“Blot,” she ordered, handing her friend a napkin.
“No. You have to stop. He’s here.” Nichole blotted the mascara running below her eyes. She dragged in a steadying breath.
Madelyn’s body flash-fired with a shot of adrenaline. Fight or flight were the only options and she’d trained in both. The smile died on her lips. Her head snapped toward the door. Relief calmed the erratic beat of her heart.
“Relax,” Nichole snickered. “It’s just Tommy. Not the devil himself. The date wasn’t that bad.”
She laughed at her overreaction. “You try getting yelled at by Jeannie Lou in front of a crowd of people because I,” she added air quotes, “stole her man. I didn’t want him. And certainly didn’t after he tried to explain that there was more than enough of him to go around.”
“A bald-faced lie,” Nichole shook her head. “Senior year a bunch of us went to the beach to skinny-dip. He’d be hard pressed to have enough for one.”
“And you set me up with him?”
“Hey, it’d be more penis than you’ve had in the last two years. I figured some was better than none.” She shrugged.
Madelyn’s shoulders shook in uproarious laughter, dissipating the tension knotting her nape. Nichole’s hair pooled on the table as she rested her forehead on the lacquered top and heaved her laughs.
“Oh,” Madelyn gasped, “I needed this.”
“What’s so funny?” a male voice asked.
“Tommy,” Nichole snickered her greeting.
Hi, Tiny.
Madelyn bit her lower lip between her teeth to keep from embarrassing them all.
“Glad to see you ladies having such a good time.” He planted his hands on the table and leaned over them. His fingers hardly competed with their drinks’ straws for width. The white Panama-Jack style button-down he wore billowed around his narrow frame.
“We’re just having a girls’ night,” Nichole explained.
“No boys allowed?” A smirk pulled one side of his cute face.
“Two more,” the waitress said in creole. She shooed Tommy Templeton to the side with a string of words Madelyn didn’t understand and deposited the drinks.
Nichole laughed silently, picking up the native language since she’d lived in the West Indies all her life. Her ancestors had come to the islands from Spain in the late 1700’s. So, her roots ran down to the bedrock.
The official language was English, but most of the island also spoke a unique form of creole. Madelyn had picked up on curse words immediately, thanks to her students. And she was working on the rest. They just had to speak as though they communicated with an infant or toddler.
“No boys allowed,” Nichole agreed after thanking the waitress.
“Good thing I’m a man.” Tommy dragged over a chair from a nearby table and sat.
Irritation prodded her temper. What was it with men on this island? It was as though women’s wishes were suggestions a man could choose to heed or ignore all together. Instead of getting angry, she decided to have some fun. After all, it was girls’ night.
“Like I said before,” she smiled at Nichole, “sorry I’m late. My feet are just so bloated right now. I could hardly get my shoes on my feet.”
A twinkle lit Nichole’s dark eyes. “Oh my God, are you on your period too?”
Tommy’s hands slid from the table.
“Yeah, the cramps are so bad the first day. And the bleeding. Gah.” Madelyn wrinkled her nose for effect.
“A massacre,” Nichole nodded, pouting her lips.
Tommy leaned back in his seat, his mouth half-gaped in horror.
“And by day three…” Madelyn added.
“The bloating,” she and Nichole said in unison.
“I…ah…I’m gonna go get a drink,” Tommy said without moving. “Yeah, yeah. You ladies have—”
A concussive, all-too-familiar roar chilled the blood in Madelyn’s veins and silenced the crowded bar. Jim Gallow, the boozer and part-time fisherman, stood at the entrance. Towered, really. On the far side of six feet and two hundred pounds, he had a body made for towing eighteen-wheelers and tossing boulders.
“Get the fuck away from my wife.”
Click here to read more of FOR ALL TO SEE.
Books by Megan Mitcham
BASE BRANCH SERIES
ENEMY MINE
JUSTICE MINE
STRANGER MINE
WARRIOR MINE
DANGER MINE
PRISONER MINE
VERSIONS
VIRTUES
VARIATIONS
NEVER MINE
RELENTLESSLY MINE
FURIOUSLY MINE
CAPTOR MINE
BUREAU SERIES
FOR ALL TO SEE
PAINTED WALLS
ANTHOLOGIES
ANTICIPATION
COWBOY HEAT
HIGH OCTANE HEROES
CONQUESTS
ROGUES
SEX OBJECTS
WILD AT HEART VOLUME II
benefiting Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge
BOX SET
HEARTS IN DANGER
Limited Edition
benefiting the American Heart Association
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Megan Mitcham is a USA Today bestselling author who has penned more than 15 sizzling suspense novels. Her work is said to whisk you across the globe, wedge your heart in your throat, make your hands sweat and your skin tingle. Check out Megan's special forces heroes in the Base Branch Series. If you like the darker side of suspense, try her Bureau Series. She is a Mississippi native, living and loving it in the natural state.
She was born and raised among the live oaks and shrimp boats of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where her enormous family still calls home. She attended college at the University of Southern Mississippi where she received a bachelor's degree in curriculum, instruction, and special education. For several years Megan worked as a teacher in Mississippi. She married and moved to South Carolina and began working for an international non-profit organization as an instructor and co-director.
In 2009 Megan fell in love with books. Until then, books had been a source for research or the topic of tests. But one day she read Mercy by Julie Garwood. And oh, Mercy, she was hooked!
Megan lives in Southern Arkansas where she pens heart pounding romantic thriller novels and window-steaming romances. For information on releases and giveaways subscribe at meganmitcham.com!
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For information on new releases and giveaways, sign up for Megan’s newsletter at www.meganmitcham.com.
To the men and women of the armed services, who inspired these stories and protect freedoms on a daily basis, thank you. Our lives are possible because of your sacrifice. You are true heroes! We honor you today and always.
To the readers who’ve stuck with the men and women of the Base Branch through thirteen books, thank you. You are rockstars!
The characters of Base Branch, the 700,000 plus words I wrote, and you guys taught me so much over the past three years. I plan to take those lessons and put them to work on the Stalker Series, the Stronghold Series, the Strong Series, and hopefully many more to come. I hope you hang around and help me grow with each book.
All the best,
Megan
Copyright Warning
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is a crime punishable by law. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to or downloaded from file sharing sites, or distributed in any other way via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up t
o 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/).
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Published by MM Publishing LLC
Edited by Jenny Sims
Proofread by Tina Rucci & Lynn Mullan
Cover Design by RBA Designs
Captor Mine
All Rights Are Reserved. Copyright 2017 by Megan Mitcham
First electronic publication: September 2017
First print publication: September 2017
Digital ISBN: 978-1-941899-30-4
Print ISBN: 978-1-941899-31-1
ISBN: 978-1-941899-30-4
Captor Mine (Base Branch Series Book 13) Page 23
