Page 26

Lizzy breathed in the night air. The temperature was perfect. She walked through the manicured gardens and to the edge of the glassy lake, a half-moon and the lights of buildings across the lake reflected in the surface.

A rowboat was semi-hidden in the trees by the water. It made her smile, thinking of Maria tipping the rowboat over in the movie.

It was time to say goodbye to Austria and this dream trip. Soon it would all feel like a mystical illusion.

Was she saying goodbye to Chase as well?

“‘When the dog bites, when the bee stings’,” she sang softly to herself. “‘When Chase doesn’t love me … any longer … I can’t think of my favorite things’.”

She broke off, morose. Chase had to protect her—she understood that—but he’d never explained or talked to her about it. Couldn’t he reassure her that he liked her and wanted to be with her?

Touching her lips, she remembered their intense kissing session last night. That had been reassuring. Until he broke away and fled to the bathroom.

Did they have any kind of future together?

Movement came from the side. Lizzy blinked in surprise as a man prowled out of the trees and stalked toward her with a huge grin on his face.

“You’re gonna make this easy on me,” Grady Worthen growled. “Where’s the boyfriend? He’s the one I have to kill first. Then I’ll take care of you.”

Lizzy backed up, horror rushing through her. She spun and ran, her legs weak, her knees failing her. She tripped on a root and went down hard, letting out a scream. She prayed someone would hear her.

Her guard. Where was her guard? She hadn’t thought much about it, but she hadn’t noticed him since she’d entered the garden.

Grady pounced on her, his huge weight pressing her into the damp ground. “I’m not supposed to kill you.” His hot breath seared her neck. “But I’m going to have fun with you before I get permission to slit your throat. After I kill your boy toy.”

No. Not Chase. Grady couldn’t kill Chase.

Please help , she begged her Father above.

Yet she didn’t want Chase to come help. She didn’t want Grady to hurt him.

Maybe she could scare Grady off. He’d run the night he attacked her when he heard sirens.

“My guard,” she choked out. “He’s very close.”

“That guy? I snuck up on him and shot him full of Versed. He’s down for the count and you’re all mine. Aren’t you going to fight me, girlie?”

His heavy weight on top of her was cutting off her oxygen supply.

“You fought me plenty when you stole my son from me. When you took everything I cared about.”

The stench of rotten food and alcohol puffed on his breath, just as it had that horrid night. Fears and pain flooded her. She was weak. She was going to die, but …

Please, Lord, don’t let him hurt Chase .

Grady eased his weight off of her and flipped her over onto her back. She lay on the hard ground and looked up into his ugly face. He leered at her, clearly proud of himself. “Say something, gorgeous. Beg for me not to kill your man. Not to hurt you.”

Lizzy was horrified. Frozen. What could she say that would stop him from hurting Chase?

“Why are you here?” she managed to whisper.

“Revenge,” he snarled. “You ruined my life.”

She stared into his fathomless dark eyes and knew he believed that, but how had he made it here and taken out her guard? At the Hallstatt house, he’d had his Army friend helping him.

Was someone helping him now?

Chase had been concerned Brandon had sent the other attacker as a prank, but Brandon and Rockwell had sworn he hadn’t. Could somebody else be helping Grady hurt her and kill Chase?

That glimpse she thought she’d had of Darren today made her sick all over again. Could he be involved in this nightmare?

“Please don’t hurt Chase,” she begged. “You’ve got me.”

“You don’t make the demands. I do,” he yelled in her face, his rotten breath making her stomach churn.

“Help!” she screamed as loud as she could.

Grady clamped a hand over her mouth. “Shut up,” he snarled. “You and I are going back to your room, and your boyfriend is going to die first.”

“No,” she whimpered, the word muffled behind his palm.

Grady stood and dragged her to her feet. He whirled her to face away from him, one hand clamped over her mouth, the other over her chest.

She prayed desperately, pulse racing, stomach churning.

How could she protect Chase?

Grady was suddenly ripped backward, away from her. He hollered in surprise.

Lizzy almost fell to the ground. Her legs were too weak to support her. She forced herself to stay upright and turned to help whoever her hero was.

“Chase,” she half-sobbed.

Chase whirled Grady to face him and went to work like a professional boxer on the man’s face, chest, and abdomen.

Grady threw hits back, but Chase dodged or deflected them as easily as if they had choreographed every blow.

For the second time, she saw her gentle protector transform into a machine and dismantle his opponent.

The fight was all Chase. Grady crumpled to the ground, hands up to protect his face.

Lights came on, and men’s voices called out. Peter and Tony sprinted their direction.

“Stay down,” Chase commanded Grady. “Unless you want what you deserve for daring to hurt Lizzy.”

Grady curled into a ball and moaned pitifully.

Peter and Tony reached them. They ripped Grady to his feet and yanked him away from Chase.

Chase straightened and looked her direction. “Lizzy.”

Her name was a lyrical whisper on the wind.

“Chase,” she breathed out.

Then he moved. He strode her direction as if he were the commander of the entire world. Lizzy loved his confidence, his kindness, his appeal, all that Chase was and represented to her.

She loved him.

All the pain of him shutting himself away from her this past week disappeared as he reached her, his blue eyes full of her. “Are you all right?” he asked, framing her face gently with his hands.

“Yes,” she managed.

She waited for him to chastise her, to ask how she could be so stupid as to go outside the room, or demand to know what the heck she’d been thinking. It was what her dad and previous boyfriends would have done.

“Thank all the angels above that you’re safe,” he said, studying her as if she were a gift from above and not a too-impetuous and too-chatty woman.

This was Chase. He treated her like an adult and made her feel as if she were the only person that mattered in his world.

“Thank you for rescuing me.”

Lizzy arched up onto tiptoes and kissed him. She clung to his muscular arms, and she was swept away in the beautiful crescendo of this kiss. He’d rescued her. She loved him. Their kiss sealed them together.

Nothing else mattered.