She was pale.

  Her eyes were closed.

  And there was blood trickling from a wound on her throat onto the sidewalk.

  “The police and ambulance are on their way, Mr. Durand,” the owner of the restaurant said breathlessly as he came to a stop behind me. “I wasn’t far behind you. I called 911 as soon as I realized what was happening.”

  I was relieved that help was coming, but I didn’t even look at the voice that had told me that. I simply waved at the perpetrator and growled, “Keep an eye on him. She’s hurt. Vanna!” I bellowed as I felt for her pulse and put a hand on her chest.

  Her pulse was fast, but strong, and I could tell that she was breathing.

  I checked the wound at her neck, relieved when I realized it was fairly superficial.

  “Wake up, Vanna. Open your eyes,” I pleaded.

  My heart thundered in my ears as I watched her eyelids flutter for a moment before she completely opened her eyes. Her expression was full of confusion until she saw my face and apparently remembered what had happened.

  “Chase!” she choked out on a sob as she sat up and flung herself into my arms.

  I wrapped my arms around her protectively. “Vanna,” I said with relief.

  I knew basic first aid.

  I knew I should have kept her quiet on the ground in case she had a back or neck injury.

  But the chances of that were slim, and I couldn’t fucking let her go. Not after I’d almost lost her.

  “Everything is going to be okay, baby,” I reassured her.

  She openly sobbed against my shoulder. Her entire body was shaking like a leaf, so I simply held her, trying to soothe her by gently rocking her over and over until the ambulance finally arrived.

  Savannah

  “Are you sure that you’re okay?” Torie asked as she sat at the side of my hospital bed several hours later.

  “I’m fine,” I said as I took her hand and smiled. “It’s just a superficial cut on my neck. The only reason they’re keeping me overnight is because I lost consciousness briefly when my head hit the pavement. It’s just for concussion observation. All of my tests were fine.”

  It was after one am in the morning, but the whole gang was here in my hospital room.

  The nurses had allowed it because I had a private room, and I’d just gotten upstairs from the ER a short time ago.

  Hudson, Jax, and Cooper had arrived with Taylor, Harlow, and Torie, but apparently, Wyatt had been the first one to arrive soon after Chase and I had gotten here by ambulance. I wasn’t sure if Chase had called him, or if Wyatt just knew about everything the second something happened to his family. Everyone had been waiting for me in my room when I’d arrived a short time ago. The ER was packed, so no one had been allowed to visit me there since Chase had been with me, and the police had been interviewing both of us.

  “I was so worried,” Torie said, her voice still reflecting concern.

  “I’m glad that asshole is dead,” Cooper chimed in from his place behind Torie.

  Truthfully, I was relieved myself. The perpetrator had been Jeffrey Kruger, the son of the late Gerald Kruger.

  The police had just informed us before we’d come up to my room that Jeffrey was dead. They’d taken him to a holding cell at the jail, and he’d immediately found a way to hang himself.

  I shuddered, still not quite over my initial shock.

  Maybe he was a tormented soul, but he would have killed me without a single ounce of remorse. He’d been that crazy.

  I didn’t remember anything about the short time I’d been unconscious, but I’d seen Chase flying into action right before my head had connected with the pavement.

  I’d known that I either had to try to escape or I was going to die. The lunatic’s intention had been extremely obvious.

  I’d also been aware that all Chase needed was a second or two without that knife at my neck to take the man down.

  As it turned out, he hadn’t even needed an entire second. He’d dove for the perpetrator immediately after I’d let my body drop.

  “I’m glad, too,” Torie said adamantly. “He was evil and twisted. God, if I’d had any idea that he was that nuts, I would have encouraged you to agree to that bodyguard. At least for a while.”

  “Nobody knew,” Chase answered from his place at the foot of the bed. He was obviously tuned in to our conversation, even though he was conversing with Wyatt, Hudson, and Jax about what had happened.

  “You must have been terrified, Vanna,” Taylor said gently. “We had to know if you and Chase were okay.”

