Alaskan Hideout. Sarah Varland

      And she let out another cry.

       FOUR

      Emma couldn’t breathe, the sounds around her, the noise, the flash of glass as it passed her, creating a cacophony of senses that made it impossible to find her balance. Her center.

      Sharp pain registered in her cheek and arm. Shards from the window. She couldn’t imagine how hard they were going to be to get out.

      Tyler, beside her, was immediately on his feet, reached for the weapon on his hip, some kind of medium-size handgun, black. Tyler had a gun? Steady, calm Tyler?

      Besides, hadn’t she just overheard him telling Noah he wasn’t going to help protect her?

      Emma had too many questions and not enough time to think them through. Right now she needed to get somewhere safe. Forcing herself to focus, she pushed into the hallway, edged as far away from the door that led to the balcony as she could. Away from danger.

      Tyler ran toward it, pushing back out into the darkness. More shots.

      “Tyler!”

      She swallowed hard, watched as he took cover behind the railing as best he could.

      Footsteps behind her. Someone yelling Tyler’s name. Noah, also with a gun in his hands.

      Emma scooted farther inside, the carpet rough against her hands.

      “Get inside!” Noah ordered his brother.

      Tyler hesitated, eyes trained on something out there in the night that Emma couldn’t see. Didn’t want to see. He lowered his gun and followed Noah into the hallway.

      The shots stopped.

      But nothing felt the same to Emma. Nothing felt safe. If she’d thought her sense of security had been rocked before, this was a whole new level. Someone had gone to the trouble to come after her again. Here at a crowded lodge with witnesses everywhere.

      Was the killer brave? Cocky? Crazy?

      Her trail of thoughts surprised her. She’d have thought she’d be content to leave the investigation in the hands of police, where it belonged, but all of a sudden she didn’t want to be in the dark anymore. What if she knew something, more than just the vague recollection of having suspicious papers she’d wanted to talk to her boss about?

      What if she could help take down the guy who was after her? Bring security back to her life? Back to the life of this family she’d intruded into? This family whose world she felt she was wrecking as thoroughly as was possible.

      They were not only dealing with the danger she’d brought to their doorstep, but they were absorbing what had to be shock at the revelation that her son was part of their family. They all seemed ecstatic, or at least welcoming. And Emma knew her son was the best thing in her life besides Jesus. But for these people to have welcomed her with so much grace despite the fact that her presence, Luke’s presence, told them things about their brother that rocked their perception of him...

      It hurt to think that she was bringing danger to the first people from whom she’d felt such acceptance in years...or ever. What an odd place to find it, too.

      “Get Emma into one of the rooms. I’m going outside to check it out.” Noah moved away.

      “Let me come, too.” Tyler’s words were firm. Like he wasn’t going to take no for an answer and Emma’s heart thudded in her chest.

      “I thought you wanted out of this?”

      “I’m not going to let anything happen to her. I’ve got that police academy training you had me get.”

      Noah nodded. “Fine. Come with me. Kate, keep her safe.”

      Emma hadn’t noticed Kate, but there she was, behind them. She held a hand out to Emma, a look of compassion on her face. “Come on. Luke heard the noise and woke up, but I’ve got him in my room with Summer. We’ll go in there.”

      Emma nodded. Had Luke heard the shots or just the noises? For his sake she hoped just the noise. She didn’t believe in lying to her son, even to protect him, but it didn’t seem age-appropriate to explain the full depth of the fact that someone wanted her dead. She’d stuck to vague explanations like “dangerous” and “not safe” on her way here. Things like that. Not “a bad guy is hunting Mommy with his gun.”

      His. Emma had assumed it was a man but, actually, based on the frame of the figure dressed in black at her office, the one who’d killed her boss, it could have been a woman. Whoever it was had been significantly taller than Emma. Maybe five-nine? Five-ten?

      “He’s really okay?” she asked Kate on their way down the hall as she tried to calm her racing heartbeat. Everything had gone from chaos to controlled, thoughtful in such a span of a few seconds. She was having trouble keeping up.

      “He’s fine, Emma. We’re going to make sure he stays that way. You, too.”

      Emma shook her head as they approached the door to Kate’s room and took a deep breath to try to ease some of the tension from her facial features for Luke’s sake. “Tyler wants nothing to do with me. He hates me, Kate, and I don’t blame him.”

      Kate shook her head. “The first thing may be true. But he’s out there in the dark trying to catch whoever is after you. That doesn’t sound like someone who hates you.”

      They moved into the room and Emma threw her arms open for Luke who immediately jumped off the bed he was on and ran to her, throwing his arms around her and squeezing as tight as he could. It wasn’t the most comfortable embrace, but Emma loved her little guy and he was one hundred percent boy. He did nothing halfway. She squeezed back.

      “I heard a noise and I was worried about you.” He frowned at her. “It’s because of the reason why it’s dangerous for us to stay in Texas, right? Because of why we had to come to Alaska?”

      Emma met his eyes, wrestled with how to answer, and finally kissed his nose.

      “I love you, buddy.”

      “You didn’t answer my question.”

      “I didn’t. You’re a smart kid, you know that? Yes, there was something...dangerous. But it’s okay. It’ll be okay.”

      Luke seemed satisfied with that and ran back to the bed where Emma now noticed Summer was holding an iPad. She met the other woman’s eyes and Summer shrugged. “Sorry, I know I’m totally encouraging the screen time today but...”

      Emma smiled. “No explanation needed. A day of movie watching never hurt anyone. Extenuating circumstances and all that.” She moved toward them, settled on the other side of Luke, between him and the window. Kate seemed to notice and moved to put herself between Emma and the window. Just like that, she’d make sure Emma and her son were protected? Her chest constricted. She didn’t know if she’d ever known this kind of loyalty that didn’t ask for anything in return.

      Except...Tyler.

      She swallowed hard as she thought of him now, out there in the darkness, risking his life.

      For her? Because it was the right thing to do?

      For Luke?

      Emma didn’t know and it didn’t matter. Any explanation squeezed her heart in a way she couldn’t explain and didn’t want to analyze too closely because the facts were this: Emma had told herself a lot of half truths over the years to protect her heart, to move forward with her life. She’d had good intentions, truly she had, but everything was clear now that she was here again, with Tyler.

      He might have been out of her life for years, but her heart betrayed her. They could never be together, could never get past the entire ocean of water under the bridge that was their relationship, but she was never going to be able to shove him out of the space he occupied in her heart.