FOUR

      Fear gripped Piper’s body, pushing her back against the headboard. The intruder was nothing but an indistinct shape in the darkness. But she could see it. Standing there. Inches away from the bed. Not moving. Just breathing.

      She reached toward her glasses.

      “Don’t move.” A whisper hissed in the darkness.

      Piper’s hand froze on the nightstand.

      “Don’t scream, either. You just stay quiet, okay?” It wasn’t the same voice as the man in the diamond ski mask. No, this one sounded uncertain. Agitated. Even nervous. Definitely higher-pitched, too. Female. “I don’t want to hurt you. But I’ve got a gun, okay? I’ll shoot you if I have to.”

      “Got it.” Piper slid her body even farther back until she could feel her headboard press into her shoulder blades. She didn’t know whether to believe the intruder, but didn’t want to risk it, either. There were heavy wooden doors on the bedrooms below and thick carpets to muffle sound. If she screamed would anyone even hear her?

       Help me, Lord. I’m terrified.

      The intruder was jumpy, too, and even seemed to be pacing. Knowing she was frightened, panicking and apparently armed didn’t make Piper feel any safer. How had anyone even broken in to her room? Piper’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, just enough to make out shapes on her bedside table. A cold breeze swept up her arms. Wind howled in the darkness. The intruder must have climbed the fire escape and come through her window. Piper’s fingers crept across the nightstand. “This house is full of people. Just leave. Now. Nobody needs to get hurt.”

      “I said don’t move.” The shadow moved closer. Her voice shook. “I have a gun, okay? I’m just here looking for something. I’m going to get it and leave.”

      Something or someone? Piper took a deep breath and fought the nerves from her voice. “What are you looking for?”

      No answer.

      “Who told you you’d find it here? Did he have a bear tattoo?”

      Again, no answer. Just the wheezy, shallow gasps of someone battling for breath.

      Piper gritted her teeth and beat down her fear even as it threatened to swallow the words from her lungs.

      “Charlotte, is that you?”

      The only response was a hysterical giggle, halfway between a laugh and a sob.

      Piper’s hand slid along the nightstand.

       I’m sitting; she’s standing. She’s got a weapon. I don’t.

       Lord, I need a split-second distraction.

      “I said, don’t move!” The voice rose.

      “And I said leave. Now. Whatever it is you think you’re after here nobody needs to get hurt.”

      The shadow moved closer. She was slender. Long hair curled at her shoulders. The outline of a gun waved in front of Piper’s eyes.

      “I said I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt anyone. But I will if I have to!” A face swam into view, featureless except for the eyes and mouth visible through the crude holes of a blue ski mask. The gun brushed Piper’s forehead. “He’ll make me kill you.”

      Whoever “he” was, he’d apparently sent a terrified coward to break into Piper’s room and threaten her with a weapon she probably didn’t even know how to use. Piper prayed her next question would hit its mark. “Who? Alpha? Did Alpha send you?”

      The intruder leaned back with a gasp, as quickly and violently as if Piper had just slapped her. In one fluid motion Piper snatched the lamp off her bedside table and smashed it into the masked woman’s head. The intruder screamed. Piper rolled off the bed and landed on her hands and knees. That’s when she heard the barking below her. Harry was downstairs trying to get through her door.

      A gloved hand grabbed a fistful of Piper’s hair and yanked hard. Pain shot through Piper’s skull. The woman bent down and hissed in Piper’s ear. “Don’t you dare say that name again. You don’t understand who Alpha is. You don’t have any clue what kind of man you’re dealing with here!”

      Maybe not.

      But apparently Alpha didn’t understand what kind of woman he was dealing with in Piper, either.

      Piper’s fingers grasped the hockey-goalie stick under her bed. She leaped up and with both hands she crosschecked her attacker hard in the chest. Her attacker stumbled and fell. Piper snatched up her glasses, pushed them onto her nose and then smacked the switch for the overhead light. Light filled the loft. The intruder was female, slightly shorter than Piper and thinner. Long blond curls poured out from under a navy blue ski mask. A small handgun shook in her gloved hands.

       Blonde Bambi with bullets.

      Just as she suspected, the bedroom window was open, and freezing rain poured through. From downstairs the barking grew louder.

      Blondie was standing between her and the stairs. “Look, it’s not too late for everybody to get out of this okay. Just go downstairs and make that dog shut up. Then tell everyone that everything’s okay.”

      “Why would I do that?” Piper took a step back, holding the hockey stick firm in her grasp. There were four other people in the bed-and-breakfast below her right now and Benjamin was the only one she was sure could take care of himself.

      “Because like I said, I don’t want to hurt anyone! I just need to look around.” She clutched the gun with both hands. “Just...just go shut the dog up. Then come back, lie still and stay quiet. I’ll search your stuff and go.”

       I don’t believe you.

      Piper could hear the dog’s paws scrambling as if Harry was now trying to dig his way through the door. Then she heard knocking at her door, and the knob rattled. Benjamin called her name.

      “Benjamin! Call 911!” She shouted so loudly her throat ached. “There’s an armed intruder in the bed-and-breakfast. Tell everyone to stay in their rooms and lock their doors!”

      Green eyes narrowed inside the ski mask. “You should’ve have done that.”

       Maybe not, but I have more confidence in my ability to wield this hockey stick than I do in your ability to aim that gun.

      Piper tightened her grasp. “Drop the gun, climb back out that window and run while you can.”

      “It’s too late for that.” The blonde’s voice rose. “You don’t understand him.”

      “You mean Alpha?”

      The blonde closed her eyes and raised the gun.

      Piper swung the hockey stick as a gunshot split the air.

      * * *

      Benjamin threw his shoulder into Piper’s bedroom door, just as a bullet splintered the wood above his head. He leaped back against the wall, yanking Harry by the collar.

      “Everyone, back!” He glanced behind him. Tobias was leaning out his suite door in a lush velvet bathrobe, like a posh rubbernecker on a highway accident. “Please.”

      When Harry had leaped onto his bed and started barking, Benjamin had presumed a raccoon had gotten into the garbage. But the dog hadn’t been willing to shush. When Harry gripped his arm gently but firmly with his teeth Benjamin had realized something was terribly wrong.

       Help me get to Piper, God. Help me save her.

      Piper screamed. The sound seemed to shatter his heart in his