in a pair of cheap black work shoes. The air inside the Oak Creek Country Club was stale, thick with

nna rubbed her right temple. A headache was threatening to settle in behind her eyes, but sh

etly slipping her a small plate with a piece of chocolate cake.

reached her dark eyes, erasing the exhau

artha. You're

rld threatened to crush her. Sienna took the plate and headed toward the small staff break r

ding reception, she could pay for the water heater repair before winter set in. With any luck, there would be enough left over to buy Mila that profe

d fractured in two. Five years since she'd been a young, naive intern in New York, full of dreams and

was like opening a door to an abyss of pain she couldn't afford to fall into. The memory of that week of consuming passion in his pen

ivate office, only to have his personal secretary-a woman named Elena with a viper's voice-tear her apart. "Mr. Volkov has no interest in your pathetic attempt at extortion, Miss Moore.

mptied her small savings account, changed her number, and moved three states away. She buried her

ak room, she pushed the

at Martha-" The word

covered with crayons, but th

child, but she was also incredibly curious and bold. Sometimes, the

chen. No one had seen her. Primal, maternal panic began to flood her system, pumping adrenaline through her veins. She quickened h

eaded toward the VIP restrooms, the metal cool against her skin. The hallway was

iant. You almos

her to hear that she was safe, though she was

sharp with a mix of fear and exasperation. "M

rovel if that's what it took to keep her job. But then her eyes lif

rom the hallway, as if a hatch had

It hit the wooden floor with a crash that echoed lik

an

breathe. Her knees

e he

ai Vo

ted such absolute authority that the very walls seemed to shrink away from him. He was more imposing than she remembered, the angles o

staring rig

econd, Sienna saw the shock register on his face. She saw the pieces of the puzzle snapping together in his lethal mind. Sh

cold, calc

by five years of fear, seiz

that spoke her name like a curse, a sound that felt

forward. In two desperate strides, she put herself between Nikolai and her daughter. She bent in

the little girl complained, co

sed to strike. The man who had thrown her away like trash, whose people had threatened to destroy her

her. Don't you dar

ed to gasp, her voice tremblin

ch for them with one of those large hands. She spun on her heel, clutch

e kitchen's swinging door with her back, bursting through and

's going on?" s

ing autumn air hit her face, burning her lungs. She scrambled across the gravel parking lot, her cheap shoes slipping,

ock. She wrenched the back door open, fumbled Mila into her car seat with clumsy but swift hands, and buckled

life with a weak roar. Sienna floored the gas. The tires spun on the loose gravel be

darkness had swallowed the parking lot, but for a second, she thought she saw a tall, dark f

ed from her eyes, b

eel with white-knuckled hands, Sienna Moore knew a terrifying and

t of Nikolai Volkov had found her. And this time, he