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should have been sleeping like a baby after driving for two days.
    She wondered what Josh was doing—if he was going to come after her or let her go. As much as she hated to admit it, she was terrified, he would track her down.
    And do what? Make her leave with him? She needed to get a grip. She controlled her life, not him.
    What about the guy from the coffee shop? Just the mere thought of him made her pulse quicken. It was crazy the way he made her body come alive just from a look. She toyed with the idea of calling him, just because she could, but she tossed out that idea almost instantly. She played their meeting over and over again in her head; his sure stance, his unusual eyes, and the electricity when he touched her.
    No, she would definitely not call him.
    She must have fallen asleep, because she was jerked awake late in the night by a loud thud. She bolted upright, her heart pounding as she listened intently.
    What the hell was that?
    Grayson grabbed the blankets, and her eyes darted around the room, her heart pounding. For a moment, all was silent, but then she heard another noise that sounded like something scraping across the floor in the kitchen. She bit back a shriek, and found herself wishing Josh was with her.
    What the hell is wrong with me? Grayson gritted her teeth. She didn’t need a man to make her feel safe. She tossed the blankets off and tiptoed across the room, looking for something she could use for a weapon.
    Tension tightened her neck and shoulders as Grayson grabbed a big statue of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of prosperity and earth. Her mom would be pissed if she broke it, but it was the best she had in the situation. She was glad that Ethan had insisted they all take self-defense classes. She knew she could hold her own against most guys. It was just hard to remember that when fear coursed through her.
    “Come on, Lakshmi. Don’t fail me,” Grayson muttered under her breath as she slid along the wall into the living room. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. It was too quiet. Maybe she imagined the noise, or dreamed it.
    Her eyes adjusted slowly as she squinted to look into the kitchen, but she didn’t see anything other than shadows dancing on the wall from the trees swaying outside—which was creepy enough. A shiver ran down her spine.
    She was so focused on looking into the kitchen; she nearly had a heart attack when she felt something brush up against her leg.
    “Holy shit!” she screeched, jumping backwards into the wall; her gaze falling to the floor.
    A fat white cat sat at her feet and purred, his heart-shaped face turned up towards Grayson.
    “Where did you come from?” She leaned down and picked up the furball. Her heart settled back into place. “You must have been hiding in mom’s room.”
    Feeling much calmer, Grayson turned on the kitchen light and glanced over the room. A cereal box she’d noticed on top of the fridge earlier in the night was now on its side on the linoleum, and tiny circlets of cereal were scattered across the floor. She laughed again; too elated to find there wasn’t an intruder to care that now she had a mess to clean up.
    As she did a walk through of the house just to make sure all was calm, two more cats came out of the woodwork. How many cats did her mother have? Had she become the crazy cat lady at the end of the street?
    She cleaned up the spilled cereal and returned the box to the top of the fridge, then paused at the back window while the small white cat entwined about her ankles. She could barely make out the lush greenery of the backyard; tree limbs swaying beneath ethereal white moonlight. It looked peaceful and calm and worlds away from Arizona. When was the last time she had really felt safe? Certainly not since the first-time Josh’s temper flared.
    Well, she was sick of being scared all the time. She was stronger than that.
    It’s time to take my life back , Grayson thought firmly.

CHAPTER 7

    The next morning, Grayson was