EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE Read Free

choice of metal or plastic as well as several sizes. She grabbed two plastic ones, turned off the light and stepped outside.
    A tiny light flickered in the distance. Perhaps a cigarette lighter, or a match. She told herself she had probably imagined it when the flicker didn’t reappear, but then a bolt of lightning made it possible to see. Someone stood at the bottom of the hill near the boathouse.
    Hollin ran back to the house and bolted the back door behind her. Her breath caught and her heart raced. A terrifying realization washed over her. What if the figure she’d seen by the boathouse was Griffin? And what if he planned to hurt her again?
    She’d survived him once. But she had no intention of letting him touch her ever again. She’d kill him before she’d let him violate her a second time. The only problem was she had no way of defending herself. She didn’t own a gun, didn’t know if she’d have the nerve to use it if she did happen to own one.
    She could always run. Go back to Boston as soon as daylight set in.
    But her family was counting on her to stick around, at least another week or two. And she’d promised her mother.
    Thirteen years ago, after the trial, Angela had sent her away to a private girls’ school. After graduation, Hollin went on to college and then moved to Boston where she now worked for an antiques dealer. Other than a few brief visits over the years, she hadn’t spent any time in Whisper Lake.
    How could she? Griffin had only served three years for what he’d done to her. And rather than fade away in a hole somewhere, he’d come back to a town that didn’t want him.
    It hadn’t stopped him though. Instead, he’d gotten a job with a local construction company and eventually started his own construction business.
    Rachel had told her the man had purchased an abundance of property around town and planned to single-handedly turn Whisper Lake into a resort area. Not that Hollin cared. After a week or two, she’d be out of here. The thought saddened her.
    Although she now considered Boston her home, she missed the lake, this old house, Brad and Rachel. She barely knew Chelsea, and the child was already six years old.
    Sighing, she wrapped her arms around her middle. When would she stop being so afraid? When would she stop running away?
    She shivered with cold and fear. Griffin may have taken her virginity, but she wasn’t going to let him control her life any longer.
    She made her way up the stairs and down the hall to her room. Placing one of the buckets on the bed, directly under the leak, she curled up in the wingback chair by the window.
    She would figure it out in the morning. Somehow, she would figure out how to be free of Griffin Wells, once and for all. In the meantime, she planned to keep her gaze glued to the window. No matter how tired she was, there was no way she’d be able to sleep, knowing someone was out there.
    #
    Hollin had barely touched any of her breakfast even though she was starving. She hadn’t eaten since yesterday morning, and yet nothing Josephine had put on her plate looked appealing.
    It could be she’d lost her appetite due to her headache. The house smelled like a funeral parlor, covering the smell of dust and old wood. The floral arrangements from John’s gravesite had all been delivered to their home at her mother’s direction. With every breath, Hollin smelled lilies, and she detested the scent of lilies.
    Angela Hollinsworth-MacDougal sat adjacent from her daughter in the formal dining room, dressed in a pastel, pink suit, her dark blond hair swirled into an old fashioned twist. She had a proud, regal look about her that morning, no matter that her husband had been buried only yesterday. The small silver bell she carried with her everywhere sat on the edge of the table. This way Angela could ring for her private nurse, Claudia, whenever the moment suited her.
    “Sit up straight, Hollin. I didn’t teach you to slouch at the table.”
    Hollin set