Melody felt uneasy, even in her sleep. She fought to awaken from the first peaceful dream she’d had since the attack, but it was difficult. The sun was so warm pouring in from the opened window, the breeze so refreshing on her skin. Still, there was that sense of panic she’d come to know all too well. She had to wake up. 

     Pierce started to call out to her when he saw her eyelids fluttering. He stepped back so he wouldn’t alarm her and tried to look as unthreatening as possible. The last thing he wanted was to make her believe she was in danger. 

     As soon as Melody opened her eyes, she saw a man standing against the wall across from the bed. She didn’t ask questions or give him a chance to explain who he was and what he was doing there. She screamed, her terror growing when she remembered she had no clothes on, and pulled the sheet around herself.  She clumsily leapt from the bed with the sheet dragging behind her and ran out through the opened bedroom door. 

     As she ran out screaming over the strange intruder, more men appeared around her. She shrieked and ran frantically down the stairs.

     When she saw another man at the front door, she bolted around the stairs and ran to the kitchen. There was an exit there and a phone to replace the one she’d left in her purse upstairs. 

     She grabbed the portable phone from its charger and flung open the back door. She heard the men calling to her, so she ran faster. As she ran through the wooded tree line, she tried to dial for help.  

     “Dammit!” she screamed. 

     It wouldn’t work so far from its base. 

     She turned around and seeing the men hadn’t made it out of the house yet, hurried back and hid beneath the raised cabin. She crawled the best she could, holding the sheet tightly around herself and beneath her arms.  

     Once she believed she was under far enough, she tried once again to turn on the phone. When she put the receiver to her ear to check for a dial tone, she heard a man’s voice.  

     “Ma’am? Can you hear me?” 

     She didn’t say anything at first. She didn’t know what to say. He was, obviously, one of the men inside the house using the base as an intercom to speak to her. 

     “Who are you?” she said in as demanding a tone as she could manage.

     She couldn’t allow herself to sound as frightened as she was. 

     “Well, I think that’s a question I should be asking you,” came the calm reply.  “You were in my house.” 

     “No one is supposed to be here until Fall,” she shot back, unsure of his story. 

     Could these people have thought as she and were using it since the owners wouldn’t be there? 

     “Since it belongs to the state of Pennsylvania, we can use it any time we want,” he bluntly answered. “Now, do you want to tell me who you are and what you’re doing here?” 

     Melody thought on his words. The state owned it? Is that what the realtor couldn’t tell her? The previous owners hadn’t been forced out. They had sold it.  Apparently the state had bought it. That would make these men… 

     She thought of what she had seen as she ran from the room and from the house.  There were all sorts of technical devices and equipment scattered in the entrance way. Maybe they were sent to tag elk and other wildlife from the wild game commission. They could be military. Maybe they wanted to use the land for training. 

     She heard a noise and her head jerked up. Her eyes widened as she looked at the end of the cabin. Laying feet from her, though not beneath the house, was the man who was in her room. His green and gold eyes shone brightly, even in the shade, and his smile seemed patient and kind.  

     Pierce removed his plain, black baseball-style cap and raked his fingers through his cropped black hair. He rested himself on his elbows as he flattened his body to the ground. She looked like a frightened, cornered animal, and he knew at once this lady had issues. She had a panic in those light blue eyes of hers unlike he’d ever seen.  

     He remembered the scars on her ankles and wrists, and didn’t fail to notice, then, the deep scar just below her left collarbone. He instinctively looked to her ring finger. The scars seemed personal, which told his experienced mind she was running from someone. It could be her husband, but there was no ring or any evidence there ever was one. Could be a boyfriend. 

     Either way, he’d know soon enough. He’d had one of his men take her identification from the purse in the room where he found her.  

     “You know,” he began as he looked around intentionally at her hiding place, “the mountains are full of all sorts of creepy crawly things that like to hide in dark, damp places like this.” 

     She didn’t like the sarcastic grin he gave her. He wasn’t being cruel, just trying to get her to come out. Little did he know that little creepy crawly things never bothered her. 

     “There are worse things to fear,” she told him stubbornly. 

     His brow creased in concern.  

     “Look, ma’am, I didn’t mean to scare you earlier,” he said patiently. “I had no idea anyone would be in there. When I found you, I decided to wake you so you wouldn’t be afraid when you heard us in the house.” 

