The night of the wing change of command, Felicia smoothed down the front of her dress as she glanced uncomfortably around the crowded, formal ballroom for a dinner party for Gage’s Change of Command. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but this wasn’t it.

Steven leaned down and his lips barely brushed over the top of her ear, sending goosebumps across her arms. “You okay?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yeah, this is just so much...”—she waved a hand to encompass all the highly decorated soldiers and their various dates also dressed to the nines—“more than I expected.”

“Yeah, at first these events seem stuffy, but as the alcohol flows, it will relax a little bit. Although tonight, everyone will be on their best behavior as they all try to suck up to the new commander. Just be thankful that we’re not assigned to the head table. But don’t worry, the maintenance crew always knows how to have a good time.”

She’d known Gage when he was a young lieutenant. It was hard to believe that all this pomp and circumstance was for the same boy she’d once yelled at for leaving his wet towels on the floor. But those arguments had usually ended with sex while lying on those wet towels.

She smothered a highly inappropriate laugh behind her wine glass.

Steven lightly brushed her cheek with his thumb. “Want to share the joke?”

She shook her head. No, Steven probably wouldn’t appreciate knowing that she’d been thinking about Gage, naked after his showers. “It was nothing.”

Steven waved a greeting to someone who looked vaguely familiar, but Felicia wasn’t sure if it was someone who’d come to the vet clinic or if she’d met him at the one wing picnic she’d attended with Steven last spring.

“How many people do you know here?” she asked as she took another big sip of her wine to bolster her ability to chitchat.

She could talk to anyone in the clinic about their pet all day long, but throw her into a social situation like this and she felt completely awkward and out of place. Steven knew this and had always been considerate of her comfort levels. That was one of the reasons she’d fallen so hard for him.

“Yeah, I know most everyone who’ll be here tonight. This is the wing leadership, and I spend way too many hours a day in meetings with most of them. There will be a few local dignitaries here tonight, too, so the odds are good that you’ll know quite a few of them.”

She nodded and turned toward him, lightly brushing her hand over the lapels of his uniform, deciding to refocus on him instead of the fact that all this had been done for Gage. “How is it I’ve never seen you in your uniform before? Dang, Major Hardesty, you clean up really nice.”

He winked. “I’m glad you approve.”

She turned and caught a glimpse of another man in uniform striding across the room, but the sight of him stole her breath away. Oh, this isn’t good. But she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the cutting figure of Gage in the full regalia of his uniform. Dang, he looked good.

Gage glanced up, and their gazes locked. If she hadn’t been watching him so closely, she would have missed how his eyes widened minutely at seeing her here. He must not have been expecting her.

Steven must have noticed her attention had strayed as he turned to see what she looked at. He made a low sound of malcontent that had her breaking her connection with Gage just as a trickle of guilt flowed through her gut.

“I didn’t realize they’d started the reception line. Come on.” He grabbed hold of her hand. “Let’s get this over with. Let’s go say hi to your ex-boyfriend.”

She planted her feet and shook her head. “Oh, it’s okay. I don’t want to talk to him.”

Steven chuckled low. “Honestly, I’m not real thrilled with the idea, either, but it’s protocol. We have to do the meet-and-greet portion of the evening, and as one of the wing’s squadron commanders, I have to participate.”

“Oh, okay.”

They got in line, and several of the men standing there greeted Steven by rank.

It all seemed so formal. “I had no idea the military was so protocol-oriented.”

“Yeah.” Steven blew out a breath. “It’s all a bit political game. There’s a whole office on base set up to specifically handle protocol to make sure none of us screw up and somehow offend a four-star general by accident.”

“That sounds...” She had no idea what to say. In reality, it sounded dreadful. Never before had she been so thankful that she woke up every day and donned jeans or scrubs to go hang out with animals who didn’t care if she said the right words or not.

“Awful. I know.” Steven smiled with a shrug. “But the military is steeped in traditions that have gone on for centuries. As much as we all despise it at times, we can’t just dump it. Those traditions are worth something, even the silly ones.”

She got to experience the silly ones after dinner when it came time to welcome Gage to his command.

