by Susan Stoker
Chapter Seventeen Felicity heard low voices all around her. She was extremely groggy but forced her eyes open. She didn’t recognize where she was. The room was lit by light coming in from a half-opened door nearby, and she saw Ryder standing at the foot of the bed she was lying on, talking with Blake. “Ryder?” she said, although it came out more as a croak than an actual word. Within seconds, he was at her side. “Hey.” “Where are we?” He didn’t answer for a second, but then said, “The hospital.” Felicity crinkled her brow. The hospital? She couldn’t remember anything. “Are you all right?” His lips quirked, but he didn’t laugh. “I’m fine. We’re here because of you. Do you remember what happened last night?” She immediately shook her head, but asked, “Joseph?” The anger and frustration was easy to see in Ryder’s hazel eyes as he nodded. “Do you remember me getting a text from Blake?” Felicity frowned, but then nodded. “Yeah. You were worried about him.” She saw Blake shift next to her, b
Chapter Eighteen Ryder’s 370Z bounced on the dirt road. They’d turned off Route 6 onto the sad semblance of a road. He could feel the rocks scraping the underside of his sports car, but he didn’t even flinch. He could replace the car. All his focus was on the upcoming confrontation. His brothers were following right behind him in Logan’s truck. He didn’t know how Blake felt about being back where Alexis had almost died, but he honestly couldn’t even think about that right now. Obviously Joseph had done his research on the Andersons and had picked the location on purpose, to try to throw them off emotionally, but it wouldn’t work. Ryder knew his brothers well enough by now to know all their thoughts were on what might happen in the next few minutes. Nate’s life depended on them doing everything right. Ryder stopped at the end of the road and motioned for Felicity to climb over the console and get out on his side. He wasn’t going to chance that Joseph would change his mind and decide to
Chapter Nineteen It had taken quite a while to be allowed to leave the scene. Detective Baker wanted information about the kidnapping, and the Denver PD also had a ton of questions about Joseph and what had happened. Felicity didn’t blame them. Dead bodies weren’t exactly unheard of, but they also weren’t everyday occurrences either. The plan had been for Ryder to take Joseph out of the area before the police arrived at the rendezvous point. Ryder was going to take him down to Colorado Springs and to the rest of the Mountain Mercenaries. There, Joseph would’ve been interrogated, mostly by Black. The plan was that the brothers, and Felicity, were going to meet the officers and let them know that Joseph had run and that Ryder was hot on his trail. But that had all gone to shit, and now they had to explain the dead body. Logan, Blake, and Nathan let Ryder do the talking. They nodded in the appropriate places, and eventually the Denver PD detective allowed them all to go back to Castle Roc
Chapter Twenty Thousands of miles away, in a rundown and dangerous part of San Antonio, Maria Gonzalez sat in a tiny, cramped bedroom inside a small apartment. Her bedroom door was usually locked from the outside, but after Maldad had left, he hadn’t chained it closed behind him. The man who had made her life a living hell hadn’t ever told her his name, and Maria had begun to call him Maldad in her head after her first week in her prison apartment. Evil. It fit the man in every sense of the name. He’d left a thousand dollars along with his “present” and told her to go home. Home. She wasn’t sure how long it had been since she’d left her hometown of Fresnillo in the Zacatecas state of Mexico, but she estimated at least five years. She’d been so stupid. Thought she knew everything there was to know about the world at eighteen. She was tired of looking after her younger brothers and sisters, not to mention her cousins, and had wanted more than working in the mines like her parents, aunts,
Epilogue “Are you sure you don’t mind sharing a wedding day with Blake and Alexis?” Ryder asked Felicity. She smiled and shook her head. He’d asked her many times over the past few months, and every time she’d given him the same answer. “Absolutely not. He’s your brother, and I love Alexis. Of course I don’t mind.” Felicity marveled at the close relationship Ryder had with Blake, thinking it somewhat ironic considering their rocky start. They’d even bought a house in the same neighborhood as Alexis and Blake. Felicity never spent another night in the apartment over the gym. She couldn’t. It held too many bad memories. Not only of being stalked by Joseph, but the horror she felt knowing Nate had been kidnapped from there right under her nose. She’d stayed with Ryder in an apartment he’d rented on a short-term basis until they’d completed the purchase of their new home. The proposal Ryder had teased her with came about a month after Nate was returned home. Ryder had taken her down to Col
Acknowledgments Thank you to Colleen for letting me name one of my characters after you . . . sorry about the whole killing-you-off thing. Ha! Thank you also to everyone who picked up the first book in this series—and kept reading. It’s been fun to write about a new group of men and how they find the women meant to be theirs. As you’ve probably guessed, the Mountain Mercenaries will get their own series. I want to thank Maria Gomez and everyone at Montlake Publishing for believing in me and always cheering me on. Because of their enthusiasm and support, all of you, my readers, will get more stories in the near future.
