by Lisa Hughey
Except Frank didn’t have a weapon. The proper protocol was to convince him to back down. To talk him out of an attack.
Kita could hear the operator squawking in the background. And Frank Donner was rolling around on the floor, clutching his leg, moaning in pain.
Alex contemplated him for a second. “You’ll live.” He dismissed his pain and suffering with two words.
She shouldn’t laugh but for some reason, his cavalier response struck her as funny. Kita began to giggle.
Me. Giggling. “Sorry,” she gasped. “Not sure what’s wrong.”
“Delayed reaction to stress,” Alex said grimly. He wasn’t happy about it, but clearly didn’t feel a single drop of remorse. “But I like the sound of you laughing.”
She kinda liked it too, even if it was wildly inappropriate.
“Let’s get this taken care of, and then let’s go home.”
Home sounded fantastic.
Chapter 23
By the time they finished with the authorities, again, the day was closing in on night. Alex drove Kita to his home, his anxiety rising the closer they got to his simple rancher.
What had seemed like a good idea hours ago now seemed silly. She was used to living in the city. So his humble suburban home would likely feel pedantic and tame compared to her fast-paced, high-energy lifestyle.
What the hell had he been thinking?
He pulled the car into the driveway and turned off the engine. The overgrown roses underneath the large picture window seemed scraggly rather than charming. The empty flower beds beneath a trio of birch trees appeared barren.
His insecurities came rushing to the forefront. What did he really have to offer her?
“Oh.”
“It’s not much.” He shot out of the car before she could answer.
By the time he rounded the car to open her door, she was already out and peering at his unkempt bushes.
“It’s overgrown,” he said unnecessarily.
“These just need a little care, a little nurturing, and they’ll blossom.” She was stroking the leaves like she would stroke a lover.
His cock, the unruly thing, rose at the sight of her fingers lovingly caressing the plant.
But he was stuck on her words. She was a nurturer. Sure, she’d put most of her energy into plants, as evidenced by the abundance of greenery in her apartment. But if he could just convince her to take a chance on him, perhaps they could nurture each other.
“Why did you shoot him?” She continued to stroke the plant.
“Because he could have hurt you.” He couldn’t bear not to touch her. He threaded his fingers through her hair and held her head in his palm.
“Oh.” She breathed and lifted her gaze to his.
“I figured out that blindly following the rules can have disastrous consequences.” He curled his other arm around her waist and pulled him to her.
She nodded, the silk of her hair tangling in the stubble on his chin. “True.”
Alex finally decided he was going to have to be the one to go out on a limb. “I’ve broken pretty much every personal rule I have about relationships with you.”
Kita hung her head. “I’m sure. I guess I rubbed off on you.”
Alex rocked her back and forth in his arms. Her cheek rested against his thudding heart. He should wait until tomorrow. Wait until she’d completely recovered from the past few days, but suddenly he couldn’t delay any longer. He had to tell her how he felt. And if it backfired and blew up in his face, so be it. “Best choices I’ve ever made. I’m in love with you.”
Kita shoved away from him. “What? That’s impossible. I’ve been unconscious half the time we’ve known each other.”
Alex snorted. That made his feelings even crazier. Didn’t it? But he knew how he felt. “I know. But it’s still true.” After everything that happened over the past twenty-four hours, he might just be riding some sort of adrenaline high but it didn’t mean he was crazy.
She didn’t say anything, just continued to stare at him.
“I always thought I’d follow a set pattern, meet, date for a few years. That it would be gradual, easy, predictable.” His heart thudded wildly, and nerves had his hands shaking. But this was too important not to say, even if he did feel like he might throw up. “But I met you and you shattered all my preconceptions.”
“And that’s good?” She gripped her fingers together tightly, like she was holding back from grabbing him. They were no longer touching. He hated it.
“Go figure.” He wanted to grin but this was too important to treat lightly.
“You’re in love with me?” Kita repeated it as a question. She wanted to skitter away from his gaze but she forced herself to boldly stare into his eyes. Her mouth went as dry as the desert and her heart stuttered in her chest. “Almost everyone I’ve ever loved has let me down.”
“Are you saying—”
“Don’t let me down.” She couldn’t actually say the words. The vulnerability was too raw and too fresh. But she wanted—no, needed—to tell him how she felt. The words were necessary. As elemental as breathing.
Her heart swelled at the emotion in his eyes.
“I love you.” He said it.
Kita couldn’t say it back. Yet.
But as if he knew her heart, he continued speaking, “I grew up in a loving family. My parents expressed their love for each other and us kids frequently. But this is different.”
Kita swallowed.
“Completely different. I need you to know. Outside my family, I’ve never said that to a woman.”
The sheer hope in her heart was difficult to ignore.
With a confession like that, how could she not bare her soul? She opened her mouth, tried, and finally the words spilled out in a rush. “Iloveyoutoo.” Crazy, too fast, and yet, just right.
