Gabby couldn’t stop staring at the very clear image of her father. But it wasn’t the father she knew. The man who had raised her was a bubbly man with a beard and beer gut. Whatever had happened to him over the years, he’d lost the beard and the weight. Now there was a sharp-looking older man with salt-and-pepper hair styled to perfection, clear-cut cheekbones, and the wrinkles around his smile looked more charming than aging.

But those eyes.... Gabby would recognize them anywhere. “I don’t understand. He was working right across the street. How could I have not known this?” She raked her mind for every detail Kate had mentioned about Hot Realtor. Gabby had always laughed and never looked too much into the idea of the mysterious attractive man. Her father.... Of course the thought would’ve never occurred to her. Mason Cooper wasn’t hot. He was her dad, and as far as she knew, he’d been dead for years. Now everything she thought she knew was somehow out the window.

When was the first time Kate had mentioned him? A few months ago, but she didn’t think it was a year. It would be easy enough for a real estate agent to go mostly unnoticed. It wasn’t a normal job. He could get in and out of most of the vacant houses in the area, so he probably didn’t even have to buy or rent a place.

And he was working right across the street from her.... That couldn’t be a coincidence. And the fact that Kate went to jail made so much more sense. The one person who knew him and her. The one person who would help her connect the dots. Damn it.

Gabby’s breaths came faster and faster as the situation became more and more clear. Son of a bitch. How long had he been watching her? How long had he been looking into her?

Then she remembered Judge Cooke.

This wasn’t just about her. He was back in town and cleaning up all of his old problems. Damn it. She ran for the phone in Kate’s kitchen and picked it up, dialing 9-1-1 immediately. But there was no sound on the other end. She hung up the phone a few times but there was no dial tone. “Kate!” she called.

“Once again, I had no idea—”

“Did you finally cancel your landline?” demanded Gabby.

“Of course not. How else would I harass telemarketers?”

Gabby walked past Kate and shoved the phone into her chest. “It’s not working,” she snapped as she went back to the front door to make sure it was locked. She’d no sooner verified the deadbolt was in place when someone knocked on the door. Gabby jumped at the noise and stared at the door as though it was about to turn into a monster and bite her. She slowly approached the peephole when someone knocked again. She managed to keep from jumping this time, but she still flinched.

Trying to control her breaths and keep as silent as possible, Gabby pressed her forehead against the door and saw her father staring back at her.

“Kate!” he called. “Are you okay? I heard about the fire and saw a car in the driveway.”

Gabby squeezed her eyes shut and the motion squeezed out tears that rolled down her cheeks. No. This couldn’t be— How could it be.... Just, no.

“Go away!” yelled Kate from behind her.

Gabby jumped around, eyes wide as she shook her head back and forth. “No!” she mouthed as fiercely as possible. If her dad had thought no one was here, maybe he would’ve just left. But now....

“Kate, what’s wrong? I just want to check on you.”

Gabby mouthed carefully, “Don’t tell him we know,” and hoped like hell that Kate understood the silent words.

Kate’s mouth tightened as she seemed to think over her response. “I’m sorry, Mason. I’m just really tired and need sleep. I’ll see you back at the office.”

Mason? Had he even bothered to change his name? What an egotistical—

“Why don’t you let me in? I’ll pour you a glass of wine and we’ll talk about it, okay?”

Gabby shook her head and willed this all to go away. She reached her hand out to Kate and mouthed, “Phone.”

Kate took out her cell and handed it to Gabby. She immediately started to dial 9-1-1, but before she could finish the short number, a gunshot rang out through the night. Gabby jumped back and stared in horror at how close she’d been to the bullet. But then she realized she was still in front of the door and right in the line of more bullets. She ran in the other direction, grabbing Kate’s hand as she went.

There was another blast as Gabby led Kate through the house, but she came to a halt when she saw the shadowy figures on the other side of the back door. The large male figures were just standing there. Not trying to get in or leave. They must’ve heard the gunshots, right? If they weren’t calling for help, that meant they had to be with her father.

