The Bequest
Page 37
She would save him. Save them both. No matter the odds against her, the men who would come, the army that would hunt them. Because the alternative was unthinkable, and not something she could live with. Not again.
Never again.
She’d abandoned all that she was, all that she could ever hope to become for this mission. The phoenix that had risen from the ashes of her childhood would die a sudden and brutal death, buried as effectively as any corpse, its grave barren and unmarked. All she’d fought for would be anted up on the alter of this sacrifice: every precious, hard-won day of survival, the life she’d built brick by painful brick, the education she’d worked nearly into the grave for, the future of which she’d dreamed. Gone. All gone. And part of her screamed at the injustice, mourned profoundly the loss, but what drove her was unconcerned with that loss. Life was loss. Sacrifice and pain were nothing new. If the tradeoff was their future, she would happily make it. Because it was not death she feared, it was failure.
“You’ll just make it worse,” Alexander hissed, another fissure forming in his diffidence.
“No,” Lucia disagreed quietly. “There is no shame in truth; there is only strength.”
“Truth.” The boy’s mouth twisted. “Yours or his?”
“There is only one truth, mijo.”
He shook his head again. The muscle in his jaw quivered. He wanted so badly to deny it. Lucia could see the words trembling on his lips, the cry welling in his thin chest.
But he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. They both knew the truth intimately, even if they did not speak of it. She had tried, more than once, but he would not be swayed. He was too ashamed—the burden of which no victim should carry—and no matter what she said, he wouldn’t accept that he wasn’t responsible, that he’d never been in control. A victim, not a participant.
He couldn’t seem to tell the difference, which only enraged her more.
So many casualties. She hadn’t expected it to find her again. More fool her.
“What will we do?” Alexander demanded tightly. “Run forever?”
A valid question.
Lucia’s gaze flickered to Benjamin, who slept fitfully in his brother’s arms, his ruddy cheeks flushed. She wanted so many things for them both, so many wonderful things…things she would never be able to give them. These children, who had come so unexpectedly into her life, whom she hadn’t expected to change her. To love. And Alexander was right: they deserved more than the nomadic existence she was damning them to, more than a life driven by uncertainty and a constant fear of discovery. A life spent running instead of living.
Because the one who would come for them—for her—would not stop. Not until she was dead. But the alternative was worse, and one she could not allow. No matter the price.
Destiny is not for the weak.
“He’s going to find us,” Alexander said coldly, his belief absolute. “And then he’s going to kill you.”
Lucia’s hands tightened on the steering wheel until her knuckles ached. “He is going to have to.”
About the Author
Hope Anika is an indie author who lives in the Greater Yellowstone area. Her books have been finalists in the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense and The Fool for Love Contest sponsored by Virginia Romance Writers, Chapter 19 of Romance Writers of America. She can be reached via Facebook, Instagram, www.hopeanika.com or hope@hopeanika.com.
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Did you love The Bequest? Then you should read The Getaway by Hope Anika!
Lucia Sanchez has stolen two children. Two children who don't belong to her; two children she will do anything to save. Driven by a bloody past and determined to change an ignoble future, Lucia will make any sacrifice necessary to be certain history doesn't repeat itself. She has given everything she ever was, everything she would ever become, and nothing will stop her from completing her mission.
U.S. Deputy Marshal Sam Steele is tired. Tired of chasing fugitives and protecting turncoats. Tired of breathing. When he's drawn into the kidnapping plot of a woman he has no desire to help, it's just one more nail in his coffin. But duty calls, and Sam knows his duty. When the plea of a close friend makes it impossible to walk away, Sam must make a choice—to follow the rules and play it safe, or to follow his heart and risk everything.
She will give everything to win; he wants only to keep them alive. Thrust together in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Sam and Lucia must set aside the desire and distrust that flares between them and work together if they want to free two children from a sickening legacy and out-maneuver a man who will hunt them to the ends of the earth…
Read more at Hope Anika’s site.
Also by Hope Anika
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The Getaway
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The Bequest
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Watch for more at Hope Anika’s site.