The first person to stand up and talk was the Vice Wing Commander, Colonel Carter. He was an interesting guy, good-looking in a nerdy kind of way. He was shorter, in his forties, and wore glasses. He’d always reminded her of the guy who always knew all the answers in science class at school...so nice, but a little weird and awkward.

Since she’d treated his beagle, Roxie, she thought she knew the man fairly well, but that didn’t prepare her for what turned out to be a welcoming roast for Gage. “You know,” Col. Carter said, “when they told me they were bringing in an F-16 pilot as our wing commander, I told them they had to have that wrong. We fly F-35s here.”

There were several “ooh-rah’s” from the crowd.

Col. Carter nodded in acknowledgement at the agreement from the crowd. “But then they told me it was fine, our new commander wasn’t on flying status anymore after he crashed his plane last year.”

Felicia’s breath caught in her throat. Crashed? Her eyes flew to him, and he was just laughing like it was no big deal that he’d crashed his jet.

Oh, god. Her chest tightened and it became hard to breathe. Her skin flashed hot and then cold.

Gage could have died. Had he been hurt?

The colonel nodded and rolled his eyes with a shrug. “Lawndart... What do you expect?”

The whole audience crowed with raucous laughter. The sound grated on her nerves when she was feeling so far away from any sort of humor. They obviously understood the joke. She was completely lost and still reeling from the idea that Gage could have died and she never would have known.

Oh, god. Felicia tried to pick up her glass, but then realized her hands were shaking so bad that she’d never be able to do so without spilling her wine. She had to get out of here and pull herself back together.

She leaned over to Steven. “Sorry, but I’ll be right back. I need to go to the restroom.”

He’d been laughing at something the vice commander had said, but now he looked at her with concern. “Are you okay?”

“Sure.” She gave him a wan smile. “That’s what I get for saving all my water to drink until this afternoon. I’ll be right back.”

He nodded, obviously accepting her excuse. He winked at her. “I’ll save your seat.”

When she exited the ballroom, she blew out a sigh, but kept walking even though her legs felt like noodles on her high heels. She needed to escape to the bathroom where she could fall apart in peace.

But when she arrived at the ladies’ room, someone had already claimed the right to fall apart before her. Felicia went around the corner of the vanity area, and London gasped, her face pale and streaked with tears, her eyes red.

For a moment, they both froze, but there was no missing the fear and devastation in London’s gaze that felt exactly like the emotions Felicia felt ping ponging through her chest.

“You didn’t know about his crash, either,” Felicia said.

London shook her head, and a sob broke free of her throat.

Felicia’s heart clutched, and she opened her arms to the young girl who looked like she needed a hug more than anything else in this world.

London rushed forward, accepting the embrace like it was the only thing keeping her upright. The petite young girl rested her forehead on Felicia’s shoulder as her chest heaved under the broken sobs.

“Do you think he’s okay?” London asked between bouts of sniffles. “Really okay?”

The colonel had said Gage was officially off flying status, and from what Felicia knew about Gage and his love for flying, she doubted he would accept that unless there was some long-term problem. But she wouldn’t tell London that. Gage’s daughter needed reassurance that her dad would be around for her long-term. She’d just lost her mother suddenly. The idea that she could lose her other parent had to be terrifying for her.

“You’ve been around him more than me, so you’d have a better idea of how he’s doing. But from what I’ve seen, he seems to be in great health. The crash could have been something minor, like a bad landing or something like that. Your dad seems fine now.”

London pulled back and stared hopefully. “Do you really think so?”

Felicia nodded. “Yeah, I do, but you need to talk to your dad about this, London.” It wouldn’t do the young girl any good to hold in her fears and emotions, especially not when she was probably already at emotional capacity after all the change, grief, and upheaval in her life. That could cause all kinds of problems later.

Besides, she got the impression that Gage had no idea how much his kids truly cared for him. He needed to know how devastated London had been by this news tonight.

“Thanks, Dr. Parks.”

Felicia grabbed a couple of tissues out of the box on top of the counter and pressed them into London’s hand. “Call me Felicia.” She gave the young girl a soft smile. “Then mop up your face, and we’ll see what we can do to repair the damage to your makeup.”

London looked into the mirror and gasped. “Oh, no. I can’t go back out there, looking like this.”

