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Paradise couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Stupid, stupid. What had made her think anything would change? Blake had betrayed her once, and she should have expected he’d do it again.

Seeing him in that embrace with Lacey was a stab to the heart she didn’t think she’d recover from. She’d spent last night

daydreaming about what could be, only to fall off a cliff of reality today. The sight of Lacey in his arms after her own run-in

with Greene was especially painful—were all men only after one thing?

But Blake had always been different, and he deserved much more than someone like her. Maybe Lacey was that someone special

who would make him happy. What would it take to get it through her thick head that no one had ever wanted her for herself—and

no one ever would? She never should have come back here. Even digging out the truth about her parents’ murders wasn’t worth

the pain clawing at her chest right now.

“Paradise!”

Blake’s voice calling her name was as discordant as nails on a chalkboard—and just as unwelcome. She wanted to be alone to lick her wounds. Her first instinct had been to run to little Rosy, the fennec fox she’d spent so much time with. Rosy was like her—softer inside than people realized but too prickly to make into a pet. Rosy didn’t like to be petted, but she would sit and listen with her intelligent and sympathetic eyes fixed on Paradise’s face. Her kits were just as sweet.

Once Paradise hit the door into the small shed housing Rosy, tears leaked from her eyes and scalded her cheeks. She shut the

door behind her and clicked the lock to keep Blake out. How did she even face him after showing how much his betrayal had

wounded her? She wasn’t going to talk to him no matter how much he begged her to open the door.

The little fox’s enormous ears pricked in her direction, and the sorrowful vocalization told her Rosy already detected her

pain. Rosy trotted to join Paradise and curled into a ball by her feet. Her kits held back at first, then they, too, sidled

over to join their mother. Their father, always the more skittish one, peered at her from a far corner. She checked the impulse

to scoop up Rosy and snuggle her to her chest. Rosy’s long nose settled onto Paradise’s shoe, and Paradise squatted beside

the small animals and tried to block out the sound of Blake’s voice on the other side of the door.

“Paradise, I know how it appeared, but it isn’t what you think. Uh, Lacey has a crush, that’s all. She made a move I wasn’t

expecting, and you saw it at the worst possible time. I wasn’t kissing her. I was trying to remove her arms from around my

neck.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Her shout made Rosy cower and whine, and the kits ran to the corner. Paradise touched Rosy

on the head, then drew back her hand before she caused the little fox more distress. “Go away, Blake. Just leave me alone.”

The lock clicked and the door swung open. She dashed the tears from her eyes and hoped he wouldn’t realize how distraught she was from his behavior. She should have realized he’d have a key to every lock on the property.

Blake’s face was ashen, and his eyes held desperation. “I’m not going away. We’re going to face this and talk about it. I

think Lacey recognized how I felt about you and was making a desperate attempt to snare my attention. I didn’t want to hurt

her after she’d just saved me from a very bad situation.”

Paradise put her hand to her throat. “What situation?”

“A very dangerous one with the hyenas.” He told her about the unlocked gate and being circled by the animals. “A bad bite

was imminent.”

“Or worse. Such carelessness doesn’t sound like you.”

“It isn’t. I checked out the inside lock before I entered the perimeter, and it appeared secure. Someone tampered with it.”

With anyone else she might not have believed he’d followed safety precautions. “Sabotage?”

“I didn’t get a chance to examine it yet. Lacey made her move.”

What had happened with Lacey would have to wait for her to assess later. Paradise rose and brushed the dirt and straw from

her hands. “We’d better check it out. If someone exposed you to that much danger on purpose, we need to know why.” The rejection

on his face told her he’d taken note of the distance in her voice and stance.

She brushed past him and marched toward the hyena enclosure. Was it wrong she was almost relieved to find a reason to stop

her headlong rush into his arms again? What a fool she was.

***

Blake’s chest ached at the sight of Paradise’s pale, set face. Talking more about it would get nowhere. He’d have to show her he had no interest in Lacey. One thing was sure—he intended to avoid being alone with the vet tech if he could. She’d made no secret of her interest, but he’d thought he’d managed to make it clear it wasn’t reciprocated.

The sun beat down from a blue sky, and he backhanded the moisture from his forehead as they reached the hyena enclosure. The

humidity shimmered in the air and heightened the odor of the dominant females crowding the fence line and watching their approach

with laughing faces.

