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  Cosmo, please!

  It must have been the wind because the sound didn’t come again and Alexi’s hope died with it. Mice trumped everything in Cosmo’s world. Fuller obviously heard the noise, too. He took his eyes from her for a second and moved a step closer to the open door, peering around it to make sure no one had entered the cottage. Alexi didn’t hesitate. She leapt athletically to her feet, lunged for the spanner and raised it above her head, ready to strike him with all the force she could muster.

  He must have sensed her presence because he turned with lightning speed and aimed a vicious blow to her stomach. She deflated like a burst balloon, clutching her mid-section with one hand as she crumpled to her knees, having the presence of mind to keep hold of the spanner and conceal it behind her back, telling herself he probably hadn’t seen it.

  ‘Hand it over.’

  He was grinning as he extended a hand, clearly enjoying himself, and Alexi had no choice. She reluctantly gave him the spanner and he threw it onto the bed, which meant it was as far away from her now as it had been when it was in the dressing room.

  ‘I don’t have any particular argument with you and don’t want to cause you unnecessary pain.’ His expression hardened. ‘But I will if you try anything like that again.’

  ‘You expect me to do as I’m told and simply let you kill me? The world has moved on since the days when you compromised a fifteen-year-old and then walked away without a backward glance. Women fight back when they’re cornered.’

  ‘It takes two.’

  ‘Oh, please! You were eighteen, she was a star-struck kid.’ Alexi sent him a disgusted look. ‘Just as a matter of interest, how much did Natalie take you for?’

  At first, Alexi thought he wouldn’t tell her. That would mean admitting a woman got the better of him and this guy was definitely a misogynist. ‘A hundred grand,’ he said shortly. ‘She found out that’s how much I’d paid for Nova and said a daughter ought to be worth as much to me as a horse.’ He screwed up his features. ‘She was wrong. The horse would have given me a decent return on my investment.’

  She shot him a withering look. ‘You’re despicable.’

  ‘And you’re trying your transparent distraction tactics again.’ He smirked, like he thought he was smarter than her and wanted her to know it. ‘Get this stuff into the bag. Now!’

  Alexi was still bent over, nursing her stomach, not having to feign light-headedness. The guy certainly packed a punch. But she couldn’t give way to the pain. She was on her own, needed to get the better of the man who stood between her and the door, and needed to do it now. He’d run out of patience. Chances were he intended to kill her here and dump her body elsewhere. She had to assume that was his intention, anyway. His expression was implacable. He was definitely in self-preservation mode and she was collateral damage.

  Alexi straightened up and screamed. ‘Damn, that hurts!’

  She lurched towards the bed, grabbed the spanner and ran at Fuller with the determination of a woman fighting for her life. She felt his fetid breath peppering her face as he laughed and lashed at her with a thumping right hook, connecting severely with her temple. Her world span. She saw stars but refused to let go of the spanner. She raised it, unsure how much strength she could put behind the blow, or how much was necessary to crack a skull.

  ‘You’re quite a spirited little thing, aren’t you?’

  He laughed again, enjoying himself as he reached for the spanner. This situation was manna from heaven for a bully of Fuller’s ilk. But that was okay. For once, he was doing precisely what she wanted him to. Mentally thanking Patrick for insisting she find the time for self-defence classes, given the dangerous situations she sometimes found herself in when pursuing a story, she whirled in a semi-circular motion and her foot connected hard with the side of Fuller’s face.

  ‘What the fuck?’

  He shook his head, dazed, taken by surprise. Presumably he usually selected more docile victims. But her satisfaction was short-lived when he surprised her with the speed of his retaliation, chopping viciously at the back of her knee with his booted foot. She cried out and fell to the ground, the excruciating pain making her nauseous. He followed her down, seeming to forget about the spanner. Her heart sank. She hadn’t even slowed him down and at close quarters, now he realised she knew how to defend herself, she was unlikely to get the better of him.

