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and the disappointing way it had ended.
    “What is the matter with her?” Hol y grumbled, shaking her head.
    “She takes him for granted, that’s what,” Shelby answered angrily. “Seriously, Wil , how are you stil putting up with this? She doesn’t deserve you.”
    “Yes, she does.”
    Shelby leaned back against the counter, frowning.
    “You honestly think Mackenzie is worth al this heartache?”
    “Yes, she is.”
    A short silence fel over the kitchen, final y broken by the sound of Shelby slapping her hand on the counter with an eureka expression on her face. “Then it’s time we do something about it.” Wil narrowed his eyes. “We?”
    “Yes, we.” Shelby shot him a grin. “Obviously you’re not having too much success on your own, so it’s time someone stepped in and helped you.” He held up his hand. “Oh no, you guys are not stepping in. Mackenzie and I wil straighten this out by ourselves.”
    Hol y snorted, the determined glint in her green eyes tel ing him exactly whose side she was on. Not his. “Shelby’s right, you need our help.” Sliding off the chair, he edged his way to the doorway. “The two of you are not getting involved in my love life.”
    Another snort from Hol y, and a giggle from Shelby.
    “What love life?” they said in unison.
    He stabbed a finger in their direction. “The answer is no. I don’t need or want your help. I’m serious about this.”
    Shelby and Hol y exchanged a look.
    “I’m serious,” he insisted. “I command you to put a pin in whatever scheme you two are about to cook up.
    Stay out of my business—that’s an order.” With that, he strode out of the kitchen, for al the good it did him.
    He could hear Shelby and Hol y already whispering to one another, and if he knew those two, they’d show up at his door tomorrow morning with some hare-brained plot that would no doubt make his life miserable.
    Though how his life could get even more miserable than it already was, he didn’t know.
    Wil was going to die.
    Mackenzie wandered around her kitchen on autopilot, brewing a cup of tea, eating but not real y tasting a piece of toast. Staring at the sunlight streaming in from the window. Doing the dishes.
    And al the while, her mind was somewhere else.
    Somewhere dark and terrifying. A place that held not even the tiniest flicker of hope. A world without Wil .
    With a strangled groan, she sank into one of the chairs around the kitchen table and buried her face in her hands, a position she’d found herself often during the past five days. She hadn’t heard from Wil since he’d walked out that night, and a part of her almost wished his silence dragged on a bit longer.
    What was she supposed to say if he cal ed?
    Did she tel him about what she saw?
    But how could she? She’d tried warning people before when she had a vision about them, but no matter what she did, the visions always came true.
    She couldn’t change them. Couldn’t stop them.
    And what she’d seen… God, she wished like hel she could stop it.
    Out of nowhere, the memory flooded her brain, streaking to the forefront like a bolt of lightning.

    The gunshots. The shriek of the helicopter rotors, the heart-stopping explosion rocking the chopper.
    The smoke.
    Chopper falling from the sky, hurtling toward the canopy of green below.
    A sob choked her throat as Wil ’s face flashed across her mind. The grim realization in his dark eyes when he realized his fate. When he accepted it.
    “No!” she burst out, shooting to her feet.
    It wouldn’t happen. It couldn’t happen.
    Say you want to be with me.
    Why, why hadn’t she been able to say it? She’d already crossed a line anyway, slept with her best friend, so why couldn’t she take that final step and admit what they both knew to be true?
    Because you don’t want to lose him.
    No, she definitely didn’t want that. Wil was the only steady male in her life. Even after he’d joined the Navy and left town, he always came back. Weekends,