Chapter 1
—Some days should come with a warning label.—
Hadley adjusted her backpack as she reached the edge of the dark parking lot where she’d parked her car. Normally this lot was fully lit up this time of night. The college was intense about security.
Frowning, she scanned the surrounding grassy areas, which were now covered in shadows from the giant oak trees. In the daytime, this place was gorgeous and teeming with life. Now it was creepy. Really wishing that Cindy, her classmate, had been in class tonight to walk with her like they normally did, she pulled out her cell phone instead. Using her phone’s flashlight app, she held it up as she hurried across the parking lot.
She could see the outline of a couple cars, including her own, but only because she knew where she’d parked it. Directly under one of the lights.
Which was currently out.
Maybe there had been a power outage on part of the campus? Seemed weird, since there hadn’t been a storm, but who knew. She was new to the college and living in South Carolina. Redemption Harbor had a great vet school, which was a huge part of why she was here. But she’d really wanted to get to know her new family. Applying for school here before she’d met her half-brother had been a risk, but she’d gone for it because of the stellar program. She’d grown up knowing who her father and half-brother were, but until a couple months ago they hadn’t even known she’d existed.
For so long she’d stayed away from them because of her mom’s lies. Now she knew and loved her father and half-brother. They were overprotective and could sometimes be overbearing, but she was learning how to create boundaries and make them stick. Because holy crap, those men were like big bulldogs who seemed to think she was made of spun glass. And her brother’s friends—male and female—were just as protective.
Picking up her pace, she hurried toward her red car. As a woman, she’d learned not to put herself in risky situations from a young age. It was like breathing; it was simply what you did. So right now she was pissed off on principle that all the lights in this parking lot were off and she didn’t have a friend to walk with.
And she was also kicking herself for not putting the pepper spray her brother had given her in her backpack. No excuse for that.
As she reached her car she pressed the key fob and slipped her backpack off. Just as she reached for the door handle, two rough hands grabbed her shoulders from behind and slammed her against the car.
Crying out, she threw a hand up to brace herself but the side of her head hit the top of her car. Pain ricocheted through her skull, jarring her.
Before she even had time to react or fight back, her attacker wrapped an arm around her throat.
Adrenaline jagged through her, sharp and cutting. No. Oh God, no! She couldn’t pass out. Then he could do whatever he wanted, even transport her from here, or kill her.
No!
Hadley reared back with an elbow and jabbed the guy in his stomach but he didn’t even react.
He didn’t say anything at all, which made it somehow worse. She felt as if she was dying. A thump sounded as she kicked out, accidentally slamming her foot into her car. More pain registered but she ignored it as she tried to stay awake.
Tears stung her eyes as she struggled and thrashed, even as he tightened his grip on her throat. Everything was getting fuzzy, and in the back of her mind she knew that she was going to pass out soon. She tried to scream but nothing would come out as he kept up the pressure on her windpipe.
Frantic, she lifted her legs and used her feet to shove off her car, propelling them backward. He stumbled once.
Abruptly his hold loosened and she fell to the concrete pavement. Her palms slammed against the ground even as she heard the male grunting.
Run. Hide. Now.
Turning and lifting her hands to shield herself from the attack she expected she…froze. They weren’t alone anymore. Thanks to muted moonlight she could make out two men fighting in the dark but they were both shadowy figures.
One had a mask and the other had a big beard.
What was happening? Fear snaked through her even as she told herself to run. It held her immobile, however, as she watched the bearded guy slam his fist into the other masked man’s face.
A crunching sound rent the air as bone broke.
The other man slumped and the one with the beard hauled the other guy up, tossing him over his shoulder as if he weighed nothing. Then he dumped him in the trunk of a nearby car.
The guy didn’t even look her way, just slammed the trunk shut, slid into the driver’s seat and took off without turning on the headlights.
Hadley shoved up, but stood there, shaking.
What…had just happened?
She heard a rushing sound as she remained there in the darkness and realized it was blood pulsing in her ears.
A popping sound in the distance, like a car backfiring, snapped her back to life. Scrambling, she reached for her fallen backpack and phone. Fighting back tears, she jumped in her car and locked it. When she looked at her phone she realized barely two minutes had passed since she’d been attacked. Everything had happened so quickly, time seeming to stretch out for an eternity. And she was trembling so bad she felt as if she’d come apart at the seams.