  He grabbed one of her wrists and held it above her head, half-covering her body with his own, making sure he kept his groin clear of her one working knee and both of her feet. Hold the spanner, or let it go and try to jab a finger into his eye? Men were wise to women trying to knee them in the nuts, but not all of them appeared to know that a strategically-placed finger could inflict just as much damage on a much larger opponent.

  Before he could grab her other hand, she twisted her body sideways and bit down as hard as she could on the fleshy part of the arm pinning her wrist, thanking the paper’s foresight in insisting its reporters keep their tetanus jabs up to date. He howled and slapped her face so hard that her head snapped back and made painful contact with the leg of the iron bedstead. Alexi felt her strength sap as more of his body weight pinned her down, forcing the air from her lungs, making it a struggle to breathe. This was it. She’d enraged him and he really was going to kill her.

  His hands circled her neck and slowly squeezed. She saw stars and all the fight drained out of her. She was tired, so tired. This was one battle she could never win. She felt resigned and no longer even attempted to fight back. It would be easier to close her eyes, surrender to the inevitable and wait for the end to come.

  ‘That’s it, honey,’ her aggressor said in a sing-song voice. ‘Now you’re getting it. When it comes right down to it, women are no different to horses. They just need a firm hand and to learn who’s boss.’

  The pressure on her neck gradually increased. Very gradually, like he got a kick out of this and wanted to make it last. The desire to give up grew exponentially stronger, but images of Natalie filled her head, urging her to fight; always to fight. She saw Fay Seaton’s face, too. She would never know peace if she didn’t learn the truth about Natalie’s struggles. Someone had to help the poor woman and show this creep there was a world of difference between horses and woman.

  More banging from downstairs spurred her on. She was sure now it must be Cosmo. Fuller had closed the door and her cat was trying to get it open again. He hadn’t given up on her so she wouldn’t give up on herself. Using every vestige of her rapidly dwindling strength, Alexi lifted her free hand. Fuller noticed but had obviously forgotten about the spanner and simply laughed at her. Oh, he was such a big man, choking the life out of a woman! Infuriated when she caught a glimpse of his smug smile, Alexi bashed the spanner against the side of his skull, surprised at how much strength she was able to put behind the blow. Even more surprised when she heard the sound of splintering bone.

  Fuller cried out—a combination of surprise and pain—but the pressure on her neck didn’t ease.

  ***

  Tyler floored the accelerator as he drove back to Lambourn, his gut telling him Alexi was in trouble. Why else wouldn’t she answer his call? There weren’t any reception black spots, as far as he knew, in any of the places she was supposed to be. He’d checked with Cheryl, who confirmed she hadn’t returned to Hopgood House. Cheryl picked up on his anxiety and wanted to know what she could do to help. Nothing. Cheryl was pregnant and must be kept well out of things. Drew was out at some local Chamber of Commerce do so he couldn’t help either.

  Trying not to think how many points he’d clocked up on his licence when he forgot to slow for the speed cameras, Tyler squealed to a halt in front of Natalie’s cottage. Alexi’s car was parked where she usually left it. Everything seemed tranquil. No unnatural noise or screaming. Perhaps he’d over-reacted. He was glad now that he’d not called the police on the way down here, as he’d been half-tempted to do.

  His concerns returned when he rang the front
doorbell and no one answered. Because Alexi wasn’t in the house, or because something was preventing her from getting to the door? Perhaps she was in the workshop. Please God the answer was that simple. Tyler went around the back and his concerns multiplied when he encountered a snarling Cosmo hurling his body repeatedly against the kitchen door. An abandoned dead mouse lay close by. He saw Tyler and let out a blood-curdling yowl.

  ‘Shit!’

  The moment Tyler opened the door, the cat streaked through it and bounded up the stairs. Tyler followed right behind him and burst into Natalie’s bedroom, his worst fears realised. Fuller was on top of Alexi, his hands around her throat. Oh fuck, she was motionless and looked dead already. There was blood pouring from a crack on the side of Fuller’s head and a manic look in his eye. Tyler noticed those things in the fraction of a second he had before Cosmo hurled himself onto the man’s back and started scratching at his eyes from behind, making the most terrifying noise.

