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Maci was still wrapping her head around the conversation with Chance as they finished eating and did the dishes.

He was still here. Hadn’t told her to leave. Hadn’t told her he wanted nothing to do with her or the baby. He wasn’t acting weird or awkward.

It was more than she could’ve hoped for. Honestly, more than she could even understand. But he was touching her more, not less. Smiling at her gently in a way she could hardly resist.

And the thing was...she didn’t have to resist anymore. He knew all the ugly parts of her past and was still here talking about baby names and something he’d read about pacifiers.

For the first time she had hope for a future that included Chance—which was more than she’d ever let herself dream of.

But a reminder that she had other very real problems came way too soon. Chance’s phone chimed and he frowned as he looked down at the message.

“We’ve got incoming.”

“Your parents?” she asked.

“My brothers. They’re here.”

Chance went and unlocked the door and let them in. All three men looked grim.

“We need to talk,” Weston said. Chance nodded.

Luke took a seat at the dining room table. Brax grabbed a cup of coffee and did the same. Weston stood on his side of the table, his body tight with tension. Whatever he was going to tell them, Maci knew it wouldn’t be good.

“Should I stay?” she asked.

Luke nodded. “This concerns you most of all.”

Chance grabbed her hand and led her to the table, taking the seat next to her.

“First—” Weston rubbed his eyes “—when I got to the office, there was another note from the stalker. Hand delivered this time. It had been slid under the door.”

He handed them a note inside a sealed plastic bag. There was also a picture of her and Chance leaving the ob-gyn yesterday.

It looks like congratulations are in order and the ante has been upped. I am up for the battle and will defeat you despite your attempts to stop me.

“He knows about the baby,” she whispered. “He was there. He saw us.”

“Actually, that image is from the medical complex’s security camera,” Luke explained. “He probably wasn’t there, he just grabbed it later.”

That didn’t make Maci feel much better. She glanced over at Chance. Fury was burning in his eyes.

Weston held out a hand toward him. “I know you want to lose it right now, but you can’t. Believe it or not, it gets worse, and you’re going to need to focus.”

She could see Chance fight to release the rage enough to focus. Finally, he nodded.

“Even before this delivery this morning, something has been bugging me about the wording of the stalker’s notes,” Weston continued. “I decided to cast a wide net to see if anything came back. It did. This is— was —Brianna Puglisi.”

He slid over a printed newspaper article from three years prior in Dallas. Maci frowned as she read about a local hairstylist found dead in her apartment—strangled. She’d barely been twenty-five, but was a favorite of the wealthy ladies in town. More than one of them had lamented over her loss in the article.

“What’s this got to do with us?” Chance asked.

“There was a note found with the body. It wasn’t published in the paper, of course. I found out about it through some police connections.” Weston laid down a printed police report. “I highlighted the relevant part.”

Battles require sacrifices. War demands it. I must be the best.

Chance looked up at Weston. “Battle. Wars.”

Brax nodded, hands around his coffee mug. “Exactly. Same language as our guy.”

Chance muttered a curse. “And he killed her. Not just a stalker.”

Weston nodded. “Report states that Brianna had mentioned some weird notes she’d gotten, but she didn’t show them to anyone and police didn’t find any at her home or work.”

“This escalates things,” Chance said.

“You have no idea.” Luke slid a file across the table. “Once we started looking we found three more. All women in Texas or connecting states. Some stalkings that turned into murders. Some with no proof of stalking, but still a dead woman. But all with the war, battle, cross fire, be the best sort of language in notes that were found.”

Chance flipped through the police files of the other murders. “So we know there’s four dead women.”

Brax nodded. “At least. That’s what we found in just a few hours this morning by looking for cases with this sort of language involved. There may be more.”

Chance didn’t look up from the file. “We’re dealing with a serial killer.”

“A smart one,” Weston said. “Killed in different ways so that law enforcement didn’t put together what they were dealing with. Even the notes weren’t always associated with the killings. Sometimes they were left in a way that made them look like they belonged to the victim.”

Maci couldn’t stop the whimper that fell from her throat.

Chance pushed the file away and grabbed her hand. He entwined their fingers, stroking his thumb alongside hers in soft, soothing motions, as if he could feel the absolute panic rushing through her.

There was a serial killer on the loose. One who’d announced he was after her .

Luke attempted a comforting smile. “As scary as it sounds, it makes sense. We were confused why the stalker was getting violent with little to no provocation when it’s not typical for this type of fixation. But if he was a serial killer all along, violence was always the end goal.”

