Duty to Defend: Faith in the Face of Crime by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

Author:Jill Elizabeth Nelson
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Tags: Christian, Clean & Wholesome, Fiction, Romance, Suspense, Thrillers
ISBN: 9781488087707
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-01-02T10:36:24.193000+00:00

Seven

Through a mental fog, Daci fought for breath. Something dense but fluffy molded itself to her face, obstructing her nose and mouth. If only she could move—fight! But the commands from her mind didn’t seem to reach her limbs. Her arms remained at her sides. Something seemed to bind them in place.

She heaved with her midsection. Pain screamed through every pore and out her mouth, releasing the last vestiges of much-needed oxygen.

Someone shouted. A familiar voice—one that made her feel safer in spite of her fear.

Footsteps pounded. The obstruction over her face eased, but did not disappear. A metallic crash assaulted her ears, and she flinched. Human grunts and the smacks of fists on flesh filled the air. A marginal amount of oxygen reached her lungs, and her mind cleared the smallest bit. She willed her arms to move, but they yanked uselessly against restraints.

Where was she? What was going on?

She turned her head to the side, away from the object covering her face, and more oxygen filled her lungs. Of course! She’d been shot and was in the hospital. But why were her arms tied to the guardrails of the bed, and who had put this pillow over her face? More to the point, who was fighting with the person who had tried to asphyxiate her?

Jax!

Yes, that was the voice she’d heard shouting.

“Freeze!” A different voice hollered. “Hold it right there!”

The hand-to-hand battle went silent, and a third voice started cursing as the familiar click of handcuffs met Daci’s ears. A moment later, the pillow was stripped from her face, and Daci blinked up at a most welcome sight—Jax’s face. The right side of his bottom lip was split and puffy, and a trickle of blood had cut a path from there to his chin, but he was beautiful.

“Jax.” She breathed his name. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He undid the strips of cloth holding her wrists to the bed’s side rails. “Creep must have tied you up so you couldn’t fight even if you awakened. Are you all right?”

“I—I think so.” She raised a hand to brush hair from her face. The movement hurt. “My side feels like a hot poker is stirring up coals in there.”

The uninjured half of his mouth tilted upward. “A few hours ago, it was a hornet’s nest. Now it’s coals and a hot poker? What next—a branding iron?”

A snicker escaped her lungs, drawing a fresh pang from her side. “Don’t make me laugh. It hurts too much.”

A man in PD uniform began giving the Miranda warning to the prisoner. Daci’s gaze moved to the sullen captive. He was a stocky Hispanic of medium height and bland features. Probably midthirties. Not anyone’s idea of a cold-blooded killer, but his actions proved that he was certainly that. And he was posing as a deputy marshal.

Daci lifted her head, despite the twinge of pain, and gasped at the mess in her room where the bedside table and all of its contents had flown every which way.

She glared at the imposter.

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.