“It’s okay. I promise.” Felicia reached into her purse and pulled out her emergency makeup bag. “I think we’re close enough in coloring that we can make it work. I should have everything we need.”

It only took about five minutes to repair the damage crying had done to London’s face. When they exited the bathroom, the only hint that something had even happened was London’s slightly red eyes.

They entered the ballroom together, and Felicia’s gaze automatically sought out Gage first. His eyes widened and he frowned slightly when he saw her with London. She could see his worry, so she gave him the slightest shake of her head and a smile to let him know that his daughter was okay now, not to worry.

His shoulders loosened the slightest bit, but he was still under the spotlight at the front of the room, so he didn’t relax much.

She slowly skirted around the edge of the room, turning toward her table. Steven stared at her with a thoughtful frown on his face. Had he seen that short exchange with Gage?

For a moment, a flash of guilt surged under her breastbone. But that was ridiculous. She hadn’t done anything wrong, just reassured Gage that his daughter was fine. It wasn’t her fault that she could still communicate silently with him like that. Was it?

But then she considered why she’d run out of the room so quickly. Yes, Gage had been extremely important to her once upon a time, but was it right that she responded just as emotionally as his daughter did at the news about his plane crash? That was probably something to contemplate—later, when she wasn’t out with her boyfriend.

When she slid into her chair beside Steven, he leaned over and threaded his hand through hers with a squeeze. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes. I found London, Gage—” She stopped and corrected, “Colonel Winston’s daughter in the bathroom. She was upset. So I took the time to give her a shoulder to cry on for a moment.”

Steven frowned. “She was upset because the guys are giving him a hard time? That’s the way these things go. I’d think she’d be used to that at this point.”

It suddenly occurred to her that she hadn’t mentioned to Steven that she’d gone to dinner with them the other night and she now knew a ton about Gage’s family situation that she hadn’t shared. She hadn’t thought it was important at the time, but now that seemed like a huge, glaring omission.

One more thing to feel guilty about.

“The kids haven’t lived with him since they were toddlers. She was upset that she hadn’t known her father had been in a plane crash and could have died.” They were whispering, so it was hard to push the words out past the lump in her throat. Her heart raced, and her fingers were freezing. But she carefully tried to hide those reactions from Steven. He didn’t need to know how upset the idea of her ex dying got to her.

Steven leaned over and brushed her hair away from her temple as he kissed her. “You’re a good woman, Felicia Parks. I’m lucky to have you.”

She glanced to the stage. Gage frowned at them with a very unhappy expression on his face despite the laughter rolling through the assemblage at something one of the commanders had said.

***

GAGE THOUGHT THE EVENING would never end. Normally, he enjoyed these kinds of dinners. All the good-natured ribbing was usually a lot of fun. But having to sit up on that stage while watching his ex get cozy with her boyfriend had been a special kind of torture.

As a commander, Major Hardesty had also had his chance to make his digs. It could be their complex, mutual ties to Felicia, but to Gage those digs had felt a little more personal with Steven. If he was that much of an asshole, why was Felicia with him?

But regardless of where things stood between Felicia and the major, Gage took his chance to chase after Felicia the first chance he got once the ceremonial part of the evening was over. She’d left Steven talking with a group of other commanders and had slipped out of the ballroom. He made his apologies to the group he’d been talking to and followed her.

As he stalked her, he took a moment to appreciate how gorgeous she looked. Tonight, she wore a crystal-blue sundress with high, strappy, silver sandals. The color and cut made her look even more healthy and tan as it highlighted her toned arms and shoulders and of course those long lean legs that had always been fantastic.

He picked up his pace. Back when they’d been dating, she hadn’t been near as confident or fast on heels. Did she wear them a lot now? The idea of her constantly out on the town with Steven while looking this gorgeous pained him.

She slipped out the back door of the club, and he followed her. Once outside, he thought he’d lost her, but then he noticed a low bench under a large tree in the dark corner of the patio. If it weren’t for her metallic shoes catching the light, he never would have noticed her there in the shadows.

He approached slowly, not wanting to startle her if she didn’t see him coming. But of course, she did.

“You shouldn’t leave your own party,” she chastised him.