  Taylor and Harlow were standing right next to where Torie was sitting on the bed.

  The two of them had already asked if I minded company.

  I’d thanked them both for their concern and told them I didn’t mind at all.

  Honestly, I welcomed the distraction, and I was touched that they were worried.

  Both Taylor and Harlow were very easy to like.

  “I was, but it happened so fast,” I explained. “I was even more scared after it was over, I think.”

  “That’s probably natural,” Harlow mused. “Once you have a second to think about it and the initial danger is over, you can finally process the incident. Can we get you anything?”

  I shook my head as I replied, “I’m fine now. I am a little worried about Axel.”

  “Your dog is fine,” Torie informed me. “I hope you don’t mind, but I have a key and the alarm code, so Cooper and I checked on him while we were waiting for you to get to your room.”

  I let out a sigh of relief. “I’m glad.”

  “I wasn’t sure if he’d let me in,” she said. “But he recognized my smell and probably Milo’s scent on me as well, even though he was hesitant at first. Cooper waited outside in the front while I let Axel out in back, got a change of clothes for you, and then left the gorgeous beast with a very large cookie. The bag with your clothes is on the chair in the corner. I can check on him until you get home if you want. I’m assuming that Chase will be staying the night.”

  “I’m staying,” Chase answered before I could.

  I nodded. “Please check on him. They said I’d be discharged after breakfast in the morning.”

  “No problem,” Torie agreed. “Maybe I’ll take Milo with me in the morning. It’s Saturday, so we could go for a walk. Text me when you’re getting ready to leave so I know you’re on your way home. I suppose we should all bail so you can get some rest.”

  Taylor and Harlow agreed and then both women hugged me before they joined their husbands.

  Hudson and Jax wished me a goodnight before they left with their spouses.

  I embraced Torie and Cooper next before they exited.

  I raised my hand at Wyatt to say goodbye as he broke off his conversation with Chase to depart.

  Wyatt strode over to the bed and he scooped me up in a huge bearhug as he said gruffly, “I’m glad you weren’t seriously injured, Savannah.”

  I was taken aback for a second before I put my arms around his very large body and hugged him back. Wyatt wasn’t normally a hugger with me, even though I’d known him since I was a kid.

  When Wyatt straightened up, he said to Chase, “Call me tomorrow. Both of you get some rest.”

  Wyatt left without saying another word.

  “I think that’s the first time I’ve seen Wyatt hug anyone other than Torie,” Chase observed as he pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat. “You definitely scared him. Scared me, too.”

  He looked almost unaffected except for the anguish I could see in his eyes, but that expression spoke volumes.

  “I’m fine,” I assured him as he took my hand. “I’m sorry I had that meltdown after I woke up. I’m not sure why, but my adrenaline was still pumping. Harlow was right. I don’t think I even processed what happened until I woke up and realized how scared I’d been. Thank you for saving me—again.”

  “You were so fucking brave, Vanna,” Chase said, his voice almost like a supportive caress. “And you actually saved yourself. I just finished the bastard off.”

  Chase was so full of it. “If you hadn’t been there to knock Jeffrey senseless, I would have been dead.”

  “If you weren’t with me, you wouldn’t have been in danger in the first place,” Chase rasped. “Where did you learn to fight back like that?”

  “I’ve had some self-defense classes. I used to go to some dangerous places. I thought it would be a good idea,” I told him. “I wasn’t sure what to do. I knew if I could just get that knife away from my neck, I’d have a chance. How’s your hand? What happened to the ice pack they put on it?”

  Chase’s knuckles were pretty swollen from boxing without a glove, but they’d X-rayed it, and nothing was broken, thank God.

  “I’m good, Vanna,” Chase replied, blowing off my concern. “I’m more worried about you. I don’t think the visions of you with a knife at your neck and about to die are going to leave my brain anytime soon.”

