LITMIR.BIZ

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thrust of her hips before collapsing onto his chest, sliding her hands around his sides and hugging him. “I’m going to miss you.”

      An odd sensation squeezed his heart. At the same time, an unsettling concoction churned in his gut.

      Could it be guilt? Because, to avoid a protracted, teary goodbye, he would slip away as soon as she fell asleep.

      Maybe remorse? Because he’d gone overseas and returned home enough times over the past ten years to know nothing ever remained the same. By the time he came home she’d probably be settled on one of the well-bred, successful business associates her brother seemed hell-bent on fixing her up with.

      Or a hint of longing for what he could not have? Because he was career military and refused to put any woman through what his mother had suffered as the spouse of an active duty soldier.

      Nah. A simple case of agita from his double order of farewell steak fajitas made more sense, since Ian Eddelton did not succumb to emotion. Ever. On the battlefield, emotion, distraction of any kind, gave an enemy the advantage, and got good men and women killed. On a personal level, emotion made men weak and vulnerable. Never again.

      Ian flipped Jaci onto her back and took control, pushing all thoughts from his mind except how unbelievably amazing she felt beneath him, surrounding him, and how he was going to spend the next few hours in heaven … before he returned to hell.

      CHAPTER ONE

       Almost thirteen months later

      SOMETHING had gone wrong.

      Two male thug-looking types in dark baggy pants and oversized sweatshirts exited the rear door of the rundown, graffiti ridden brick building. Community health nurse and Women’s Crisis Center advocate Jaci Piermont slid further down in the front seat of the clunker she’d borrowed from the center, trying to melt into the darkness. Even in broad daylight, when entering Nap Tower to visit her patients, Jaci never came unaccompanied, and never went near the rear door, a known hangout for drug dealers and troublemakers of every variety.

      But tonight it was raining. Pouring actually. The beginnings of a hurricane expected to slam the northeast coast of the U.S., Westchester County in its projected path. They’d specifically chosen this night figuring no one would be outside.

      Jaci’s phone rang.

      She checked the number. Carla. Assistant Director of the Women’s Crisis Center.

      “Hey,” Jaci said, peering out the bottom portion of the driver’s side window.

      “You were due here twenty minutes ago,” Carla demanded.

      “She didn’t show.” She being Merlene K., twenty-five-year-old white female in need of assistance to escape a controlling/abusive relationship with the father of her unborn child. No local friends or family willing to intervene.

      “Get out of there, Jaci. You can’t help her if she doesn’t follow the plan.”

      That they’d been working on for weeks. “Everything was set.” Every detail worked out with their contact who resided in the building. Merlene’s boyfriend’s work schedule checked and verified and rechecked. His accomplice, who kept an eye on Merlene while he worked the night shift, distracted. A duffel for her meager belongings. A change of clothes and a wig so she could alter her appearance and slip away unnoticed.

      The door opened again. “Oh no,” Jaci said.

      “What’s happening?”

      “It’s Merlene. She’s not alone.” In the one working light over the door, through the blur of the rain spattered window, Jaci could still make out Merlene’s battered face, and that of her bastard boyfriend, pure evil, gripping her arm tightly in one hand, dragging her, carrying a stuffed duffel Jaci recognized as the one she’d dropped off last week, in the other.

      Merlene shuffled behind him, hunched over, her right arm clutching her abdomen. Damn him.

      Jaci straightened her short, bob-styled black wig, pushed in her false teeth, and adjusted her faux eyeglasses.

      The couple was approximately twenty feet away, walking in her direction.

      “Do not get out of that car,” Carla cautioned.

      “She needs medical attention,” Jaci whispered as if they could hear her. “Who knows where he’s taking her, if we’ll ever have another opportunity to help her.”

      Ten feet.

      Jaci reached for the door handle.

      “Do not—” Carla started.

      “You’d better call Justin.” She never did a pick-up in this area unless Justin was on duty. “Tell him to hurry.”

      Jaci ended the call. After a deep calming breath, she stuck the phone in the pocket of her black rain slicker, pulled the hood up over her head, and pushed open a door.

      Rain pelted her in the face.

      “Excuse me,” she yelled.

      Merlene jumped. Her boyfriend stopped and pulled the woman he treated as a possession, to do with as he chose, close.

      “My car won’t start,” Jaci lied. “You got any jumper cables?” The wind tried to blow off her hood. She held it in place, thankful she’d remembered to slip on a pair of knit gloves to cover her manicure.

      “No,” the abuser said, and pulled Merlene away.

      Please let Justin be on his way.

      “Excuse me, miss,” Jaci said to Merlene. “Are you okay?”

      “She’s fine,” a deep, irritated voice snapped. He didn’t bother to look back at her.

      “I’m sorry. But she doesn’t look fine. Maybe I can …”

      Merlene turned around, squinted against the raindrops, and studied her face. “Ja …”

      Jaci shook her head, warning Merlene not to use her real name. “Are you in need of assistance, miss?” Jaci yelled over the wind.

      “Mind your own business,” the large man all but growled, jerking to a stop beside a shiny new black SUV almost glowing in the overhead light. While his girlfriend, the mother of his unborn child, couldn’t afford maternity clothes, was forced to wait hours at the free clinic for prenatal care, and wandered the building offering to clean apartments and do odd jobs to earn money for food.

      Which is how Jaci had learned of her.

      Where the heck was Justin?

      Merlene’s boyfriend released her long enough to open the rear door of his vehicle. And that’s all it took. With a look of absolute panic she lunged at Jaci, clamping her arms tightly behind Jaci’s neck. “Don’t let him take me,” she cried out.

      Jaci slid her left arm around Merlene’s waist and plunged her right hand into her pocket to retrieve the canister of pepper spray she’d placed there earlier. “You are not going anywhere without me,” Jaci said. Meaning it. Prepared to do anything within her power to keep Merlene safe.

      The first blow struck Jaci in the left posterior ribs, an intense, stabbing pain only minimally less severe than the closed-fisted punch to the right upper arm that felt like it shattered her proximal humerus.

      The pepper spray clattered on the asphalt.

      He was strong. Angry. And not wasting his time with words.

      Well, Jaci was no stranger to the pain of abuse. And if Merlene could deal with it day after day, Jaci could put up with it until Justin arrived. She wound her other arm around Merlene’s waist, locking her fingers together, and took a stand.

      “Don’t hit her,” Merlene pleaded, releasing Jaci, trying to push her away.

      “No.” Jaci tried to hold on. The over-sized bully grabbed her by the wrists, wrenched her

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