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  For a long moment after he’d gone, Alyssa stood in the center of her living room and fought the heartbreak that ripped through her. She’d done the right thing…hadn’t she?

  She sank down on the sofa, wondering why, if she’d done the right thing, did she felt so sick inside, so filled with a kind of despair she’d never known before.

  She had spent the last twenty-four hours fighting with herself, her heart telling her to take a chance on happiness and love, and her head warning her that to do so would only create more pain. Her head had won the battle, but now it was her heart paying the price, breaking into a million agonizing pieces.

  “You’re my happy, sane place.” That’s what he’d said to her, and as she’d walked through the darkness of her frightening visions, he had been hers.

  “If this man, this Nick, fulfills you as a woman, then trust what’s in your heart, not whatever visions might be in your head.” That had been the advice from her aunt Rita.

  Was she a coward? Was she afraid to take a chance and defy the vision her grandmother had had of her life? Was it as Nick had said, was she self-fulfilling a prophecy that didn’t have to be?

  Panic welled up inside her as she realized she’d just made the biggest mistake of her life. She sprang up from the sofa and ran out the door.

  Outside, the sun was hot as she raced straight ahead, through the park to the other side of the square. The last time she’d run through here she’d been running away from Nick. This time she was running to him and all that he had to offer.

  Please, don’t let me be too late, she prayed as she ran. Her heart jumped as she saw his car parked outside the café. He was still here.

  The place was jumping with an unusually large lunch crowd. Frantically, she scanned the crowd looking for Nick. She saw Ruby at the back of the restaurant and there was Nick, seated at a small table talking to the big, blond woman.

  “Nick!” Alyssa cried out his name, unmindful of the stares of the diners around her.

  He looked up and his brilliant blue gaze met hers. He must have seen the love spilling from her eyes, curving her lips upward. He had to have seen the frantic need that drove her into the café and to him.

  He rose and started toward her. She didn’t wait for him to come to her, but rather met him halfway. Yes,” she said breathlessly. “Yes, I want to marry you. Yes, I want to spend my life with you.”

  He grabbed her in his arms and pulled her tight against his chest. “Are you sure?” he whispered fervently. “Are you positive?”

  “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my entire life.” She barely got the words out of her mouth before his lips came crashing down on hers.

  As he kissed her she was vaguely aware of clap ping and hooting from the people around them. Tears once again burned in her eyes, but this time they were tears of happiness.

  When the kiss ended, she looked into his eyes and her heart nearly burst from her chest in joy. “I have a vision,” she said. “I see us living together for the rest of our lives, loving each other and having a family.”

  He framed her face with his hands, those beautiful blue eyes of his seeming to see inside her soul. That’s not a vision, my love, that’s my promise to you.”

  Alyssa looked at Ruby, who stood nearby, her broad face beaming with a smile. “You still want to make an offer on my place?”

  “Hell, yes,” Ruby exclaimed and rubbed her hands together in obvious glee.

  “Don’t think you’re going to get a bargain just because we’re in love,” Nick warned her.

  She threw back her head and cackled. “I knew you were trouble the first day I saw you, handsome,” she exclaimed.

  “And I knew you were dangerous to me the first time I saw you,” Alyssa said to Nick.

  Nick took her by the arm and led her outside the café, away from the audience of the other people. When they were out in the bright sunshine, he once again took her in his arms.

  “It will take me a while to settle things here before I can go to Tulsa,” she said.

  “It’s not so far that I can’t drive back and forth several times a week until you get free,” he replied.

  “I almost let you go,” she said softly. “I almost let you walk out of my life.”

  He grinned, that beautiful, sexy grin that sent rivulets of heat flooding through her. “I wasn’t gone yet. I’m not sure I could have made it out of town without trying one more time to convince you that we belong together.”

  “Forever,” she said.

  His eyes glowed with love. He was her happy, sane place, and as his lips once again sought hers in a fiery kiss Alyssa knew she would never, ever be alone again.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-7759-9

  MANHUNT

  Copyright © 2004 by Carla Bracale

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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  †Sisters

  ‡Mustang, Montana

  **The Delaney Heirs

  ‡‡Cherokee Corners

  *The Baker Brood

  ††The Pregnancy Test

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16