I followed my dad out the front door. He needed to grab his work cell from the truck.

“Dad, I’m not so sure about leaving Liza.”

Opening the truck door, he grabbed his phone, and put it in his back pocket. “Walker, she’s going to be fine. Come on, let’s walk.”

We started down a path that led to the back of our house, going past the old tree house I couldn’t help but smile. So many memories in that damn thing.

I noticed my dad staring at me. “What’s on your mind, Dad?”

He laughed and said, “I never could hold anything back from you, Walker.”

I chuckled. “No, sir. Just like I can’t hold anything back from you.”

My father nodded. “Are you doing okay, Walker? How’s Liza? She’s putting up a damn good front today.”

I nodded my head. “Yeah, she’s one hell of a strong person. She keeps saying she’s fine now that I’m back. But I don’t want to take her home, Dad, with Keith still missing. What if he’s just watching the house for her to return? I mean, that note he wrote on the front porch—what kind of sick bastard does that?”

My father’s phone buzzed with a text message. He pulled out his personal cell and read it. His face turned white as he stopped walking and finally looked at me.

My heart stopped for a second before slamming in my chest. “What? What’s wrong?”

His mouth was open slightly, like he was trying to let what he’d read sink in. He shook his head and was about to say something when we heard Liza scream.

“Liza!” We both yelled.

As we ran, I said, “It sounded like she was…”

Then I heard a gunshot. My whole world stopped.

It took everything I had to keep my legs moving. We were almost at the house when I saw someone running away, dressed in a grey hoodie, their face concealed by the hood.

I was torn. Did I go to Liza, or go after this prick and end this now? “Get Liza!” I yelled out to my dad. “I’m going after him!”

I took off running faster. Keith ran into the woods. I ran faster. Liza. Please be okay.

The baby.

It didn’t take long to catch up with the asshole. I grabbed him, knocking him to the ground. I was going to beat the living shit out of him. I grabbed him, pulled him over, and raised my fist.

“No! Walker no!”

It took me a second to register the voice…and then the face.

Jessica.

I stuttered as I looked down at her. “Wh—what…are you…”

She attempted to punch me in the stomach, but I grabbed her hands and pushed them over her head. “What have you done? Why, Jessica?”

Her eyes filled with anger as she spat out, “I won't let her have your baby. That's my baby! Mine!”

Bile began to build in the back of my throat. It had been Jessica all along.

Holy fuck. It was Jessica. Not Keith.

I KEPT GLANCING at Jessica as she sat in the back of the police car. My heart hadn’t stopped pounding since I first heard that gunshot. I looked over my shoulder and saw Liza standing with my mother’s arms around her. Right after my father and I left for our walk, my mother and Liza had decided to go out to the garden. Liza had screamed when she came upon a rattlesnake. My mother had grabbed her shotgun and shot at the snake.

I closed my eyes, saying a prayer of thanks that they’d gone outside. Jessica told the police she’d overheard my father and I talking as we made our way to his truck. Jessica then watched us walk away. When she could no longer see us, she’d made her way into the house. She hadn’t seen my mother’s car, and thought Liza would be alone in the house. Jessica had been in the living room about to search the house when she heard the gunshot and ran like hell. That was when we’d seen her coming out of the house and running toward the woods.

One of the Blanco County sheriffs was finishing up with Liza and my mother. He turned and came over to me.

“I don’t think you’re going to have to worry about her anytime soon. She’s confessed to everything. From hitting the vehicle with a bat, to what she’d planned on doing when she found your fiancée in the house alone.”

My blood ran cold and every hair on my neck stood up. “What were her plans?”

He kicked the dirt. “She was going to try to make Ms. Morris…loose the baby.”

“I just don’t understand how she could do this. I just can’t grasp this. I was the one who told her I’d be out of town.” I rested my face in my hands and sighed.

“You didn’t know, son. Don’t beat yourself up,” the sheriff said. “Ms. Morris is okay. Ms. Burch will not be bothering either of you ever again.”

Peeking over to Liza, I nodded. If Jessica ever came near Liza or our child again, I’d kill her. That is promise I didn’t intend on breaking.

IT HAD BEEN two months since the incident with Jessica. Finally relaxed, I placed my hand on my baby bump. Walker had started building on the land our parents had given us. I’d been feeling the baby move since I was at about eighteen weeks. Walker had yet to feel her move, and it was killing him.

I smiled as I walked around the house. It was going to be beautiful. When Walker had told me about his plans to build, I’d cried. Then again, I’d been a crying fool this whole pregnancy.

I looked up at the wood beams and inhaled deeply. I loved the smell of fresh-cut wood. My father and Walker’s dad, Reed, were both helping with the house. Jase had helped over Christmas break while Ava and I were shopping for maternity clothes. Ava had been thrilled with the stuff we bought. Of course, she’d taken it all back to her parents’ for a few days of tweaking at her sewing machine, adding her special touch to each outfit. When I got them back, I felt like I was dressed in a special designer line. Ava was heading to Italy with Jase over the summer. She was interning with a designer she’d been hoping to work for. Jase was pretty jazzed to be heading to Italy as well for the summer.

Walker’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. “Are you liking it?” he asked as he smiled his panty-melting smile. His blue eyes lit up. I knew exactly what I needed.

“I love it, but I know something I’d love more,” I said as I licked my lips. I moved closer and put my hand on his chest. Looking into his eyes, I whispered, “I want you to have your way with, me and I don’t want it gentle. I want it hard. I want to be tied up.”

Walker’s eyes filled with desire. “I still have the handcuffs in my truck.”