The car coughed. Literally coughed. Then it died. In disbelief, Ana pumped the accelerator. Nothing. Like an elderly animal giving up the ghost, it coasted down the road for a few hundred yards, each passing foot getting slower and slower until it was barely moving.

She steered it off the side of the road and just sat staring through the front windshield. She was screwed. Here she was on—she had to check the map that lay on the passenger seat—Highway 70 in Bumfuck, Arizona with a broken-down car, no water, no phone, and very little money. Yep, she was officially screwed.

Ana let her head fall forward onto the steering wheel. Either she was paying off some really horrible karmic debt, or she was having one of the worst runs of luck in the history of man.

Her summer had started off badly. First the Wicca shop she worked for went bust. Literally. The owner got busted for growing hydroponic pot in the basement of the store. That left Ana without a steady job. Teaching yoga and belly dancing three nights a week at the senior citizen center, and the occasional card reading wasn’t going to keep her in organic veggies and tofu for long.

Fergi, her ferruginous hawk, attacked her husband Giovanni, who tried to shoot it. Ana used a broom to knock the gun away, and Giovanni shot out the kitchen window and the refrigerator. Fergi got pissed and took off and Ana was not able to get her to come back to the house until the day Ana packed her bags.

Then someone let her rabbit out of the house, and it was eaten by a Doberman Pinscher, grossing out the guy walking the dog and scaring the crap out of two kids playing on the sidewalk. Not to mention earning her a fine from the department for animal control. She still didn’t understand that.

The next blow came in the form of Jimmy Lowe, a sweet thirteen-year-old boy two houses down. Ana was taking a shower trying not to let water go all over the bathroom. The shower curtain was missing, torn off when her best friend Cecilia and her new boyfriend decided to have a nooner in Ana’s shower. Apparently, Cecilia slipped on the soap, fell into her new honey man who toppled over, grabbed the shower curtain, and ripped it off on his way out of the tub.

Ana rinsed the soap off her face and turned to rinse the back of her hair. That’s when she saw Jimmy standing at the bathroom window, masturbating. She yelled at Jimmy. Jimmy fell. And now Jimmy’s mother was threatening to sue Ana for contributing to the delinquency of a “mentally challenged” minor.

And all that happened before the end of the first week. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was when Ana’s husband, Giovanni, slugged her. He actually balled up his fist and punched her in the gut. And all because she disagreed with his narrow-minded stance on same-sex marriages.

She’d heard that love can’t die in a day but knew beyond a shadow of a doubt the moment Giovanni hit her that the saying was wrong. There wasn’t a drop of love left in her heart for him. Truth be told, there hadn’t been that much for half their married life, which was only three years. She’d put up with him because she felt it was her own fault that she fell for the act he put on when he was chasing her. Once the ink was dry on the marriage contract, he became someone she didn’t know, and didn’t particularly like.

But she blamed herself as much as him and hoped that in time she’d come to appreciate him for who he was and learn to view his shortcomings with affection. It had not happened, but since Giovanni didn’t share his money, car, or insurance with her, she had little choice but to stay in the marriage. She couldn’t afford the mortgage on the house by herself and wasn’t ready to get back into a roommate situation. The last one had ended up getting her tossed in jail because her roommate was running some kind of illegal porn site from a computer setup in the room she shared with her boyfriend, a sleazy guy called Snake. That pretty much made Ana’s mind up that she wasn’t equipped to deal with roommates.

Then, of course, she got married and figured married life had to beat the heck out of the single game. Getting slugged changed everything. It was an awakening, an epiphany, and hurt like hell to boot. Not as bad as the beating he gave her when she announced she was leaving during their argument.

Ana had not imagined Giovanni had it in him to hurt her that badly, but when she woke up in the hospital with two broken ribs, stitches in her scalp and looking like she’d been…well, beaten, she realized how horribly wrong she had been.

Ana was on her own and didn’t have a clue what to do. All she knew was that she wanted to get as far away from Giovanni as possible. She remembered hearing her parents talk about a place in Arizona where the people were laid-back and open-minded, and decided that’s where she would go. With all her possessions crammed into the back of her car, three hundred dollars in her pocket, a full tank of gas, and Fergi with a death grip on the top of the front seat, she hit the road, hoping that the house she left behind would fall in on her worthless husband.

