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last time he visited?”
    “Day before yesterday,” Robert said, void of hesitation.
    The blood drained from her face and limbs, leaving cold tingles in its wake. Two days ago. He was still after her. Jeremy and Riker had gambled wrong. Dane wasn’t the only one she had to worry about. This Murphy guy was still working for Stone too.
    Tears blurred her vision and she swayed. Dammit! She’d thought she was safe. Had an entire night knowing that she didn’t have to run anymore.
    “Hannah,” Riker warned. “It was two days ago, before Dane. They might have been working together and now he’s cut off too. You still might be safe.”
    Not about to discuss her terror in front of Robert, who was now as much a stranger as the rest of the world had become in the last year of seclusion, she bolted for the door.
    Might be. She might be safe. This morning she was undeniably safe though and the loss of that certainty ripped at her, shredding her until her knees felt like they’d buckle under the strain of her dismay.
    “Thank you,” she whispered through trembling lips. She fled Robert’s apartment and sent a disparaging glance to the door across the hallway. That apartment had served as her personal torture chamber. She’d spent time with Jeremy and her sister there. It was full of ghosts.
    “Hannah,” Robert said, following her into the hallway. “Are you okay?”
    She’d been hunted like an animal relentlessly for a year, she’d lost her family, and Jimmy and Jeremy had died trying to protect her. She’d been tortured with her sister and suffered survivor’s guilt at living when Marian was the one who deserved life. She’d watched Riker’s clan bury their own dead because her past had come back to hurt them, and she’d been chained to a wall last night, thinking she’d lost Riker and her life all at once. No, she wasn’t fucking all right. She was a mess. A walking disaster that fate had pummeled until she wasn’t even recognizable anymore. She was a scarred shell of the woman she used to be, and now that she had a chance to put her old self back together again with the man she loved, even more threats sprang up from the woodwork. No one said life was easy, but it shouldn’t be this hard, for this long.
    Robert didn’t have to know any of this though. He led a normal life where people weren’t trying t o kill him or his loved ones. As a reward for his kindness, she wouldn’t taint his life with the truth of hers.
    “I’m fine,” she s aid with a brave smile, then walked down the stairs of the apartment building without a single glance back.
    Robert had dodged a bullet when their date had fallen through. He wasn’t strong enough to shoulder the burdens she carried but it wasn’t his fault. Only a man, not entirely human, dominant and battle hardened could bear the danger that enveloped her life and survive it.
    She’d landed on Riker’s front porch because at least one of the fates was looking out for her, cheering on the underdog. And Hannah swore it with every breath she had remaining in her body, she wouldn’t let her lucky stars down.
    She’d come too far and had too much to lose to break now.

Chapter Three
    “Hey,” Riker called from behind.
    Hannah hoofed it faster as warm tears trekked down her cheeks. People were starting to stare. Cutting through the throng of bodies walking the pavement, she stepped into the street and thrust her hand into the air. Three cabs passed her by, but the fourth pulled over. She slid in just as Riker reached her.
    “Where to?” the cabby asked. His accent was thick and his coffee colored eyes landed on Hannah through the rearview.
    Riker stared, confusion filling his eyes until she couldn’t look at him. She couldn’t handle failing anything else right now.
    “The airport,” Riker said, turning his attention to the cab driver. “We have a flight to catch.”
    “Just for the record,” she said, rambling and reeling, “I hesitated on telling Robert