Shifting around and moving her butt forward on the seat, she was able to look through the front windshield, and she took solace in the fact that the ambulance ahead of them—which had Jim in it—still had its lights going. The medics had triaged both men, called for a second team, and treated Jim first—and she had stood out in the hall with Eddie as a portable defibrillator had been brought in and that wounded chest had been shocked once…twice….

The sweetest words she’d ever heard had come from the man with the stethoscope: I have a pulse.

She hoped they were able to keep it going up in front. The idea that Jim would have to die to save her was nearly unbearable.

And as for Saul…he hadn’t needed fast transport to the hospital. Plenty of time for him.

Good God…Saul?

He’d been all but invisible in those prayer group meetings, nothing but a quiet, balding man who had the sad-sack look of someone perpetually on the losing end of life’s equation. She’d seen nothing from him to lead her to believe he was obsessed with her, but the trouble was…he was precisely the kind of man you wouldn’t remember.

Thinking back to when she’d run into him at church the night before at confession, she wondered how many times she’d missed noticing him. After all, he’d been the first car to stop when she’d had that near miss in traffic after the service today. Which suggested he’d been right behind her.

How often had he followed her home? Had he come to the Iron Mask?

On a cold shiver, she wondered…had he killed those men she’d been with?

The whole thing didn’t exactly make her glad for the kind of man her ex-husband had been. But she appreciated the precautions she’d taken because of Mark.

From out the front windshield, the offices of the Caldwell Courier Journal flew by and she squeezed Vin’s hand. “Almost there.”

His lids lifted. Those gray eyes that had first captivated her did the trick all over again: Staring into them, she felt as though she were tripping and falling and didn’t have a clue where she was going to land.

Although that was no longer true, was it. She knew exactly the sort of man he was, and he was not the kind she had to look out for.

He was the man she needed in her life. Wanted in her life.

Leaning down to him, she smoothed his hair back, stroked his five-o’clock shadow, and looked into his eyes. “I love you,” she said, bending down and kissing his lips. “I love you.”

His hand cranked down on hers. “Love you…too.”

Boy, that croaking voice lit her up from the inside. “Good. We’re even then.”

“We…are….”