And wound up here. An image flashed in her mind of herself hanging onto a knotted rope and a little red demon hovering above her with a cigarette lighter, burning the rope fiber by fiber. She knew she was losing her grip on the tight rein she’d been holding to for the last few months and that scared her. Thus far she had not cried, trembled, or screamed at the course of events that had turned her life into a gigantic pile of crap. But she was sure close.

Which meant she had to get it together and act. And the only action available to her at the moment was to get out of the car and start walking.

Which was exactly what she did. Fergi took to the air while Ana walked. Cars and trucks passed her but not one stopped to ask if she needed help and she was too cautious to stick out her thumb for a ride.

Lucky for Ana, she wasn’t as far from civilization as she imagined. In a couple of hours, she found herself on the outskirts of the town of Safford. It was not what she’d imagined at all. A mixture of old and new, it was a city of diversity. Before she realized it, she’d spent several hours walking through the city. She spotted a bookstore and went in to inquire if they had job openings. A very nice middle-aged woman informed her that the shop was not currently hiring but offered to keep an application on file. Ana declined since she had no contact information to put on the form but thanked the woman and said maybe she would stop back at another time.

She used some of her precious funds to purchase a newspaper, put in her ear buds, turned on her iPod and strolled down the sidewalk, reading the classifieds. She came to a crossroads, glanced around, and stepped into the street. She was not halfway across when Fergi screeched a warning that made her look up.

“Oh, shit!” was all she had time to say before the pickup hit her. Then everything went black.

* * * * *

Chase wrestled his cell phone from his dog’s mouth and turned his attention back to the road. His heart jumped up in his throat a split second before his foot slammed down on the brake.

He saw an enormous hawk dive down toward the small woman reading the newspaper in the middle of the street. The woman glanced up just as he bore down on her. Try as he might, he couldn’t get the truck to stop in time. As if in slow motion, he saw the front of the truck strike the woman and her body become airborne. Her arms went up and out, the paper flew out of her hands, and fluttered in the breeze. Her shoulder bag flew off and headed in the direction of the sidewalk.

Chase was out of the truck almost as soon as the woman hit the street. He raced over to her. She was lying partially twisted. Her upper back was flat on the street with arms spread akimbo, and she twisted at the waist so that her right hip was against the road with her left leg bent at the knee and crossed over the right. Newspaper pages blew all around them. Her left ear had an ear bud in it. The other side of the headset lay draped across her body. There was no sign of a player that he could see. Even in the midst of the anxiety pressing in on him he still noticed that she was quite lovely.

She was breathing, which was definitely a good sign. As he gently moved long, silky, dark hair aside from her smooth neck to check for a pulse, he dialed 911 on his cell phone and requested an ambulance. The big hawk he’d noticed right before he plowed into the woman swooped down at them and Chase threw himself across the woman to protect her.

He’d never seen a hawk do anything like that. Was the bird loco? Must be because it perched on a light pole and watched everything happening on the street. Chase forgot about the bird as he and the unconscious woman became a focal point of attention.

People gathered, as is wont to happen at any accident. By the time the ambulance and police arrived, there was quite a crowd. Chase sat on the road beside the woman, his fingers on her neck, monitoring her pulse. It seemed to be okay to him, but what did he know? He was a rancher, not a doctor.

The paramedics took over, efficiently checking and then transferring the woman to a stretcher. The police officer responding to the call was an old friend of Chase’s, Jason Weeks.

“What happened here, Chase?” Jason asked.

“Shit on a stick, Jas. I hit her.” Chase had visions of his rodeo career flying high and far away to be replaced by the sight of a jail cell.

Jason pulled Chase over to the still-running pickup. “Don’t speak too quick now,” he advised. “What we have to determine is if you were at fault here.”

“At fault?” Chase looked at his friend like he’d grown two heads. “Christ almighty, it’s clear as the damn nose on your face.”

“Just calm down and tell me what happened,” Jason said calmly.

