“What are you going to do?” Justice asked, rising to his feet, his expression concerned.
Jacob’s brow arched. “Find out who she is and why she’s pretending to be someone else.” And by God, he wanted to know why she was lying to him and who she was running from.
* * *
Night had fallen before Lily declared she was finished studying. Sallie had all the curtains firmly closed, the lights on the end tables next to the couch providing the only light in the room, and a glass of wine as she fought against the nerves that had haunted her the past few nights.
It happened occasionally, the nervous tension, the urge to pack and run, to make certain she wasn’t being followed. It hadn’t happened in the past year or so, at least, not until she’d allowed Jacob back into her bed.
He was like an addiction, she told herself, taking another sip of the wine. One she couldn’t seem to get out of her system.
“I’m tired of studying. We should go out and have fun.” Lily leaned back against the couch, giving Sallie a self-effacing smile as she closed her laptop and set the device aside.
With her black hair in a ponytail and a mischievous smile, Lily looked like a teenager rather than the twenty-three-year-old woman Sallie knew her to be. Lily was sharp, for all her innocent looks, and she’d already experienced enough to know that the world was rarely a nice place to be.
“I just want to sit here, relax, and enjoy my wine.” Sallie waved the suggestion away as she curled her legs to her side and sipped at her wine. “I think I’ve had enough excitement for a while.”
The grin that edged at Lily’s lips had Sallie’s eyes rolling.
“Cousin Jacob filling your life with madness and mayhem?” She laughed. “And here I thought he was boring for a single man. Especially one who had all the women chasing after him.”
It was a good thing she didn’t have wine in her mouth, it would have gone all over the couch. Boring was the last thing she’d call Jacob.
Unfortunately.
“He can be time-consuming. A bit high-maintenance for certain,” Sallie drawled, wondering for a second if Jacob had managed to figure out his computer problems. He hadn’t called as he said he would and he hadn’t returned. For some reason she’d expected him to come back when he finished with the computer.
“I’ve never heard a woman say that.” Leaning forward, Lily watched her intently, a look Sallie wasn’t exactly comfortable with. “He really likes you, Sallie. Jacob’s not had a woman that he’s focused on like this, ever. Sometimes, he’s almost seemed kind of lost, I guess. Or waiting…”
“Stop, Lily.” Sallie couldn’t let her friend finish. She couldn’t bear to hope when she knew nothing could come of it. “This isn’t anything serious. Don’t read anything into it.”
It was the same advice she gave herself countless times a day. She couldn’t let herself hope. Hoping meant she had far too much to lose if she was found again.
She was going to have to call investigators soon. This was going to have to end. She couldn’t keep living like this, never knowing, unable to truly live.
“Because you’re scared,” Lily softly accused, her gaze compassionate.
“Because nothing can come of it.” Sallie shook her head definitively, despite her regret. “You and I both know that.”
And not because she was scared, but because Jacob had already walked away from her once, and she couldn’t trust him to stay this time, couldn’t trust that she meant anything more to him than a few nights of fun and games in her bed.
“He took you to see Gram,” Lily pointed out. “He wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t care about you, Sallie. You two have danced around each other for three years. You think others haven’t noticed it?”
“I haven’t danced around anyone.” She scoffed. “I’ve always been very polite.”
Lily snorted at the claim. “Too polite. And he always watches you. Especially the few times you’ve come to the bar with us. He always shows up, always watches you.”
Sallie stared back at her for a long moment. Lily worried, she knew. And she’d always believed Jacob could protect Sallie and Sallie had always known she could never ask.
Gripping her wineglass in both hands, Lily looked down at the dark liquid for long moments. When her head lifted, there was something determined in her gaze. “Jacob is a bad ass,” she warned Sallie then. “If he knew…”
“Stop!” Fear shot through her, tightening her chest and roiling through her stomach as panic threatened to edge into her mind. “You promised me, Lily…”
“I’m not going to say anything,” the other girl exclaimed. “But Sallie, Jacob and the Culpeppers could help you. I swear it.”
And as much as she wanted someone to help her, the thought of Jacob knowing who she was, possibly remembering, knowing he’d already walked away from her once, was more than she could bear.
What would he think? Would she see disgust in his eyes, or a complete lack of knowledge? To know he’d forgotten her entirely would destroy a part of her that she didn’t know would ever recover.
“No, Lily,” she repeated, careful to keep her voice firm, to keep Lily from arguing further. “No one…”
The house went black. Every light blinked off and didn’t come back on. Fear rushed inside Sallie. This was no normal outage. This was her worst nightmare. Jumping for Lily as she went to rise to her feet, Sallie jerked her friend to the floor no more than a breath before the sound of glass exploding through the house and a door splintering could be heard.
There was a heartbeat of time that regret, grief, and sheer terror vied for supremacy inside her. But even as those emotions whipped through her senses, Sallie was moving, desperate to escape, to get Lily away from the danger.
“Run.” Sallie gasped, pushing Lily toward the back guest room. “Out the back window. Now.”
She moved to follow Lily, had every intention of escaping with her friend, and she would have, but as she cleared the couch, heavy fingers tangled in her hair, pulling her back. The pain shot through her scalp to the back of her neck, dragging a cry from her lips as the shock of it shattered her senses.
Her hands went back, nails digging into the wrists as fingers twisted cruelly into her hair. Her heels scraped across the carpet, fighting for traction as she cried out, desperate to ease the pressure on her skull.
Fuck, he was going to pull her hair out. Every strand. From the roots.
“Where is he, bitch?” The vicious snarl behind her had terror racing through her.
She knew that voice. She’d heard it once before, years ago. It was this voice that sent her running, sent her fighting for her life through the night.
Gasping, crying out at the pain as she was jerked to her feet, Sallie fought the tears and a distant part of her prayed Lily had made it out of the house.
She should have left months ago, she acknowledged as a forearm wrapped around her throat, threatening to strangle her. When the panic attacks had first begun, she should have known it was time to leave.
“I warned you, you can’t hide.” The hiss at her ear was followed by the tightening of his arm around her neck, blocking much needed air and the ability to think. “He can’t hide. Now where the fuck is he?”