Don't Catch Me
Page 1
Don’t Catch Me
Lorhainne Eckhart
www.LorhainneEckhart.com
Contents
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The McCabe Brothers
Don’t Catch Me
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
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
A McCabe Reunion
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
What’s coming next
Don’t Run From Me
Please Leave a Review
Other Works Available
About the Author
Links to Lorhainne Eckhart’s Booklist
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The McCabe Brothers
The McCabe Brothers, a spinoff of the big family romance series The Friessens from a Readers’ Favorite award—winning author and “queen of the family saga” (Aherman)
The McCabe Brothers
Don’t Stop Me (Vic): Fifteen years ago, Vic McCabe was headed down a one-way road to destruction with the love of his life. But then the unthinkable happened, a mistake that changed their lives forever.
* * *
Don’t Catch Me (Chase): He stopped a robbery. Now he has to do the right thing.
* * *
Don’t Run From Me (Aaron): A compelling emotional tale about the undeniable power of second chances.
* * *
Don’t Hide From Me (Luc): Sometimes what we can’t see is standing right in front of us all along.
* * *
Don’t Leave Me - Claudia: One moment in time could change her future forever.
Don’t Stop Me
Fifteen years ago, Vic McCabe was headed down a one-way road to destruction with the love of his life. But then the unthinkable happened, a mistake that changed their lives forever.
Successful billionaire contractor Vic McCabe is a man every woman wants, but he gives his heart to no one. However, one day a reporter shows up, asking questions about a past he’s buried, a mistake he made fifteen years ago that could destroy his future and that of the woman he’s tried to forget.
After evidence surfaces, dredging up details of the night that changed his life forever, Vic is forced to seek out the only woman he’s ever loved—the woman who has sworn to hate him forever.
Don’t Catch Me (Chase)
He stopped a robbery. Now he has to do the right thing.
* * *
Having left his life in politics, lawyer Chase McCabe is on his way to meet his brothers and sort out family matters when he stops for gas and walks in on a robbery in progress. However, he discovers the culprit is just a kid, and her situation may not be as clear as he thought. Authorities have written the girl off, and his need to fix everyone’s problems sets in, putting him on a collision course with a mysterious woman with secrets of her own and entangling him in a precarious relationship that ties him to a place he was just passing through.
Don’t Run From Me (Aaron)
Fresh out of the fighting circuit and to those that didn’t know him, Bad Boy Aaron McCabe seemed as if he had it all. Except what everyone doesn’t know is the nightmares that haunt him, the woman he loved who left him and a tragedy that’s driven him to who he is today.
* * *
But soon Aaron is caught up in a complex web of secrets, second chances and a gripping twist with two mysterious women that entangles him in a relationship he never believed he was ready for.
* * *
A compelling emotional tale about the undeniable power of second chances.
Don’t Hide From Me (Luc)
Sometimes what we can’t see is standing right in front of us all along.
* * *
Luc McCabe is a man on the edge. Not only has he given up on his ideal happily ever after, which includes a man who’ll love him and children of his own. He’s leaving behind his old life that has been only about endings.
* * *
What Luc doesn’t realize is sometimes love happens unexpectedly.
One moment in time could change her future forever.
* * *
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lorhainne Eckhart comes a riveting and edgy romance about a young love driven to the breaking point.
* * *
Even though Claudia is part of the McCabe family, with four older brothers she barely knows, she has a dark side no one in their right mind would mess with, and she still sees herself as alone. That is until one night, when she witnesses an unspeakable crime that blurs the lines of morality. Her first instinct is to run, but when a mysterious handsome man enters her life, promising to keep her safe, she’s caught up in a web of secrets, not knowing who to trust. When her brothers unite, will they expose the truth or destroy any hope Claudia has of finding love?
Don’t Catch Me
The second book in the McCabe Brothers, a spinoff of the big family romance series The Friessens from New York Times & USA Today bestselling Author Lorhainne Eckhart.
* * *
He stopped a robbery. Now he has to do the right thing.
* * *
Having left his life in politics, lawyer Chase McCabe is on his way to meet his brothers and sort out family matters when he stops for gas and walks in on a robbery in progress. However, he discovers the culprit is just a kid, and her situation may not be as clear as he thought. Authorities have written the girl off, and his need to fix everyone’s problems sets in, putting him on a collision course with a mysterious woman with secrets of her own and entangling him in a precarious relationship that ties him to a place he was just passing through.
