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“I think they came through here.”

Weston pressed his fingers back to his lips as the people tracking them passed close enough for them to hear their whispered words.

As if Kayleigh needed a reminder to be quiet.

Weston’s chest brushed hers as he brought his mouth to her ear and it was all she could do not to shiver at his touch.

“Take this.” He slipped his phone into her pocket and Kayleigh stilled as his lips grazed her skin. “If anything happens, you run as far and as fast as you can, and then you hide. Find cell service and call any number on speed dial. My brothers will take care of you.”

“I don’t want to do this without you.” She was barely keeping the panic at bay as it was.

He kissed her forehead. “You won’t. This is just a contingency plan.”

She shook her head, understanding, and Weston turned around to watch the grove again. He had his gun in his hand and was keeping himself between her and the bad guys—a cedar elm pressed up against her back.

She appreciated his protectiveness, but also didn’t want him to get shot trying to save her.

“We’ll have to get through him to take her,” one voice said, a little closer now.

Kayleigh’s stomach dropped.

Visions of her kidnapping flashed through her head. Darkness, the storm. Her jaw ached to make noise, to cry or scream. Anything. But she kept her mouth shut and her breathing quiet.

“I have no problem with that. She’s what’s important,” another voice said.

It felt like the two men were right on top of them. Weston stepped closer, adjusting his stance, making sure she was fully hidden. His frame was steady but tense, ready to move if needed.

“Looks like they came through here, but I can’t tell where they went after.”

The other guy groaned softly. “This is too much ground to cover just the two of us.”

Only two of them was a good thing.

“We keep looking. I’ll call for backup.”

The other man grumbled but didn’t object. Soon the footsteps and voices faded away into nothingness, leaving only the whisper of the wind through the trees and bushes.

The silence stretched on as Kayleigh counted the seconds, wanting to move, but Weston stayed still. It was nearly five minutes before Weston’s body finally relaxed.

“I wanted to make sure they weren’t trying to draw us out,” he said, voice still low. “But they’re gone.”

“How do you know?”

“The wildlife started chatting with each other again.”

She cocked her head and, sure enough, could hear the night sounds of crickets and other small animals.

He turned to her, taking her hand. “Doing okay?”

She bobbed her head. She wasn’t great—exhaustion was starting to really beat down on her—but they were alive. That was the most important thing. “Where are we going?”

“We’ll follow the river for a while. If memory serves, that will lead us to one of the access roads. I want to get as far away from the house as possible since it sounded like they’ll have reinforcements coming in.”

Kayleigh’s mouth dried at the thought of an entire team of people scouring the area for them. Two had been bad enough.

She followed Weston as he took the lead, still stepping where he did in case it would help.

Once they made it to the river, she had to ask what was on her mind. “Do you think my dad is okay?”

He sighed. “Honestly, I don’t know. He has measures in place so that his death doesn’t stop the merger.”

Kayleigh shouldn’t be surprised Leo had done that. Business had always been the most important thing to him. “Hopefully that’s enough to keep him safe.”

“I would’ve thought so but...”

Something in Weston’s voice dug at her. “What? What aren’t you telling me?”

He stopped and turned to look at her. “There’s no concrete evidence, but I think whoever is after you is closer than we think.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Between the lake house, which no one knew about, the mugging and the fire, it’s too much of a coincidence.” He must have seen the panic on her face because he stepped closer and ran his hands down her arms. “Like I said, I don’t know for sure, but I don’t believe in coincidences.”

“You think someone in Dad’s inner circle is behind this.”

“Either that or giving away information to people they shouldn’t. Regardless, they’ve found you too easily each time. I don’t like it.”

Her mind whirled as she thought through all the staff members who could’ve possibly gone turncoat on her father. There were dozens who worked at the house. “We have to tell Dad.”

“He’s probably already figured it out, but I’ll call as soon as we get service. Let’s get going.”

Weston held out his hand and Kayleigh didn’t hesitate to take it. She needed the touch to ground herself as much as she did to know where she was going. Everything had become a lot more complicated.

The worry in her mind turned off after another couple of hours of rushing through the wilderness. It was taking all her focus just to keep her body going.

Weston helped or she wouldn’t have made it. He was a pro at finding the flattest path through the trees. He gave warnings about low branches or tripping roots. But it was still brutal.