Chase blew out his breath, snatched off his hat, slapped it against his leg and with his free hand, smoothed back his dark hair. “I was driving along. Don’t know how fast, just regular speed for town. My cell phone rang, and Cody grabbed it. I reached over to get it out of his mouth and when I looked back, she was…just there…in the middle of the road, reading the paper. I slammed on the brakes but couldn’t get stopped in time.”

“You say she was reading the paper while she was crossing the street?” Jason asked. “So, even though you didn’t have your eyes on the road the whole time, she wasn’t paying attention either.”

“Yeah, uh, I guess.” Chase could not, in good conscience, lay the blame on the beautiful dark-haired woman now on her way to the hospital. “No. No, it doesn’t matter, Jas, it was my fault. Question is, am I gonna go to jail over this?”

Jason pursed his lips and squinted his eyes, mulling it over. “Not if she admits to being careless and refuses to press charges.”

“And what are the chances of that?” Chase asked.

Jason smiled. “Well, I guess that depends on you, old buddy. As an officer of the law, I can’t advise you to get your ass over to the hospital and make sure yours is the first face she sees when she regains consciousness. Just like I can’t advise you to turn on the Hawks charm with that little filly.”

“Thanks, Jas.” Chase crammed his hat back down on his head and gave Jason a friendly pound on the top of the shoulder. “Okay for me to leave?”

“Yeah, go on. I got what I need for my report.”

Chase got back in his truck and rubbed Cody’s broad head when the dog whined. Like it or not, his plans for the day had changed. Instead of paying a visit to the superficial but nonetheless delectable Mandy Fuller, he headed for the hospital.

Ana blinked several times, trying to wrap her mind around the sights that met her eyes. A hospital monitor blinked beside the bed she lay on. Through the open door she could see medical personnel behind a long counter and people moving up and down the hallway. She turned to look at the other side of the room and her eyes widened in surprise.

Okay, I’m dreaming, she decided, or dead. Either way, the sight that met her eyes was quite appealing. A man dressed in snug, faded jeans, scarred boots and a tight white tee shirt that stretched enticingly over his broad chest and brawny arms, sat in a chair beside the bed, his elbows on his knees holding a black cowboy hat in his hands between his spread knees. His head was bowed, his dark hair falling over his forehead.

Ana had always been a sucker for the cowboy type. Maybe it was genetic. Her paternal grandfather had been a bull rider. Her father, Joshua Stillwater, was not interested in following in his father’s footsteps and left at the age of sixteen to seek his future elsewhere. He found it in the shape of Fia MacGregor, a young woman from the highlands of Scotland whose family had immigrated to America.

Fia, as it turned out, had a soft spot for cowboy types too, so Fiana, shortened to Ana, spent many an evening sitting on rough bleachers watching local rodeo events in whatever place her parents landed for the moment. Even after her parents had been killed in an auto accident, Ana had secretly continued the tradition, watching the rodeo on television, and secretly dreaming of real cowboys with piercing dark eyes and long, lean bodies.

Now it looked like she’d come full circle, because unless her eyes deceived her, the man seated beside the bed was not of the drugstore cowboy variety. His jeans were worn but clean, clinging snuggly to the well-developed muscles of his thighs. His hands appeared rough, not the hands of a desk worker, and his arms were corded with the kind of muscle that develops from work instead of achieved in a gym. He had the kind of body her mother would have called a “real man.”

At the moment Ana could not help but admire that real man physique. But then the man raised his head and looked at her and time stopped. Ana looked into dark eyes that belonged only in her dreams. So dark was the brown that it was barely distinguishable from the black of his pupils. Black thick lashes rimmed the hooded wells of darkness and thick brows drawn elegantly together parted and lifted in surprise.

His face might well have been carved by a master, all masculine angles with a firm, strong chin, and slightly long straight nose over a set of lush full lips that begged to be kissed.

Chase was shocked immobile when her eyes met his. He’d been watching her for hours, waiting for her to regain consciousness and planning his strategy to charm her into letting him off the hook for running over her.

She was a small woman, no more than a couple of inches over five feet. Surprisingly, for a woman so small, she had sumptuous full breasts. Her arms were muscled but not heavily, just well-toned with enough definition to stand testament that she was in good shape.

