Chapter 1

Sienna

They say that when you're in a life or death situation, your life flashes before your eyes. I always thought that would be nice, you know, seeing your friends and family before you died, something nice to hold onto. Still, now that I was frozen on the pavement as a black car sped past so close, I could feel the paint on my fingertips before the passenger started shooting at a stationery car about a foot away from me. When the other vehicle started shooting back, I couldn't get my legs to move, no matter how hard I tried. I didn't see any flashes of my life; I saw everything happening around me in slow motion. I could hear guns going off and people shouting and cursing. I could even hear the car door opening behind me. How I managed to hear all that over the sound of my heart hammering and the blood rushing to my ears, I'll never know.

I heard someone shout, "Get fucking down." before somebody knocked me to the ground. I was sure I must have been shot as I felt a sharp pain in my ribs before realizing I couldn't move.

"Don't move." a voice whispered in my ear.

I nodded at the man covering me with his body, unable to form a coherent sentence.

That's why I couldn't move. He had obviously knocked me to the ground and was crouched over me protectively with one hand pointed towards the car that almost knocked me down. I couldn't do anything but stare at the gun in his hand, jumping when he shot at the black car. Suddenly the black car sped off, as did the silver car the man had gotten out of. I could hear police sirens that were indeed heading our way.

"Do you have a car?" he asked, pulling me up.

I nodded and pointed down the road to my silver Prius. He grabbed my arm and pulled me to the car holding me firmly but not hard enough to hurt me, not letting go until I was behind the wheel.

"Where to?" I asked once he slipped in the passenger seat beside me.

"Drive. I'll give you directions." He spoke gruffly as I pulled out and drove away.

My hands were shaking as we drove past the police, who were flying towards the street we had just fled. As we stopped at the traffic lights, I noticed blood on my leg, but I wasn't injured.

"Are you bleeding?" I asked quietly, my voice coming out stronger than I felt.

"I got grazed by a bullet getting out the car." What he didn't say was that he got hit jumping out to protect me. I felt guilty, although logically, I knew it wasn't my fault as I was minding my own business when it started.

"I'm sorry," I told him sincerely.

"Not your fault, turn left."

I did as he told me, and the car lapsed into silence except for him giving me directions. Forty-five minutes later, we pulled up to a small rustic wood cabin in the middle of the woods. Fuck, It had to be the fucking woods. Probably so he can kill me and bury my body.

"Get out"

I climbed out of the car and stood awkwardly, waiting for the man to get out of the car. Holy fuck, he's hot. He was by far the most handsome guy I had ever seen in my life. I took the time to look at him properly as I was too preoccupied earlier to look at him, what with being shot at and all. He was a lot taller than I thought with broad shoulders. He was wearing jogging bottoms and a grey t-shirt that clung to his chiselled chest and was tight over his biceps, giving me a great view of his toned arms. His brown hair was messy, almost like he had run his hand through it a few times, which he probably had. His full lips were set in a hard line, and I couldn't tell if it was in anger or if he was in pain with the gash on his arm. He had a light dusting of facial hair like he hadn't shaved in a few days, which added to his attractiveness. His ice-blue eyes, brighter than I had ever seen on another person, flickered over to me as he motioned to the cabin with his head.

My phone started ringing as soon as we walked into the cabin, and I quickly silenced it.

"Someone expecting you home?"

"No, not until tomorrow." What the fuck is wrong with me? Why would I say that? I followed him through to the open plan kitchen and living area. He pulled out a first aid kit from one of the kitchen cupboards.

"Can I have a look at it?" I asked, walking closer to him.

He leaned against the counter and gave me a sexy half-smirk. "Are you a doctor?"

"Not yet, but I will be," I told him confidently.

I opened the first aid kit and got to work cleaning his arm. "What's the chance you would let me take you to the hospital to get stitched up."

He raised an eyebrow and chuckled lowly at me, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't from fear.

"I didn't think so," I mumbled as I wrapped the wound using gauze and tape. "That's the best I can do, but I would prefer it if you got it stitched up."

"I'll be fine. It's just a scrape. So a doctor, huh, you must be pretty smart."

"Well, I'm in a cabin in the Woods with a strange man who was involved in a shootout earlier today, and I just told him that no one was expecting me home tonight, so I'm clearly not that smart.

He threw his head back and laughed. "True, that wasn't smart, but you can relax. I needed to get away, and you had a car, not to mention it was the least you could do after I saved your life."

"Thank you for saving me. I froze back there."

"Don't worry about it, um."

"Sienna," I finished for him.

"Nice to meet you, Sienna. Can I ask you a question?" He waited until I nodded before continuing. "What were you doing before the shooting. It's a derelict street, and from your car and the school uniform you're wearing, you obviously come from money."

"My best friend lives around the corner. I was heading to her house." I shrugged.

"What did you see."

"The black car nearly hit me, then all the bullets started flying, and you knocked me down," I told him truthfully.