He’d only allowed himself to consider a nasty bite, but it could have been worse—much worse. If Lacey hadn’t been there, he

could have been a bloody stain on the grass right now. Though she’d caused him personal grief with Paradise, she’d saved his

life.

The gate between the inner and perimeter enclosures stood open. He stopped and grabbed a pail of food from the food shed.

“I’ll coax them into the other enclosure with food.”

Paradise put her hands on her hips and studied the fencing. “But even if you coax them over there, how can you shut and lock

the gate? Is there a pole around here somewhere? I could push it shut while you distract them with meat.”

He gestured to her right before he started toward the back enclosure. “There’s one in the utility shed by the food hut.”

The cackle moved closer to the fence as he skirted it. They paced him step-by-step until Clara stepped through the open gate

and led her group into the back enclosure. Where was Paradise? He didn’t see her with the long pole yet, but maybe she was

having trouble finding it. There was still half a pail of food left, but he doled it out slowly, piece by piece.

She should have been here by now. The shed wasn’t that large. Foreboding shivered up his spine. “Paradise?” Clara snarled and sprang back at his loud voice, so he tossed her another piece of meat.

When Paradise still didn’t answer, he set the pail on the ground and headed toward the shed. What could have delayed her?

He paused to rinse the blood from his hands at the outside spigot, then wiped his hands on the grass before touching the entry

handle. The metal hinges complained as he pushed open the heavy wooden door. It only opened six inches before it resisted

his shove as if something was in the way.

He spied a hand stretched out on the cement floor, and his pulse shot up. “Paradise!”

Shoving the door hard might hurt her, but there was a window on the back side of the building, so he went that way. Had she

tripped and fallen? He reached the window and peered through the fly-speckled glass.

Fear seized his muscles. Paradise lay stretched out on the floor with one leg crumpled under her.

He shoved the window open, though it was a tight squeeze to maneuver his wide shoulders through the opening. He let his arms

dangle, and when his fingertips brushed the cool concrete, he lowered the rest of his body onto the floor. The coppery scent

of blood was in the air, and he crawled to her side. “Paradise?” He ran his fingers over her head and found blood oozing from

a lump on her scalp. He checked her pulse and breathing and found them reassuringly steady.

A quick assessment of her limbs didn’t indicate any broken bones. He touched her cheek. “Paradise, can you hear me?” She had

to be all right. He couldn’t lose her.

She moaned and reached a hand toward her head with her eyes still closed. “Hurts. Something hit me.”

“I’m going to call for an ambulance.” He whipped out his phone and called 911. The dispatcher promised to send one out immediately. Blake ended the call and placed his hand on her forehead. “Help will be here soon. Try not to move.”

She opened her lids in a squint and reached for his hand. “Something hit me on the head when I opened the door. That was the

last thing I remember.”

Her grip on his hand was just shy of painful, but he relished it. At least she needed him right at this moment. He held up

two fingers. “How many fingers?”

“Two.”

He changed to four. “Now how many?”

She squinted. “Four.”

All good signs. “Did you hear anything? Was someone in here?”

“I don’t think so.” Her soft gaze was fixed on his face, and the shield she usually wore was completely down.

He gazed into those gorgeous amber eyes and saw a glimmer of the way she used to stare at him. Maybe there was still an ember

or two of what had once burned deep inside her heart where she tried to keep it hidden. He wished he could trust it, but she

was likely to have her defenses fully in place as soon as all her senses returned. All that tenderness shimmering in the depths

of her eyes would vanish. But if he was patient, maybe he could smash those defenses forever.

Her lids came down and shuttered the vulnerability again as she struggled to sit up. “Whoa, whoa,” he said. “You need to be

still until the ambulance gets here.”

“I’m okay. My head hurts, but I want to see what clobbered me.”

Her words were steady and so were her movements, so he gave in and helped her sit. “You stay here while I see what happened.”

Once he was sure she wasn’t trying to stand, he rose and glanced around the shed. Pitchforks, rakes, buckets, and various other tools were neatly organized on hooks and shelves. He stepped closer to the door and a gleam caught his eye. A shiny wire snaked around the top of the doorframe and then across the ceiling. It had been attached with staples, and he followed it to where it ended. An antique iron had been attached to one end, and it hung down near the center of the room.

He frowned and gave it a swing. If it had been attached to the ceiling and let loose, it would have hit whoever came through

the door in the head. In this case it had struck Paradise, but she wasn’t likely the target since he was the one most likely

to use this shed.

It had been a planned attack on Blake.