The Marine's Return

by Rula Sinara

  He can’t be her hero...

  But he made a promise to keep her safe

  Wounded marine Chad Corallis just wants to be left alone. Until he discovers his best friend’s very pregnant widow is in danger. A dedicated nurse, she refuses to leave her Serengeti medical clinic when it’s threatened by poachers. Chad is honor-bound to protect her, but who will save him from falling for his best friend’s wife?

  “If you ever accuse me of not putting my child first, I’ll—”

  “Sorry, that comment went too far.”

  “You bet it did.” She stormed off toward the Jeep.

  Agreeing to come to the clinic had been a mistake. Staying would be hell. He’d promised his best friend he’d protect Lexi. Getting her out of here was the fastest way to do that.

  But she was too aggravating and bullheaded to leave.

  And yet she’d never mentioned the scars on his face, his limp or his missing arm. She seemed to look right past all of it. Did he want her to notice? Did he need the acknowledgment of what he’d been through? Did he abhor pity and, at the same time, want it?

  He closed his eyes and exhaled. Something about her made him unsettled. But he knew one thing with certainty—the more time he spent around Lexi Galen, the more chance he’d end up dragging her through hell with him.

  Dear Reader,

  For every sunrise, there’s a sunset. As this series comes to a close, I humbly hope that the love and adventure that readers found in it will continue to hold a special place in their hearts and minds. I know the series will live on in mine.

  This final story is about Chad Corallis, whom we met as a rambunctious toddler at the beginning of the series. I immediately knew that he would follow in his father’s footsteps and become a marine. However, I didn’t realize just how emotional I would get while writing his future as a severely wounded marine struggling to embrace life again.

  Nurse Lexi Galen has her own challenges to overcome. She’s widowed, pregnant and working at a remote medical clinic in Kenya, and the only person she’s willing to count on is herself. But eventually, one precious baby shows them that after darkness comes light. New beginnings, love, hope, healing and happy endings are what this book, and series, is about.

  If I could make one wish, it’s that this series makes a positive difference...not only for endangered wildlife, but for all of us as we face the challenges of life and love. Everything comes down to love.

  My door is always open at rulasinara.com, where you can sign up for my newsletter, get information on all of my books and find links to my social media hangouts. And I’d be honored if you’d journey with me through my next series for Harlequin Heartwarming, out this spring!

  Wishing you love, peace and courage in life,

  Rula

  The Marine’s Return

  USA TODAY Bestselling Author

  Rula Sinara

  Award-winning and USA TODAY bestselling author Rula Sinara lives in rural Virginia with her family and crazy but endearing pets. She loves organic gardening, attracting wildlife to her yard, planting trees, raising backyard chickens and drinking more coffee than she’ll ever admit to. Rula’s writing has earned her a National Readers’ Choice Award and a HOLT Medallion of Merit, among other honors. Her door is always open at www.rulasinara.com, where you can sign up for her newsletter, learn about her latest books and find links to her social media hangouts.

  Books by Rula Sinara

  Harlequin Heartwarming

  From Kenya, with Love

  The Promise of Rain

  After the Silence

  Through the Storm

  Every Serengeti Sunrise

  The Twin Test

  A Heartwarming Thanksgiving

  “The Sweetheart Tree”

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

  Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards

  http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010002

  This book is dedicated to military men and women—active duty, veterans, wounded warriors, those who gave their lives—and to their families. Thank you for your service

  and sacrifice.

  And a special series dedication—for it began with and has always been for...the elephants.

  Acknowledgments

  To Catherine Lanigan for your friendship and contagious, uplifting energy. Your heartfelt support and words of encouragement gave me the courage and confidence to keep writing when I needed it most.

  Thank you for believing in me.

  Contents

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  EXCERPT FROM HER COWBOY SHERIFF BY LEIGH RIKER

  PROLOGUE

  MARINE SERGEANT CHAD CORALLIS pressed his shoulder against the crumbling clay wall that ran along the outskirts of the remote village. His nostrils burned from the caustic stench of rotting food scraps and trash bags baking in the scorching sun only a few feet away. But he kept his eyes peeled on the one-story building that stood in a gated courtyard across the street. His war dog, Aries, stayed in position at his side.

  Chad adjusted his helmet then held up two fingers and pointed twice in the direction of the only other nearby structure, signaling for his men to head there. Corporal Jaxon, the youngest member of their squad at eighteen, nodded and passed the order on to the three men behind him. In a flash, Chad had his M27 aimed over the wall to cover the team as they began to move.

  Jaxon led them, crouched low, to their new position—the roofless remnants of an old shop that had been stripped and beaten by years of war. A field of red poppies streaked across the landscape like an ominous river of blood flowing from the dusty, bleak village.

  His men were well trained.

  They’d survive this.

  They had this.