“I know. I’ll go back inside soon, but I sent the twins home. Is London okay? I saw the two of you come back into the ballroom together. She looked upset.”

“Yeah, she was upset, but I talked to her for a bit.”

Why had his daughter been upset? Rage tore through him. Early in his marriage to Chelle, another spouse had said something cutting to her at one of these dinners, but he couldn’t imagine someone doing that to his teenage daughter. He instantly went into attack mode. Nobody hurt his kids and got away with it.

“Why?” He hoped Felicia didn’t take offense at his harsh tone. “Did someone say something to her?”

“Oh, no. Nothing like that.” She wrung her hands together.

Now that he’d stepped into the shade of the tree, his eyes were adjusting, and he could see her more clearly.

“Gage, she’s your daughter. Her mother just died. How do you think she felt when she heard your jet crashed last year?” Felicia’s words cracked at the end as if she weren’t unaffected by the idea of it, either.

He sank to the bench beside her and wrapped his arm around her in comfort. It was an automatic reaction that he didn’t consider until she stiffened under his touch. But before he could pull back, she relaxed into his embrace.

“Are you okay?” Her voice sounded watery. “Were you hurt?”

Her reaction stunned him. Yeah, he hoped that she’d mourn him on some level if he’d died, but he never expected this kind of response so many years after they’d broken up.

He ran his hand up the bare skin of her arm, his palm electrifying at the sensation of her smooth skin under it. “I’m fine. It was a mechanical malfunction that resulted in a crash. I did some damage to my spine when I ejected. I was lucky.” It had been way too close of a call. “But I’m getting too old to handle the g-forces, especially after a spinal injury, so the docs decided it was best to ground me...at least from flying the fighter jets.”

He missed flying, but not as much as he thought he would. That mechanical failure had been a wakeup call. He’d had lots of close calls over the years, but never one where he truly thought he wouldn’t be waking up the next morning still alive.

“Dammit, London didn’t know about the crash, did she?” He’d never considered if Chelle had told the twins. He’d just assumed she had.

“No.” Felicia shook her head.

That movement of her hair loosened her scent—honeysuckle and mint. It brought back all the memories from when they’d dated. She must still use the same shampoo. After they’d broken up, he’d searched out the brand, but was never able to find it. He missed it...missed her smell.

“She was really upset, Gage. I know you feel like you’re not close with the twins, but the idea of losing you devastated her. You probably should talk to her about it and maybe talk to her about losing her mother, too. I know that grief had to play into her reaction. Teenagers are so emotional, anyway. It might be worth looking into some grief counseling for both of them.”

“I hadn’t even thought about that, but you’re right.” The family support center had family counseling, but he didn’t know either of the twins enough yet to even guess how they’d respond to the suggestion. How sad was that?

“You’re thinking too hard,” Felicia said in a low, intimate tone.

That voice of hers, combined with sitting so close to her in the dark, did things to him. He could feel the heat coming off her skin, and it sent tendrils of awareness to the base of his cock. He dug low for some control, because that shouldn’t happen...not as long as she had a boyfriend.

“Yeah...” Gage grimaced. “When faced with just how much I’ve screwed up over the years, a little reflection is the least of what I should do. So many bad choices, wrong choices that hurt the people I loved. I’ve been a fool. I’m sorry, Felicia.” He stood up, putting some much needed space between the two of them before he made another really rotten life choice.

He ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Thank you for helping out London tonight. You always were one of the best people. I was just the idiot who threw that all away.”

He strode back into the building and ran into a very suspicious-looking Steven Hardesty. “Did you see Felicia out there?”

Fuck.

“Yes. She’s out on the bench. I was just thanking her for helping out my daughter, London, earlier.”

Steven’s eyes narrowed a bit. “Yeah, Felicia’s a kind-hearted person, but don’t read too much into it.”

“Noted.” Gage had to walk away before he was tempted to wipe the smug look off that bastard’s face. But why shouldn’t he be smug? The asshole would get to take Felicia home tonight, and Gage...didn’t.

***

FELICIA HEARD FOOTSTEPS approaching. She turned to ask Gage exactly what he meant about regrets, but instead of Gage, Steven approached her. His shoulders were tight and a deep frown furrowed between his blond brows.