She had to do something. Her brain refused to function for a long moment and she realized she needed to call campus police. Both her brother and dad were out of town so she would call them later. And she needed immediate help.
After a few tries, she managed to correctly put her phone’s code in and dial the number. Starting her car, Hadley kicked it into drive even as a voice answered on the other end.
“Redemption Harbor Campus Police, how may I help you?”
“I n-need to report an assault on c-campus.”
* * *
With a trembling hand, Hadley knocked on Mary Grace’s front door. She’d texted her friend earlier and had been told that of course she could stop by. Hadley should have just gone straight home after the attack, but she didn’t want to be alone right now. Admitting that, even to herself, took effort.
Seconds later Mary Grace opened the door, a big smile on her face. Almost immediately that smile morphed into a frown.
Grasping Hadley’s cold hands, she tugged her inside and shut the front door behind her. “What’s wrong?” Mary Grace’s dark hair was down around her face in soft waves, highlighting her café au lait skin and wide, dark eyes.
Because of the way she’d been raised, Hadley’s instinct was to deny that there was anything going on, but Mary Grace was an observer by nature, as she had learned in the last couple months. Nothing got by the sharp oncologist.
Hadley swallowed hard. “It’s, ah… Just…” She took a deep breath and started to tell her exactly what had happened just as Skye stepped into the foyer, her auburn hair pulled back into her trademark braid.
Crap. She hadn’t realized the other woman was here. She’d known that Nova and possibly one of Mary Grace’s sisters would be here but Skye was something else altogether. She was a little scary and kind of a badass. Admitting that an almost-mugging had scared Hadley made her feel stupid and weak in front of Skye. She’d been so unprepared during that attack. And she knew that she’d been damn lucky because she could have been… Yeah, no need to outline it in her head. Again. She’d been berating herself the entire drive over here.
“It’s nothing,” she muttered, hoping Mary Grace would let it go.
Mary Grace’s frown was firmly in place as she wrapped an arm around her shoulders. They were about the same height and she resisted the urge to lay her head on Mary Grace’s shoulder. From the time she was a kid she’d learned to pull back from emotional attachments, to not get too close and definitely not to overshare. That had started to change the last couple months, but old habits and all that. Plus she was still shaken by the attack.
“Come on, Nova’s here too,” Mary Grace said. “My sister couldn’t make it so it’s just us. And you’re going to tell us what’s going on.”
Skye stiffened slightly, going into what Hadley thought of as battle mode. As if she was ready to start throat-punching anyone she deemed a threat. The woman could be intense. “What’s wrong? Did someone hurt you?”
“No, sorta…yes,” she sighed. Luckily she had on a turtleneck so they couldn’t see the faint bruising on her throat. “I’ll just tell everyone in the kitchen.” Because she didn’t want to tell the story more than once.
As she stepped inside the homey kitchen, she was greeted by a smiling Nova. “We didn’t think you could make it tonight.” The brunette bombshell was drinking a glass of red wine, her legs crossed as she leaned gracefully against the center island.
Skye picked up her bottle of water even as Mary Grace went to grab one for Hadley. “So what’s up, half-pint?”
Some of the tension left her shoulders at the nickname. “Ah…something weird happened at school tonight. Or after.” Quickly she launched into the near-mugging. Or…whatever her attacker had intended. For now, she was pretending he’d just wanted her wallet when she was pretty sure it was more than that. She’d been a woman, alone in a parking lot—he’d likely wanted to rape her. And possibly kill her. She knew that deep down. It was just difficult to think about.
All three women listened intently as she recounted everything from the first attacker, to the newcomer who took out her attacker, right up until she’d left the campus police office.
“How did they treat you at the office?” Skye demanded, her expression fierce.
“Ah, fine. They were nice. And they work with the locals… I guess it’s sort of a combined thing. They’re real cops, not like mall cops.” That had made her feel better, since she’d given an official report. She gingerly touched her neck and hid a wince.
“What about security footage?”
“There was a glitch or something and for the last couple hours all footage on campus has been erased. Everything goes offsite though, so they said in a couple weeks they should have more. Might be able to see what actually happened. But I’m betting no since there were no lights in that lot.”
“Was it just that lot?” Skye asked.
“No, there was an electric outage on the west side of the campus.” Hadley was still unsure how that was possible and the cops hadn’t seemed to know either.