Praise for Don’t Catch Me
—“ANOTHER HOT BROTHER Chase is Mr. Fix Everybody and Everything and I for one need fixing! LOL!! Can't wait to meet the rest of the family.” KEC200 Reviewer
—“Wait until you meet Chase McCabe!” – Reviewer - Carol
—“Another group of strong, alpha men. “Chase McCabe was an amazing hero - Three lives were changed when Chase stopped for gas and walked in on a robbery in progress.”
—“If you like family sagas then Ms. Eckhart is the author for you. She does them wonderfully and makes you fall in love with all the families. There are always hot men, strong women, adorable children and loads of love.”
Chapter 1
How long had that light been flashing? Chase reached over and flicked off the music he’d been blasting from the satellite radio he’d picked up outside Salem. He took in the gas gauge, which was sitting close to empty.
“Shit.”
What had he been thinking—or not? He should have stopped at the last pullout two hours ago, but he’d been distracted after speaking with his brother Aaron about his upcoming UFC fight and with Luc about his dating woes, then coordinating a time for both brothers to me
et in Vegas before seeing their mom and dad in Henderson.
Their parents hadn’t been together in years, not since his mom had walked out after the savings account suddenly hit zero, as his dad had gambled away every last cent. His mother, who’d adopted all of them, who’d wanted them, had left them as well. Why was he going back again? Oh, because of his need to fix everything for everyone. His dad had called him, freaking out after secretly dating his mom again, because he’d just found out after all these years that he had a daughter, a biological daughter. Chase was still struggling to make sense of all of it.
He couldn’t stop himself from giving his all to everything he did: talking, organizing, mediating. He had put everything else out of his mind, including his obvious need for gas.
“Shit, fuck!” He slapped his hand on the steering wheel and looked into the distance for a sign, anything that would give him the reprieve he so needed.
He had to be close to the Nevada border, but he hadn’t seen a sign for miles, nothing but the flat brown land and hills in the distance. Then he saw what looked like a gas station, and as he got closer, he saw it had four pumps.
Chase pulled up to the pump and took in a pickup parked off to the side at the other pump, a rusty seventies model, faded red with wooden panels in the back. He guessed it was often used for livestock. There was not a body around. He half expected tumbleweeds to blow past from the dry dust in the air and the bright desert sun.
He climbed out of the car, taking a minute to roll up the sleeves of his white dress shirt. His dark blue suit pants were creased from having sat too long. He ripped off his loosened tie and tossed it over to the passenger seat, where his suit jacket was also folded, along with his cell phone.
“Hello?” he called out, expecting some grease monkey to appear, but there was no one. He could pump the gas himself, but he wondered whether prepaying was an option here. He was about to open his gas cap when he thought he caught some movement inside the station.
He stepped around the pump, taking in the garbage bin overfilled with takeout packaging and the dirty windows that made up the front of the station, which appeared as if it had never been cleaned. He rested his hand on the door and pulled it open to see a man with an overly bushy mustache and a receding hairline, the remaining dark hair slicked back in some eighties style.
It was in his face, the expression stuck there: Something was off.
It all happened in a manner of seconds as Chase took in the man behind the counter, pale, alarmed, eyes wide, staring at him. The guy said nothing. His hands were up. Chase saw movement, and then someone was pointing a gun toward slick behind the counter. The guy holding it was short, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, and the only thing that registered was that the gun was now pointed at him. Someone was yelling, and everything went into slow motion: the yelling, the movement of the gun and the skinny guy holding it.
“Drop the gun,” Chase said. His hand went out, knocking over a rack of candy, and he grabbed the guy’s wrist as it swung toward him. He took in the scar that ran up the inside of the arm holding the gun—slender, not a lot of muscle.
Someone screamed behind him, and the gun went off. Glass shattered, but he didn’t let it go. Was he hit? Adrenaline surged. He had no idea. He knocked the hat off the guy, and long hair spilled out, a freckled face. Huge bright blue eyes stared up at him from the face of a girl, a teenager. Shit!
“Seriously, a kid?” He had the gun now, and he pinned the girl against the counter, his arm holding her. She was fighting him, kicking back with her hard-soled shoes, nailing him in the shin. He groaned. Christ almighty, the girl had fight. “Stop fighting, kid! Settle yourself down.”
