If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

her ear.
    An engine.
    The crunch of gravel.
    No time—
    Shoving to her feet, she took off running.
    Carter Jennings whirled around and caught her arm as she passed by him. She swung out, catching him in the nose with her right fist, and the sound of cartilage crunching was sweet. “Let
go
of me, you son of a
bitch
!” she snarled as he jerked her close.
    Then she fell silent as he pressed the muzzle of a gun against the underside of her chin.
    “Hello, Nia.”
    She spit at him.
    With a cool, polite smile, he lifted a hand to backhand her. She blocked that one, but she couldn’t move fast enough to block the next one and that hand? It held the gun. The metal of the gun grazed her face. Fiery pain exploded. She bit her lip to keep from crying out, tasting blood.
    “Where are the others? Where is Lena?”
    “She had a date with the Easter Bunny,” Nia snarled. “Get off of me.”
    He hit her again, this time in the belly. Air exploded out of her and she doubled over, sagging to the ground.
    “Where is she?”
    “I’m right here, you son of a bitch.”
    Lena stopped in the doorway and let go of Puck. “Puck … attack.”
    She might not be able to see, but she could
feel
the intensity of a madman’s gaze on her.
    Puck snarled and the reassuring presence of his body was gone.
    Ducking back behind the closet’s wall, she closed her eyes, tried to breathe. Over the roar of blood in her ears, she could hear Puck snarling, a man screaming.
    Then there was a whimper, a familiar whine.
    No—
    Hope wrapped her hands around the baseball bat she’d found in the makeshift home gym. It was ironic—supposedly she’d used a baseball bat to pound on Law, but she stood there needing to use one now and she didn’t even know how to hold it. She flinched as she peered around the corner, saw Puck waver, then fall, his big golden body motionless.
    “Stupid mutt,” Carter growled.
    When he kicked the dog, Hope bit her lip to keep from crying out, focusing on his shadow. When it shifted, she peeked out, saw him turning toward Nia. She was on her knees, trying to get up, clutching her belly.
    As he reached for her, Hope moved.
    She swung clumsily—she’d never make it on a baseball team, but it connected with his head and she watched as he hit the floor. Without waiting another second, she turned toward her friend.
    “Lena, it’s Hope. Come on, we need to get downstairs.”
    Lena appeared in the doorway of the closet, her face streaked with tears, her eyes glittering.
    “Nia, can you walk?”
    “Yeah.” It came out on a pained gasp. “Can run if I had to.”
    Still clutching the bat, she held out a hand to Lena. “Take my hand.”
    “Puck—”
    Seconds that lasted an eternity. The other deputies fanned out behind him as Ezra crept up the first few stairs, listening. He heard Hope’s voice, then Lena’s, and Nia’s—thank God.
    “I don’t know, but we have to get out of here.”
    “But—”
    “I’ll get him,” Nia said. “Just get the fuck down those steps, Lena.”
    Ezra didn’t know if he wanted to kiss Lena, hug Nia, spank them both—
    The stairs squeaked and two seconds later, he saw Hope and Lena. Hope gasped when she saw him, opened her mouth, but he lifted a finger, pressed it to his lips and gestured to the deputies waiting behind him.
    Until he knew the situation, he wasn’t advertising his presence, wasn’t letting anybody know he had deputies crawling out of the woodwork now. Silently, he gestured for his men to part and he pointed toward the door.
    Hope nodded her understanding.
    He stared at Lena—saw her pause as she came down the last step. She lifted a hand, reached out. It came within an inch of touching him. Then she sighed and continued to walk, her shoulders trembling, tears continuing to fall.
    Ezra didn’t watch her as she left the house. Instead hestarted the slow climb up the stairs, avoiding the areas that squeaked, placing each foot carefully. The skin on the back of his neck was crawling. He wanted to yell at Nia to get the hell out, wherever she was—
    Then the stairs squeaked. He saw her foot through the wooden slats. Heaving out a sigh of relief, he opened his mouth.
    “Had to get the dog, didn’t you?”
    Nia felt the muzzle of the gun against the back of her head. Her arms ached from the strain of holding Puck’s weight, her head throbbed and she wasn’t breathing all that well. Her ribs, they
hurt
.
    Looking down at Puck’s limp body, she sighed. “Yeah.