Chapter One

Kiera slammed her glass down on the counter and thought of ordering another shot but decided against it. 

She drank more than enough. Another shot would make her stumble out of the bar. The thought was appealing. She didn't consider herself a reckless person; she never did anything irresponsibly. But the argument she had with Jared was still on her mind after two days and she was desperate to flush it out. If a good hangover didn't take care of it, she didn't know what would. 

She asked for the bill instead of a drink, though. 

Going home to an empty house wasn't appealing in the slightest but it was all she had. It was getting late and she had work in the morning. She stepped down from the stool and buttoned her coat. She looked around the bar once but didn't see anything or anyone interesting. She had planned on talking to someone new or meeting someone who would at least have kept her entertained the whole night but she had no luck. 

She felt incredibly alone at that moment. 

With a sigh, she left. Her car keys were in her bag and she fished them out. She got in her car and backed out of the parking lot. She felt miserable. As she drove home, the tears threatened to spill. She was twenty-four and didn't have a lot of people to talk to. Was that normal? There was nothing exciting about her life. The only person who made her feel an ounce of happiness was Jared and he broke her heart mercilessly.

A car behind her hooted and she was startled. She was driving into the wrong lane and hadn't even noticed it. She found the nearest store and parked in front of it. Her heart was still beating fast. She rubbed her dry eyes and then held the steering wheel for a moment.

Thinking about Jared was messing with her mind. She didn't want to get into a car accident because of him. She was hurt but she would have to get over it. What pained her the most, however, was that she was warned about him countless times. Almost everyone she knew had told her that he was bad news. She hadn't listened because he showed her a side to him that was pure and generous. It was all a facade. And despite the red flags, she forgave him. She believed him. And then he broke her heart and abandoned her for the woman he always told her not to worry about.

She couldn't say that she didn't deserve it.

Kiera got out of the car when her thoughts threatened to make her cry. She would not cry for Jared. He didn't deserve her tears. She walked into the store after locking her car for no particular reason. She walked down the aisles and touched different packets of this and that to feel normal. It was pointless and senseless but it helped. She ended up filling a whole shopping cart with groceries she didn't need and probably wouldn't consume but at least she felt better. It served as a good distraction.

She paid for her groceries and tried not to gasp at the ridiculously high bill. She handed her credit card over and packed the groceries in paper bags. She got outside. The air cooled her clammy skin and she was grateful for it. She popped her trunk open and packed her groceries. She took her time arranging everything neatly.

She didn't know why she was delaying the inevitable. Home was the only place she could go to. There was nowhere else.

She closed the trunk.

Kiera was walking around the car to reach the door when she heard a commotion. She turned her head and saw a group of men, a little older than her, walking toward the entrance of the convenience store. She didn't know why she kept staring. Perhaps it was the fact that they were in a group, much unlike her. She didn't know why it bothered her so much. Maybe it was the alcohol.

She was about to look away when she caught someone's eye. He made a face. "Can I help you?"

Her heart skipped a beat and she opened the door. She was about to climb in when someone grabbed her arm. It was the man she had been looking at. "I asked you a question."

She frowned. "No, there isn't anything you can help me with. Could you let go of my arm?"

The others joined him. She panicked a little but tried not to show it. The parking lot was empty.

He didn't release her. "Maybe what you want is some attention. Here I am, I'm prepared to give you my full attention." He was pretty close to her face and she didn't smell liquor on his breath. If he were drunk, she would have understood his behavior. But he wasn't and it scared her badly.

She struggled against him but he grabbed her other arm. The others did nothing, they were laughing and looking around for God knows what. The man holding her was laughing. His grip tightened considerably. She pushed him with all the force she could muster and he stumbled backward, but at least his hands weren't on her anymore. She got in the car quickly and closed the door. She locked it just as he tried to open it. When she thought that she needed some excitement in her life, this was far from it.

He slammed his fist against the window. His eyes were wild. "Open the door!"

She started the car and put it in reverse. They were surrounding her car, she noticed. She would run one of them over if she kept on reversing. She hooted in hopes to grab someone's attention. She couldn't believe that she was being attacked by a group of men. The guy kept knocking on her window. She wasn't too concerned until he started using a baseball bat. The first blow cracked her window. All her instincts kicked in. She reversed and heard a shout behind her. The man kept hitting and she felt shards of glass on her face. She couldn't wrap her head around the situation. She didn't understand why they targeted her. She didn't do anything to them. She was just trying to get home.

And suddenly the thought of home was comforting.

Then a car came out of nowhere. It was a black sports car. It screeched to a halt next to her and the driver stepped out with a gun. The guys backed away quickly with their hands up. She choked on her tears. She was so relieved.

"Get out of here," the man said and pointed the gun at the sky. He pulled the trigger and the gunshot made her flinch. They started running and shouting obscenities at him. All that mattered to her was that they were leaving.

Her rescuer opened her door and helped her out. Some of the workers she had seen in the store were rushing out and asking what happened. The man explained that he got the situation under control. She noticed that she had small scratches from the glass on her right arm. The window was shattered and there were shards of glass all over the floor. There were more in her car. One of them had scratched her car with something. A nail maybe. She groaned. It would cost her a fair amount of money to repair her car but she was safe. She had been rescued. 

She looked at her rescuer and what she saw surprised her. Her brows raised. He smiled at her reassuringly.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Kiera had never seen a man as handsome as him in all her life.