She kicked at him, but his legs were as solid as tree trunks. She squeaked again, hoping to keep his attention on her instead of on Felix, who was hopefully still in the bathroom.

“You know what your problem is? You’re weak. You were a scared little girl back then, and you’re not much better now. You let a kid tell you what to do and where to go? Jesus!”

Where did she know him from? She couldn’t pin it down, but she knew his voice from somewhere. Not well. But enough.

He dragged her away from the restroom. The world tilted like a funhouse ride—she saw the restroom, the vents that must have enabled him to eavesdrop, cars in the parking lot.

Cars. One of them must belong to this man. But the others…if she could just make a sound loud enough to be heard…

She tried to scream, but his hand was so tight over her mouth that only a squeaky breath came out.

“Give it up, little girl. I’m done with you. I didn’t want to hurt you, I just wanted you gone. But you know what happens to people who get in my way.”

Horror seized her. Was he talking about the murder of Robert Knight? Oh my God…this man was the killer. A killer who really didn’t want her in Jupiter Point.

If she could just get her mouth free, not to scream but to ask him some questions…he was probably dying to tell his story. Wasn’t that what they did on TV shows, goad the suspect into boasting about their evil deeds? But how were you supposed to goad when you could barely squawk?

He dragged her toward the wooded area behind the rest stop, where the leaves of birch and aspen trees fluttered in the breeze. To make matters worse, it was almost sunset. Felix was all alone back at the rest stop. He didn’t have a phone or the keys to the car. Please let someone at the rest stop be a Good Samaritan type. Please be smart, Felix. If only she’d given him her phone.

If only…if only…if only she could have seen Ben one more time. Just one more chance to feast her eyes on him, to soak in the bliss of his presence. Okay, might as well be greedy…one more time to get naked with him, to travel to that intimate place where they were the only two people who existed.

The man grunted harshly in her ear and his grip loosened, just a bit—enough for her to break away. She lost her balance and stumbled to the ground. She heard the thump of flesh on flesh, along with a vicious curse. She scrambled to her knees to see what was happening.

Ben.

Ben was happening. His fury made him seem ten feet tall as he loomed over the man and slammed a vicious blow into his kidney region.

“Who are you?” Ben demanded. “What do you want with Julie? Why’d you take Felix?”

The man cowered away from him, shielding his head with his arm. He was wearing a cowboy hat that by some miracle hadn’t flown off yet. Julie wondered crazily if he’d glued it to his head somehow. He’d planned everything—the change of disguise, Plan B in case she didn’t follow instructions, a weapon—

“Ben!” she shouted. “He has a knife, watch out!”

“I don’t fucking care! I just want answers.” Ben moved on the man like some relentless force of nature, while the guy ducked away, just out reach. The man was probably in his early fifties, no match for Ben’s strength and power—except for that weapon. “Do you know who he is?”

“No, but he’s the same one who grabbed me before. He admitted it!”

Where was that knife? Julie tried to spot it, but saw no sign of anything sharp or shiny on the man’s person. Maybe she’d imagined it.

Ben kept after him. “Why’d you scare Julie away? What were you so afraid of? Did you kill my father? Where do you think you’re going, asshole? You’re not leaving here without fucking handcuffs! The police are on their way. The only question is whether you’ll be conscious when they get here so you’d better start answering. What’s your name?”

The mention of police spurred the man into action. With a desperate growl, he reached for his hip.

The knife! Julie knew it was coming. She scrambled to her feet and dashed toward Ben and the man, who were only separated by a few feet. She fixed her gaze on the hand going for the knife.

It flew out of the man’s hand, its blade glinting orange in the sunset light, bright and terrible, sailing toward Ben’s chest, his beautiful heart.

Before Julie even made a conscious decision to do it, she was off her feet and airborne.

She hurled herself through the air at Ben. She rammed into him with the force of a linebacker and toppled him to the ground. She felt a quick, burning sting on her arm, but barely noticed compared to the bone-jarring impact of colliding with Ben and then the ground.