He’d brought backup. How long had they been there? They must’ve known she was here. Even when he was playing nice with Kate, he’d known she was here the entire time.

No time for crying, Gabby. Handle your shit and get out of here alive.

There were at least three guys outside, and her father was seconds away from getting through that door and he was armed. She had to think about this carefully. They were outnumbered and outgunned. “Kate, do you have a gun?”

“A gun? Are you kidding? With my aim, I’m more likely to shoot myself than any of them.”

“Damn it.” After her own ordeal as a kid, she’d made sure she was packing in almost every room of her apartment. Somehow she’d always known something like this would happen eventually. Okay. So they didn’t have guns, but there had to be something.... “Bathroom,” said Gabby out loud as she pulled Kate along with her once more. She immediately pulled open the cabinets under the sink and looked for anything she could use. Luckily, Kate had no shortage of hair products down there. She grabbed each of them a can of hairspray and put one in Kate’s hand.

“You want me to fight guns with hairspray?” said Kate in a loud whisper.

“They shoot what they can see. If they can’t see, they won’t hit us.” Gabby was well aware of the flaws in her logic, but at the moment, it was the closest thing to a plan they had. She was about to leave the bathroom to look for another escape, but the sound of the front door crashing open echoed through the house. Now they were trapped and cornered in the bathroom. It was just a matter of time before her dad got in. Gabby pulled the door mostly shut, but not all the way, too worried that the sound would give them away.

She silently urged Kate to get in the shower before she followed suit and tugged the curtains carefully closed. And then all they could do was wait. Gabby held the hairspray up, nozzle facing out as the footsteps got closer and closer. The next thing they knew, he stopped in front of the door, and Gabby knew that in just seconds, she’d see her father again. The father who had somehow risen from the dead and was back for his revenge.

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Hunter knew something was wrong the second he pulled up to Kate’s house. He could see two cars in the driveway, which was odd because he knew Kate was the only one who lived there. So the black SUV was his, which Gabby had used to drive there, and the one parked behind it was... new. As he got closer to the house, all of his fears were confirmed when he saw the front door hanging open. Hunter immediately drew his sidearm and headed for the door. But he was only halfway across the front yard when he heard a sound to his left. He jerked around to see a guy raising a weapon at him.

Instinctively he lifted his arm up and fired, the shot immediately making contact. As soon as the guy was going down, he heard others coming toward him. He ran back and hid behind the mystery car. He tried to count the footsteps as they approached. Probably one guy—no, two. He had a few definite advantages because of his training, but it was still dark and he was outnumbered. He had to go about this carefully. But if there are two guys out here, how many had already made it inside? The door was open. What if Gabby was.... Fuck this.

He stood and turned. It was too dark for him to immediately focus on where the men were, but he had to make sure they didn’t fire first. He immediately set out an array of bullets until his magazine was empty, then ducked back behind the car. He could hear the struggled breathing of one of the guys on the ground. Good. He reloaded his weapon and stood once again, but there was no one there. The man either ran off or ran inside. There was only one way to find out. He gripped his gun tightly, finger on the trigger, and walked toward the house.

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The bathroom door slowly swung open. Gabby didn’t know the best time to strike. She didn’t know the first thing about what she was doing. For all she knew, this type of hairspray would do nothing. But her father took one step closer, and she couldn’t chance it anymore. She put a hand on Kate’s shoulder, pushing her down before she jerked the curtain open, refusing to let herself get psyched out, and held out the hairspray and started to spray. Her father screamed as the chemicals entered his eyes, and then he did what she was most afraid of. He lifted up his gun and started to shoot. He was aiming high, so the first bullet went over her head. He was so close that she could reach forward and push him over as she pulled Kate out of the bathtub and urged her out of the room.

Only her father kept on firing, following their sounds and shooting off all the bullets in rapid succession as Kate made her own way out of the bathroom.

It took Gabby a moment to realize she was hit. She felt no pain, but the force of it sent her flying forward and into the hall. She gasped at the sensation, looking down at the blood coming out of her torso. She wasn’t dead. That was a good thing. But just after she came to that happy realization, the pain hit her. It coursed through her, somehow hitting every nerve ending even if the wound was only in her stomach. She needed to run. She had to get away from there. He was still alive, and still angry, and soon enough he’d have his vision back.

