her own family—her sister, her parents—made decisions involving her without always taking her opinions into account. And now a hitman from across the galaxy thought he could treat her that way too? Screw that.
Evie almost tripped over a pair of cleats and a baseball cap left in the middle of the landing. “Can you put this stuff away, please?”
She slowed as she passed the dining table, swiping at dust that had accumulated on the dark, glossy wood during their absence. The assassin had sat in that exact spot, coldly hunting through her things, snooping through her personal items and old mail, and—her gaze shifted to a grouping of family photos—looking at her.
She’d come home to find one of the photos moved out of position, as if it had been lifted and put down a few feet away. Her portrait.
Her mouth twisted. You can’t catch the eye of the average Joe in the produce aisle of the supermarket, but alien villains? Oh, yeah.
A man who was more machine than human…whose perfect body could commit perfect crimes; a man who was focused, relentless, emotionless; whose every move was weighed in advance. And yet who took a moment to look at you anyway.
A shiver ran through her that wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
“Oh, Mom. Don’t be scared.” Ellen returned to throw her arms around her. “It’s okay.”
Evie let her daughter think she was comforting her. Thank God the kid misread her tremble. It was sick, sick, sick! She’d had enough experience with cold, uncaring bastards from Earth—starting and ending with her ex-husband—that she didn’t need to import any from other worlds.
Evie handed Sadie to her daughter and escaped to the kitchen. Immediately, the room soothed her frayed nerves. From the counters of speckled brown granite to the groups of scented candles in white chocolate, raspberry truffle and chocolate chip, chocolate was the theme in the kitchen and throughout the home Reese Pierce Holloway III had abandoned when he left her for his business partner.
Two years and the pain of Pierce’s infidelity still stung. It wasn’t as if she loved him anymore, but home and family were the essence of her existence. Living through the breakup had been devastating. But she’d recently turned the corner. The extra pounds she’d added to her life-long full-figured body had started to come off with yoga and long walks. She was almost back to her usual curvy size twelve, feeling better about life, better about herself.
She threw open the refrigerator door to the seriously disappointing sight of every spare inch of shelf space crammed solid with boxes of strawberries. Spoiling strawberries.
“Uh oh,” Ellen said from behind her. The sinking tone in her daughter’s voice matched her suddenly deflated mood. “Weren’t those for the swim fund-raiser?”
“Yup.” Evie sighed, wanting to wallow in self-pity, but shrugged it off and assumed her usual cheery can-do attitude. “What’s done is done. Let’s see what we can salvage and bring to the ranch. The rest will have to be thrown away.”
She’d turned her hobby of making chocolate-covered strawberries into donations for various functions and charities. People loved the berries. No one else did them like she could. Several businesses actually wanted to pay her to make them so they could sell them retail. The thought of being compensated to do what she loved was exciting—and frightening. Her brother, Jared, convinced her that the idea had real potential. Then Ellen jumped in, surprising her by designing a Web site for a ninth-grade class project, titling it: “Evie’s Eden: a Garden of Berries.”
Then the world turned upside-down, aliens showed up, and her dream died in a storm of outside interference.
Evie wasn’t surprised. She was used to other things taking priority. Other people. Now she was back to where she’d started—her traditional role of looking out for everyone else.
She should be happy about that, right? People needed her.
Ellen helped her collect the salvaged berries and some groceries for cooking meals at the ranch, cramming it all in two shopping bags. With the bags and Sadie, they returned to the front door.
Fishing for her keys, Evie swallowed the lump in her throat. What was wrong with her? Why was she feeling so low? She had no right to be sad about losing her chance for independence. With Earth’s future so dangerous and uncertain, she’d be selfish to mourn Evie’s Eden and what could have been. Call it one more thing she could blame on the REEF and the rest of his evil empire!
“It’s a good thing I wasn’t home