Everything went momentarily dark and confusing, as Ben’s elbow hit her jaw and she saw stars. Someone was shouting—actually she thought it was her, warning Ben about the knife. A feral growl sounded near them. Someone was kicking her in the stomach, or maybe kicking Ben—no, both. She felt pain, though Ben’s body absorbed most of the impact.

Ben grabbed the man’s leg and twisted hard. The attacker spun through the air and landed on his ass. Then he saw something in the direction of the parking lot, and scrambled to his knees.

At a flat run, he took off into the woods, thrashing past trees and through thickets of branches until he’d disappeared from sight.

Julie turned her attention to Ben, who lay underneath her, warm and alive. Sweaty and panting. Beautiful and there. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Are you?”

“How did you find me?”

“Friends in high places.” He winced, lifting his eyes toward the sky.

Way up there, she saw the Knight and Day chopper hovering.

“Oh.” God, her head was spinning. “Felix! We have to get Felix!”

“Already did. I put him in my truck and locked the door. I didn’t want him getting near all this. Will and Savannah are on their way.”

Relief had her slumping against him. He wrapped his arm around her, and even though it hurt, because her arm was sore from all the battling, it made her so happy she wanted to cry. “God, I was so scared. I was thinking about you, right before you appeared out of nowhere.”

“You were?”

“I was afraid I might never see you again. And what if you thought I’d abandoned you again, and I kind of did, because that creep said I had to leave and never come back. I was terrified you’d never forgive me if I did the same thing all over again.”

“Julie.” He cupped her face, two big hands cradling her. “I love you. That’s not changing. Not ever.”

Tears started in her eyes.

“I figured you had a good reason for taking off. I only followed in case you needed backup.”

“Thank God you did.” Feeling dizzy again, she buried her face in his neck. “I don’t want to be without you, Ben, not ever again.”

“I’m here, my love. For good.”

Her vision blurred around the edges. Her eyes were starting to close and she felt so, so tired. All she wanted to do was sleep. Well, and be with Ben. While she was sleeping. Sleeping with Ben, that was the definition of bliss in her world. Sleeping with Ben, waking up with Ben, making love with Ben, laughing with Ben…

“Goddamn it.” His profanity jolted her back awake. Ben had pulled his arm away from her. A terrible frown creased his face. She wanted to smooth out all those lines, bring back his happy smile. But she couldn’t seem to lift her hand.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were injured?” he said harshly. “Jesus, you’re bleeding! He hit you. That knife he tossed at me—it hit you! I thought it missed both of us.”

“Oh.” That did make sense. Her arm throbbed as if a vicious little ice skater was racing back and forth across it. That image made her smile dreamily. At least the knife hadn’t hit Ben. It couldn’t have, because now Ben was scooping her up off the ground and carrying her toward his truck. No, toward police lights and cars and paramedics rushing toward her. It was a terrifying sight.

She spotted Ben’s truck in the middle of the madness, and Felix’s bespectacled face pressed against the window.

She tried to smile at him and wave, but it hurt so much she winced. Ben saw where she was looking. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Felix.”

“It’s okay. I see Savannah.” Her friend was racing across the pavement, her black hair flying behind her. Ben called Savannah’s name as he dug through his pocket, somehow managing to hold her with one arm. She clung tight to his neck, aware that she was soaking him with her blood.

“Savannah, here are my truck keys,” Ben yelled. “Felix is in there.”

She nodded, but hesitated before heading that way. “Julie? Is she okay?”

“Just a scratch,” Julie piped up. “A really really really bad scratch.”

“She still has her sense of humor, I think she’ll be okay.” Ben adjusted her in his arms again. He veered toward the paramedic van, where a crew was getting a gurney ready for her. A gurney. For her. She felt like a star in a medical show, and giggled at the thought.

“Who cast this show?” she asked, thinking it was perhaps the most hilarious thing anyone had ever said. “They got it all wrong. I’m not the star, I’m the comic relief. Or maybe the best friend.”

“Baby, you have it all wrong. You’ve always been the star. You always will be.” Ben’s deep voice resonated through her, bringing peace and comfort.