Then the skies opened up with the storm that had been blowing nearer all night and poured. Fear skittered down her spine as the first sounds of thunder rolled through the air. She fought the panic. There wasn’t time for it.

She wished it was that easy to turn off.

Weston looked over, his hand squeezing hers gently. It reminded her that she wasn’t alone, wasn’t a trapped, helpless child.

Fifteen minutes later, they were both soaked. Wet, even on a mild spring Texas night, was still chilly.

“Can I get my jacket out of my backpack?” She’d thrown a few things in there with her camera since she thought they’d be leaving Leo’s house.

This wasn’t what she’d been expecting.

He stopped and she got the jacket out of the bag.

“What else do you have in there?” Weston asked as she finally pulled the jacket free.

“Nothing that’ll fit you, unfortunately. A change of clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, a brush and...my film camera.” Kayleigh felt her cheeks warm. “Sorry that you’re having to carry all this stuff. Should we just ditch it?”

She hated the thought of losing the camera she’d owned for so long but knew she needed to keep her priorities straight.

“It’s not slowing me down. Believe me, I carried much heavier packs than this when I was in the military.”

He could probably carry her all the way out of here if he needed to. Thunder boomed over them and she clenched her teeth and forced herself to breathe, hoping she wasn’t going to have to find out if that was the case or not.

She would not be a burden to him.

“We need to find shelter before this gets worse,” he said.

She wasn’t sure if he wanted to do that because he knew how panicked she was or because the nature reserve tended to flood. It didn’t matter. They started their trek again, and while Weston looked for shelter, Kayleigh checked the phones whenever they stopped for cover. Each time she hoped to see service bars on the screen, but nothing came. She wasn’t surprised. This area was known for no signal.

By the time Weston found an overhang that would work to protect them from most of the storm, they were both close to shivering. Thankfully, they’d heard no signs of pursuit from the men after them, and Weston reassured her that whatever trail they left would be untraceable with the rain.

“Come on. Let’s get you out of those wet clothes and into something warm.”

The little space, about halfway up a small canyon, was barely big enough for them both to lie down in, but it at least protected them from the weather.

She crawled in, stripped out of her jacket and laid it out. “What about you? You don’t have anything to change into.” She wasn’t sure if it would really dry all that much but figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. Once she was changed, she turned back to Weston. “Oh.”

He’d stripped out of his shirt and unbuttoned his pants, though he kept them on before dropping to sit on the ground. Kayleigh was having trouble figuring out exactly where to look. His muscular arms, his toned stomach, his long fingers.

It wasn’t fear that had her resenting the dark now; it was her inability to see him fully.

He took her hand and pulled her down next to him. “You should try to get some sleep. We can’t start a fire, but hopefully if we stay close together, we’ll be warm enough.”

Kayleigh was about to decline, reminding him about her issues with storms, but he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her head onto his chest. She went willingly, laying her ear over his heart. The rhythmic thumping soothed her, reminded her that they were alive and together. And while she could still feel the anxiety from the storm and surrounding darkness pressing on her, it was enough to keep it at bay.

Clinging to Weston with an arm around his waist, Kayleigh let her eyes close. She still wasn’t sure how the boy she’d known had turned into the fierce man in front of her, one who had kept her safe in multiple situations now, but she was grateful.

This overhang may be providing them shelter from the physical storm, but he was her shelter from all the other ones.

W ESTON DIDN ’ T SLEEP , but he didn’t mind that a bit. Even though his back ached from the position he’d been in all night, he couldn’t force himself to wake Kayleigh.

She seemed so peaceful in his arms, her warm breath skittering across his chest with every exhale. He wished the circumstances were different and they were in his bed together. That he could wake her up with a promise of pleasure that would have them both forgetting their own names.

Instead, waking her now would push her straight back into a nightmare. She needed rest because he was afraid the worst part of all of this was still in front of them. The storm may have passed but they had other things to face down.

His mind whirled as the darkness faded into early morning twilight. Whoever was behind this was definitely somebody with inside knowledge of Leo’s network. Weston’s money was on Jasper. Something about him had never sat right. But it could be any of the security team. Hell, any of Leo’s staff altogether.

His lawyer, Dean McClintock, was privileged to all Leo’s inside info—Leo had spent most of the day with him yesterday. Hell, even Gwendolyn couldn’t be discounted.

He needed to get Kayleigh back to civilization and figure out who they could trust.

