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“Sixteen…ow…seventeen…dahteen…hell”

The weights clattered against the concrete floor when Kyle Reeves dropped his legs and let the bar fall He had increased the resistance today and the pain was too intense to go any further The result was that he was now in a very badnew about that This particular bad ive or take a couple of hours

A clap of thunder rattled the s, followed by another o that seemed to echo his disposition Rain had started to fall, not very heavily yet, but steadily It was supposed to stor, and storms were always dramatic in the mountains He rather enjoyed them

Pushing hiht bench, he limped across the stark, white-walled room and stepped into a short hallith oak plank floors and unadorned walls, also painted white His cabin in the Tennessee Se—two bedrooms, one of which served as his exercise roo roos were minimal, the decor Spartan, luxuries nonexistent

The place needed some work—a few boards on the front porch had rotted, and cold air poured through numerous cracks around doors and s—but the roof didn’t leak, and the view from the redwood deck attached to the back of the house was spectacular And best of all, as far as Kyle was concerned, there were no neighbors within sight

Reaching the kitchen, he picked up a bottle of prescription pain pills, glanced at it, then tossed it back onto the butcher-block countertop He shook two ibuprofen into his palm instead, popped them into his mouth and washed them doith a fes of bottled water

He pushed a hand through his sweaty brown hair, leaving it standing in spikes He caught a glierator when he put away the water In addition to his rohich didn’t quite conceal the scar that ran down his left jawline His sweat-stained gray T-shirt was paired with black knit shorts that bagged on his too-thin fraood pair of athletic shoes because he needed the support He looked like hell—but since there was no one around to see him, he didn’t really care

As if in response to that thought, someone knocked on his front door

His eyebrows shot up in surprise He was hardly expecting company, and he doubted that his only real friend in the area, Mack McDooley, would have ventured up thestorm on this Thursday afternoon He was even ine, but he bla weather

The knocking ca roo to see as on the other side “What?”

He’d have been hard-pressed to guess who looked more surprised at that , or hiht of the woman on his doorstep

Even in the deepening darkness of the rainy afternoon, he could tell that she was stunning Masses of red hair, dotted with moisture, tumbled past her shoulders to the reen eyes ey eyeliner Her perfect nose was decorated with a slossy She was of average height, with a slender figure packaged in a snug green pullover and dark jeans that

He couldn’t i on his doorstep “Are you lost?”

She eyed hi, and he had the uncorubby appearance Not that he cared, of course She would be on her way as soon as he gave her directions to wherever she was supposed to be

But she shook her head, causing gold highlights to glimmer in her hair “I’m not lost—at least, I don’t think I am I mean…are you Kyle Reeves?”

Hearing his name spoken in a distinctly Texan accent drew his frown even deeper “Look, I’ve tried to be polite with you people, but you’re carrying it too far Tell Shane and Molly that it was nice of the Make it clear this ti ain”

Though he’d spoken tersely, he could have been a lot less polite about it—and he was fully prepared to be, if she started getting pushy, regardless of her killer eyes and delectablefondness for the Walker fas that kept his teuarantee he could control it er