A paramedic ran toward them with some equipment. He was going to take her away, she knew. She clutched at Ben. “Will you stay with me, Ben? Promise?”

“Always. I guarantee.”

“Word of a…” She was falling into a deep pit as sleep engulfed her.

“Word of a Knight brother. I love you, Julie. I’m not leaving.” And that was the last thing she was aware of for a long time.

When she woke up, her shoulder burned under a swaddling of bandages. She was in a hospital room, and it was night. The room was lit only by the blinking green indicators on the medical machines, and the washed out light from the street lamps outside the building. The remnants of her dream still lingered—the voices, the singing.

She was alone.

She panicked. Where was everyone? Where was Ben? Felix? Where was she? A machine beeped in response to her rising heart rate.

“Hey, hey.” A door opened, spilling warm yellow light into the room. Ben’s familiar figure was silhouetted against the bathroom light. “It’s okay, I’m right here.” He hurried to her side and knelt next to her. “How are you feeling?”

“Pretty good, considering. How’s Felix?”

“He’s all right. Pretty amazing kid. He’s been giving Will all kinds of information about the kidnapper. You should see Will’s face. It’s obvious he’s trying to think of legal ways to hire him. He’s a phenom.”

“Yes, that he is.” Images from her dream still danced through her mind. “I have some information, too. I finally put it together…or at least my subconscious did. I knew there was something about his voice that was familiar, but I could never place it. I finally did, while I was knocked out.”

“Honey, are you sure you should be thinking about this right now? You just focus on resting and recovering. We’ll find the jackass. Tobias was tracking him in the chopper until it got too dark and he lost him. But we know what direction he was heading. Between him and Will and Felix, I’m not a bit worried.”

“Ben, I’m fine.”

“You got stabbed.” His eyes smoldered with anger. “That fucking dipshit stabbed you. He’s going to pay for that.”

“Not exactly stabbed. More like…flicked.”

“No. Not flicked. Sorry, that wasn’t a flick. That was a goddamn heart attack in action. I should sue him for nearly killing me.” He pulled her hand to his chest, where his heart beat a steady rhythm. “I’ve just barely recovered. Finally. Only once the doctor said you’re going to be fine.”

“Just a scratch, right? Told you.” She grinned at him, then licked her lips, which were dry and cracking. “Any water around here?”

“Hang on.” He brought her a plastic cup with a straw embedded in it. She took a long, grateful sip. “Okay, go ahead and tell me what your subconscious came up with. But just so you know, the only thing that truly matters to me is that you’re not hurt. As soon as they release you, we have to have a serious talk about this.”

“This?”

“Us.” He pressed her hand against his ribs. “The future. Our future. But not yet. I know it’s a complicated topic, so let’s wait until you’re out of here.”

To be honest, it no longer seemed so complicated to her. She belonged with Ben. Her life had taken a strange detour twelve years ago, and for all that time, she’d lived without him. She had no intention of doing that ever again.

But first, she really had to tell him what she’d remembered. “He sings. That’s how I remembered him. I know him from the performance of ‘Messiah’ that the Community College puts on every year. I sang in it once, that year when your mother talked me into it. Remember, we used to go together? At first, I felt awkward because it was your mother. But it ended up being cool. He was in the baritone section. But I don’t remember his name or anything else about him. I’m not even sure I ever knew. But that must be why he didn’t want me in Jupiter Point. He knew I’d recognize him eventually, after I caught him snooping around the house. And I’m pretty sure I’ve heard his voice more recently too—maybe from Grease, or maybe just around town.”

Ben soothed her by rubbing her hand gently. Her tension eased, and she fell back against the pillows. He was frowning thoughtfully at her hand. “So, you think he’s the killer.”

“He basically admitted it.”

“How did he know my dad? Probably not from the Army, huh?”

“I don’t know how he did, or even if he did. I have a feeling he was there because of your mother.”

“My mother?”

“I think he was in love with her. She mentioned to me once that one of the singers had tried to flirt with her, and she shut him down. Well…what if he didn’t get completely shut down? What if he still wanted her? And your dad was in the way?”