She could understand the logic of what he was saying, but it didn’t change the fact that a serial killer had set his sights on her.

Chance leaned back in his chair but didn’t let go of her hand. “Let’s work our way backward. He targeted Maci and us because of our connection to Stella. But I don’t recall notes to Stella containing the same war/battle language.”

Weston nodded. “You’re right. There’s nothing in Stella’s notes with those words.”

“Are we sure we’re dealing with the same guy?” Luke asked.

“Definitely the same as those dead women.” Brax took the last sip of his coffee, then pushed the mug away. “That language is too specific and similar for it not to be him.”

“It’s Stella who’s the anomaly,” Weston said.

Chance’s eyes narrowed. “Or...”

He faded off and Maci could almost see his mind spinning, working through various scenarios. Chance was a master at strategy and seeing patterns.

His brothers knew him well enough to give him silence while he worked it out. Maci squeezed his hand, then let it go as he stood up to pace.

“The other victims besides Brianna Puglisi, what did they do for a living?” he asked after a few seconds.

Luke grabbed the file. “Waitress in Houston. Photographer in Albuquerque. Clothing store salesperson in Austin. No evidence that they knew each other at all.”

Chance continued pacing. “They didn’t have to know each other to be connected. See if they have any connection with Stella.”

Weston caught on to his line of thinking first. “We have online access to Stella’s calendar. We can look at back dates.”

Chance nodded. “Start with the salon Brianna worked at. It catered to the upper echelon. Stella would’ve been willing to travel to Dallas to get her hair done by the stylist everyone was raving about.”

Weston sat down and got out his computer. “Okay, this is going to take a few minutes. Most of Stella’s appointments from over a year ago have been archived.”

Maci grabbed her phone. There was another, easier way to get this information. It may not have as many details as what Weston would pull up on the calendar, but...

“I’ve got it,” she said. “Stella was at the salon roughly eight months before Brianna was killed.”

All four men turned to face her. “How do you know?” Chance asked.

She spun her phone around so they could see. “It was on her social media. She said she liked Brianna and the style, but didn’t know that it would be worth coming to Dallas for every time, so she’d stick with her local stylist in San Antonio.”

Maci grabbed the file and flipped to the clothing store salesperson who’d been killed. It was a high-end boutique in Austin. She turned to her phone again and within just a minute had social media proof Stella had been there too.

“Stella has shopped at that clothing boutique in Austin multiple times. No direct proof that she knew the woman who was killed...”

“But the fact that she was there at all ties those two women together.” Chance looked around at his brothers. “Stella is the link.”

“You think she’s the killer?” Maci asked.

Chance shook his head. “No. But somebody close to her probably is.”

Weston began typing frantically on his computer.

“But what about all the notes Stella got that aren’t the same MO as the war/battle guy?” Brax asked. “Inconsistency doesn’t seem to fit for him.”

Chance shrugged. “Maybe after the first note he changed his plan or realized his normal language might get him caught. We don’t know that he ever planned to harm Stella. Maybe he was just trying to up the ante.”

Luke nodded. “This guy wants to be the best. But the best what? Killer? When he talks about winning, what is he referring to?”

With your queen as a prize, I’ll do whatever it takes to defeat you.

Maci shuddered as the words he’d written in the note about her came to mind.

Chance rubbed his eyes. “I think we were on the right track when we said this is some sort of professional challenge to him. A matter of pride. He wants to be the best at...whatever it is. Killing, stalking, keeping ahead of law enforcement. Who knows? Stella and her level of security and exposure just upped the challenge for him.”

Weston finally looked up from his computer. “I concur and want to take it a step further. I think we were right when we said this guy was former military.”

Chance nodded. “We need to check the full security team. Get Dorian in on it. He’d be the best one to say if there’s anyone on the team who fits the profile and maybe has been acting strange.”

“Before we do that, there’s someone else we need to look into. I think your instincts were right all along, Chance.” Weston spun the laptop around so everyone could see it. It was a picture of Rich.

“Rich?” Maci asked. “He’s not military.”

Weston hit a button that brought up a picture of a young Rich in a military uniform. “Nope, but he was Junior ROTC in high school. And his father, who died five years ago, was a decorated marine. Definite military ties we didn’t look closely enough into.”

“You really think Rich could be a killer?” Maci whispered. She thought of how much time she’d spent with him so close to her and felt sick.

Chance’s eyes were already filled with rage. “That smug bastard has been toying with us from the beginning. It damn well is going to end now.”