Her hair was long, silky, and dark, the color so deep a black that even in the artificial light of the hospital, it shone with highlights like the midnight of a raven’s wing. High cheekbones gave her a slightly exotic appeal, as did the luscious full lips and bronze tone of her skin.

But the eyes that locked unblinkingly with his were the most arresting feature of her face. Large and almond-shaped, they were the amber-yellow eyes of a jungle cat. Ringed by the thickest, longest lashes he’d ever seen on a woman that were not manufactured or enhanced, her eyes were the stuff of male fantasy. Which would explain why there was action taking place in a part of his anatomy that made him distinctly uncomfortable. The longer they stared at one another, the harder he got.

Chase finally broke eye contact. He looked down at his hat, using the moment to clear his thoughts, and then looked back up at her.

Ana was disappointed when the man broke eye contact. As long as their eyes were locked, she did not have to be connected to the real world. She could stay inside the fantasy, imagining that she was looking into the eyes of her destiny.

But the moment ended, and she was forced out of fantasy and back to the real world, where she was in a hospital with a man she did not know.

“What’s wrong with me?” she asked.

Chase nearly groaned. It wasn’t bad enough that she was hot enough to start a fire. She just had to have a slightly husky, low voice that inspired thoughts of hot sweaty nights and passion that burned long after the stars had faded from the sky.

“You were—uh, you were in an accident.”

“Yeah, that part I remember,” she said. “But what’s wrong with me? I’m kind of scared to look for myself. Do I still have all my arms and legs and necessary things? Do I look like I went through a meat grinder? Do I still have both ears and a nose and all that?”

Chase could not help but grin at the questions. “Yeah, Sassy, you still have everything and lucky for you there’s not a mark on your pretty face. You have some busted-up ribs but that’s the worst of it.”

Ana blew out her breath in relief and started to sit. “Ouch!” She grumbled at the pain sitting caused. But at least she could sit. She checked out her arms and lifted the sheet to peer underneath at her legs as she moved them and wiggled her toes.

“So,” she pulled the sheet up and arranged herself with her legs crossed in front of her beneath the sheet. “Who are you and why are you sitting here with me? Are you the sheriff or marshal or whatever you have here? Do you know who hit me? Where’s Fergi and where is my purse? How long have I been here? How long was I unconscious? How long do I have to stay—”

“Hold on, there.” Chase held up one hand. “One question at a time.”

“Okay,” she agreed, thinking he was as attractive when he smiled as wearing a somber expression, and what a nice low-pitched voice he had, very soft and low but extremely masculine and sexy. “First question. Who are you and why are you here?”

“My name’s Chase Hawks and I’m here because…” He got up and paced to the foot of the bed, clutching his hat nervously in front of him. “Well, I’m here because it was me that hit you.”

She turned to face him. “You’re the truck that ran over me?” Obviously, her bad luck was holding since the guilty party was standing in front of her, looking for all the world like someone she’d rather rape than rip. But sexy or not, he’d still run her down, and now she’d be faced with hospital bills she couldn’t pay, which was the last thing she needed.

“Yes, ma’am. I am.”

“Yes, ma’am?” she blurted. “No, I didn’t mean to—it wasn’t my fault—you should have been watching more carefully or I didn’t see you?” she shot the questions racing through her mind at him in rapid fire. “Just yes, ma’am?”

He didn’t respond and she studied him. “Well, I appreciate you being so honest, Mr. Hawks, and I’m sorry this messed up your day. I’m sure you have better things to do than sit in the hospital with a stranger.”

Chase had not expected that from her. “Miss…uh, I don’t know your name.”

“Fiana Stillwater.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Now, Mr. Chase Hawks, if you’d be so good as to call the doctor, I think I’ll be leaving.”

“You can’t just leave,” Chase objected.

“Watch me.” Ana threw back the sheet and went to hop off the bed. Only her ribs made her gasp and hang onto the bed for support. “Where are my clothes?” She looked around the room. “And my purse? And you still haven’t told me what happened to Fergi.”

Chase looked around as well. “I don’t know. I guess they put your clothes somewhere. I don’t know anything about a purse. And who the hell is Fergi?”

“Well, find out!” Ana was starting to panic. Every cent to her name was in that purse. Without it, she was completely sunk. No way to get her car fixed, get a place to stay or feed herself.

