Where Clint would be waiting for me.
It was a relief when he said he felt the same electricity I had.
But I knew men, and their ability to say whatever was necessary if it meant bedding me for the night.
Anyone could pretend to care but few could fake it so well it fooled all my instincts.
He meant it, I thought. He really did feel the same way as me.
Something lurched in front of me, jerking me from my daydream.
Only it hadn’t lurched at all.
I had been the lurcher, swaying the way I was.
I didn’t notice the vehicle parked in the front-drive until I almost walked right into it.
Sunlight winked off the paintwork and flickered brightly off the red and blue-tinted siren welded to its roof.
The bullbars grimaced like a bully’s front braces.
And my insides turned to water.
It was Liam’s squad car.
It was here.
But Liam was not.
Suddenly the clang noise that occurred right at the least opportune moment didn’t seem quite so fatalistic.
It’d happened on purpose.
Because someone had been watching us.
Liam.
Immersed in sinister thoughts that spoke to his naturally twisted nature.
To his eyes, I belonged to him.
And Clint stood between us.
I turned and sprinted across the front-drive, back in the direction I’d come from.
I could barely breathe, my body’s systems shutting down and diverting all power to my legs.
I caught movement out the corner of my eye.
My eyes bulged at the sight of the figure tinted with shadow approaching Clint from behind.
The scream caught before it exploded.
“Clint!”
I was too late.
Liam swung the heavy lump of timber over the back of Clint’s head with an almighty crack!
The timber snapped in half and Clint stumbled forward.
He barely managed to catch his feet and turn before Liam swung the shortened timber back again, timing the strike perfectly as it struck Clint across the chin.
He fell back on his ass.
“I told you!” Liam yelled at the top of his lungs. “She’s mine! Understand? She belongs to me!”
Clint pressed a hand to the back of his head and checked it for blood.
I couldn’t tell by his expression if there was any.
My knees wobbled like they were made of jelly.
Liam jabbed a finger in Clint’s face.
“If you know what’s good for ya, you’ll leave tonight! Do you hear me? Tonight!”
He brought his arms back to swing again.
“Liam!” I screamed. “No! Don’t!”
Clint had already suffered a terrible injury from the plane crash.
Another strike like the two he’d already received couldn’t do him much good.
It hurt me to see him suffer like that.
My strides grew longer as I drew my arms back.
I would hurl myself at Liam and knock him off his feet.
I wouldn’t stop or slow down.
Then I would bend down to help Clint up.
He was a good man.
He didn’t deserve this.
He needed to focus on recuperating.
The timber reached its apex as Liam prepared to bring it down again.
Clint just sat there staring at him.
Each of the blows he sustained could be the last, each threatening to knock what few memories Clint had developed over the past few days out of his head.
Would he forget me? I wondered. Would he forget the intimate moment we spent together?
There was a sister terror taking root in my heart...
The fear of losing what could have been between us.
I’d been lounging at home waiting for something to come along and shake me from my depressed stupor.
I hadn’t known what form it would take, only that I would know it when I saw it.
And finally, it had arrived.
I knew what it was the very first moment I laid eyes on it.
Clint.
He was what I needed to break free from my self-imposed prison.
He was what I needed to step back into the wide world again.
But that wasn’t going to happen if his amnesia took a turn for the worse.
He was in a fragile state and needed saving.
I needed to save him.
“Liam!” I screamed. “Please! Don’t!”
I hated the sound of my voice, so high-pitched and shrill.
Uttering that six-letter word brought a pained ache to my chest:
Please!
I never begged anyone for anything.
Least of all Liam, who had shown me nothing but contempt from a young age.
I never let anyone get the better of me, never let anyone think they were better than me…
And yet, right then, I swear, I would have given him whatever he wanted.
I would, I was ashamed to admit, do anything he asked of me.
Anything.
Just so long as he didn’t hurt Clint anymore, so long as he lay down the thick length of timber and stepped away from him.
“Well?” Liam said, eyes wide and red and glaring at Clint on the floor. “Will you leave her?”
Clint didn’t even hesitate in his response.
“Never.”
My foot slipped in a recess and I tripped on a knee-high protrusion that knocked me off balance.
My momentum carried me forward.
I didn’t lose my feet but it cost me valuable seconds—seconds I couldn’t afford.
Liam ground his teeth so hard I could hear them.
“So be it,” he growled.
The muscles in his arms tensed as he brought that broken length of timber down with all his strength.
He even leaned forward, putting all his weight into the blow.
It would knock Clint out for the count.
He might even have to return to the hospital and get round-the-clock care.
Liam would be suspended.
He might even lose his job.
But he didn’t care.
He’d long since entered deep madness where the past nor the future existed.
Only this moment.
Consumed by rage, he was going to commit an act that would forever scar the future not only of us but the entire town.
The length of wood whoomped through the air, directly for Clint’s head.
I regained my feet and bolted forward.
I was still too distant.
“Nooooo!”
Crack!
The length of timber bit deep into something solid.
My eyes stung and immediately burned with tears.
Please, God. No…
It could only be Clint’s skull that bore the brunt of the attack.
I slowed my approach, ready to drop to my knees and embrace Clint’s broken face…
But Clint hadn’t fallen to the blow.
It hadn’t even struck him.
The heavy thump came from his muscular hand catching the strike in his thick palm.
He leveraged it as he got to his feet.
Liam, shocked his blow hadn’t
