Chapter 1:
I woke up screaming, but the dream was already fading. I was still breathing hard when Peter knocked on the door and let himself in without waiting for my reply. He looked at me with his perfect big blue eyes and said, "bad dream?" All I did was nod in response. He walked in and sat down next to me while wrapping his arms around me. "It's okay," he whispered into my hair lightly. I shivered slightly and he pulled me closer to him when he suddenly kissed me on top of the head. I was too shocked to even know if it happened or if it was just my imagination. But I looked up and he was blushing. Good, I hadn't imagined it; I smiled to myself. Then he looked at me and smiled back before gently leaning forward and pressing his lips into mine. I blushed so much I was surprised I didn't light up the room.
Then Peter said "Get some rest, big day tomorrow." Of course, now I couldn't remember the dream at all. Peter was good at getting my mind off of things. He was my best friend... but is he now my boyfriend? Peter and I always had that relationship where you don't need words to have a conversation, I just see it in his eyes and I know what he means or wants. I looked up at him now and nodded, because yes, tomorrow was a big day.
He then reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear and quickly said, 'See you tomorrow' before he was moving towards the door again. Then he left, as quickly as he had came. I almost wanted to scream again just so he would come back. But I knew that would be a bad idea because my brothers were just in the next room and I didn't want to disturb them. After a while I fell asleep.
In our house, it was just my brothers (Mason and Ethan), Peter and I. Peter is my age, sixteen, and is our families' bodyguard. We had a bodyguard because I was kidnapped as a baby and returned at the age of six. While I had been kidnapped my parents were killed for trying to get me back. It was my brother's jobs to protect me with their lives, so naturally, they hired a bodyguard for extra help. But Peter was like part of the family after staying with us so long. Mason is 22 and Ethan is 24 and they have both risked and given up a lot for me.
I was awakened the next day by sunlight filtering in through the window. Today was a big day. Or as big of a day as I would probably ever get. After putting on jeans and a nice blouse I went downstairs for breakfast, where I met Peter, Mason and Ethan. Once we had all finished eating, we went out to the barn where we kept our horses. We tacked up and saddled our four horses, although to keep the horses energy up, two people would just ground walk their horses while the other two people rode. Immediately when Peter tried tacking up his horse we knew something was wrong. Peter's horse was favoring a leg and kicking out when anyone came near.
Change in schedule, we would now have two people walking but they would only be leading one horse while the other two rode. So we set off like that, Mason and I walking, Peter was riding on my horse. After two hours of traveling like that we decided to trade places. But Peter saw that my horses breathing was still even and she was barely sweating at all so Peter decided she was strong enough for both of us. Peter helped me up behind him while Mason and Ethan switched positions. When they announced to keep moving I put my hands on Peter's shoulders, but he moved my arms to where they were wrapped around his stomach. I leaned my head forward until it rested on Peter's back, tired from walking and from the scorching heat. This was an endurance test critical to all horses in our part of the country, so two hours later, we turned around. Now for the tricky part. We had to gallop all the way back.
Before we started to gallop, Peter turned and said, "Hold on tight, this is going to be a long ride. Hold on tight and we will be okay." So I held on tight. I was actually afraid. What if something happened and Peter got hurt? Oh, it would all be my fault.
We were only about thirty minutes into our ride when Ethan pointed ahead and said, "Attackers."