She stood up, alarmed. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“No, not much. I just found my girlfriend in a dark corner with her ex-boyfriend, who I now have to survive with as my boss. What could possibly be wrong?”

“Steven.” She brushed her hand over his sleeve. “It wasn’t like that. I came out for a breather. He wanted to check to make sure his daughter was okay.”

“Sure.” Steven nodded, but his jaw clenched. “Because he’s definitely going to get better information about her by asking you than by approaching his own fucking daughter.”

Oh, crap. “You’re angry,” she said, and who could blame him? Gage distracted her. It didn’t take a private investigator to figure that out. “I’m sorry, but it really was innocent. Nothing happened. Nothing’s going to happen. I’m with you, and I’m happy with you, Steven. I don’t plan to change anything about that, unless you want it to.”

The emotions she still felt for Gage were just leftovers from a long-ago crush. A crush that had been ill-fated at the time and had ultimately had broken her heart. She would be stupid to even think about going there again, especially when she already had such an amazing boyfriend.

Steven wrapped his arms around her. “The last thing I want is for things to change between us. I’m in love with you, Felicia. I want a future for us. But I see you with him, and...” He sighed in frustration. “I don’t even know the whole story, but I can see the depth of the history between you. I’m not sure I can compete with that.”

“There’s nothing to compete with.” She cupped his cheek. He’d shaved right before he picked her up, so his skin was smooth under her palm, unusual since by this time, he’d have a five o-clock shadow. “Steven, what we have together is incredible. Gage destroyed me. I’m not going to endanger what I have with you.”

He searched her gaze, and she hated that she’d done anything that might make him doubt her. Having been there herself once before, no one deserved to have doubts like that. “I promise you, I won’t betray you. I’ve been betrayed. I would never do that to another person. Never.”

Steven’s eyes widened and his lips thinned. “He cheated on you.”

It wasn’t a question, but she nodded anyway.

“He was an idiot.” He leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips.

It wasn’t a kiss of passion. It was better. That kiss sealed his commitment to her, and she adored him all the more for it.

He pulled back from her, lightly brushing his thumb over her lips. “I promise you, I will never hurt you like that.”

“It goes both ways,” she said, her stomach fluttering with nerves and frustration over Gage disrupting her life when she was finally getting it back on track romantically. “Are we done here? Can you take me home? My feet are killing me.” She winked at him. “Wearing tennis shoes at my day job has made my arches and ankles lazy. They’re not conditioned to stand on these kinds of heels for hours.”

“Well, then, let’s get you home, and I’ll give you a foot massage.”

“Mmm, I do like the sound of that, and then maybe I can rub other parts of you.” She gave him her most flirtatious look, and it must have worked, since his eyes darkened.

He grabbed hold of her hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

They were rushing through the foyer of the club when the voice of Steven’s boss stopped them. “Major Hardesty, I hope we’re going to see you at the roof stomp in the next hour.”

Steven groaned under his breath, but turned toward his commander, Lt. Col. Lauren Vickers, with a smile.

To help hide Steven’s erection, Felicia stepped in front of him.

Lauren had a knowing look on her face, which made Felicia think that she knew exactly what she’d interrupted. Felicia had spent a good while earlier in the evening talking to the beautiful, poised officer about her horses. Personally, she liked Steven’s commander, but could see how she would be tough to work for. Col. Vickers was extremely intelligent and not much would get past her.

But Felicia had to help maybe divert her from giving Steven a hard time about trying to escape with Felicia before the night was really over. “Roof stomp? This sounds like one of those traditional, Air Force things someone should explain.”

Lauren laughed. “It’s definitely an old tradition. We go over to the new commander’s house and generally cause a wonderful ruckus as a welcome. There’s usually a decent amount of alcohol involved, which is always interesting when the troops are crawling up on a roof. But it’s all in good fun, and then the recipient invites everyone in for even more drinking and fun.”

“It sounds like quite a party, but I have an early morning tomorrow.” She turned to Steven. “Do you have time to take me home beforehand? I didn’t realize how late everything would run, and I have the kennel shift overnight.”

“No problem,” Steven said. “I can take you home right now. Colonel, I’ll be over at the commander’s house in about thirty.”

