion as her neck snapped backward.

“You whore!” he shouted, spinning her around. His eyes were wide, bulging from their sockets, his mouth opening and closing. If he’d been angry before, it was nothing to what he was now.

He raised his arm and then she only saw stars, moments before she blacked out. Her last thought was that she’d thought seeing stars was only an expression.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

Austin stepped into the yard and looked around. His aunt had said Kinsey had been gone an hour. Katherine was worried because Kinsey said she’d only be thirty minutes.

He picked up his pace as he looked around the yard. The light was quickly fading and he wanted to spot her before his visibility was gone.

Katherine said Kinsey often walked down to the beach. That was his first place to look. He was taking the familiar path down when he heard something.

He stopped for a moment and strained his ears. It sounded like a man’s voice, but he couldn’t hear what he was saying. He picked up his pace, wondering who’d be out there. It was private property and no one was supposed to be on this section of beach except them.

As he got closer, he heard the male voice shout for someone to stop, then he heard a female scream. Terror seized him as he realized Kinsey was in trouble.

He started sprinting down the path, hoping he wasn’t too late. As he rounded the corner, he saw a large man grab the back of Kinsey’s hair and whip her around, then slam his hand into her face.

Austin saw red. He charged forward as Kinsey fell to the ground and the man lifted his leg as if he were going to kick her. What kind of beast would do that to a woman?

Austin dived into the guy’s chest a second before his foot connected, sending the two of them flying several feet in the air before they landed on the ground with a hard thud.

Austin didn’t waste any time. He slammed his fist into the guy’s jaw, then his cheek. The man went still beneath him. It was only then that Austin realized it was his fired employee, Jack. He jumped off him, grabbing his phone and calling for an ambulance as he raced back to Kinsey.

He felt her pulse, breathing a sigh of relief that it was beating strong. She started to stir as he rubbed his hands along her arms and legs, checking for any other wounds.

“Ouch,” she cried when his fingers brushed over her upper arm. He moved her shirt out of the way, then swore when he saw the angry red flesh. He wanted to go over and pound on Jack a few more times. The idiot deserved it.

Instead, he cradled Kinsey’s head on his lap while he placed a quick call to the house and told his cousin to bring a blanket.

“Kinsey, are you okay? Can you talk?”

“My head hurts,” she mumbled as her eyes opened a slit.

“I’m sorry, Kinsey. I’m so sorry. What did he do to you?”

“He was really mad at your family. He thought maybe I was a part of it. I don’t know. He was very drunk,” she murmured.

“It’s okay, Kinsey. We’ll talk later. Just close your eyes and rest. The ambulance is on the way,” he reassured her.

For the first time ever, she did as he asked and closed her eyes. If he wasn’t so panicked, he may have even smiled.

“What in the hell is going on?” Lucas asked as he came skidding to a stop in front of them. He quickly placed the blanket around Kinsey before looking over at Jack.

“An ex - employee, who wasn’t happy about being fired, I don’t know much right now. Kinsey said he was drunk and looking for a fight. I think she just happened to be in his way,” Austin explained.

“You knock him out?”

“Damn right,” Austin said, feeling the rage boil up again. He didn’t think he’d ever get the image of her falling to the ground out of his head. Her terrified scream would surely haunt him for years to come.

“Good. You carry her up to the house. I’ll stay with this piece of crap.”

“Thanks, Lucas.” Austin stood, easily lifting Kinsey into his arms. He walked up the hill to the gravel service road, then followed it toward the house. He could hear the sirens in the distance, so he picked up his pace.

He reached the back door at the same time they pulled into the driveway. He quickly went through the house and met them out front. The paramedics took over, getting her on the gurney and taking her vitals. He stood back watching, overwhelmed with helplessness.

“Are you allergic to anything, ma’am.”

“No,” she mumbled. “My head hurts. My arm does, too, but my head feels like it’s going to burst, the pain is so bad.”

“We can give you a shot in just a moment. I need to ask a couple more questions first,” he reassured her.

When the police arrived, Austin reluctantly left Kinsey in the care of the paramedics and approached the deputy to explain where Jack was knocked out. After giving a brief statement, he went back to Kinsey to find her sleeping on the gurney as they loaded her in the ambulance.

“You can either ride with us or follow, but she won’t know the difference. She’ll be out for a few hours,” the man said. Austin didn’t want to be separated from her, but knew he’d need his car.

“I’ll follow, thanks,” he replied, then watched as they shut the door.

Austin didn’t waste any time in jumping in his car and catching up to the emergency vehicle. He didn’t want her out of his sight, not until he was assured she was okay. Especially, since it was his fault she was in that condition.

He’d never had an employee attack before. Yes, there were threats on his life, on all their lives, but never before had a disgruntled employee actually carried out one of those threats. He’d learned a valuable lesson that night, and it wasn’t fair that Kinsey had to pay the price.

Anger still coursed through his veins. He tried to calm himself down as he followed behind the flashing lights, their red and blue pattern somehow soothing, at least giving him something else to focus on.

Austin sat in the waiting room for hours. Not what seemed like hours, but literally hours. He was getting ready to haul a doctor against a wall if he didn’t hear anything soon. He wasn’t a patient man on a normal day, and his day so far had been anything but normal.

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