  The squad had captured multiple insurgents in Kandahar without a loss to the platoon. They’d endured unfathomably brutal conditions last winter at their outpost, working alongside Afghan troops to take down a Taliban stronghold. They’d even survived an ambush between Marjah and Nawa. Barely, but they were here now.

  Still in Helmand Province.

  Still alive.

  He shifted, rising just enough to scan the street before moving to his next position. A woman draped in a burka walked briskly down the street, tugging on the hand of a little girl who’d dropped her doll. Every detail registered...the tall, lanky build of the woman, a curtain fluttering in a window across the street, a scruffy dog sniffing its way toward the trash...

  Chad muttered a curse and kept firm control of Aries. He willed the other dog to stay away. One bark by either and they’d be sitting ducks.

  He motioned for his men to wait. Adrenaline sizzled in his veins. He aimed his M27 and prepped for their cover to be blown.

  Someone called out a name in Pashto and the dog trotted off down a narrow alley to the left. The girl grasped for her doll, as her mother held her hand tight and tried hurrying her along. Chad took two deep breaths...the kind he used to take as a kid before diving into the crisp waters of a crystal-clear pool on a swim with his sister and brothers.<
br />
  He was doing this for them. For all the innocents out there...families, children, parents, loved ones. People all over the world who deserved the priceless, innate human right of peace of mind. The right to know they were safe from harm. But evil was a slippery, elusive, son of a—

  A bead of sweat trailed along his throbbing temple and hit the corner of his eye. He blinked it away and focused. He was born to do this. His father was a marine. Being in the armed forces—fighting evil—was in his blood. Failing wasn’t. He looked from the road to his men.

  They were in position. They knew the target’s coordinates. What in God’s name was taking so long for the final order? He waited to hear his commander’s voice come through his earpiece. He itched to move. Every cell in him was on fire.

  The order came through.

  Jaxon and the seven others on his team abandoned their cover and headed for the target, just as a small cart rolled down the street toward them like tumbleweed through a ghost town. The little girl pulled free from her mother’s grasp, scooped up her doll and ran toward the cart. Her mother yelled and ran after her.

  Something was off. The cart was rolling too slowly. It was too close to his men. Too close to the little girl. And there was no sign of its owner coming after it. Aries growled and tugged.

  “Fall back! Fall back!”

  Chad leaped over the wall and ran like hell toward the cart, Aries at his heels.

  Jaxon’s gaze jerked to Chad then to the cart. Then he looked once more at Chad, his eyes glazed with an eerie calm...and an unflinching resolve. Jaxon pushed the others out of his way and ran to intercept the cart.

  “No!” Chad couldn’t let him do it. Images of his younger brothers filled his head. Family. These men were his brothers, too.

  He had to protect them. He had to protect the innocent, too.

  The child stopped in her tracks, green eyes wide with fear at the sight of his men. Her mother picked her up and ran.

  Chad’s pulse pounded in his ears as he ran. Two more feet. He had to make it. He would.

  The cart closed in. Jaxon lunged toward it. Chad collided with him, grabbed his arm and threw him to the left while shoving the cart as hard as he could to their right. It rolled a couple of feet before it stalled against a small rock...

  And detonated.

  CHAPTER ONE

  6½ Months Later

  LEBOO STEELED HIMSELF against the metallic stench of blood and the sight of ripped flesh. What if there was a trail of blood leading here? What if he got caught? It didn’t matter at this point. He had no choice. He had to put his family first. That’s what brave ones did. They were fearless. They hardened their heart if that’s what it took to face danger or death. He was being tested. And he would prove himself worthy. Of being a man. A protector.

  He pulled the roll of bandage wrap out of his pocket along with a handful of herbs he’d learned were good for clotting. It had to be enough until he could get his hands on something for infection. He eyed the gun that lay against the mass of mangled roots that formed the cave-like thicket camouflaged by a copse of elephant pepper trees and tall clumps of savannah grasses. He had to try. He had to stay alive. He’d do whatever he had to do...even if it meant killing.

  * * *

  LEXI GALEN TAPPED the syringe and slowly depressed the plunger until the last bubble of air escaped. Finally, the last vaccination for the day. She was so tired.

  Maybe she shouldn’t have traveled so far yesterday. They’d taken their mobile medical unit to a Luo village farther north, closer to Lake Victoria. She wasn’t going to be able to endure those longer trips much longer, not now that she was well into her eighth month of pregnancy. She’d have to plan to stay closer to the rustic clinic she manned near the outskirts of the Masai Mara.

  But that meant sacrificing patient care. There were children and other pregnant women in those more distant tribal villages who were counting on her. One was barely old enough to be called a woman.

  She refocused on the patient at hand. “This will be over as fast as a cheetah can run,” she promised.

