Safe by the Marshal's Side (Witness Protection) by McCoy Shirlee

Author:McCoy, Shirlee [McCoy, Shirlee]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

At some point, Annie must have fallen asleep.

She didn’t even remember lying down.

She’d been sitting on her bed, reading from Ephesians, the winter storm raging outside. The next thing she knew, Sophia was patting her cheek.

“Mommy! Wake up!” she cried, her sweet voice pulling Annie from the edge of sleep.

She opened her eyes. Sunlight streamed through the closed slats of the blinds and dappled Sophia’s hair with gold. The storm had broken. The sun had risen.

And Annie was going to have to see Hunter again.

She wasn’t all that happy about it.

Not after she’d asked him those questions the previous night. Not after he’d held her hand and she’d felt the heat of his touch zip straight into her heart.

He’d felt it, too.

And, in true Hunter fashion, he hadn’t been willing to ignore it.

“Mommy!” Sophia tugged her hand, trying to pull her out of bed.

“Okay, sweetie. I’m up.” She dragged herself out of bed and glanced at the clock. She had a couple of hours before she had to meet with the attorney. Plenty of time to feed Sophia and get herself ready.

She grabbed clothes from her suitcase and walked to the door. She should have just opened it, but she pressed her ear to the wood, trying to hear voices. She didn’t want to face Hunter. Not yet.

“Let’s go, Mommy.” Sophia tugged her hand impatiently.

“Okay. Right. Let’s go.”

Please, don’t let him be out there, she thought as she opened the door. She hadn’t slept well, and she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to have a conversation with anyone. Especially not Hunter.

The hall was empty, and she hurried Sophia to the bathroom. She took a quick shower and searched for a blow-dryer. She came up empty.

She toweled her hair dry and took a quick peek in the mirror. The circles under her eyes looked like the black smudges football players had under their eyes during games. Her skin was as pale as paper, her hair almost black in contrast. She’d chosen a simple black shirtdress. Usually, she loved it, but it only made her pallor more noticeable. She glanced down. It also showcased the ugly scabs on her knees. She could see them through the thick black tights she wore.

“Yikes,” she murmured.

“Yikes,” Sophia repeated, tugging on the skirt of Annie’s dress. “Up?”

“Sure.” She sighed. She could put on some makeup before she left. Maybe pull her hair back. It wasn’t as if she was going to a job interview, but Mr. Antonio was constantly stressing the importance of how she presented herself during trial. Young. Demure. Respectable.

She’d always thought she was all those things, and she’d never really worried about the opinions of others, but the prosecuting attorney and his team were worried about Joe. He’d been a gambler, a liar. He’d borrowed money from people who were part of a crime syndicate that had been responsible for murders, robberies and drug running.

Annie had to be the antithesis of all of that because her testimony against the men who’d murdered Joe was the keystone to the prosecutor’s case.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.