Free Ultimate Kill (Book 1 Ultimate CORE Trilogy) (CORE Series) by Kristine Mason

shirt as if he were ready to pounce.  
    “I had issues with a stalker,” she answered, giving him the skeletal version of the truth. “His threats had become so bad, I was forced to change my identity.”  
    “Changing your name is one thing, but getting a new social security number? That’s not easy to do.” He plopped a grape in his mouth. “How’d you manage to keep your nursing license and college transcripts?”
    Deep sorrow meshed with the anxiety churning in her stomach. Her brother, Thomas, had taken care of her identity change when she was twenty. But she’d lied to Jake when they’d first met and told him she was an only child. Thomas’s career with the FBI was not something she would or could share with Jake. Her brother had insisted that if she were to go into hiding, she had to cut all ties. That included him.
    “When I changed my name, I’d already spent a couple of years earning my nursing degree. So, I started from scratch as Naomi McCall, switched colleges and breezed through the program.” Before she’d become Naomi McCall, she’d also claimed the life insurance benefits and inheritance her parents had left for her and Thomas. With a half a million dollars and a new name, she’d been lulled into thinking she’d escaped her stalker, met Jake and thought she could have it all. Love, family, career. Until Thomas had been brutally murdered because of her.  
    “You’re right though,” she said. “It wasn’t easy to do, but it was something that needed to be done. I was tired of spending my life looking over my shoulder.” She still was, but left that to herself. She’d answer Jake’s questions, would likely compound the lies, but refused to tell him who had driven her off the grid. Jake had no problem with confrontation and sometimes lived in a fantasy world where justice always prevailed. In her world, justice would not come to the man who had destroyed her family and her life. His power stretched too far. His wealth was limitless. Bottom line, Jake, as much as she hated to admit it, couldn’t stand up to him. Well, he could, but she knew firsthand how that would go. Thomas’s crooked smile and laughing eyes filtered through her mind, along with his headstone.  
    “Where’s this stalker now?” Jake asked and helped himself to a muffin.
    “How can you keep eating while asking me questions I guarantee most people do not ask over breakfast?”
    He shrugged. “I’m hungry and I miss your cooking. Where’s the stalker?”
    “You just asked me that,” she said, growing irritated. Her insides were a mess. She was damned tired of the way the past continued to haunt her. And it pissed her off that Jake could continue to eat when all she wanted to do was vomit.  
    “So answer.”
    “Last I heard, Virginia.” Another truth.  
    “He lives there?”
    “As far as I know.”
    “What did he do to you?” he asked, his voice nonchalant but his eyes hard and probing. She was so onto him. He was trying to keep her at ease, but he had no idea how this conversation tore her apart. He had no idea how much she’d lost, and she’d make sure he never did. She remembered a quote that went something like, “There is no wealth like knowledge.” In this case, knowledge would bring Jake death.  
    “Like I told you, he stalked me.” She crumpled the napkin in her fist as disturbing memories punched her from the inside out. “He harassed me at my apartment, at my parents’ house, at work and school. He called and emailed me constantly. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve changed my number and email address.” She shook her head. “But then the threats started.”  
    Jake set his fork on the table and clenched his jaw. “And?” he asked, the single word harsh, demanding.
      Her hand moved to her neck and her mouth went dry. That night had been one of the scariest of her life and one she didn’t want to relive. But there were some things she could tell Jake without really