Laura woke to Cade’s arms around her, his breath warm on her cheek as he held her tightly. Nothing could have made last night more beautiful. Not a luxury hotel with champagne and rose petals. Not a soft bed instead of a tent with sleeping bags. Nothing. Cade had been patient and kind and sweet when she needed him to be, and he’d been sexy and hot and passionate when she’d needed that. He had taken her to places she’d never even dreamed of—hadn’t dared to hope for before.

And, no. She hadn’t had a single flashback to her time with Patrick. Patrick hadn’t entered her mind the entire night. When Laura looked at Cade now, she felt hope, and that hope no longer scared her. In a way, it set her free.

She pulled out of his arms carefully, planning to sit up and sneak out of the tent to use the bathroom. As soon as she moved, she felt Cade’s arms clamp down on her again, locking her in place. She laughed and nudged him, but he grunted and snuggled back into her. The action brought her body’s arousal level to an instant high for him. Sadly, nature—or the baby, she wasn’t sure which—had other ideas for her at the moment.

“If you don’t let me get up, I’ll pee in our sleeping bag. I don’t think either of us wants that,” she said, smiling at him.

Cade released his hold and reached above his head to where he’d stashed toilet paper and a shovel in a corner of the tent.

“Bury it,” was all he said as he handed the items to Laura and she laughed harder at the quick change in his attitude. She was surprised he didn’t seem to be more of a morning person. He was always up so bright and early to work with the animals; she’d just assumed he woke up in a good mood, ready to go. Apparently not.

“Wow. I guess the honeymoon’s over, huh?” Laura joked and then realized what she’d said. She blushed, but Cade just opened one eye and squinted at her.

“When I do get you on a honeymoon, it’ll last a heck of a lot longer than one night, I promise. And it sure won’t be in a tent with Red, a roll of toilet paper, and a shovel.”

Laura could see the intense need burning in his eyes and knew he’d make good on that promise someday. She swallowed and forced herself to speak without the shaking voice she knew was threatening as she looked at him. “I like having Red with us,” she said as she unzipped the tent and stepped out.

When she came back to the campsite a few minutes later, Cade was up and moving around. He pulled her into his arms for a morning kiss over her protests of morning breath and lack of toothbrushes. He laughed and released her, then pulled out a granola bar and tossed it to her and poured food into a bowl for Red. Their guard dog ate it without seeming to chew a single piece.

“Do you still have the gun you took from Alec?” Cade asked.

Laura nodded and reached into the car to pull it from her bag. She wasn’t at all comfortable handling it, but she’d grabbed it before she had had time to think . Cade was quiet and calm as he showed her how to remove the safety, how to hold it, and fire it.

“I want you to keep this on you at all times, for now. If we get to a place where I think we can fire it without drawing a park ranger to us, I’ll show you how to fire it. It’s a lot of gun, so it’s going to have a big kick and you won’t have much accuracy. Chances are, you’ll be knocked on your butt by the kick, so you might only get one shot in.”

Laura didn’t know what to say. She really didn’t know how she would use that gun, even if she needed to. At her worst moments with Patrick, she wasn’t sure she could have used a gun to defend herself. Aside from being scared to death at the thought of taking someone’s life or injuring someone, there would have been the issue of Patrick getting it away from her and turning it on her.

“Run if you can, but if you get cornered, use the gun,” Cade said.

Laura nodded and then tucked in her shirt and put the gun in her waistband like he showed her. She put another shirt on that hung down and covered the gun.

After going into town to get breakfast and a few things they could keep at the campsite for lunch and dinner, they spent the day in the woods. They watched Red race around trying to catch the chipmunks. Their loud chirps tormented the dog.

By nightfall, they’d walked back to the tent where they spent another night wrapped in each other’s arms, making love slowly, almost languidly as if they both knew they could lose this at any moment.

* * *

Paul and Mark had decided it was time to cut their losses and take off. They’d technically finished the job for Alec by tracking Laura to a state park, and even finding the specific campground she was in. Had they not been so desperate to locate her after finding no record of her in hotels in the area where she had been sighted, they never would have thought to check the state park. A waitress at the restaurant told them a lot of visitors to the area camped at the state-run campground three miles down the road from the restaurant.

Laura Kensington and Cade Bishop were holed up in a tent at campsite number forty-nine. After texting this information to Alec Hall, Mark and Paul ditched both of their phones and the rental car that Alec’s company was paying for. They picked out an old junker of a truck and hotwired it, then took off for California, intent on putting as much distance between Alec Hall and themselves as possible.

It wasn’t hard to see the writing on the wall. Hall wouldn’t need them much longer. They’d been overly confident in taking work from a guy like him, but they knew it was time to cut and run before things went south.