As much as he hated to do so, he gently shifted once there was full light and woke the beautiful woman lying on him. She shifted then blinked those green eyes at him as it all came back to her.

“Are we safe?” she whispered. “I can’t believe I slept.”

“The storm is gone and there’s been no sign of any bad guys after us. But we need to get moving. We’ll need to find somewhere with service.”

She looked away, the tips of her ears turning red as her stomach growled loudly enough to be heard. “And to get something to eat.”

Weston laughed, though he wasn’t much better off. All he wanted was a bottle of water and a burger. “Let’s get moving then.”

As they left the overhang, he checked for signs of anyone else having been near them and didn’t find any. That didn’t mean they were out of danger, but they wouldn’t have to set such a grueling pace.

Still, time wasn’t on their side. They made their way through the trees, enjoying the warmth that the slow sunrise brought them. It wasn’t much, but after a wet night outside, it was at least something. After an hour of brisk walking, Kayleigh never complaining despite the damp clothes and growling stomach, Weston’s phone had service.

He immediately called his brothers.

“San Antonio Security, this is Chance.”

Weston didn’t even ask why Maci wasn’t answering the phone. If Chance had killed her, Weston didn’t want to know about it. “Chance, it’s me.”

“Thank God, Weston. Where the hell are you? Do you know Leo Delacruz’s place burned down last night?”

“Yeah, we were there. Kayleigh and I had to take off into the public wilderness area behind the house and hide out. Someone is after her.”

Chance muttered a curse. “You okay? What do you need?”

“We’re all right, but we could use a ride. Water, food. We just spent the night in the nature reserve and we’re both a little worse for wear.”

“Injuries?”

“None,” Weston replied.

“Good. Where are you?”

Weston pulled up the GPS app on his phone and rattled off an area of the road a bit farther off their path to Chance.

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes,” his brother promised. “Stay safe.”

“We will.” Weston disconnected the call and turned to Kayleigh. “My brother Chance is on his way.”

“Can I call my dad?”

He hated to disappoint her but it was too dangerous. “We can’t. Not yet. If this is an inside job, like we’re thinking, Leo’s phone may be monitored. We can’t take a chance on leading anybody to us.”

Her lips tightened, but she nodded.

He hooked a hand at the back of her neck and trailed his thumb down her cheek. “Let’s get somewhere safe, then contacting your dad will be top of the list of things to do.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

He led them the rest of the way to the rendezvous point, keeping them both in the shadows of a group of trees until Chance pulled up.

“All good?” he asked.

Weston helped Kayleigh into the back seat and climbed in next to her. Chance tossed back some water bottles and granola bars, as well as a blanket.

“Yeah, thanks for the lift. Spot anything suspicious coming out?”

He met his brother’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “No. Luke was coming in from the other direction to make sure there were no problems. Brax is tailing me about a mile behind.”

Weston nodded and tore into one of the water bottles as Kayleigh devoured a nutrition bar.

“Kayleigh, I’d like you to meet my brother Chance. Chance, Kayleigh Delacruz.”

Chance held a hand up in a friendly wave. “Nice to meet you. Sorry Weston hasn’t learned that showing a lady a good time doesn’t have to include wilderness survival training.”

Kayleigh smiled. “Our next date will involve no running through the wilderness.”

Their next date. Weston was determined there would be one.

Hell, there would be hundreds.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news...” Chance continued. “We got more intel about the fire, and it’s not good.”

Kayleigh stiffened. “Oh God.”

“No fatalities, but there were some injuries. Kayleigh...your father is in the hospital. I don’t know much but—”

She turned to Weston. “We have to go. I have to see him.”

“That’s exactly where they’ll expect you to go,” Chance said.

“I don’t care. If it was one of your parents, would you hide and wait for word or would you be there?”

Weston didn’t even have to consult his brother. There was no way in hell any of the Patterson boys wouldn’t be at their parents’ side in that situation.

That didn’t mean he liked bringing Kayleigh into danger. He let out a sigh. “It’s not the safest plan.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You’ll keep me safe. But we’re going.”

He gave her a short nod then got out his phone. He would need to set things in motion with his brothers to make sure she was truly secure.

“Okay. We go.”

He reached over and grabbed her hand. She squeezed it, relief clear on her features.

He hoped he wasn’t making a huge mistake.