“Huh.”
“Don’t start,” Mary Grace murmured, giving Skye a hard look.
Skye lifted her palms up. “I didn’t say anything.”
“I can literally hear the wheels turning in that crazy head of yours. And you’ve got a look about you.”
Skye snorted but simply shrugged. “Well…the mugging—which wasn’t a mugging at all—was weird. And you’re not even sure which guy, the bearded one or the masked one, was attacking you. My money is on the masked guy being your attacker, since he felt the need to cover his damn face, and the bearded one kicked his ass. But…that whole situation is weird. And don’t even deny it,” she snapped out, returning Mary Grace’s hard look.
“I agree,” Hadley said, sighing. “It was weird, but what the heck can I do about it? I’ll park somewhere different once school starts back after spring break and make sure I always have a buddy with me.”
“You can also start carrying pepper spray and maybe let Brooks hire you a bodyguard.”
Hadley started to laugh but paused at Skye’s set expression. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“I am…mostly. Not about the pepper spray though. And I still don’t like what happened. It’s weird, and weird is never good.”
“Sometimes weird is good,” Nova murmured, her expression turning sly as she looked at Skye. Hadley had learned that Nova was often the one to break tension if there was any, and right now she was incredibly grateful for the light, almost teasing comment.
“Whatever, pervert,” Skye growled.
Nova lifted a dark eyebrow. “I’m not the one who wears underwear with sexual sayings on my ass.”
Hadley blinked once, then shook herself. “I’ve got this handled, you guys. Just…don’t tell Brooks.” She loved her brother but he was out of town with his fiancée right now and she didn’t want to worry him or bring him back needlessly. Especially since nothing bad had actually happened.
“You’re setting your security system every night?” Skye asked instead of actually agreeing that yes, she wouldn’t tell Brooks.
“Leave the girl alone,” Mary Grace said, sliding a glass of white wine in front of Hadley. “She’s been through enough without adding an interrogation.”
She wasn’t normally a drinker, but after the night she’d had, she was making an exception. Because water wasn’t going to cut it. “Thanks.”
“I’m going to be looking into this,” Skye said. “Fair warning. But I’ll drop it for now since you’re okay.”
To her surprise, the others dropped the subject of what happened and they had a normal girls’ night, something Hadley had never had before moving to Redemption Harbor. Her mom had been weirdly competitive with her, even with Hadley’s own friends. Eventually she’d stopped bringing friends over.
Before she realized it, two hours had passed and Mercer, Mary Grace’s husband, returned home, baby Mia cradled in his arms.
He smiled at all of them as he entered the kitchen, and Hadley had to refrain from reaching for the baby but only because she was sleeping.
“Gonna get her upstairs. Nice to see you guys,” he said quietly to them.
“I’ll be up in a bit. Oh, and Hadley is staying the night so make sure you wear clothes,” Mary Grace added as her big husband stepped out of the room.
“Ah, what?” Hadley asked.
“Well you’ve had two glasses of wine and—”
“So I’m fine to drive home.”
“Yes but Skye looks as if she’s about ready to have a heart attack at the thought of you going home alone tonight so you’ll stay here until she can ask Gage to hack the campus security system and get a look at your would-be mugger.”
Hadley looked at the three women, all of whom didn’t seem surprised by this suggestion. “You guys are being overprotective.” She knew how to take care of herself and had been doing it for a long time.
Surprising her, Skye sidled up next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Look, Brooks is out of town and he would lose his shit if he learned about what happened and then found out I did nothing to keep you safe.”
“My house is safe.” She knew her brother was cofounder of a security consulting company and yeah, she’d heard them talk about some gray area stuff before, but hacking her school’s security seemed waaaayyyy over the top.
Skye simply squeezed Hadley’s shoulders. “Come on. The Boy Scout can be so annoying when he’s in a mood. Just humor us and stay here? You’ll be doing me a favor.”
“Oh my gosh, you’re sneaky.” She gently elbowed Skye but nodded even as she looked at Mary Grace, relieved that she wouldn’t be alone after what had happened. “And so are you.”
Nova just snorted into her wine and muttered, “You have no idea.”
Even though Hadley thought they were being a teeny bit overprotective, she could actually admit that she didn’t mind staying the night. What had happened at school had jarred her a lot deeper than she was ready to accept. And she wasn’t sure how long it would take to put it behind her.