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Trust No One # 4
By: Dixie Lee Brown
Releasing August 12th, 2014
Avon: Impulse
Assassin Alex Morgan will do anything to save an innocent life - especially if it means rescuing a child from a hell like the one she endured.
But going undercover as husband and wife, with none other than the disarmingly sexy Detective Nate Sanders, may be a little more togetherness than she can handle. She’s used to working alone, and no man is going to change that - not even a man who makes her heart pound and her defenses crumble with just a touch
Nate has dodged more than a few bullets over the years, but fighting his attraction for Alex may be the bullet that does him in. Still, Nate’s determined to help her find the missing kid. There’s no doubt in his mind that they’re walking straight into danger, but Nate’s willing to face anything if it means protecting Alex. She might have been on her own once, but Nate has one more mission: to stay by her side - forever.
She snatched the sleek steel dagger by its leather-wrapped hilt and deftly inserted it in a scabbard on her hip, hidden by the large coat she wore.
He snagged Alex’s hat from the floor and was just pass- ing it to her when he heard the unmistakable sound of a break-open shotgun’s action. A glance over his shoulder revealed the source of the trouble. Grabbing her wrist, he jerked her through the open door and ran just as Goliath let go with both barrels.
Nate swore as he realized his error in judgment. He’d been so surprised by Alex’s sudden transformation from gangly kid to someone he knew, he’d put the familiar interaction between the bartender and one of Daniels’s thugs out of his mind. Goliath obviously hadn’t been packing a weapon—maybe he even had to slip to the back room for his shotgun—or he’d have opened fire much sooner with a very different outcome. It could easily have been the last mistake Nate ever made.
They’d gotten out without a scratch, but Nate had a bad feeling about his partners. He sprinted down the block. Alex ran into the back of him when he stopped beside the open driver’s window of Burke’s car.
His fellow officers were both slumped in the front seat, one round each to the head, splattered blood and brain matter everywhere. Nate had to fight to keep from losing his lunch. Neither of them had even drawn a weapon— surprised and gunned down where they sat.
It had to have been Daniels. Anything else was too much of a damn fluke. Anger boiled up within him and he no longer regretted the hasty yet thorough job Alex had done on Daniels’s cronies in the bar. In fact, the urge to go back and finish it for her was looking more attrac- tive by the minute.
“It’s not healthy to hang around out here.” Alex, apparently handling the death scene better than he was, tugged on his arm.
She was right. Cops and ambulances would arrive in due time, but he had to get back inside and do his job. The question was . . . what to do with Alex?
What he wouldn’t give to talk to Joe Reynolds, Alex’s boss, before he turned the homicide detectives loose on her. Nate knew just enough of Alex’s history to worry about her reaction if someone pushed her too hard. According to Ty, her life as a child and young girl had been hell. Whatever her reason for showing up here tonight—and he didn’t believe for a minute it was coincidence—she’d jumped in to help him, saving several lives in the process. So, hell yes. . . he owed her one—maybe more, if he was honest with himself. That her sudden appearance reawakened feelings he thought he’d buried deep had nothing to do with it. The only thing he cared about was her ability to handle an inter- rogation. His colleagues, investigating the murders of two of their own, would pick up on every inconsistency in her answers. She’d be lucky if they didn’t throw her ass in jail.
His protective side urged him to keep her out of it if he could, but, eventually, he’d have to produce her, and sooner would look less guilty than later.
Nate turned away from the open window and, with a hand on her elbow, drew her along with him toward the bar. “Don’t suppose you’ve got a concealed permit for that blade.”
“Of course I do. From the State of Montana, though.” She bit her bottom lip. “I’m not legal in Oregon.”
“That’s good enough. Let me handle that issue. You just tell them what happened. Got it?”
She nodded, going pale, obviously completely out of her comfort zone.
He slid his arm around her waist. “It’ll be okay. I promise. You’ll be a hero.” He couldn’t stop himself from tucking a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. “Are you going to tell me why you’re here, Alex?”
She shrugged and her gaze focused on him. “Looking for you.”
Sirens wailed in the distance. “Hold that thought.” Nate drew his gun and pushed her back against the wall beside the door of the bar. “Stay here until I come back.” Without waiting for her answer, he jerked the door open and moved swiftly through.
There was no sign of Goliath or his shotgun behind the counter, or anywhere else in the bar, but Nate wasn’t taking any chances this time. He cleared the main room according to procedure before he stopped in the center and lowered his gun.
The hooker peeked over top the bar, recognition flooding her taut face. She straightened and pointed toward the back room. “They left.”
“How long ago?”
“Three or four minutes maybe. That creep who was doing all the talking, two of the big guys, and the bartender.” She lowered her voice. “I think he was one of them.”
Nate’s gaze swept the bar room. The two knife victims lay unmoving. Apparently, the drunk on his stool hadn’t been disturbed by anything going on around him. Nate swung back to the woman. “I think you’re right. What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Savannah.”
“You stay right here, Savannah.” He quickly checked the bathrooms, the back room, and the alley before re- turning to the bar, where Savannah was pouring herself a drink and offered him one. He raised his hand to stop her from pouring into the glass she’d set up for him.
The sirens were closer now. Soon the place would be crawling with cops. Nate strode to the door, stepped outside, and drew Alex in with him. Blue and red lights reflected off the interior walls as cruisers raced down the block.
Alex looked straight ahead, never glancing to the right where the two wounded men lay. She pinched his arm in a death grip, and when he glanced at her face, she seemed desperate to hide the fear that widened her gold-flecked eyes. What had her so scared? Surely it wasn’t death. If the story he’d heard was true, death had ceased to bother her a long time ago. Cops? Being locked away? That made sense, considering her history. It wouldn’t happen on his watch though.
Author Info:
DIXIE LEE BROWN lives and writes in Central Oregon, inspired by what she believes is the most gorgeous scenery anywhere. She resides with two dogs and a cat, who make sure she never takes herself too seriously. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, movies, and trips to the beach.
Author Links:
Print copy of another installment in Dixie Lee Brown’s Trust No One series, IF YOU ONLY KNEW—where you get to meet Alex and Nate for the first time!
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