  “You felt it, too, didn’t you?” I asked in a shaky voice. “He was ready to kill me. He wasn’t bluffing.”

  Chase stood, kicked off his shoes and climbed into bed beside me. He cradled my body against his before he answered, “I told you I wouldn’t lie to you, so yeah, I felt it. He was a madman, Vanna. I could tell you knew it, too. That’s why I was ready when you made a move.”

  A shiver ran through my body.

  I didn’t really want to think about how close I’d come to dying.

  The thing that had actually saved me was probably the close connection I had with Chase—so close that we could almost hear each other thinking in a dire situation.

  “Is it horrible that I really am glad he’s dead?” I wondered aloud in a hesitant voice.

  Chase buried a hand in my hair and pulled my head gently to his chest. “Fuck, no. Who knows how much time he would have gotten in the end, and that bastard was dangerous. I’ve seen people who were already past the point of no return. He was there. I’ve had a bad feeling about this situation for a while. It didn’t feel right. I should have never taken you out. It’s ironic that I got you a protection dog and this happened when you couldn’t even have Axel with you.”

  I could tell he was really troubled. “I had you. It’s over, Chase. It’s not your fault. You never could have anticipated something like this happening.”

  I knew he was feeling guilty about the whole situation, and he had no reason to feel that way.

  “I should have anticipated it,” he answered harshly. “Jesus! I nearly got you killed just because you’re my woman, Vanna. You’ve been through enough.”

  “I’m not dead, Chase,” I said softly.

  “Let’s not talk about this right now,” he said abruptly. “Let’s just focus on you getting well. You sound tired.”

  “I feel like my brain is still a little scrambled, and I’m exhausted. I think it’s probably more emotional than physical. I’m a little overwhelmed,” I admitted.

  “I’m not surprised,” he said morosely. “You’ve had two near-death experiences in the last six months.”

  “True,” I said as I released a big breath.

  “Sleep, Vanna,” he said gently. “It’s been an insane day.”

  “For both of us,” I added with a yawn.

  I was exhausted, and I knew my head would be more together after I slept.

  I burrowed into his body, trying to get comfortable, still feeling like something wasn’t quite right with Chase.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked him.

  “I’ll feel better when I can get you home,” he confessed. “I hate hospitals.”

  My heart fell as I thought about how much time he’d spent in the hospital after the attack in the military. “I wasn’t even thinking about how much you must dislike being in one. I’m sorry.”

  “Relax, baby. You haven’t had the best experiences with hospitals yourself,” he said huskily. “It’s not going to kill me to stay here tonight. I’ll just be more relaxed when you’re back in a normal environment with Axel.”

  My eyes fluttered closed.

  I felt exactly the same way.

  Savannah

  “I’m not sure that Chase really wants to be with me anymore,” I told Torie two weeks later on a Saturday afternoon. “I swore I’d never discuss any problems Chase and I ever had with you, but you’re my best friend. I wanted you to know that we might not stay together.”

  I’d lamented for a week over mentioning something to her, but in the end, I knew I needed to talk to someone.

  Chase certainly wasn’t talking, and Axel wasn’t good with romance advice.

  Torie and I were so close, and I felt so incredibly miserable. We’d always been there for each other at the best and darkest times of our lives. Right now, mine was the latter.

  Chase had gone to a rare Saturday meeting at Durand, and Cooper was out running, so Torie had stopped by with Milo to chat.

  I had pulled some snacks and soft drinks out of the fridge and we’d sat down at the kitchen table as Axel and Milo played outside.

  Her eyes were dark with concern as she answered, “Vanna, we’ve been best friends almost our entire lives. Chase might be my brother, but he’s also your boyfriend. Talk to me. Did something happen?”

  I shook my head slowly as I shared, “I’m not even sure what happened. We didn’t argue. He just put up some kind of wall between us. He asks me how I’m doing every day, but he’s really distant, emotionally and physically. Chase hasn’t touched me since I got home from the hospital. I’ve never seen him like this, and the more I try to talk to him, the more he backs away.”