“Let me go!” she shouted and was squirming still. He shoved the gun in the back of his dress pants before he could lose his grip.
“Cops are on their way, you little shit,” the store keep snapped. He was holding the phone, rightfully furious. He was still yelling, but Chase wasn’t looking at him. He was staring down at the teen, who was squirming and trying to break free, giving everything she had to breaking away.
“Tie up that little hellion until the sheriff gets here and can haul her ass away,” some guy with a deep voice shouted from behind Chase. He only glanced back to see an older man in overalls, short and stocky, with white hair that was in bad need of a cut. Behind him was a woman in a pink ball cap. Must have been the screamer. She said nothing now, but then, Chase couldn’t exactly chat when he was occupied with holding the girl.
Then he felt teeth bite into his arm, deep. That damn wildcat had sunk her teeth into him!
“Fuck!” he yelled, worried she was biting into his bone. He didn’t think as he reacted, grabbing a handful of her dirty brown hair and yanking hard. She screamed, which was great, since she no longer had her teeth sunk into his arm. He yelled in his head as he stared at the ragged gouge and the imprint of her teeth now embedded in his forearm, oozing blood.
“Let go of me!” she shrieked again.
“Yeah, I think not,” he said as he lifted her and dropped her onto the ground, pinning her arms behind her as his knee jabbed in her back. “How old are you, anyway?” He took in his right arm, which had blood running down it. He squeezed his fist and shook it, the throbbing giving way to burning and stinging as he took in the trace of blood still on her lips. Fuck, now he was going to have to get a tetanus shot and most likely a round of antibiotics.
Suddenly the girl went quiet, her lips tight. After all her screeching and hollering and fighting to get away, she was lying there as if she’d given up. He expected tears, but instead he was staring at pure stubbornness, the kind he’d seen in the faces of his brothers growing up. So he tightened his hold on her, because that kind of stubborn didn’t give in so easy. She was thinking, trying to give him a false sense of security. Not likely.
“Anyone know her?” he asked, looking up at the three faces. The grungy guy in the overalls was frowning. The guy behind the counter had just hung up the phone, and he could hear sirens in the distance.
“That there looks like one of the Humboldt kids,” the overweight farmer in the overalls called out, rising up on his toes, spitting as he talked. “They have a brood of kids they foster. Hey, kid, you one of those no-good troublemakers?”
The girl didn’t answer, but Chase was staring at her face and didn’t miss the flinch. “Is this Humboldt family where you’re from?” he asked.
Her cheek rested on the dirty speckled floor, and she glanced up to him. “And what’s it to you?” she snapped with an attitude that had him looking a little closer. Yeah, it was nothing but piss and vinegar to cover up how scared she really was. He could see a lot now.
“I asked you how old you are,” he said, his voice lower, sharper, demanding, the kind he used on all the minions who worked in the Massachusetts congressman’s office—correction, the former congressman’s office, where he was the former aide and chief of staff. They were both retired now and exploring their options.
He was sure she wouldn’t answer when two cop cars squealed in. He could see the dust flying, and the older farmer was out the door, lifting his hand to get their attention.
“Please, mister, let me go.” She was scared for sure and begging, too.
“Not happening. Name, age, now,” he snapped.
“What in all hell is going on here?” someone said from the doorway. “What a damn mess this is. Someone please tell me what happened.”
Chase was looking at two solid cops, one short, one tall, wearing tan uniforms and badges, with guns on their hips. Another older man stood behind them in blue jeans, with a star pinned to his chest. It was this man who had spoken, and it didn’t take Chase more than a minute to figure out he was the one in charge.
“You get off her,” the man said. Had to be the sheriff, with a thick mustache, threads of gray in his hair, and a stomach that hung over his belt. He was now standing over Chase.
Chase stood, and the girl he’d been holding down slowly sat up. He to
ok in her face. The tough kid was doing her best to hide how scared shitless she was. “I’ve got the gun tucked in the back of my pants,” Chase said. “Got it away from her.” He went to reach back for it.
“Stop right there. Hands up where I can see them. Don’t be reaching for anything,” said the sheriff.
Chase lifted his hands and waited as the sheriff stepped around him, his hand resting on his holstered gun, and lifted the gun tucked in the waist of Chase’s pants. He stepped back and handed it to the tall cop over by the door.