Perilous Wilderness Escape by Rhonda Starnes

Author:Rhonda Starnes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2022-01-17T19:41:28+00:00

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The silence in the truck’s cab felt like a coiled rattlesnake, ready to strike at any moment. Katherine missed the old Randy. The one who did his job and remained aloof, not interested in being friends. No, that wasn’t true. There were things to like about his new persona. She actually felt more like a partner and less like an underling. For the first time in eleven months, she had taken the lead in dangerous situations and not just sat back taking orders. She really didn’t want that to change now that his memory had started to return. But was the feeling of camaraderie worth disclosing personal details of her past?

“I’m sorry.” She jumped at the sound of Randy’s voice. “I didn’t realize my questions would be so difficult for you to answer. We can move on to another topic.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll answer the simple question first.” Katherine swallowed, pushing her pride past the lump in her throat, and moistened her lips. Here goes nothing. “I decided to become a law enforcement officer when I was in the seventh grade. The year my brother, who was a junior in college, died from a drug overdose.”

“That must have been a horrible experience for your family.”

“It was an eight-year ordeal for my parents, but they kept it from the rest of us. He battled drugs from the time he was fourteen. Our parents sent him to rehab twice, wiping out their savings to save their only son. For the longest time, I didn’t know Jimmy was using drugs. My parents just said he was sick. He was so gaunt, his face sunken in and his hair falling out. I thought he had cancer.”

Randy reached over and squeezed her hand. Tears burned the back of her eyes at his nonjudgmental compassion. Anger at her brother that she thought she’d suppressed long ago threatened to bubble to the surface. In his selfishness, Jimmy had robbed her family of everything. Not just monetary things, but love and happiness, too. “Five years into the battle, it finally seemed that he’d beaten his addiction. He got his GED and completed two years at a local community college.”

“Then what happened?”

“He wanted more independence, so he applied to a school out of state. He convinced our mom and dad it would be okay. This was the next logical step in his complete recovery, or so he said.” She activated the blinker and slowed to make the turn into the parking lot of a popular chain grocery store. If they were going to hole up at the safe house for a few days, they’d need supplies. “Before the first semester was halfway over, my dad got a call from the college telling him Jimmy had overdosed and had been rushed to the hospital. My parents got on the first flight out. When they reached the hospital, Jimmy was hooked up to all kinds of machines. They were told the overdose caused him to have a seizure that cut off the oxygen to his brain.

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