Pulling the Trigger by Julie Miller

Author:Julie Miller [Miller, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Harlequin Intrigue
Published: 2009-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

“WHAT AM I SUPPOSED to do?” Joanna’s dark eyes were red and puffy with tears. Her skin was pale, making the fist-size bruises on her cheek and jaw stand out in angry relief.

When Ethan had knocked on her trailer door that night and gotten no response, even though a light was on and her car was parked outside, he’d let himself in to check on her. He’d never seen such devastation of property—or woman—in his life. For a few minutes, he’d been in a bit of shock himself. But then the anger had kicked in, clearing his head.

He’d gotten Joanna dressed. Found a clean towel to stanch the bleeding from the wound across the top of her left breast. He’d wrapped his denim jacket around her shoulders to keep her warm.

And now, after buckling her up inside his truck, he handed her the ice pack for her lip, ran around to climb in behind the wheel and start the engine. The police would meet them at the emergency room in Kenner City.

“Nüa-rü, you gotta talk to me. Who did this to you?”

Silence. Hell. His insides were shriveling up with anger and hurt and helplessness. “Do you know who attacked you?”

Finally, a nod.

Double hell. “Who? After the hospital, we have to talk to the cops.”

“They won’t listen to me. I’m a Kuchu. They’ve seen me too many times to believe—”

“You were bailing out your parents! You were taking care of them!” Too loud. Too harsh. Ah, hell. Somebody punch him for making her shrink against the passenger door like that. “I’m sorry. You weren’t the one in trouble with the law. They’ll listen.”

For the longest time, he thought his outburst had silenced her. He was too big a man to be yelling at a woman like that, even if it was out of frustration, or indignation on her behalf. “Talk to me, Joanna. Tell me what happened. I’ll listen.”

His knuckles turned white around the steering wheel as she whispered bits and pieces of her nightmarish attack into the darkness of the truck cab.

“He hit me when I fought back. He found a knife in the kitchen drawer and cut me. He held it to my throat while he…And then he…” Her soft sob clawed its way straight into his heart.

Ethan had been raised to be a peaceful man. Had made a point of keeping things gentle and patient with Joanna so he didn’t scare her off. But he sensed he could murder a man right about now. “Who—?”

“He thought I was my mother. He called me Naomi—kept saying he needed her. Said Mother owed him. He was making her pay.”

Just a few hours after burying her mother? What kind of sick bastard would go after a woman while her grief was still so fresh? Who would be cruel enough to use that grief against her?

“Who was it, Joanna? Tell me, and I’ll pound the son of a bitch.”

For a moment, she roused herself from her shock. “Your father wouldn’t approve of that.

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