“I’ve got a garden that needs nurturing.”
“I’m good at that,” she murmured, her heart slowing and filling with love, so full she could burst.
“And a heart that needs tending.”
“That may take a little more time.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, stepped into his embrace. “My heart needs tending too.”
“I can do that.” Alex curled his arms around her, so tightly she couldn’t escape. Not that she wanted to.
Her heart overflowed with hope. Alex pressed his lips to hers in a tender, loving kiss.
For two opposites, their attraction was absolutely wrong, and totally perfect.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading Kita and Alex’s story! I hope you enjoyed reading Stalked as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did enjoy this novel, below are a few ways you can help a writer out!!
Good: Lend the book to a friend
Better: Recommend the book to your friends
Best: Leave a review at Amazon, BN, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Goodreads...basically any place they sell or review eBooks. Every review helps my work get out to other readers and I cannot even express how much it means to me when you let people know you liked my work. Readers have so many choices nowadays and limited dollars to spend. It can be difficult to take a chance on a new author even if the premise sounds appealing. By reviewing books, you give other readers insight into the story world and help them make informed purchases.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support!!
p.s. The next book in the series Hunted (ALIAS #2) is available at all retailers
p.p.s. Would you like to know when my next book is available? You can sign up for my new release email list/newsletter at Lisa’s Latest News I send out newsletters two or three times a month typically filled with info on upcoming books, friend freebies, and contests I’m involved in. I will never sell or distribute your email to other people.
p.p.p.s. Want to know why Sergei Polzin was really in the ALIAS offices? Check out Never Say Never (book 2 in my Nostradamus Prophecies series)….
Excerpt of Stone Cold Heart
Want to read where it
all started? Here’s an excerpt of Stone Cold Heart, the first book in the Family Stone series. This book is free at all retailers.
Family Stone #1 Jess
* * *
In the early evening dusk, Jess Stone lay on her stomach in the twenty-foot-high rubble of a demolished church, underneath a black and gray city-scape tarp intended to camouflage her position. A sharp-edged chunk of debris dug into her lower rib cage, the scope of the Remington M24 cool and familiar against her face.
Her standard uniform of jeans, running shoes, and plain black t-shirt rendered her just another anonymous and transient relief worker...which she was actually. A black baseball cap hid her distinctive multi-hued blonde hair. The paper mask kept out the contaminated dust from the destroyed buildings but did little to stem the overwhelming stench of decaying bodies.
Tanks rumbled through the destroyed coastal town, their public address system blasting warnings for citizens to stay in their homes, curfew was in effect. The threat was a joke. Ninety percent of the people in the town didn't have homes left. Those who did were terrified to go back inside. In the fetid, humidity choked air, the tent cities erected in the parks and on the beach were seething masses of the injured and shock struck.
The substandard construction in the small country had never been enough to withstand the angry might of Mother Nature. Buildings had toppled like a stack of Tinkertoys, and left crumbling cement walls with twisted rebar poking out of the jagged ruins like a skeletal hand.
Trapped in the concrete pieces that littered the ground, the heat from the tropical day seared through her thin sturdy clothing. The stank of the raw sewage that ran in rivulets through the streets overpowered the salt-laden breeze off the ocean. People, covered with the grit of pulverized buildings and humans, shuffled along with blank vacant stares. Two weeks after the quake, still in shock, their lives decimated first by nature and then kicked and beaten by the ineffectiveness of a flawed relief system. Hundreds of humanitarian agencies had descended on the population duplicating efforts and yet completely missing the need in other areas. The government was ostensibly trying to coordinate the effort, however the mass chaos was undeniable.
Through the Leupold Ultra M3 fixed power sight, she tracked the movements of Henri LeRoy, leader of this tiny island nation, violator of human rights and dignity, and all around poor excuse for a human being.
Sickness roiled in her stomach. The power bar she’d eaten for breakfast threatened to add to the rubble pile as she tried to figure out how in the hell she'd ended up here. Back behind a sniper rifle with the power over life and death trembling in the muscles of her right trigger finger.
Dammit. When she'd decided to take control of her life and quit the FBI, she hadn't wanted to do this anymore.
She'd wanted to be a simple relief worker. She'd wanted to connect with her family, brothers and mother.
But that bitch, fate, had slapped her upside the head and now here she was, where she'd sworn she never wanted to be again. Looking through the scope of a high-powered rifle, with a crystal clear head shot and a murky sense of right and wrong.
With little fanfare, she could blast LeRoy's brain matter all over the silk-covered walls and the antique Louis the XIV scrolled chairs in the receiving room of his ridiculously elegant weekend mansion which, since built properly, had sustained minimal damage. Her muscles twitched with the knowledge and acceptance that with one slow slide of her finger, the despotic, amoral leader would be history.