She nodded. “I’m counting on it.” There was no mistaking the order in that statement as she strode back to the doorway leading to the ballroom.

Steven cupped Felicia’s elbow. “Sorry, I wasn’t even thinking about the roof stomp. Rain check on the various massages?”

“You bet.” A sliver of relief trickled through her. It couldn’t be because she didn’t want to spend time with Steven. It had just been a long night. That’s all.

As Steven drove her home, they listened to light jazz on the radio.

“Do you want me to come over when I’m done?” His face lit up as he glanced across the car with a flirtatious look.

“No, it will be late, and I wasn’t kidding when I said I had an early morning. We have a couple of dogs in the kennels that had surgery today. I told Briggs I’d take over for him at one o’clock in the morning. It would be better for you to go on home. We can catch up on some better quality alone time this weekend.”

He parked the car in front of her house and tugged her to him. “Okay, but I’m going to hold you to that. Let me walk you up.”

She placed a hand on his strong chest. “No, I don’t want you to be late. Just watch until I have the door unlocked. Thank you for tonight. I had a good time.”

He grabbed hold of her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. “Even with me acting like a jealous ass?”

She smiled and chuckled lightly. “I don’t know. I kind of like you being possessive.”

His gaze flared, and she gave him one more gentle kiss before sliding out of his car.

As she unlocked the door to her house, she waved to him. She entered the door, closing it behind her and locking it before wilting against it. She sank to the floor, removed her heels, and thought back over the night as her cat wound her way around Felicia’s bare legs.

For the sake of her relationship with Steven, she had to stay away from Gage. There were too many emotions that had never been resolved. But if she tried to sort them through, she was liable to hurt all three of them, and she couldn’t—no, wouldn’t—do that.

There had already been enough hurt to go around. Neither she nor Gage and certainly not Steven needed anymore.

***

20 YEARS AGO

Felicia put the last box in the back of the moving truck and brushed the tears from her face before turning to Gage.

The pain on his face reflected exactly what she felt.

But she hadn’t fooled him at all. He pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head, shushing her. “It’s okay. I know Georgia seems like a long ways away from Oklahoma, but I make enough money that I can come visit at least once a month.”

“You promise?” She hated how weak that pleading voice sounded, but she was pretty sure that when he drove away her heart was going to explode out of her chest and shatter on the floor. Georgia was so much farther away than the hour drive they’d had between them in Oklahoma...and that had been torture.

“Promise.” He pulled back from her slightly and wiped her tears off her face with his thumbs. “We both knew this was coming. Pilot training wasn’t going to last forever. Right now, we need to be thankful that I’m still within driving range. Hell, with F-16s, I could have gone anywhere from Japan to Germany. It’s fate that I’m still close enough to drive and see you while you finish vet school, so chin up. Okay?”

She gave him a tremulous smile and tried to stop her tears. It’s not like he wanted to leave her. This was just the way things were with their careers right now. “Maybe...” Did she dare even mention it? Could she really do it?

“What?” Gage asked, concern radiating from his love-filled expression. She knew he hated seeing her this upset.

“What if I dropped out of vet school and moved with you?” Even making the suggestion made her feel sick. She’d worked so hard for this, and her parents had sacrificed so much to help pay for her schooling. Could she really throw that all away for a guy she’d only known for four months?

“No.” Gage shook his head. “I won’t do that. Fe, I love you.”

Oh, god, he’d never said those three little words to her before. Her chest heaved under the need to sob, but she couldn’t miss what he was trying to tell her.

He brushed the tear off her face. “But that just means that we’re going to be fine. Our love is stronger than distance. We’ll survive this, because that love isn’t going anywhere. I may be across the country, but my heart is with you, and I know you’ll keep it safe. We’ll get through this, you’ll graduate from vet school, get your license, and then we’ll figure out how to merge a pilot’s life with a vet’s. Maybe then it will be time for me to grab a cushy airline job.” He smiled at her and winked.

The tears finally won out. “I love you so much, Gage.” She sank her face into his neck, so he wouldn’t have to look at her tears anymore as she sobbed. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

“I’ll miss you, too, but baby, you’ll have my heart. Don’t forget it.”

