AN: I know that there are some people who think this is going too fast. I'm sorry but this is the pace I am going at. If I went any slower, I would have too many chapters. I also know that some of you don't think I'm being realistic with the whole adoption thing. Let me just remind all of you. THIS IS A STORY! IT'S NOT REAL! Thank you. I know that it's not perfect, but please don't all just blow up at me. I'm doing the best I can with this.

Chapter 9

Five months later, Gracie had been with us for four months already. She was now part of our family. We loved her like a real daughter. Business was going great with the bed and breakfast. Everyone who stayed here loved it and told us they would send their friends to us.

Life was going great. I smiled as I took a sip of lemonade as I watched Gracie running around with Frankie.

"Hey Gracie!"

She turned around to look at me. "Yeah Mommy?"

"You wanna ride Ellie?"

She smiled, showing off her dimples. "You betcha I do!"

I set my lemonade down as I went to tack up Ellie. I lifted Gracie onto the saddle and got up behind her. She clapped her hands as we picked up a trot. I steered Ellie towards the back trails. Wee rode back there for about half an hour when we decided to head home.

"Well there's my queen and princess!" Vaughn cried when we came back from our ride.

Gracie reached for Vaughn. He pulled her off Ellie and into his arms. He showered her with kisses and a few raspberries, which caused a high pitched squeal.

"Hi Daddy!" She said.

"Hey Gracie! Wanna go play inside?"

"Ok!" She cried.

He placed her on the ground as she tore off into the house. He walked over to me and kissed me as I dismounted Ellie. I quickly untacked her and put her back in the pasture with Tucker and Annabelle.

"So do you think we're gonna be ok?" I asked Vaughn. He knew that I was referring to Sloane and the whole ordeal.

"Yeah. I think we're gonna be ok." We walked hand in hand back into the house.

"Haley!" I turned around to see Amy running after us.

"Hey!" I called.

"Hey! There's someone here to see you."

I quickly kissed Vaughn and followed Amy into the living room. I saw a man with old graying hair talking to one of the guests. He turned around when he heard us coming.

"Hello Sydney."

Amy frowned. "I'm sorry, but her name is not Sydney."

I gasped. "What are you doing here?"

Sloane laughed. It sent an ice cold shiver down my spine. "To see you of course, my dear."

I threw a kick to his stomach and shoved him in a closet and placed a chair in front of it so he couldn't get out. I grabbed Amy.

"Amy listen to me! Dave, Gracie and I have to leave, right now! I need to you to handle the bed and breakfast while we are gone. As well as the pets. Can you do that?"

"But why?"

"Amy, can you do that?" I raised my voice.

"Yes, but I still don't see"

I ran out of the house and over to my cottage. I burst through the door.

"VAUGHN!" I called. He came out from the kitchen.

"Sydney!" He said in a harsh tone.

"He's here! Vaughn we have to go!" I ran through the house to find Gracie in her room playing with the cats. "Gracie, come on! We have to go to the store!"

"But Mommy!" She whined. I went over and grabbed her. I pulled her into my arms. I ran back out to find Vaughn with our coats and the keys to our back up car. We bought another car and placed clothes and other things in it so that if this happened, we would be ready.

"Let's go!" He called. We dashed out the door and heard gunshots. I covered Gracie's head as we darted to the other car we had. It was bright red Jeep. I heard some barking and saw Frankie running after us.


"Come on boy!" I opened the door and he darted in. I laced Gracie, who was crying, in her car seat and got into the passenger's seat while Vaughn got into the driver's seat.

He started the car and sped out of the driveway. I saw Sloane run out of the house and get into the car that was parked outside.

"Vaughn GO!" I screamed as the car sped after us.

Vaughn sped down the road. I looked over to see tears streaming down Gracie's face. Frankie lifted his face to hers and began licking the tears off her cheeks.

"Gracie, it's ok."

Vaughn made a sharp turn that made Gracie cry even harder and made me jerk to back to the front.

"Sorry!" He quickly apologized.

"It's ok. Just keep going."

He nodded and sped up. I heard a gunshot and looked in the rear view mirror to see someone with a gun shooting at us. I heard Gracie scream and I placed my hand on her leg.

"Shh baby! We're almost there!"

The car behind us sped up and began to ram into us. We all flew forward.

"Vaughn hurry!"

Vaughn pushed the pedal to the floor as we sped up. He turned sharply on another side road. Since we knew that this road had a very sharp turn in the beginning that dropped down off the mountain, and they didn't, we knew that they would end up on the side of the mountain. Stuck. Vaughn slowed down as we came to the curve.

I was right. They didn't slow down and flew off the edge.