I froze, trying round me, however the timber and shrubbery had been so dense I couldn’t see anybody. However, I knew. Somebody was watching me. Somebody who meant me hurt.

I shook myself. I used to be getting paranoid in my outdated age—nobody was out to get me. I used to be completely high-quality…

One thing sped previous me, so quick I couldn’t see it, and there was a strong thwack into the tree trunk up forward. I used to be observing it stupidly after I heard the crashing sound of one thing giant shifting via the woods, quick, coming straight at me.

I turned to run, blind panic slicing via me, but it surely was too late. The person who’d been watching me burst via the woods and flung himself at me, hitting me with the complete power of his large physique and taking me all the way down to the bottom.

I fought him like a wild girl, scratching and hitting at him. I opened my mouth to scream for assist when his giant hand clamped down on it, muffling any sound.

“Colar!” he mentioned in a low, tight voice. “Collarse la boca.” Shut up. Shut your mouth.

I wasn’t about to do any such factor, and I sank my tooth into his hand as arduous as I might, hoping to attract blood, however he didn’t even flinch. “They’ve a gun,” he whispered urgently in my ear. “Don’t transfer.”

It took a second for his phrases to sink in, and I finished shifting, holding very nonetheless. After which I heard it, the sound of another person shifting via the woods, stealthy, like a hunter stalking his prey. And I used to be the prey.

I don’t understand how lengthy we lay there, silent, barely respiratory. He was heavy, however he made no transfer to get off me, and I shifted uncomfortably, a rock digging into my again. “Keep nonetheless,” he whispered sharply, and I did so.

I do not know how a lot time handed—it appeared countless—till the person lastly rolled off me. “I believe they’re gone,” he mentioned in closely accented English.

I answered him in Spanish. “Who? Who’s gone, who’re you, what the hell is occurring?” My voice was rising in incipient hysteria.

“I’m Salvador. I’ve been watching out for you.”

I stared at him in amazement. “However why?”

“As a result of he thought you may be at risk.”

“Who did?” I demanded, however I knew the reply.

“Señor Ian. He instructed me to maintain you in sight always. I believed possibly he was loopy—males get that means over a lady.” He shrugged. “I used to be supposed to maintain out of the way in which, however then somebody took a shot at you and I couldn’t disguise any longer.”

“Somebody took a shot at me?” I repeated stupidly.

“Idiota,” he muttered beneath his breath. “What did you suppose that was again there—a bumblebee?”

I shivered within the scorching afternoon solar. “However who would wish to kill me? I haven’t achieved something to anybody.” Not strictly true, however hardly value killing for.

“I have no idea, I solely know what Señor Ian requested me to do.” The large man scrambled to his toes, trying round him, after which held out a hand to me.

I rose, brushing myself off. I felt like I used to be in some form of alternate actuality, one the place individuals needed to kill me and nothing was because it appeared. “We must always inform the police,” I mentioned.

“That’s as much as Señor Ian,” Salvador mentioned darkly. “I’ll carry you again to him.”

“No.” My response was instant, and I wasn’t fairly positive why. A part of me needed to throw myself into Ian’s arms and weep. He was energy, he was security.

He was additionally somebody with a gun. He had no cause to take a potshot at me—if he needed to do away with me, he might have made that occur at any time, as an alternative of persistently foiling my makes an attempt to flee. Nor would he have arrange a bodyguard. Whoever was a menace to me, it couldn’t be Ian.

Salvador grabbed my arm ungently. “We are going to inform Señor Ian,” he mentioned once more, his voice brooking no objections, and I went together with him, down the rocky path, on a regular basis feeling that I had a goal on my again.

I felt slightly higher by the point we reached the olive groves, and Salvador launched his demise grip on my arm. He should have sensed my acquiescence, and he strode down the rutted street to Mariposa, standing majestic within the brilliant Spanish solar.

However Ian was nowhere to be discovered. It was the hour of the siesta and I assumed the remainder of my so-called household had been resting. I doubted if Ian bothered with it.

Any of them might have been within the woods resulting in Pinnacle Level. It was absurd—nobody had a cause to wish to hurt me, however they had been the one ones right here.

Until they knew who I actually was. If any of them had an inkling that I used to be Granda’s surprising heiress, that they had many thousands and thousands of causes for wanting me lifeless. However up to now, everybody had taken me at face worth, a far cry from the times after I was a plainer, paler model of Bella.

“Keep right here,” Salvador ordered me as soon as we stepped into the empty kitchen, and he began off into the remainder of the home. Not being the obedient kind, I adopted proper after him, straight to Ian’s workplace. It was nonetheless empty.

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