  ‘Let him go, Cosmo,’ Tyler said. ‘I’ve got him.’

  Fuller’s hands had left Alexi’s neck, but she still wasn’t moving. Fuller got up and stumbled around the room, blood now pouring from scratches to his face as well as his skull. There were papers everywhere, as well as loads of cash, and Fuller was disturbing it all with his blind blundering. Tyler solved the problem by planting his fist squarely in the centre of the man’s face and knocking him out cold. Satisfied that he wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon, he crouched beside Alexi and felt for a pulse, terrified there wouldn’t be one to find. Cosmo sat on her opposite side, making piteous, human-like sounds as he stroked her face with a paw; gently, claws furled, the complete antithesis of the feline banshee that had just attacked Fuller. It was one of the most moving sights Tyler had ever seen.

  ‘Alexi,’ he said softly, touching her forehead, willing her to open her eyes.

  He tried to get his phone out of his pocket and call the emergency services with one hand and continue holding hers with the other. He could already see dark bruising forming around her neck, another bruise on her cheek and a cut to her temple. But at least she was breathing, albeit shallow and uneven. He put his call through to 999 and told them to hurry.

  ‘Fuller.’

  Tyler almost jumped out of his skin. He’d looked away from her at the exact moment she’d opened her eyes and her voice, shallow and croaky, was the most welcome sound he’d ever heard.

  ‘Hey, you. How do you feel?’ Stupid question, Maddox.

  She blinked up at him. ‘The bastard was going to kill me,’ she rasped.

  ‘It’s okay. You and Cosmo got him first.’

  At the sound of his name and Alexi’s voice, Cosmo purred loudly and rubbed his head gently against Alexi’s uninjured cheek.

  ‘He’s saying sorry for not getting to you sooner. So am I.’ Tyler took Cosmo’s place and carefully plastered kisses over the unhurt part of her face. ‘Christ, Alexi, I never should have left you alone.’

  ‘I can…can—’ She burst into tears.

  ‘Shush. An ambulance is on its way, and so are the police.’

  ‘Before the police…there’s some stuff here we need to hold onto.’

  The effort it took for her to talk was obviously taxing her strength. ‘Don’t worry about that.’

  ‘You don’t understand…’

  His reassurances only appeared to make her more agitated. ‘What is it, darling?’

  ‘There’s Natalie’s diaries from when Seaton raped her…and her manuscript. Must keep them.’

  ‘Okay, I’ll get them.’

  ‘Copy all the stuff from her mother.’

  Tyler didn’t know what she’d found, but he was rapidly piecing it together. He needed to work quickly, remove the stuff the police didn’t need to know about, and copy the stuff they would need in order to prosecute Fuller.

  ‘I get it,’ he said. ‘Will you be all right if I leave you for a moment?’

  She nodded, looking exhausted, trembling like she was in shock. Tyler longed to hold her, to instil some of his own strength into her, but the papers clearly mattered to her more. He was distracted by the sound of Fuller regaining consciousness. Cosmo moved across to him, sat over him on sentry duty and gave a warning growl.

  ‘Don’t even think about it,’ Tyler told him as he gathered up the papers scattered around the room and quickly sorted out the ones that he thought would need to be copied. ‘Scratch his eyes out if he moves a muscle, Cosmo.’

  ‘I don’t fucking believe this,’ Fuller said.

  Half-an-hour later the papers Alexi wanted were safely stowed in Tyler’s car and the cottage was crawling with police and paramedics. One of the latter dealt with Alexi’s head wound.

  ‘Probably won’t need stitching,’ he told her. ‘Head wounds always bleed a lot, but the cut’s not deep. However, that bang on the head might have left you with a concussion and you’ve got a bruised larynx…well, bruised lots of things come to that. Best come back in the ambulance with us. We’ll get you checked out in casualty. You’ll need an X-ray.’