Before he could ask me any more questions, his phone rang. He answered, telling whoever was on the other end to hold on, then told me to help myself to something to eat or drink, and he would be back. I watched him walk into another room which I assumed was the bedroom. I quickly made two cheese sandwiches and pulled two cans of coke out of the fridge, and placed them on the breakfast nook. I took the opportunity to look around the living room while I was on my own. The cabin looked bigger inside than it did from outside. It was very modern with a large television, a vast cream corner couch, and one whole wall was filled with books, but I noticed no pictures or personal items anywhere. It was evident that somebody used this place often, but I wondered if it was used by the same person or a timeshare type of thing. I need to find out his name at some point.

"Snooping, are we" I jumped at the sound of his voice behind me. I hadn't noticed he had come back into the room.

"A little," I admitted as I looked at him leaning against the door, and I tried not to ogle him. "I made cheese sandwiches." We sat side by side and ate in silence. It was a comfortable silence which felt weird in itself because I should have been scared or uncomfortable after the day I had, yet I felt fine.

"Can I ask you a question now?" I asked, smiling when he turned to look at me with a raised eyebrow and an amused half-smile. "What's your name?"

"Cole," he answered. "Is that your only question"

"I have one more. Am I allowed to leave?"

"You can leave tomorrow. It's one in the morning, and we are a good two hours from the city. You can take the bedroom, and I'll sleep on the couch." He said as he watched me closely. "I'm not forcing you, Sienna; if you really want to leave now, you can."

I cleared the table and washed the plates the whole time. I felt Cole's eyes on me, making it hard to concentrate on what I was doing. Once I was finished, I sat back down on the stool next to him. I could have gone to bed, but I knew I wouldn't sleep, possibly due to the adrenaline, so I asked him about some of the books he had I had seen on his shelves. We sat and discussed books before he put on the television. He put on The Big Bang Theory on N*****x, and we sat and spoke about meaningless things keeping the conversation light. He asked about my school and told me about what classes he liked when he was in school. He was a few years younger than I thought he was at twenty-two. He said he was in business but didn't elaborate, and I didn't ask as I wasn't sure that he would tell me the truth anyway. He has a brother who's two years younger than him and is his best friend. He wanted to be a fireman when he was younger as he hoped to help people, but his dad made him take over the family business before his parents moved away to retire. He graduated top of his class in business school and told me lots of stories about his college days. He relaxed a lot while he was talking to me, laughing freely, his smile lighting up his beautiful face. I have no idea how long we sat talking before I fell asleep, but when I woke up, the sun was shining, brightening up the cabin, and my head was on a pillow in Cole's lap with a blanket over me. I noticed he was absentmindedly stroking my hair before he realized I was awake, then he stopped immediately.

"What time is it?" I asked as I sat up and moved away from him.

"It's just gone seven." He told me, his voice deep and husky.

"I better get going, or I'll be late. Do you need a lift back to the city?"

He shook his head and smiled softly at me. "No, I've got someone coming to get me."

I put my shoes on and picked up my jacket, suddenly feeling awkward. I mumbled goodbye and walked out the door. As my foot hit the bottom step, I heard the door open again. As I reached to open the car door, I felt Cole behind me, and he placed his hand on my waist and spun me around to face him. With one hand on my waist and the other now cupping my face, he leaned in and placed his lips against my own softly at first as if gauging my reaction before he deepened the kiss, his tongue teasing mine. Once we were both breathless, he pulled away slightly, placing his forehead against mine.

"Goodbye, Sienna," he whispered, pecking my lips again before turning and walking back into the cabin without looking back.

What the fuck just happened, I thought as I got into the car, my lips still tingling from his kiss. I drove back to the city towards my best friend Arabella's house. The whole time I was thinking about Cole and that kiss. About a year ago, Arabella's cousin Corey came to visit for a couple of weeks. I had known him since I met Bella when I was five years old. He was friendly and attractive and funny, and I knew he had a crush on me, and after one too many drinks one night, we slept together more out of curiosity than anything else, at least for me. It was my first time, and it was good, but nothing extraordinary but that one kiss from Cole was more exciting than the whole night with Corey.

"Where have you been? Luca has been calling for the past hour looking for you." Bella snapped as soon as I walked into her room.

"Did you cover for me?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes at me. "Of course I did. Luca thinks you slept in because you were up all night studying. So where were you?"

"It's a long story. I'll jump in the shower then tell you about it on the way to school."

I quickly showered and got dressed before I phoned my brother Luca and told him I'd be home after school. Then as Bella and I drove to school, after I made her promise to keep it to herself, I told her everything that had happened yesterday when I was supposed to be at her house. She mainly sat in silence with wide eyes as she listened to my story with the odd oh my god thrown in.

"Are you going to tell Luca"

"No, he'd overreact and either go hunting for Cole to kill everyone involved or lock me in the house again," I told her, reminding her of the time he tried to homeschool me with a tutor. All because someone made threats against me as revenge against Luca and our other brother Matt.

"Do you think Cole knows who you are?" She asked thoughtfully.

"No, and I didn't tell him. Anyway, it's over now, and I doubt I'll see him again."

We walked through the car park to the school entrance. I could have sworn I saw the same silver car Cole got out of yesterday idling by the street. You're being paranoid. I scolded myself and rushed to catch up with Bella.