About the Author Photo © 2015 A&C Photography Susan Stoker is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who loves hot alpha heroes. She debuted her first series in 2014 and quickly followed it up with her SEAL of Protection series and her Ace Security series, which includes Claiming Bailey, Claiming Grace, and Claiming Alexis. She is addicted to writing and creating stories readers can lose themselves in. Susan considers herself an all-American girl with a heart as big as her home state of Texas. Thanks to her Army husband, she’s lived in several different states. Now that he’s retired, however, it’s his turn to follow Susan around the country. Discover more about Susan and her books through her website, www.StokerAces.com, or follow her on Twitter (@Susan_Stoker) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/authorsusanstoker).
Connect with Susan Online SUSAN’S FACEBOOK PROFILE AND PAGE www.facebook.com/authorsstoker www.facebook.com/authorsusanstoker FOLLOW SUSAN ON TWITTER www.twitter.com/Susan_Stoker FIND SUSAN’S BOOKS ON GOODREADS www.goodreads.com/SusanStoker E-MAIL [email protected] WEBSITE www.StokerAces.com
DISCOVER OTHER TITLES BY SUSAN STOKER
Ace Security Series
Claiming Grace
Claiming Alexis
Claiming Bailey
Claiming Felicity
Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Series
Justice for Mackenzie
Justice for Mickie
Justice for Corrie
Justice for Laine (novella)
Shelter for Elizabeth
Justice for Boone
Shelter for Adeline
Shelter for Sophie
Justice for Erin
Justice for Milena (March 2018)
Shelter for Blythe (July 2018)
Justice for Hope (TBA)
Shelter for Quinn (TBA)
Shelter for Koren (TBA)
Shelter for Penelope (TBA)
Delta Force Heroes Series
Rescuing Rayne
Assisting Aimee (novella)
Rescuing Emily
Rescuing Harley
Marrying Emily
Rescuing Kassie
Rescuing Bryn
Rescuing Casey
Rescuing Sadie (April 2018)
Rescuing Wendy (May 2018)
Rescuing Mary (November 2018)
SEAL of Protection Series
Protecting Caroline
Protecting Alabama
Protecting Fiona
Marrying Caroline (novella)
Protecting Summer
Protecting Cheyenne
Protecting Jessyka
Protecting Julie (novella)
Protecting Melody
Protecting the Future
Protecting Alabama’s Kids (novella)
Protecting Kiera
(novella)
Protecting Dakota
Beyond Reality Series
Outback Hearts
Flaming Hearts
Frozen Hearts
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2018 by Susan Stoker
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781503954168
ISBN-10: 1503954161
Cover design by Eileen Carey
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Connect with Susan Online
Prologue
Ten years ago, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois
Megan Parkins put her pillow over her head to try to drown out the voices coming from the other side of the wall . . . but it was no use. She could hear her roommate, Colleen Murphy, and Colleen’s boyfriend, Joseph, as easily as if they were standing right next to her.
“You’re an embarrassment, Colleen. A complete and utter embarrassment. What’d I tell you before we left?”
“Th-That I should stay by your side.”
“And what did you do?”
“I went to the bathroom.”
“Did I tell you you could go to the bathroom?”
“No, but, Joseph, I really had to go.”
Megan flinched at the sound of Colleen being struck. She squeezed her eyes together and clenched her teeth. She hated Joseph. With every fiber of her being. She’d told her friend over and over that he was bad news. That she should break up with him. But Colleen didn’t listen. Defended Joseph, in fact, saying that his father had been really strict with him, and he’d learned discipline as a result. And now he was just teaching it to her. Besides, she claimed, he didn’t mean it when he yelled at her . . . or when he hit her.
“I don’t give a shit,” Joseph went on. “If you have to piss your pants, you do it. The only thing I asked of you was that you stay by my side, and you couldn’t even do that one simple thing.”
“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
“Damn straight it won’t happen again,” Joseph told her.
Megan heard him hit Colleen again. Then again. And a third time. Before she thought about what she was doing, Megan was on the move. She couldn’t sit there and let Joe beat Colleen up again. Not after the concussion he’d given her the last time. If Colleen wouldn’t help herself, Megan would.
She picked up the phone and quickly dialed 911. Whispering, Megan told the dispatcher what was going on and where they were.
The ten minutes it took for the cops to show up were excruciating. Joe continued to berate Colleen, punctuating his words with his fists. Megan wanted to scream at Colleen to stand up for herself, or to get the hell out of there, but she kept quiet. When Megan heard the sirens, she quietly left her bedroom and tiptoed past her roommate’s room, down the hall, and to the front door. She was waiting for the pair of policemen when they arrived at the apartment and pointed toward Colleen’s door.
Within moments, Joe was being interviewed off to one side by one of the cops, while the other tried to talk to Colleen.
Ignoring Joseph’s intense gaze, Megan went over to her roommate.
