Free The Way Home (Chasing #3) by Linda Oaks Page A

by the look of Miley’s place that she didn’t have the extra money to pay for repairs. Life, it seemed, hadn’t been easy for Miley Triton.
    As we’d pulled up and parked in front of her house I turned to her and ordered, “Stay in the truck.” I opened my door and climbed out. “I’ll need your keys.”
    With anxious eyes, she handed me her keys. “Be careful, Nate. Ryder is dangerous.”
    “I think I already got that one figured out.” Her concern had my lips twitching and curving into a grin. The sensation felt strange, but I kind of liked it. “I will check the house and when the coast is clear, I’ll motion you in. You got it?”
    She frowned, her eyes shooting sparks. “Yeah, I’ve got it. Regardless of what you think, Nate Lucas, I’m not a complete moron. I would have never stopped on the side of the road. My engine light came on. I got out to check underneath the hood and he pulled in behind my car. When I saw him, I ran but he chased me. End of story. You got it?” she retorted, and it was all I could do not to smile. I liked that sassy attitude and smart mouth of hers just a little too much.
    “There’s a gun in the glove compartment. Lock the doors.”
    She nodded in reply, her lips tight.
    I left the keys hanging in the ignition in case Miley needed to make a getaway. This wasn’t a safe neighborhood, not for a single mother and child. Tall, scraggly shrubs blocked Miley’s house from the view of her one and only neighbor. She also lived at the end of a dead end street. An overgrown field lay directly behind the house. It was less than a mile from the main road. This wasn’t a good setup. I didn’t like it all. Anyone could park and manage to be at her back door in no time. At the most, it was a good five-minute hike. There were too many places for someone to hide; to watch and wait, to catch her unaware.
    Hell, I bet she didn’t even own a gun.
    After unlocking the front door, I glanced back at the truck to find her in the same spot watching me . Focus, Nate! I slid my gun from my waistband and carefully pushed the door open. The loud creaking of hinges interrupted the silence and had me gritting my teeth.
    Damn it!! Had no one ever heard of WD 40? Just squirt that shit on and good as new.
    All of a sudden, the frantic thudding of footsteps had me running full speed through the house despite my need for caution. There went the element of surprise. A loud bang echoed through house. It sounded as if something had crashed into something else. The back door was standing wide open. There wasn’t any sign of movement in the field behind her house. Cautiously, I made my way down the steps and checked around outside. I found nothing.
    Whoever had been here was nowhere to be found.
    My guess was Ryder Blade, and he’d hightailed it out of here as soon as he realized Miley wasn’t alone. I hurried back through the house to the front door where I found Miley still waiting inside of my truck. Thank fuck, she’d finally listened to me for once! When she saw me, she climbed out of the truck. I walked down the front porch steps to meet her. I wasn’t taking any chances, whoever was in the house might still be lurking around somewhere outside. If it was the last thing that I did, I would keep her safe.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked, her face filled with concern. Anxious eyes held mine awaiting an answer.
    After all she’d been through, I hated to scare her but she had to know. She had to be made aware of what was going on. It was better to be scared than in the clutches of Ryder Blade or someone even worse than him. “Someone was in the house. They’re gone, but you need to pack a bag. We have to get moving.”
    For all I knew, whoever had been in the house might return or had left to gather reinforcements. The quicker we were on the road, the better. This whole situation made me entirely too uneasy.
    “Did you see who it was?”
    With a sigh, I shook my head no. “Whoever it was, heard the