  ‘No,’ Alexi rasped.

  ‘It would be best,’ Tyler said gently.

  She closed her eyes and nodded once, like she was too tired to argue. He kissed her brow as she was loaded onto a gurney.

  ‘Are you in pain?’ the paramedic asked.

  She nodded again.

  ‘Where does it hurt most?’

  ‘My knee, my throat. Everywhere.’

  ‘They’ll give you something for the pain when we get to the hospital,’ the paramedic said. ‘Are you allergic to anything?’

  ‘Murdering trainers,’ she mumbled.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Alexi felt as though she was floating outside herself on a chemically-induced high. If this was death it wasn’t so very bad. Then voices that were very much of this world broke through the misty fog inside her brain, causing anxiety to nag her back to consciousness. There was something important she had to finish. She reluctantly forced her eyelids open and had absolutely no idea where she was. Everything was white. White walls, white ceiling, white bedcovers and an antiseptic smell that made her want to gag. Except she couldn’t because her throat hurt like hell.

  So did all the rest of her.

  Then it all came crashing back. She was in hospital. But she had no idea how long she’d been there or if anything was seriously wrong with her. Fuller. What had happened to him? Thinking made her head ache. She wanted to close her eyes again and find a way back to that fluctuating sleep that had ended far too soon. But she couldn’t do that. Now that she’d remembered her ordeal, each time she closed her eyes she could feel Fuller’s hands around her neck; the pressure on lungs that felt as though they would burst like overinflated balloons; the cold determination in his hard, flat eyes as he slowly choked the life out of her. The overwhelming temptation she had felt to let her life slide away because the effort to fight back was beyond her.

  Until Natalie’s voice urged her to finish what she herself had started. No one would ever convince her that wasn’t what had saved her, until Tyler and Cosmo arrived and took a more hands-and-claws-on approach. But if she admitted to hearing voices from beyond the grave she would definitely be sectioned, or written off as a fruit-loop.

  In a panic, she turned her head to one side and saw a large male figure sprawled in the chair beside her bed, engrossed in whatever he was reading.

  ‘Tyler,’ she whispered.

  ‘Hey, you’re awake.’ He sent her a megawatt smile. ‘How do you feel?’

  ‘What time is it? How long have I been here?’

  ‘It’s early morning. They gave you something to make you sleep. You were getting agitated, trying to talk. The nurse just came in and said you should be awake soon.’

  That must have been the voices she’d heard. ‘Have you been here all night?’ she asked, finding it hurt to talk. Her voice was croaky and raw, but at least she could talk.

  ‘Where else would I be?’

 
She tried to sit up. Every bone in her body protested but Tyler was there to help her, and to bolster the pillows behind her. He handed her a cup with a drinking straw stuck in it and she greedily allowed water to trickle down her bruised throat. Never had water tasted sweeter.

  ‘You’re going to be fine,’ he said. ‘A lot of bruises and a swollen knee—’

  ‘Fuller kicked it from beneath me when I tried to attack him.’

  ‘Oh, Alexi, I shouldn’t have been there!’ He grasped her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. ‘I’d like to see him try and kick me around.’

  ‘Why? You didn’t know he was—’

  ‘I knew there was something off about him when I overheard his conversation in the men’s room, and we knew Natalie had had a lot of contact with him. I should have put it together. I did put it together, but not soon enough. If I’d got to you just a minute or two later, I…’

  ‘How did you put it together?’

  ‘Once I knew the name of Natalie’s birth mother from her solicitors I did some digging and found a few old articles about Laura Brooks online. She had a promising career as a junior three-day eventer. Once I knew she was connected to horses, that she was involved with Fuller’s father’s yard, it all fell into place.’

  ‘Ah, I see.’ She thought about that for a moment but was distracted when Tyler moved. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Ringing for the nurse. She told me to let her know if you woke up.’