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the window turning her head to scan the interior of the cabin. From this vantage point, she had a visual of each boarded-up window plus the front and back doors.
    If anyone came through anywhere, she’d plug him full of bullets.
    An ear-shattering crash from right beside her made her jump in surprise as the window disintegrated. Numbed by the sudden attack, she watched helplessly as an arm reached inside and snatched the gun right out of her fingers.
    Oh, my God! They’re here!
    All the calm she’d so carefully gathered over the past few weeks untangled in one fell swoop turning her into a bundle of helpless nerves.
    What should she do?
    She stared at the front door.
    No! She couldn’t go that way. They would expect her to go out one of the doors.
    For a split second, she considered breaking the glass on a back window and pushing away the boards then diving through, but that would take too long.
    A second later the back door burst inward with a deafening crash. In the darkness she made out the forms of two men standing side-by-side effectively blocking her escape route. Blocking her bid for freedom.
    Sheer terror made her sob in frustration.
    They’d found her! They’d force themselves on her. Claim her as their sexual property.
    Virgins were always placed with the group of men who first took them.
    A rage of defiance sifted through her.
    She hadn’t saved herself all these years for one special man just so a pack of strangers would lay claim to her. She’d die before she let that happen.
    Her gaze flew to the butcher knife on the counter. She could sink it into her heart with one swift plunge…
    “ Callie. Don’t be scared,” a man who stood in the shadowy doorway said. Immediately she recognized his voice. Noticed the white stripe of color around his collar. The black clothing. A gold cross glistened at his chest area.
    Sweet Pete, it was the preacher. He was the only man she’d allowed herself to have contact with since she’d escaped, her one link to the outside world.
    The one who’d promised never to come here unless it was their scheduled meeting time.
    “ Oh, for heaven’s sake!” she yelled at him. “What the hell are you doing here? You scared the crap out of me!”
    Sweet mercy! She was actually safe! And relieved.
    “ You’re not supposed to come ‘til next week. What’s the matter with you? Why’d you break the window?”
    “ I didn’t. He did.” The preacher pointed to the newcomer.
    He?
    She cast her gaze to the tall figure who stood beside the preacher.
    He looked so familiar she almost forgot to breathe.
    It was him .
    She knew it in the elegant way he held himself. Knew it, even though his features were shadowed, that his hair would be a wavy brown with golden highlights, his eyes would be a dark chocolate, and he’d have the cutest laughter crinkles at the sides of his sensually shaped mouth.
    Despite that fact, her mind refused to admit he’d found her.
    Could God be so cruel? Could he have brought Luke Outlaw, the man she loved with her entire being, back into her life?
    “ Callie? Is that really you?” His tortured whisper made her cry out in shock.
    It was him!
    “ He’s been shot,” the preacher said quickly. “He tricked me into bringing him here. And he’s drunk. He polished off a bottle of whiskey in the car. Purely medicinal purposes, of course.”
    Luke hiccupped and scowled at the preacher. “You’re a damn son of a bitch for not telling me she’s been living right here on Outlaw land and right under my nose.”
    He gave the preacher a rough shove into the cabin. Then he stepped inside, closing and bolting the door behind him.
    That’s when she spied the guns he carried in each hand. One was aimed at the preacher. One pointed at her.
    Oh , my gosh !
    “ You are supposed to be dead,” his voice echoed in the semidarkness as he waved one of the guns at her. “Or, at the very least, some crazed guinea pig hooked up to some government’s experimental lab so