“Can you tell me what’s going on?” the police officer asked.
“N-Nothing. We were just having an argument,” Colleen said meekly.
“How’d you get the mark on your face?”
“I fell the other morning in the bathroom. Knocked my head on the counter.”
“You know that’s not true,” Megan interjected. “Last week Joseph hit you when you were ten minutes late getting to his apartment because of traffic.”
Colleen was shaking her head before Megan had finished speaking. “No, I fell.”
The officer looked between Megan and the battered, scared-out-of-her-mind woman in front of him. “Did your boyfriend hit you tonight?”
“No.”
Megan ground her teeth together and shook her head. “Colleen, you need to get away from him. He’s going to really hurt you one of these days.”
The other woman stubbornly shook her head. “He loves me. We’re fine. You need to keep your nose out of our business.” She looked up at Megan for the first time since she’d entered the room. “You don’t understand. He loves me. And I love him. We were just arguing tonight. That’s it. All couples do it.”
Megan cocked her head and looked at her friend. Other than the small mark near her temple from the week before, Colleen didn’t have any other obvious marks to show that she’d been hit by her boyfriend. Any new marks anyway. But she wasn’t putting weight on one of her legs and was holding one arm close to her stomach. Obviously Joseph had wised up and learned not to hit his girlfriend anywhere that would show.
“Don’t do this,” Megan pleaded in a soft tone so Joseph couldn’t overhear her. “I heard him hitting you, Colleen. Please. Press charges. Get him out of your life.”
It was as if Colleen didn’t even hear her. “Officer, nothing is going on. My roommate misheard. We were simply arguing. That’s it.”
The cop sighed. “Do you want to press charges, Ms. Murphy?”
Colleen shook her head.
“Can I press charges?” Megan asked. “For trespassing, or assault, or something?”
“Do you have a restraining order against him?”
Megan sighed. “No.”
“Unfortunately, if he didn’t strike you, and you aren’t the victim, then no. Stay here, I need to talk to my partner for a moment.”
Megan nodded, and as soon as he turned away from them, she looked at Colleen. “Why are you protecting him? He treats you like shit.”
“He loves me,” Colleen insisted.
“He doesn’t. That isn’t love. Not a normal, healthy kind, at least.”
“What would you know about love?”
“Well, I’m not an expert. But if a man told me he’d prefer I pee in my pants rather than leave his side, I’d drop his ass like a hot poker. Why can’t you see how awful he is? We’ve been friends for two years. I’ve never seen you act like this before.”
Colleen looked up and into her roommate’s eyes. “I admit there are times when he’s not the nicest, but you aren’t around him all the time. He’s the most romantic man I’ve ever met. He’s super protective of me. We were on campus one time when a guy whistled at me, and he put his hand around the guy’s throat and told him if he ever disrespected me again, he’d kill him.”
Megan knew her eyes were huge in her face. “That’s not romantic, that’s crazy,” she told her friend.
Colleen stubbornly shook her head. “No, I’m just not explaining it right.”
“I think you’re explaining it exactly right,” Megan said dryly.
“His family is amazing. His mom died when he was little, and it’s just him, his dad, and his uncles. His d
ad is strict, but they’re all pretty hilarious. This huge Italian family. They have each other’s backs, just like Joseph has mine. He’s just stressed about school. He doesn’t mean to hurt me. He’s always so sorry after something happens.”
“Oh, sweetie, all abusers are. They promise it’ll never happen again, but it always does. It’s just going to get worse. Please. Press charges. You deserve better.”
Megan knew her friend was going to refuse by the stubborn glint in her eye. “No. I love him, and he loves me. We’re going to get married and have at least three kids. I won’t let you mess that up for me. I was going to wait until the end of the semester to move out, but it’s obvious things between you and me aren’t working out. If I can’t have an argument with my boyfriend without you calling the cops on us . . . you’re no friend of mine.”
“Colleen, no, wait—”
“You heard her,” Joseph said as he came up next to Colleen. He slid an arm around her waist and pulled her into his side.
Megan saw the way her friend winced at the movement, but she didn’t protest.
“I’ve asked Colleen to move in with me. She agreed,” Joseph told her, a gleam of triumph, and something else she didn’t understand, in his eyes.
Megan turned to the police officers. “So you’re just going to let him get away with this?”
One of them shrugged apologetically. “If she won’t press charges and there aren’t any new wounds on either of them, our hands are tied.”
“Are you at least going to make sure this incident is recorded? So if she shows up dead, there’ll be some record of my complaint against him?”
“There will be a record of the call,” the other officer said. Then he turned to Joseph and Colleen. “Now, why don’t you two go on and get out of here. Sir, you said you had an apartment in another building. We don’t want to be called back here tonight.”
“Thank you, Officer. Me and my girl’ll get going right now. Can I press charges against her for making a false report?”