  Tears filled my eyes and they began to flow steadily down my cheeks. Having Chase step back from our relationship instead of forward was killing me. Especially when I had no idea why it was happening. I couldn’t fix something I didn’t understand.

  And God, I really wanted to fix it. I missed him so much that it was tearing my heart to shreds.

  “Wait,” Torie said as she frowned. “So nothing weird preceded this distance at all?”

  “Nothing,” I said as I pulled a handful of potato chips from the bag. “We didn’t even have a small disagreement. He still eats dinner with me when he gets home from work, but he’s quiet. Once he’s done, he goes into the gym while I stress eat in the evening. At the rate I’m consuming junk food, I won’t be able to fit into my jeans anymore within a day or two.”

  Torie popped the top on a Diet Coke. “When guys work out excessively, they’re either cheating or frustrated,” she said thoughtfully. “Since I’m positive Chase isn’t a cheater, I’d say something else is bothering him.”

  My eyes flew to her face as I swiped the tears from my cheeks. “You don’t think there’s someone else?” I asked, knowing even as I asked that question that there almost certainly wasn’t.

  Chase wasn’t the type. At all.

  I may not know what was wrong, but I still trusted him.

  Torie rolled her eyes. “Are you joking? He loves you in a way that’s pretty much obsessive. There’s no room in his brain for another female. I’d say he’s definitely frustrated.”

  I swallowed the chips I’d stuffed into my mouth before I answered, “I’m starting to feel the same way.”

  “He won’t talk to you about it at all?” Torie questioned.

  “Nope,” I said after I’d washed down those chips with some soda. I instantly grabbed another handful. “He says everything is okay when I ask him what’s wrong. But everything is not okay. He usually talks to me about everything. Which tells me his problem is with me.”

  “Not necessarily,” Torie mused. “Or at least, not directly. I honestly don’t think Chase has ever been in love. Yeah, he’s been fond of other women in the past. But I’m wondering if he just doesn’t know how to handle all this. Give him some time, Vanna. If he doesn’t snap out of it, smack him upside the head to knock some sense into him. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to him, and I think he knows that.”

  “He hasn’t ever said that he loves me, Torie,” I confided.

  She nearly choked on her Diet Coke. She coughed before she shot me a seriously-are-you-joking expression. “I’m surprised he hasn’t,” she shared. “But no one can look at Chase when he’s with you and doubt that he loves you for even a single moment. Have you told him how you feel?”

  I shook my head. “I’ve wanted to, but it always felt like it was too soon. And then he started putting this distance between the two of us. When I got home from the hospital, I’d all but decided to just tell him that I love him. If there’s one thing I learned from that attempted murder experience, it’s that life is too short not to tell someone you love them. But I’m pretty certain it isn’t something he wants to hear right now.”

  Torie snorted. “I doubt that. I think he just feels guilty about what happened. You know my brothers are always willing to take the blame for anything that happens to someone they care about. First, you were kidnapped and nearly died. Then, you were almost killed because of a madman with a vendetta against Wyatt and Chase. My brothers have always been the type of guys who analyze things a little too much.”

  I opened the bag of chocolate cookies and took a few. “If that’s true, then I’m not handling the way he’s pushing me away while he does that,” I grumbled and took a bite out of a cookie.

  “Then make him listen to you, Vanna,” Torie suggested. “You’re far from a meek and mild type of woman. Get in his face and make sure he’s hearing you.”

  No, I generally wasn’t the kind of female who hesitated to make my opinions known when it was important. Then again, I’d never been in love like this before. I wanted to respect his space, but enough was enough.

  “He either wants me or he doesn’t,” I considered aloud.

  “Or he wants you too much,” Torie said, her tone slightly amused. “I have a feeling he’s trying to decide whether he’s good enough for you right now, or whether he should be putting you at risk by being with him.”

  I eyed her for a moment before I inquired, “Are you being absolutely serious right now?”