When her lungs stopped hurting, she raised her head. “We have to get off of this trail. Where’s Shelby?”

He rolled to his side and pointed to where the trail widened. Shelby sat on a log and waved.

Julia lurched to her knees, the tears flowing down her face. Ryder helped her up and she rushed to Shelby ’s side and gathered her in her arms.

Ryder followed and crouched beside the log. “ Shelby found me up the trail and brought me back here. She’s amazing.”

“I told you to wait, Shelby.” Julia buried her head on Shelby ’s back. She didn’t want her daughter to see her crying. Shelby had already witnessed too many of her mother’s breakdowns.

“I waited, but I heard whistling. I knew it was Ryder. I knew Ryder would help you, Mama.”

“And he did.” She wiped her hands across her cheeks and turned to face Ryder. “He saved me. What were you doing up here?”

“I knew you took this hike almost every morning, so I waited for you at The Twirling Ballerinas. I wanted to talk.” He took her hands and turned them over. He ran a light fingertip over her scratched and bleeding palms. “And it’s a damn good thing I did. Let’s walk back and treat your cuts. Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“Just a few bruises.”

Ryder hoisted Shelby on his shoulders and rested his hand on Julia’s hip as they picked their way back over the trail where the boulder fell. Julia glanced up at the rocks. The sun had crept up higher in the sky since the rock had knocked her over the cliff, but right before she heard it rumble, a shadow passed over the sun. The rock was falling downward. It couldn’t have blocked out the sun on its descent.

Julia stumbled and Ryder grabbed her waist. “Steady, just a few more steps.”

When the trail widened, Julia spun around and lifted Shelby from Ryder’s shoulders. “Go pick some flowers and we’ll put them in a vase when we get home.”

Shelby scampered ahead and dived head first into the field of summer blooms.

“I’m glad to see the incident didn’t scare her.” Ryder tilted his chin toward Shelby rolling in a mass of petals.

“Didn’t scare her, but I’m even more frightened now than when I was dangling in space. Ryder, someone pushed that boulder off the cliff, someone waiting for us.”

Ryder’s eyebrows shot up. “How do you know? Did you see someone?”

“I saw a shadow before the rock fell. Someone was up there and he wanted to kill me…us.” Her knees started to tremble and she sank onto a boulder, similar in size and shape to the one some monster pushed toward her and Shelby.

Kneeling next to her, Ryder clasped her hand in his. The warmth and steadiness of his grip calmed her nerves.

Why did she push him away yesterday? He had his reasons for keeping quiet about their relationship. She should have given him an opportunity to explain.

When she first saw him on Main Street, a tiny hope flared that she’d found her long-lost husband and Shelby ’s father. One of those scenarios had come true. She should be thrilled Ryder turned out to be Shelby ’s father and not Jeremy. Shelby had a father to fill her with pride.

“When I get you two home, I’m coming back up here to have a look.” Ryder waved his hand toward the jagged rocks above the trail.

“I guess my secret admirer doesn’t admire me anymore.”

She rubbed her arms to quell the shiver stealing across body.

Ryder squinted into the sun. “If he can’t have you, he wants to make sure nobody else does.”

RYDER SETTLED Julia and Shelby at the house. Now that Julia’s stalker had taken his show on the road, he could avoid the cameras. Who knew about the cameras besides Zack Ballard and Dr. Jim Brody? Hell, anyone hiding out with a pair of binoculars could’ve watched him install the cameras.

He tramped back up the trail, a slow blaze kindling in his gut. Julia had pissed off this maniac by not cherishing his pathetic gifts and then made things worse by keeping company with him.

Not that it mattered. The man stalking Julia had a tenuous hold on reality. There wasn’t much she could’ve done to appease him. Any action on her part would have resulted in the same outcome. The man wanted her or he wanted her dead.

Before the main trail narrowed, a smaller trail forked to the right, leading up to the craggy rocks and crevices that overlooked Silverhill. Ryder scrambled over the first rock to take this alternate route.

He crept along the trail, hunched over, peering at the foliage along the sides. Judging by the snapped twigs and crushed leaves, someone had recently climbed this trail, but imprints of hiking boots and running shoes criss-crossed each other, obscuring any clear set of footprints.

He reached the outcropping of rocks that rose above the narrow path of the trail below. Moist earth and moss marked the spot where the boulder had come loose. He examined the area and found a broken board. Had Julia’s attacker used that as leverage to dislodge the boulder?

Peering over the edge, Ryder had a clear view of the trail. The man loosened the boulder and then waited for Julia and Shelby. Ryder’s jaw tightened along with his fists. He had to protect Julia and their daughter from this madman. He had to take him out before he did any more damage.

He stirred the dried leaves on the ground with his foot. The corner of a shiny object appeared in the dirt. Ryder pounced on it, feeling like those old prospectors must’ve felt almost a hundred and fifty years ago when they struck a vein of silver ore in these hills.

Pinching his find between two fingers, Ryder shook the dirt from it. He cradled the rectangular silver case in his palm and then pressed a small release lever. The lid to the case popped open, revealing a stack of thick cards embossed with gold letters: Dr. James Brody, Licensed Clinical Psychologist.

Ryder clutched the incriminating case in his hand so tightly, it bit into his flesh. He had all the proof he needed to get Brody out of Julia’s life for good. And if he couldn’t count on law enforcement to lock him up, well, he had his own methods.

Shoving the card case in his back pocket, he clambered over the rocks and dropped back onto the trail. Once they dealt with this freak, he and Julia could discuss their daughter and their future…together.

BY THE TIME Julia placed the last bunch of wildflowers in a vase, Shelby had crashed on the sofa. She slipped off Shelby ’s shoes and carried her to the pink princess bed. Positioning a pillow beneath Shelby ’s head, Julia studied her daughter’s face.

She thought she’d memorized every detail, but now she noticed long lashes tipped with gold, like Ryder’s. How had she missed the resemblance between her daughter and the man who came to Silverhill to save her? Had she really missed it or had she stuffed the creeping realization that Shelby was McClintock through and through deep into the shadows of her mind?

Now the truth screamed at her from all sides. The electricity between her and Ryder from the first moment he touched her. Ryder’s interest and obvious pleasure in Shelby ’s company. Shelby ’s own comfort in Ryder’s presence.

She’d been a fool.

Even Dr. Brody figured out the connection between Ryder and Shelby or maybe he just imagined it in his paranoid state. How many other people in Silverhill realized the truth about Shelby ’s paternity? She knew it wouldn’t take long for word to spread.

The latch on her front gate squeaked and Julia peeked through a gap in the curtains. Ryder strode up her walkway, a frown marring his handsome features. Guess he didn’t find anything. Sheriff Ballard wouldn’t be sending any search parties out for a phantom.

She opened the door before he had a chance to knock. “You didn’t find anything.”

“Wrong.” He slid his fingers into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small, silver rectangle.