Chase hurried out of the room. Ana searched the room and found a plastic bag in a small closet containing her clothes. She hurriedly dressed and was putting on her shoes when Chase returned with a doctor.

“Miss?” the doctor addressed her.

“What?” She looked up at him.

“I don’t think it would be wise for you to leave just yet.”

“Nonsense,” she argued. “A few broken ribs aren’t that serious. So, if you’ll just give me my purse and my discharge papers I’ll be leaving.”

The doctor looked at Chase and Chase shrugged. “Miss…?”

“Stillwater,” she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Yes, Miss Stillwater. There was no purse brought in with you. All of your personal belongings—”

“No, no, no, no, no!” She put her hands up to her face, the heels pressing into her eyes. “This cannot be happening!”

“Miss Stillwater, if you would just—”

Ana cut the doctor off. “Get out! I mean it. Get out of here and leave me alone.”

The doctor gave Chase a look and left the room. Ana turned on Chase. “You too. You’ve screwed up my life enough for one day, so get out.”

“Look, Miss Stillwater, I know it’s an inconvenience losing your purse but—”

“An inconvenience?” She turned on him with eyes flashing. “An inconvenience is having to detour a block to get where you’re going. An inconvenience is having no cream for your coffee. This…” she gestured around the room. “This is not an inconvenience. Losing every last red cent to my name is not an inconvenience. Having my car break down in Bumfuck, Arizona, is not an inconvenience. Having my no-account husband shoot at my familiar is not an inconvenience. Getting beat all to shit and having to hide out for two months, getting sued for contributing to the delinquency of a peeping-tom minor, watching your rabbit get eaten by a Doberman, losing your job because your stupid boss couldn’t grow his stupid pot at home—none of that is an inconvenience! It’s life saying, ‘Fuck you, Ana Stillwater—fuck you up the ass and to hell with the jelly.’”

At a loss for more words, yet still filled with rage and anxiety, Ana plunked down on the bed and buried her face in the pillow, screaming her head off. All of the events of the last few months finally burst through the emotional barrier she’d created, and she could no more stop the flood of emotion than she could prevent the sun from rising. The monitor beside the bed started beeping madly and the door to the small closet flew open and banged against the wall.

Chase stood there dumbfounded. The damn machine beside the bed was beeping enough to pierce his eardrums, and the woman was screaming at the top of her lungs into the pillow, kicking her legs like she was swimming and bouncing the bed around.

Part of him wanted to laugh at the dramatics and all the crazy things she’d said. Another part was extremely aroused by her energy, anger, and fire, and yet another part wondered why, of all the people in the world he could have run over, did it have to be a beautiful lunatic.

“You’ve got to stop that!” He walked over to the bed and grabbed her shoulder to roll her over. “You’re gonna have people thinking you’re dying in here.”

“Ouch!” she yelled as he rolled her face-up on the bed. “Get off me, you Neanderthal! That’s hurts!”

Chase released her and stepped back. “Sorry. But you’ve got to calm down.”

“Do I?” she spat at him. “Why? Because it keeps from upsetting other people? Because it makes you uncomfortable? Well, guess what? I don’t care. I’m sick and tired of being everyone’s doormat and getting shit on every time I turn around and if I feel like screaming then I’m going to scream.”

“Fine.” Chase tossed her the pillow and turned to close the door. “So ahead. Scream. Act like a hysterical, irrational woman but it’s not going to change anything and it sure as hell isn’t going to make things any different.”

“Well, what difference does it make to you?” She came off the bed at him. “You’re going to leave and go on with your nice life, just a little inconvenienced by the fact that you ran over me. Not so easy for me. I’m stuck in this…place with no money, no job, no car and no one to turn to. So don’t preach to me about irrationality, buster.”

With that last word she poked him in the chest with her index finger. Chase looked down at her, trying to keep a lid on the anger simmering just beneath the surface. “Don’t do that,” he warned her in a low voice.

“Or what?” She poked him again. “You’ll run over me again?”