***

FELICIA AWOKE ON A choked sob and realized it had just been a dream. A dream that had once been real. Dang. When Gage had left for Georgia, it had taken another year and a half for them to self-destruct, but that had really just been the beginning of their end. They’d both just been too stubborn to recognize it, which hurt them both so much more in the long run. They should have broken up when he’d left.

Or she should have done what she had proposed...gone with him. But what if she’d done that and had given up everything, and he had still cheated on her? No, that would have definitely been the wrong choice.

Her cat, Cagney, looked up from the foot of her bed but didn’t seem too concerned about her tears. Felicia wiped at her face. If she wanted sympathy and a friendly animal to empathize with her sadness then she should have brought a dog home from the clinic, not the standoffish cat she currently had. But her days at the vet clinic involved long hours, and that wasn’t fair to a dog. Her cat was much more tolerant of her hours away.

She loved her life in this little vet clinic. She’d made the right choices, no matter how much pain they’d caused at the time. It could have been worse if she’d made other choices. She had a happy life, and her career was a huge part of that.

She sat up straighter, realizing what had woken her up from her dream. The dogs in the kennel were throwing a fit, barking and howling. That wasn’t normal. Usually she couldn’t hear them inside her house.

She shot out of bed, quickly slid some jeans up her legs, and slipped on her tennis shoes. She glanced out the window beside the front door, but didn’t see anything in the yellowed light of the parking lot. She checked the alarm system for both buildings from her phone. Everything appeared to be okay just like it had been when she’d checked the kennels an hour ago at one when she had taken over for Briggs.

Just in case, she grabbed her bat from behind the door and grabbed her keys. At the very least, whatever had upset the animals would be disturbing the surgery patients. She would need to check on them. 

When she arrived at the backdoor of the clinic, it was still locked. The dogs continued to raise hell inside. Something definitely had them upset. The last time something like this had happened, a mouse had somehow found its way inside. That’s probably what had happened again.

She unlocked and opened the back door and flipped on the hall light. They kept all the doors that led to the kennels closed at night so the animals wouldn’t be disturbed if there was an emergency. Those doors to her immediate left were still closed, but the door to her office was slightly ajar. It was hard to tell anything with the dogs barks echoing down the hall, but she couldn’t hear anything.

She lifted the bat, ready to swing if needed as she gently pushed her office door open the rest of the way. The light from the hall filtered into the room. Empty.

She began to back out of the room, but footsteps ran up behind in the hall, pounding loud enough that she could hear them over the dogs still barking. She turned just as someone shoved her, and blinding pain arced across her side. As she fell, she caught a glimpse of three people barreling out the back door, all wearing black hoodies. She grabbed hold of the wall as she fell to her knees.

She clutched at her side, just as the distinctive smell of coppery blood filled her lungs. Glancing down, she found the handle of a screwdriver protruding from the middle of her right side.

Scalding pain competed with the black spots trying to encroach on her vision. Panting out breaths, she struggled to roll. She had to get to a phone. Call for help. The puddle of blood under her was growing at an alarming rate. She tried to stand, but her legs were rubbery and she slipped with a hard jolt.

She groaned and whimpered in pain. The floor grew slippery as she tried to get to the phone on her desk.

Do not pass out. Get to the phone first.

Every movement hurt more than the last. Every single inch she gained felt like she’d run a mile. And there were still at least another couple of states between her and the phone.

She dropped the bat as she dragged herself across the floor with her left arm. She was trying to maintain some pressure on the wound with her right, although no one shared how hard that was to do when every press pushed her that much closer to passing out. Why hadn’t she grabbed her cell phone instead?

Tears flowed freely down her face as it grew hard to breathe. Had they hit any vital organs? The pain was excruciating. She refused to die—to bleed out—on the floor of her vet clinic.

Finally, she reached the edge of her desk, panting out, willing herself to move. Almost there. With the last of her energy, she tugged at the cord that attached the phone to the wall. It fell with a loud clatter but didn’t break. She lifted the handset, turned it on, and dialed nine-one-one, leaving a macabre set of bloody fingerprints on the phone.

As she fell to the side, she had enough breath to whisper, “Help.”

The world faded to black.