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the time.”
    “Thanks, it’s just so odd.” Hunter sighed. “I know she lives here. I’ve talked to her every day for months. I’ve got packages from her labeled with this zip code and I’ve mailed things to her at a PO Box here. Yet, no one I’ve asked has ever heard of her.”
    “Why are you looking for her? What is she to you?” Cody blurted out the question. She just wanted to hear his answer. Whether she was torturing him or torturing herself, she didn’t know.
    “She’s the woman I love,” he stated flatly, laughing wryly. “That sounds far-fetched, doesn’t it? I’m looking for the woman I love and I’ve never been in the same room with her.” He sighed and kicked the floor with his foot. “I don’t mean to bore you. I just have to find her. I don’t have a choice.”
    Cody crossed her arms over her chest, mainly to keep from throwing them around him. She ached to hold him. “I hope you find her.” The words cost her dearly. She meant them and she didn’t. How she managed to maintain her composure long enough to see him out the door and make arrangements for the next day, Cody didn’t know.
    The moment his rental truck left the driveway, she collapsed in a sea of tears. She was a coward. Not only was she a coward, she was a sadistic, cold-hearted coward. As surely as she was breathing, Hunter was suffering—needlessly. The last few months had been a calculated ploy on her part just so she could experience the sensations of admiration, sexual attraction, and love.
    None of it was real.
    Oh, their emotions were real enough. But online infatuations were only as good as the people involved and while Hunter was the real thing, Sage Donovan was an unadulterated fraud.
    Twice, she took phone in hand to call him and confess. Twice, she failed. Finally, she let the animals back in and fed them. When she couldn’t settle down, Cody walked out of the house and ran for about two miles in the late winter chill, trying to run hard enough and far enough to escape the ache in her heart and the burn in her throat. How was she going to handle this? What good could come out of it? With a heavy heart, she started toward home. Maybe she needed to sleep on it, pray about it—ha! What did God think about a liar such as she? Scripture said all liars have a place in hell. This was true. She could vouch for it. Cody Napier lived in hell. A hell of her own making.
     
     

Chapter Three
     
     
     
    When Hunter returned to his apartment, he opened a can of chili, heated it, and ate while drinking a cold beer. Once, he tried to call Sage but there was no answer. After he took a shower, he sat on the bed and went onto the Internet. He halfway expected to be blocked from her account, but he wasn’t, so he left a message.
    Hunter : Sage? Are you there?
    Several minutes passed. Nothing. He laid his phone down and turned on the television, seeking something that would numb the pain slicing through his heart like a serrated knife. Choosing a movie about a bank robbery, he tried to lose himself in the action and inane dialogue. A soft ding almost caused him to levitate from the bed.
    Sage : I’m here.
    Hunter grabbed the phone, read the message and began to type. His hands quivered with nerves.
    Hunter : I’m still in town. Where are you?
    Sage : I’m home.
    Hunter : Give me your address. Let me come over. Please.
    Sage : No. There’s no use.
    Hunter : Tell me what happened. What’s changed? Please? Are you married? Have you been lying to me all of this time? Is there someone else?
    Seeing an out, she almost took it. It would be so easy to tell him she was somebody else’s wife. It would hurt him, but at least he would go home and quit searching for her and suffering. But she couldn’t. She had lied, he was right. The truth was useless, but she didn’t have to keep piling sins on her soul.
    Sage : No. I’m not married and there’s no one else.
    Hunter : Then why? I ask and I know you’re not going to tell me.