If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

bitch.
    It was almost nightfall by the time he emerged from the woods.
    Full dark by the time he got home. Alone in the silence there, he started to plan. He’d kill her in a heartbeat if he thought he could do it and not bring suspicion back onto her cousin’s death. But it would—that was why she was
here
.
    Worse, Ezra Fucking King knew it, Law Fucking Reilly knew it. He couldn’t kill her without alerting them.
    So he had to find another plan.
    Needed to get her
away
from here …
*   *   *
    To her surprise, nightmares didn’t plague her sleep. Although Nia would have thought after the day she’d had, she’d have so many nightmares—she even feared going to sleep. But after two A.M. , she couldn’t fight it any longer and her body crashed. She slept deep, dreamless …
    But then, something jerked her awake.
    She lay there, heart racing, adrenaline crashing through her, and terror was a living breathing beast in her gut.
    She didn’t even know
what
woke her. She only knew something was
wrong
.
    The room was dark—too dark—and quiet. So quiet.
    A strange, skittering sound came from by the window.
    She swallowed, staring at it.
    The lights—last night, there had been light outside the cabin—just those silly decorative lights that did no good at all, but it was better than nothing, right?
    But they weren’t there now and
nothing
was all she had, nothing but the silvery moonlight, shining around a … hand.
    Nia’s breath froze inside her lungs.
    Hissing out a breath, she jerked up in the bed. Automatically, she went to turn on the light. But then the hand moved, and she swallowed the whimper in her throat. A shadow eased in—tall, at least he
seemed
tall … distorted by the window, by the light of the moon.
    Oh, hell—
    Swinging her legs out of the bed, she stood, still staring at that hand, at the silhouette of the man she could see. Her heart banged against her ribs and she would have
sworn
he was staring in at her, staring in at her through the curtains. Like he knew she was in there—like he knew who she was—like he knew she was awake.
    Refusing to take her eyes from that shadow, shegrabbed her duffel from the floor. The gun was stashed inside it. She pulled it out slowly, her hand steady. Just as slowly, just as steadily, she eased the safety off and backed away over to the bed. With the gun in one hand, she reached for the landline phone on the bedside table with the other.
    She thought about calling Law—damn, but she wanted him there.
    But his number was programmed into her cell, and she wasn’t about to risk letting this guy know for certain she was awake by calling for help on her iPhone and letting that bright little light act as a beacon.
    Not while he continued to stand there … continued to watch. So instead, she pressed
9-1-1
.
    It wasn’t until she opened her mouth to speak that he turned away.
    “You’re certain.”
    Staring into Ezra King’s tired eyes, Nia swore and buried her face in her hands. “Damn it, you think I called you out here for fun, hotshot? Yeah, I’m certain. More, he left footprints, damn it. They aren’t
my
footprints—I might not wear Cinderella’s glass slipper, but my feet aren’t
that
big.”
    Ezra nodded.
    He’d already had one of his deputies taking notes, pictures, measurements—she’d watched, glad he was at least
pretending
to pay attention. And she didn’t think it was a pretense, either.
    Ezra nodded again and looked back at the notebook he held. “You got anybody from back home that might have followed you? You got a high-profile sort of job. Any stalkers?”
    “Stalkers?” Nia laughed humorlessly. She wrapped her arms around her middle, but it did nothing to easethe ache inside—she was cold, she was miserable, and scared.
    Damn it, she should have called Law—almost had, several times. But what would she have said?
Hey, I know we’ve had some great sex and all, and I know we’re not exactly sure what we’re doing here, but I’m kind of freaked out. Could you maybe come over? I know it’s late, but I’m scared … I want you to hold my hand
.
    Hell, no. She wasn’t about to risk being that vulnerable. Not right now. Not yet.
    “Nia?”
    Looking back at him, she scowled. “No, Sheriff. I don’t have any stalkers. And my job’s not that high profile. I won’t ever count as high profile unless I just luck out and hit a major story. A few people know my name. And most of them are people who’ve