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needed to get out of the house before she did something irreparable…like cry. Because if she started, she wouldn’t stop.
    What she needed was something other than this heartache slicing through her breast. She needed fresh air. Open skies. The range. The hills.
    And another emotion… Anger. That was an emotion that might settle her.
    She dredged it up from repressed memories, savoring it, adding it to this most recent insult. When she recalled the pain, the red-hot anger was impossible to get past. Perhaps it would be enough to block her fear—fear that he’d find a way to get to her.
    Anger always controlled the pain, but she’d need more to fight her feelings for Bryan.
    Fortunately, she knew just where to find more of that anger. In their cave. If Bryan was coming to the diamond jubilee celebration, it would be the perfect opportunity for her to find retribution for her heartbreak, even if she never found it for her father’s death. Lacey wanted a shot at bringing her old friend to his knees and gutting him the way his leaving had emotionally emptied her.
    First, she’d find out what happened to her dad and make him confess to his father that she’d had nothing to do with his disappearance. Then she expected a massive apology.
    If she managed to convey anything else, she’d make it clear she was over him. Because more than anything, she wanted to free herself of this caring, even if the thought of being without him was unbearable. A hot, shooting pain pierced her gut at the thought of the possibility. Honestly, her need was less about being free of him—it was more about wanting to be free of the inexplicable hold he had over her. She wanted that tie broken—wanted control over her emotions back. She had to break the emotional ties she felt to him. And he could never find out how often she thought about him, how much she wanted him.
    Whenever she thought about missed opportunities for happiness, she thought about Bryan and how his disappearance had ruined her chance at a normal life. She learned how to compartmentalize her pain. She put Bryan behind door number one and locked it. But the unexpected email managed to shatter the lock and rip open the door. The memories flooded her defenses. The acute heartbreak returned, leaving her insides aching as if he’d left only yesterday.
    How was she going to face him and block him from her emotions? He could never know how much he’d hurt her, never know how he still could—if she let him. She could never give him that power over her again.
    She was going to ride into the hills and recall every tear she’d ever wasted over Bryan and the Cauldwells, find the anger she needed to face him, and then she’d figure out how to get even.
    If he did still care, she’d give him a sample of the heartache. His damned email was five years too late. This time, when Bryan left, it would be his sorry ass wanting more.
    God help him.
    No, she thought. God help her.

Chapter Five
     
    Lacey Hampton hadn’t changed much. If anything, she was more of everything Bryan remembered. Better.
    He watched her tight, efficient body hop up onto the horse. She whipped the mare around as her loose, golden curls, pulled back in a clip, glistened and bounced around her shoulders.
    She’d grown prettier, if that was possible, but looked stronger, more fit and yet, at the same time, more fragile than he remembered.
    Fragile.
    The word formed in his mind as if Hunter had actually spoken it. Not possible since Hunter was presently purring contentedly in the sun, still in his mountain lion form. He lounged on the rock above Bryan and his horse as if he didn’t have a care in the world. If his tail wasn’t flipping with interest as he watched Lacey ride off, he wouldn’t have known the big cat was alive.
    Hunter’s interest made Bryan turn deadly still, jealousy pulling at him as his brother studied the woman he was bound to. He shook off the irrational thoughts and explained what it was that