     “And the fact that I was naked didn’t seem to bother you,” she accused. 

     He grinned a little but only for a moment. If she’d been calmer and the situation were different, he would have laughed at what he would mistake as a sense of humor. She was right, though. If he wanted to be honest, he had to admit that, at least. He could have stepped out, shut the door, and knocked politely. Instead, he was drawn to her like a moth to a flame. 

     “You’re thinking about it, aren’t you,” she continued with the accusations.  “About me laying naked and alone, asleep and vulnerable. You don’t have to answer that. You’re a man. Of course, it’s what you were thinking.” 

     He looked at her intently. She had learned a hard lesson about life with dangerous men. He didn’t like being branded as a pervert, though. 

     “Ma’am, I don’t know what happened to you or who gave you those,” he said.  She pulled the sheet tighter over her chest and pulled her hair over the mark on her shoulder at which he pointed. “I’m here on police business and that’s it. 

     You weren’t supposed to be here. This cabin is the base of operations for an investigation. As soon as you come out of there, you can get dressed and be on your way. If it’ll help you feel safer, we’ll stay outside while you get yourself together. Does that sound reasonable?”

     She thought about what he said. So that’s why the owners wanted out so bad.  Something criminal was going on in those mountains. 

     Nice choice for a freaking getaway, Melody, she chastised herself. 

     “Do you have a badge?” she asked from a guarded disposition.  

     He smiled and reached into his back jeans pocket to pull out his wallet. When he tossed it to her, it landed against her arm, and she flipped it open with her free hand. 

     Sure enough, gleaming at her from the fold was a shiny silver badge. Around the edge was the Pittsburgh Police insignia, and in the center was “Sergeant”. On the opposite side of the fold out was his official ID.

NAME: Kai Caerwyn Pierce

SEX: Male

AGE: 28

HAIR: Black

EYES: Green

HEIGHT: 72”

WEIGHT: 165 lb

DIVISION: S.W.A.T.

ROLE: Team Leader

RANK: Sergeant

CITY OF OPERATIONS: Pittsburgh, PA

BADGE NO.: 1973315

     After reading his name and looking at the accompanying photo, she gave him a closer look. He was Asian American, and she swallowed hard. 

     Race and ethnicity never mattered to her before that night. Now, she instinctively saw it before anything else. She didn’t blame an entire group of people for the crimes of one. She often reminded herself that the two men who had helped her get to the hospital were Korean Americans. Her ex-boyfriend was as white as could be, and he certainly wasn’t a prize. 

     The attack did something to her acceptance of others, whether they were from another country or just another state. Every time she saw an East Asian man, however, she wondered if he were her attacker or someone who knew him. 

     The detectives hadn’t gotten any closer to finding him, and she was beginning to think he was all around her – watching, plotting, ready to torture her again. Maybe he’d kill her next time. Maybe she hoped he would. 

     She rubbed the shield with her thumb and swallowed the lump in her throat so she wouldn’t cry.

     “Your name is Kai Caerwyn Pierce?” she asked him as she tossed it back to him.  

     “Sergeant Kai Pierce, ma’am,” he smiled as he replaced his wallet. “I’m with the Pittsburgh police. S.W.A.T. The others are my team.” 

     She looked at him for a minute. He was being patient with her even though she was trespassing. He could have hauled her off to jail. She sighed and straightened herself to scoot from beneath the house.  

     Kai quickly stood and moved away, directing his men to do the same. Everyone had come out to see about the commotion and to discover more about the half-naked woman. 

     When she finally managed to get all the way from beneath the cabin, she raised herself on one arm and looked up at him. She wasn’t sure she could stand on her own without dropping the sheet. He stepped up slowly and lowered his hand for her to take.  

     She took the offer, but as soon as she was on her feet, she pulled her hand from his. She didn’t like what she felt. First, there was the fear. Then, there was something else as the heat from his large strong hand rose across her chilly arm.     

     She hurried to the back door and up the stairs into the cabin, running past the only man in the house as he was shutting off his cellular phone. She didn’t stop running until she was safely inside her room and the door was locked.

     “I have no idea where I’m going but I have to get the hell out of here,” she said aloud to herself as she began to dress.