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A throat cleared from a doorway a dozen feet behind her, but Hays couldn’t see who it was.
Liz scuttled backward, horror in her blue eyes. She glanced at whoever was in the doorway, holding their gaze for a beat. Then she focused back on Hays.
Suddenly she looked rigid and cold, a hard, beautiful shell of the woman he loved. The same person who had sent him away months previous. Definitely not the loving angel he’d seen on the rare occasions he’d created time alone with her.
“Throw him out,” Liz commanded the bodyguards. Looking him over as if he were a mangy mutt, she added, “But first show him why he should never return.”
She turned and strode up the grand staircase and out of sight.
The guards hauled Hays back out the front door. He fought. He fought with everything he had, and he caused some injuries, but it was six on one. The beating was vicious and painful. It didn’t hurt nearly as bad as his shattered heart and dreams.
The woman he loved so desperately was no more. His Liz had walked away from him, and she was never coming back.
Chapter
One
Elizabeth Oliver teetered on her high heels. She was concealed in the closet of her suite. There were no windows or cameras in this space, but it wasn’t safe. She could never hope for that. Her closet and bathroom were simply the only places where everything she said and did was not recorded and used to control her by injuring someone else.
Clinging to a square envelope she’d snatched off the mail pile, she ignored her churning stomach and racing pulse. Her stomach churned so often she should have ulcers. She could hide that from Father, but she couldn’t hide the pulse point. Lately he’d been giving her more freedom, possibly convinced she was one hundred percent on his side, that she was buying into his revolting plan for her life.
That was good. It meant no one would die or be tortured on her behalf.
She studied the envelope addressed to ‘Dad and Lizzy Oliver’ sent from ‘Jacey Miller, Coleville Montana.’
Had Father seen this? She had to destroy it and hope Jacey would not attempt to reach out again. She should tear it into tiny pieces right now and flush them down the toilet. She’d do anything to protect her light-filled sister from their father.
Her hand trembled as she opened the envelope. Just one quick peek and she’d figure out how to proceed. She pulled out a photo and stared at her younger sister, staring at her new husband as if enraptured by him.
The first word that came to mind was happy. Jacey looked indescribably happy.
Jacey was married, in love, and for the moment, safe. Elizabeth would have clutched the picture to her heart, but she could not pull her gaze from her little sister’s beautiful face—radiant and full of joy. Her husband was a stereotypical western cowboy—tough, ruggedly handsome, protective, beaming at his bride as he encircled her with his brawny arms, his cowboy hat shielding them.
Elizabeth smiled. Jacey had always loved cowboys. She felt an elusive taste of her sister’s happiness as she studied Jacey and tried to envision the life and world her sister would be a part of. Elizabeth had no frame of reference for that. Jacey had been allowed to watch movies where she had discovered her love for cowboys with a ‘slothful nanny’ who had been terminated when the oversight was discovered. Jacey had also become a proficient horse rider at their Virginia estate. Elizabeth had never been granted such indulgences. Every hour, day, and year of her life had been planned.
Elizabeth would never know joy or love. She had accepted that. She’d lost the love of her life protecting him from her parents fourteen years ago. Turning him away had devastated her. Hays would never forgive or love her again, but she’d had no choice but to break both their hearts. Not if she wanted him to live.
Ah, Hays. Seeing Jacey’s happiness made her remember the brief times she’d felt such emotion because of Hays West. For just a moment she let herself think about those months spent as partners in communications class with the cutest and friendliest boy in school, the basketball star, every girl’s dream. With his mesmerizing smile and the deep-brown eyes she got lost in, Hays was perfect to her.
Her bodyguards had been required to sit at the back of the classroom and couldn’t claim she was flirting with the handsome Hays as she had been assigned to work with him. Minutes into their first class, he’d whispered to her, “Knock knock.”
She’d feared the enticing Hays who she’d admired from afar was a bit slow in the head. That was disappointing but she’d learned from birth on up that looks were almost always deceiving. She shouldn’t be surprised Hays wasn’t perfect.
He’d given her a mesmerizing smile. “You say, ‘Who’s there?’”
“Who’s there?” she repeated.
“Thermos.”
She lifted her eyebrows. What a silly thing to say.
“You say, ‘Thermos who,’” he prompted.
“Thermos who?” she responded, simply so they could get back to work.
“Thermos be a better way to get to know you than this project.”
She’d laughed in surprise and her heart had raced at the meaningful look in his beguiling brown eyes. Unfortunately, she knew there was no chance for anyone to get to know her, especially a young man who might be the most popular, athletic, and friendly guy in school, but whose parents weren’t wealthy or influential. Her parents would only allow her to date young men who could further their ambitions.
