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Kayla’s holdaround the flashlight Ash had given her firmed as she inched closer to where the guard and her mother stood chatting like old pals.

Jillian leaned one shoulder against the slider’s door frame, her hands shoved deep into her robe’s pockets to presumably ward off the chill creeping steadily into the night.

When the first gunshots rippled through the air, two thoughts whooshed through her mind in quick succession. One—dammit. She’d been less than three feet from the guard’s unprotected back. Two—Ash. The latter thought had paralyzed her long enough for the guard’s sixth sense to kick in.

He whipped around, his eyes widening at her close proximity. Then he raised his rifle toward her chest. Kayla struck out, hitting the long barrel with the flashlight and knocking the business end away from her.

A dull thud registered, freezing her hand as she reached for her handgun. The guard’s body convulsed. His eyes rolled back in his head and his knees buckled.

Above him, Jillian stood as regal as ever, brandishing a metal meat tenderizer. “They removed all the knives, but left this.” She rocked the hammer-like kitchen utensil back and forth. “Sloppy.”

The guard rallied, sliding a serrated knife from a sheath strapped around his leg. Before he could free it, Kayla put the flashlight to use again and finished the meat tenderizer’s job.

When he lay prone and bleeding between them, Kayla shared a smile with her mother. Until she recalled how friendly Jillian had been with her so-called captor.

“What’s going on here, Mom?”

“Helping you rescue me, of course.”

“I don’t mean this.” She swept a hand over the unmoving guard. “Why are you hiding out in Aunt Sybil’s guesthouse?”

Jillian frowned. “Hiding out?” Something caught her eye and she sucked in a sharp breath before ordering, “Get inside!”

Kayla detected rapid movement in her peripheral vision. She reached for the handgun stuffed in the back of her jeans at the same time she flicked on the flashlight.

Rather than the bright, blinding beam she’d anticipated, a red glow lit up the guard. Ash’s night vision saver.

Even so, the guy ground to a halt, throwing an arm up to protect his eyes. “Kayla, it’s me.”

Ash.

She immediately lowered the gun and flashlight. A tremor took root in the center of her stomach and worked its way through her body, until it reached her hand. Slowly, carefully, she slid the pistol into the back of her pants before she lost all motor coordination.

She’d almost shot him. A half-second away from squeezing the trigger and shattering a man’s life. Not just any man.

Ash.

“You had a gun and you chose to attack my guard with a flashlight instead?” Jillian said, oblivious to or blatantly ignoring the near calamity right beneath her nose.

Kayla peeled her burning gaze from Ash to address her mother. “Do I look like a guns-blazing kind of gal?” The words shook from her mouth, echoing the tremors she couldn’t get under control.

Jillian sent her a warm, reassuring smile. “No, sweetheart, you don’t.”

Realization of what her mother was trying to do came to her by slow degrees, as if each neuron had to slog through thick gel before making a synaptic connection. Once she understood, Kayla tried to send her an answering thank-you, but her chin wobbled instead.

“Come on,” Ash said, holding his hand out to Kayla, “we need to get out of here. The guards won’t stay incapacitated for long.”

Kayla looked back at the beautiful woman still standing in the slider door frame. She didn’t know what to make of her mother being here, but she knew she couldn’t leave her behind.

Lifting an outstretched hand, she said, “Mama?”

Jillian hesitated the slightest bit before clasping tight to Kayla’s hand.

She turned back to Ash and nodded, just as another guard rounded the corner of the house and fired off a shot.

Ash’s body bucked, then he slipped from her fingers.