To leave everything I’d known behind me, if only to keep her safe and start life anew, far away from my father’s shadow.
Until he got impatient.
Until he called me away.
Until she threatened to leave.
I thought I’d made my mark on her.
I thought I’d convinced her in the only way I knew how.
Once again, however, my beautiful little lamb proved me wrong.
For the last time.
Or so I thought.
I’d never lost before. Certainly not to another man. How was one to cope? How was one to think clearly when the love of his life had undoubtedly been brainwashed by an imposter, a plant, a pretender?
Kidnap her.
Get her to listen to reason.
Most importantly, whisk her away from the edge of danger she was so precariously close to, even if she was unaware.
I got her out. We were on our way to safety. All I had to do was make it to the airport where we’d meet our plane to take us far away. Once we were in the air, I planned to explain everything. I just needed time.
Time I, apparently, was not going to be granted.
The police cruiser came out of nowhere, and I swerved, narrowly avoiding a disastrous collision. Panic rushed in, causing me to overcorrect into the opposite lane. I barely had time to hit the brakes before I realized what fate we were about to meet.
And when the car veered off that bridge, my life flashed before my eyes. Gabriella’s life. From the moment I’d first seen her to when I’d watched my bodyguard stick the needle into her neck and every damn second in between. I saw it all and it wasn’t enough.
I wanted more.
Whether I lived or died was of no consequence. Losing Gabriella, however, was out of the question.
As the car sank, I had to make a life-altering decision: stay and risk getting caught or go and risk Gabriella’s life.
How could I leave?
How could I stay?
The shouts of arriving police officers already making their way down to the water made my decision for me. They would save her. They had to.
If I was caught…
She’d be doomed.
I swam to the opposite shore and hightailed it out of there before anyone was the wiser.
So here I am, like those years before, watching this beautiful creature from afar. My hands aching for her touch. My heart clenching for her love. Need coursing through me violently as I fight dominant urges to go to her. To wipe her tears. To scoop her into my arms and vow never to let her ago. Never again.
One foot moves forward on its own volition. My heartbeat intensifies like a high-speed train racing across its tracks, eager to get to its final destination. I stop myself, continuing to watch.
And then I spy a single tear spilling out onto her cheek and I lose all sense of mind.
I can take it no more. No longer can I be a shadow in the dark. No longer can I remain at arm’s distance. No longer will I watch this beautiful, fragile being from afar. My delicate, vulnerable girl. She’s been the only vision in my sights for so long, and I cannot believe I lost her. I cannot bear the fact that she is no longer mine. I cannot—will not—give up on her. On us. On our love. I must show her, prove to her, I’m still the man she fell in love with. The man who rescued her from loneliness. From grief. The one she is meant to spend the rest of her life loving.
Not him. Never him.
I have to get to her.
Gabriella Latham’s life is about to be turned on its axis.
And she has no idea just how skewed it’s already become.
Only one man can save her…
Me.
I STRETCH MY ARMS out wide and immediately go stock-still at the feel of crisp sheets—the bed is empty next to me. My eyes pop open, and I hastily rise, glancing around, listening for any indication Rafe’s still here.
Nothing.
No sounds of the shower running, the toilet flushing, or teeth brushing.
Instead, echoes of the eerie silence that greets me let me know Rafe’s no longer in our hotel room.
My eyes scan the room until they fall to his side of the bed. A folded sheet of hotel paper sits on the nightstand next to the bed, and I reach across the mattress to grab it. Then I quickly unfold it, scouring the contents of his message.
A smile softly forms on my face as I reread the words once again. He’s the