What did one even do after they were shot? Probably call the police. But right now she just wanted to survive.

She started to push herself away from the wall, and pain shot through her, reaching each and every corner of her body. Gabby winced and pushed herself forward, trying to ignore the pain.

But this pain wasn’t about to be ignored. Not only did every move hurt, but her body seemed heavier. Harder to move. She looked down at her wound, but all she could see was the mass of red beneath her. How much was she bleeding?

Her breaths came harder and harder. Or maybe it was just becoming harder to breathe. She tried to focus on one step at a time, but then someone in front of her called her name. She looked up and saw Hunter in front of her and couldn’t help but smile. At least, assuming she wasn’t making this all up and he was really in front of her.

“Are you real?” she asked in a cracking voice.

He didn’t answer her, though. Instead, he raised his gun and pointed it right at her. Gabby fell back a step but found herself running into something hard and solid. It was only when the arm wrapped around her neck and forced her to straighten that she realized she’d run into her father.

Wincing in pain and disgust, Gabby did her best to use one hand to put pressure on her stomach where the bullet had come out. She was losing blood so fast, it was only a matter of time until she passed out. Have fun holding me up when I’m passed out, you son of a bitch, she thought.

“You are going to have to shoot through your girlfriend to get to me, Hunter,” warned her father.

His warm breath hit the side of her face and made her shiver in disgust. How many girls would love to have their long-deceased father hold them in their arms? And she got this.... Her anger replaced the pain and she met Hunter’s eyes. “Take the shot.” Her father’s grip on her neck tightened, but he didn’t cut off her air. “End this once and for—”

She couldn’t talk anymore as her father hit her injured stomach with the butt of his gun. Her vision flashed to black and then bright white as she came back to Hunter staring at her with all intensity. “Do it,” she mouthed.

“I love you,” he said, seeming to ignore Mason as he looked directly into her eyes. And then he tightened his finger on the trigger and Gabby squeezed her eyes shut.

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Hunter ran for Gabby as Mason fell to the ground. She was pulled down with Mason, who had died immediately. Hunter frantically pulled her out of the man’s arms and took her into his. “Gabby,” he said softly. “Gabby,” he repeated when she didn’t say anything.

Her eyes blinked open and he could tell she was having a hard time focusing. He’d already called the police as he’d made his way into the house because he wasn’t trying to conceal his presence by that time. It was only a few minutes before help was there. All he could do now was sit with her and take as good care of her as possible.

He could see from looking down the hall that she’d lost a lot of blood. But that didn’t mean she was going to die.... He’d been shot a hair away from the heart and he’d made it. What was the point of him surviving if he was about to lose her? “Gabby, help is coming, okay? I just need you to hang in there a little bit longer. Please.”

“Please,” she breathed. “When’s the last time you begged?”

He let out a little laugh and held her tighter. Her voice sounded strained, but at least she was speaking full sentences. That had to be a good sign. “I’ll beg for you. I’ll beg for you every day, from now until forever. I promise, baby. But you have to pull through this for me.”

She reached up as though to touch his face, but her hand didn’t make it and fell back to the bloody floor. “Liar,” she breathed. “We can’t be together.”

“Says who?” he asked, determined to keep her talking.

“It’s not....” She drifted off, and he shook her to bring her back to him. She let out a groan and he knew he was hurting her, but he needed her to stay with him. She blinked a few times. “You won’t be happy with me.”

“I won’t be happy without you,” he countered. And it was true. As he sat there waiting for an ambulance desperately, he knew every word was true. If she pulled through this, he wasn’t going anywhere. Even if he had a gun to his head and Hart was demanding it, he was here for life.

He heard sirens approaching and took her hand in his and held on tight. “Hold on.” He pressed his lips against her forehead in a kiss.

“Please don’t leave before I wake.” Her eyes were closed, but it was nice to know she was still there.

“I won’t,” he promised, speaking against her forehead. “I’m never leaving you again.”