  The little Masai boy clung to his mother and pressed his cheek against the numerous rows of orange, red and blue glass beads that adorned her chest.

  “I’ll need you to hold him still for a moment,” Lexi said to the boy’s mother. Between the few words of broken Swahili she’d learned over the past five months and many of the villagers understanding English, the clinics were running more smoothly than when she’d first moved here.

  Learning Maa was proving to be a little harder, but she was determined to at least understand the native Masai language before her baby became a toddler. She wanted her child to learn it, too...just as Tony would have wanted.

  Lexi planned to build a life on the Serengeti, and she wanted to embrace everything about the land, including the people, languages and culture.

  She swabbed and stuck the little boy’s arm. He wailed as all the others had...an aching sound that crushed her heart. Bless their hearts, she couldn’t blame them. They were too young to ignore the pain...too young to understand that she wanted to help them, not hurt them.

  She’d learned to tune out children crying during her nursing career, for the most part, but today it was wearing her down. Her head hurt. Her lower back and legs ached more than they had in months.

  She wasn’t complaining. Well, she wanted to, but she had no right to. This had been her idea. Her call. She had made the decision to drop everything, quit her position as a hospital RN in the US and move to Africa, pregnant and alone.

  She glanced up and waved at the little boy as he and his mother left the clinic grounds. The child clung to his mother’s hand and disappeared with her down the stone-lined dirt path and around a copse of wild fig trees.

  Here she was, in the middle of this vast, mesmerizing wilderness...but not far enough away to forget. Everything back in their apartment in America had reminded her of the way Tony must have suffered. The burn scars that had rendered him unrecognizable to anyone but her had haunted her. They still did.

  He’d been a dedicated military doctor. They’d met less than a year prior to getting married, though they’d tried to stay in touch as much as possible during his tours in Afghanistan. They had talked every chance they could, despite the time difference. They’d been married only three weeks before he had returned to duty. His last tour. Technology had its advantages, but it couldn’t bring back the dead.

  Sometimes she wondered if the fact that there had been a screen between them during much of their relationship had helped them to open up to each other more quickly. She’d never spoken as honestly about her past as she had to Tony. He’d known her parents had gone to prison on charges of fraud and embezzlement. Something no one else knew.

  Her parents had been takers. Greedy in a way Lexi had sworn she’d never be. She was only nine years old when they were imprisoned. But it wasn’t until almost a year later, after being shuffled from one foster home to another, that she’d realized she would never live with her parents again. There had been no other relatives to take her in. She’d never forget her tenth birthday. That night, she had gone outside long after everyone in the house was in bed, sat in the cool grass and wished desperately on a star for a permanent family. One made up of good, loving people who cared about others. Givers.

  But instead of getting her wish, her foster mother found her curled up in the dewy grass that morning and yelled at her for unlocking the door and wandering outside after midnight. The concern hadn’t been for her safety. She’d supposedly put the house at risk of getting robbed. That day had hardened her...made her a survivor. Relying on hopes, dreams and wishes wasn’t enough. She had to rely on herself.

  And if the other children—fosters and non-fosters—she’d spent time with during her patchwork tween and teen years hadn’t been strong enough to rely on themselves, she’d taken car
e of them, too. That had led her to nursing school and, later, to Tony.

  They’d met at the hospital during one of his short leaves in the States. He had been visiting a young woman—a medic—who’d been wounded while en route to the field hospital where he was stationed. Lexi had felt an instant connection with Tony. So immediate, it had scared her at first.

  She hadn’t been able to stop herself from loving him. He had been just as open with her as she had been with him. He’d been an only child, too, except he’d had good parents. He’d been raised in Kenya and had grown up with his best friend who’d been like a brother to him. A brother who hadn’t been able to make it to her and Tony’s wedding because of his deployment. But Tony had promised he’d introduce her to him someday.

  He’d also promised she would never be alone again.

  Ever.

  The last time they’d been together had been the final day of his leave, only three weeks into their marriage. He’d proposed as soon as he had returned home from duty and they were married that week. In retrospect, she wondered if he’d somehow sensed he might not make it back and it had been his way of ensuring that he kept his promise in one form or another. They had married, honeymooned locally...then he’d had to return to duty. And then their life together ended. Just like that. He’d been gone less than two weeks when he was injured.

  She’d rushed to be by his side but he’d been in a medically induced coma. One he never awoke from.

  His death had felt like the sharp edge of a knife twisting and carving its way through her chest. She’d lost everything that day. She’d thought she had nothing left to lose...until she’d discovered she was pregnant on the day of his funeral.

  Lexi’s eyes burned from the memory. She blinked and sniffed to stop any tears from falling, then focused on clearing her clinic supplies. She needed to keep her head. Tony had never been comfortable around emotional outbursts or signs of weakness. She needed to stay strong for him...for his baby.