Jess didn't want to kill him, didn't want to be directly responsible for another death. She didn't want this choice. She’d given up this kind of life. She'd left the FBI after a series of high stress cases to get away from the doubt and guilt that had crippled her. To make her own decisions about right and wrong rather than carry out the commands of her bosses.
But if Henri LeRoy lived, chances were astronomical that many other citizens would die.
And yeah, she'd probably been manipulated into this. Actually no probably about it. Assassination had not been listed as one of her duties when she'd joined Global Humanitarian Relief. Damn her brother anyway.
But now all she could do was lay here in the desecrated remains of the former church and hope that her special skill set wouldn't be needed.
Fortunately, she was secondary backup.
And unless several things went horribly wrong, she would break down her weapon, get back to the relief aid encampment, back to actually helping people, and be out of here without ever firing her rifle.
Then she could hand out seed packets to her heart's content and figure out what she was going to do next. If she'd stay with GHR and her brothers, or go. First, she had to get through the next two hours.
But if something did go wrong...she prayed that if she was called upon, she could make the right decision. Make the shot. Cold zero.
Also by Lisa Hughey
Black Cipher Files Romantic Suspense
The Encounter, A Prequel to Blowback
Blowback
Betrayals
Burned
Dangerous Game
* * *
**These books are also available in paperback
Black Cipher Files Box Set (includes Blowback, Betrayals, and Burned)
* * *
The Seven
Archangel Rafe
Archangel Jed
Archangel Zach
* * *
Snow Creek Christmas
Love on Main Street: A Snow Creek Christmas – 7 Author anthology
One Silent Night (from Love on Main Street)
Miracle on Main Street (standalone novella)
* * *
Family Stone Romantic Suspense
Stone Cold Heart, (Jess, Family Stone #1)
Carved in Stone (Connor, Family Stone #2)
Heart of Stone (Riley, Family Stone #3)
Still the One (Jack, Family Stone #4)
Jar of Hearts (Keisha & Shane, Family Stone #5)
Queen of Hearts (Shelley, Family Stone #6)
Cold as Stone (John, Family Stone #7)
* * *
Family Stone Box Set (Stone Cold Heart, Carved in Stone, Heart of Stone, Still the One, & Jar of Hearts)
* * *
The Nostradamus Prophecies
View To A Kill #1
Never Say Never #2
* * *
ALIAS
Stalked (ALIAS #1)
Hunted (ALIAS #2)
Vanished (ALIAS #3)
* * *
Billionaire Breakfast Club
His Semi-Charmed Life (Camp Firefly Falls #11 and Billionaire Breakfast Club #0)
Everything He Wants (Billionaire Breakfast Club #1 The Jock)
Queen of His Daydreams (Camp Firefly Falls #23 and Billionaire Breakfast Club #1.5)
Author’s Note
I’ve had the idea for Adams-Larsen in my head for a long time. Years ago, I went to a presentation by a man who helps people disappear. It was fascinating and started the seed for the ALIAS books. Then I read a book about the US Marshals’ Witness Security program and according to the author one of the biggest problems they had was relocating people who were witnesses but not criminals. So I married the two ideas together and ALIAS was born.
I hope you enjoyed the first book in this series. Next up will be Maria and Dwayne’s story. Maria is finally getting her Happy Ever After!
Acknowledgments
To all my usual suspects:
Thanks to Adrienne Bell and LGC Smith for your continued support and our coffee klatching.
Thanks to the Pens Fatales for seven years of writing and friendship.
Thanks to Deb Nemeth, my fabulous editor, for helping me fine tune and articulate Kita and Alex’s story.
Thanks to Chelsea, my assistant, who picks up the slack and calmly handles anything I ask of her.
Many thanks to Robin Ludwig at http://gobookcoverdesign.com/ for her beautiful cover design. It was a pleasure to work with her!
And fin
ally, thank you to the readers who continue to buy my work and leave me such lovely reviews. I cannot express how much I appreciate every single one of you!
About Lisa
USA Today Bestselling Author Lisa Hughey has been writing romance since the fourth grade, which was also about the time she began her love affair with spies. Harriet and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys later gave way to James Bond and Lara Croft and Jason Bourne. Exploring the complex nature of a profession that requires subterfuge and lies fascinates her. She loves combining her two passions into fiction. As evidenced by her Black Cipher Files series.
Archangel Rafe was her first foray into the paranormal but after spending time in the Angelic Realm, it won't be her last. At their heart, the Seven novels are about the dynamics of family relationships. But the really hot Archangels don't hurt.
And recently she's been immersed in the Stone Family novellas, stories about a blended family of brothers and a sister who have a lot more in common than they realize. But of course she couldn't just write about family and romance. There are complex plots, bad guys, and suspense too.
Lisa loves to hear from readers and has various places you can connect with her, although, shh, Twitter is her favorite.
* * *
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