She went to poke him again, but he grabbed her wrist and jerked her up close to him. Ana froze and turned white as a ghost. All of a sudden, she wasn’t in a hospital room railing at a cowboy she didn’t know. She was back at home, staring into the face of her infuriated husband as he rained blows on her. The pain she felt in her ribs was real but at the moment she didn’t see it as due to the truck that hit her but that caused by her husband’s fists and feet.

Chase saw the color drain out of her face and fear rise in her golden eyes. He tried to pull her to him, to comfort her, but that was the wrong move. She went wild, hitting and kicking at him, wild-eyed and panting.

It was all Chase could do to keep her from hurting herself as he fended off her blows. It took longer than he anticipated for her to run out of steam. By the time she literally collapsed in his arms, they were both red-faced and sweaty.

He carried her to the bed and propped her against the pillows. Ana stared at him blankly for a long time then jerked and blinked several times. “Oh my god.” Color flooded her face. “I…I’m…forgive me. I…” She covered her face with her hands, horrified at what she had done.

Chase waited for her to lower her hands. “Look, Miss Stillwater, it’s obvious that you’ve had some trouble in your life, and I’ve just added to it. For my part, I am sorry. And if you’ll let me, I’ll help you get your car back and a place to stay until you can get on your feet and get home.”

Ana laughed hollowly. “That’s kind of you, Mr. Hawks, but that’s kind of the reason I ended up here—trying to get as far away from home as possible.”

Chase considered it for a few moments. The doctor had said that the breaks in her ribs looked to be more of a reopening of unhealed fractures than new breaks. And with what she’d screamed at him, it was a pretty solid bet that she was on the run from an abusive husband. Which made her trouble with a capital T. He could be making a huge mistake, but at this point he didn’t see where he had a choice. “Fine, then don’t go home. Stay here, find another place, do what you want. But until it’s time for you to make that decision, I’m going to help.”

Ana was touched that a complete stranger would be so kind, particularly considering her actions the last hour. “Thank you, but that’s asking too much. When I said I was broke, I really meant it. I had three hundred dollars in my purse and that’s all the money I have in the world. Everything I own is in the back of my car on Highway 70, and I don’t have any family. They’re all dead and now it’s just me. But that’s okay. I’ve been on my own a long time and I’ll figure out a way. I always do. I can’t take anything from you, Mr. Hawks. It wouldn’t be right.”

“Actually, it would,” he argued. “See, the facts are, I ran over you. Now, by rights, you could sue me for that. But I’m hoping you won’t because it really was an accident. I was wrestling my cell phone out of my dog’s mouth and just didn’t see you. But that doesn’t change the fact that I hit you. So, as I see it, the least I can do is help you until you’re able to help yourself. That way we can call it even.”

Ana studied his face and searched his eyes. Was he really as genuine and sincere as he seemed, or was he just another person trying to pull the wool over her eyes and get his butt out of a legal sling into the bargain? She did not want to think so, but she had a habit of thinking the best of people and it often got her into trouble.

But what choice did she really have? “What exactly did you have in mind?”

“Well, I guess you can stay with me ‘til you’re healed up. After that we’ll figure out what to do next.”

“Stay with you?” Ugly doubt rose and she tried to push it aside. “I can’t do that. I don’t even know you.”

“Well, I’m not exactly a serial killer,” he snapped then immediately apologized. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to bite. Look, I’m not suggesting that I take you to bed. Just that I give you a place to stay. I have extra room and I’m gone a lot, so you probably wouldn’t see much of me anyway.”

“What do you do?” Ana’s natural curiosity was piqued.

“I run a ranch, and I rope.”

“A ranch? As in cows?”

“A few. Mostly horses.”

Ana opened her mouth to say no, but an image flashed in her mind from Fergi, along with a bit of advice. She would not have acted on the advice it come from another source, but Fergi was the one dependable being in her life.

“Oh, well… Okay, Mr. Hawks, you have a deal. On one condition. I’ll work for you in exchange for room and board until I can get a job and get enough money together to get my car fixed.”

“You want to work for me?” He couldn’t help but smile at the idea. “And just how much experience do you have with ranching?”

Ana returned his smile. “Not much, but I’m a fast learner. So, do we have a deal?” She stuck out her hand.

Chase grinned and took her small hand in his. “We do, Miss Stillwater. We certainly do.”