Risky Return. Virginia Vaughan

about him now except the basics he’d shared—he’d been an army ranger, now worked private security and was back in town to deal with his late mother’s estate.

      “So tell me something about you,” she said.

      He shrugged. “There’s not much to tell. My work keeps me traveling. Or at least, it used to.”

      “You’re not working overseas anymore?”

      He shrugged. “That’s something that is still up in the air. What about you, Rebecca? How is your life?”

      “It’s good. I’m happy.”

      “You never remarried?”

      She looked at him, confused. “How could I when I’m still married to you?”

      He choked on his food then dropped it, looking dismayed as he stared at her. “What do you mean? You never got a divorce?”

      She was surprised by his shock. Of course, he’d assumed she had taken care of it. She should have, instead of letting this joke of a marriage continue, yet she’d never been able to bring herself to file the papers. “At first, I was too heartbroken to even think about it. Then I was just too ashamed. I never told anyone that we got married. My father would have been so angry and at the time, I just couldn’t deal with it. My family still doesn’t know. After a while, it seemed easier to keep it a secret. I never told them about the baby, either.”

      He leaned back in his seat and sighed. “No one knows?”

      She shook her head. It seemed wrong to never mention their child and she often felt guilty for keeping it a secret, but whenever she tried to think about it or mention it to someone, it brought back all the pain and heartache of that day. “Sometimes it feels like it never happened, but I know it did.”

      She stood and cleared away the containers, hoping activity would ease the tension between them. She picked up a towel and started wiping down the counters, vaguely aware of him standing behind her.

      “Rebecca, I—I’m sorry.”

      “Don’t.” She turned around to face him. “This day has been too much for me, Collin. I can’t deal with you, too. I just want to go to bed and forget this day ever happened.”

      He backed away from her, digging his hands into his pockets in a way she remembered he did whenever he’d been rebuked. “I’ll finish up that second coat then I’ll be out of your way.”

      She gave a sigh of relief and thanked him when the second coat of paint covered the ugly marks. Collin cleaned up then made certain the house was secure before he left. The place felt empty with him gone, but she knew it was for the best. It felt good to finally tell someone else what she’d been struggling with. It was like a burden lifted from her shoulders. She wasn’t alone in this. But despite how grateful she was that he’d been here today, she couldn’t risk her heart by having him around long-term. It stunned her that she still had such strong feelings for him even after all this time. It had to be because of the stress of the day’s events.

      She got ready for bed then slipped between the blankets, her body screaming for rest but her mind still wide-awake and the pounding in her head unimaginable. How would she ever sleep with all that had happened to her today? And she still had to decide what to do with Missy. The girl had shown up on her doorstep two nights ago, frightened and claiming she’d been abducted by people who’d wanted her baby. The timing was right. Missy had been six months pregnant when she’d vanished, she’d been missing for months, and she was certainly now not pregnant. But who were these people after her and how was Rebecca going to protect her if she wouldn’t go to the police?

      Her mind turned back to Collin despite the fact that she was trying not to think about him. Seeing him again today evoked so many emotions she’d spent years trying to manage. Grief for the loss of her child. Heartbreak over the way he’d abandoned her. She should hate him. Why, then, was falling into his arms all she wanted to do?

      She finally drifted off but her sleep was fitful and restless, her dreams wrought with all the pain and fear that had rocked her day. She jerked awake but was certain it hadn’t been the dream that woke her.

      Panic filled her as she realized a figure was standing over her bed.

      Rebecca scrambled up but the man’s hands grabbed her and wrapped around her neck. He pinned her down, choking her. She gasped for breath, fear rising in her. She kicked and clawed at him, struggling to get free, and felt her nails digging into flesh through the dark mask he wore.

      God, help me.

      She couldn’t go out like this. She couldn’t leave Missy to fight these people alone. She wasn’t going to let them win! One of her kicks landed, sending the man rolling off her. She reached for her bedside lamp and crashed it over his head. He hit the floor, groaning in pain as Rebecca ran. She hurried through the house to the front door and ran outside, not stopping to look back to see if her attacker was following. She crossed the lawn to her next-door neighbor’s house and knocked until he answered. He was groggy after being pulled from sleep.

      “Rebecca, what’s wrong?”

      Only then did she allow herself to fall apart. “He attacked me!”

       TWO

      The call from Kent had Collin dressed and heading toward Rebecca’s house in mere moments. He saw her when he pulled up and parked. She was sitting in the ambulance as a forensics team cleaned beneath her nails. As he neared her, the ugly bruises around her neck were just starting to form, to go along with the ones on her face. She looked pale and weak, but he knew she wasn’t. She’d survived this attack by fighting back and that took courage and strength. She’d always been strong—the strongest woman he’d ever known. She’d defied her father to be with him and that had taken real courage.

      She glanced up and saw him and tears sprang to her eyes. His own rush of emotion nearly toppled him and an anger flashed through him that he hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Then the guilt washed over him. He should have stayed, offered to sleep on the couch, and if she’d refused his offer, he should have slept in his car outside. He would have been there to protect her, to see when some nutjob broke in and tried to harm her.

      Kent approached him and Collin shook his hand. “Thanks for calling me.”

      “I figured you would want to know. She’s okay, not seriously hurt. She put up a good fight, even got us some possible DNA by scratching his face.”

      “Do you know who did this?”

      “No, he wore a mask and was gone when the first car responded. We’re canvassing the neighborhood to see if anyone saw anything suspicious and Forensics is back inside processing the house. We’ll find something.”

      He spotted them closing the ambulance doors and after a moment the vehicle drove away with her inside. Collin walked into the house and followed Kent into the bedroom, where a team was already working. There was clear evidence of a struggle—the lamp broken on the floor and blood on the carpet, blankets in disarray. She’d fought for her life in this room. Three attacks in less than twelve hours. He shuddered at the thought.

      He’d seen evil before, more times than he could count, but this was personal. This was his Rebecca who had been attacked. He turned and walked from the scene, his stomach roiling with anger and guilt.

      Kent followed him. “You okay, Collin?”

      He wasn’t, but he would be once he tracked down whoever was after her. “I’m going to the hospital to make certain Rebecca is okay.”

      He couldn’t even allow himself to think about what could have happened here tonight. He’d failed her years ago when she’d needed him most. He’d promised to provide for her and for the baby, but he hadn’t been able to. He’d struggled as a young man fresh out of high school to find work that would support