RESCUED (Elkridge Series Book 6)

by Lyz Kelley

  Table of Contents

  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

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  RESCUED

  An Elkridge Series Novel

  Lyz Kelley

  Contents

  Blurb: RESCUED

  Praise for Lyz Kelley’s writing and a special gift just for you.

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Author Notes

  Also by Lyz Kelley

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you for reading: RESCUED

  More Books By Lyz Kelley

  Copyright

  Blurb: RESCUED

  What happens when you realize too late

  that you’re in love?

  Karly’s animal shelter business is failing. Right now, she has too many animals, and not enough foster parents, trainers, or adopters to keep food in the bowls, and she’s desperate to find options. When her first love returns home from Afghanistan wounded and alone, she offers Thad a win-win situation—a job in exchange for training a special needs dog.

  Thad wants to be left alone. He feels responsible for not spotting the IED before it killed his friends and his war dog. When Karly drops off a dog for him to train, memories of their deaths swamp him with guilt.

  Corruption is tearing the small town of Elkridge apart. Thad is brave enough to give his life to save Karly, but is he brave enough to live? Will she be strong enough to survive? Will fate allow them a happily ever after?

  RESCUED is a sensual, contemporary romance about a brave woman and a heroic man who fulfill their dreams. If you like heartfelt characters, deep topics with powerful emotional cores, and happy endings, then you’ll love this sixth book in Lyz Kelley’s tales of strength, love, and survival. Buy RESCUED to unlock the emotional tale today!

  Praise for Lyz Kelley’s writing and a special gift just for you.

  I’ve got a present for you, your very own ebook exclusive: REGRET, the prequel to the Elkridge Series, when you sign up for my newsletter.

  Click Here

  The Molly: Award for Excellence

  “A writer who will go the distance.”

  “Masterful dialog.”

  “I look forward to seeing this book on the bookshelves.”

  The Sheila: Finalist

  “The story has great bones! The plot is interesting, the characters are unique…there are so many things to love about this story.”

  “H & H are both very appealing and certainly not cookie cutter characters.”

  “Your opening is a grabber.”

  “This is one of the best books I’ve read in a good long while. CONGRATULATIONS.”

  “Prose is sleek, polished and smooth, a near frictionless read.”

  The Marlene: Finalist

  “You have a lovely writing style with dialogue and scene setting.”

  “The sensory details are rich, and I was able to visualize the scenes. I chuckled several times at your turn of phrase and thought they were very sassy and smart.”

  “The plot seems to have it all: conflict, a mystery and a romance. So kudos for creating an interesting story.”

  The Golden Network: Finalist

  “The setting is painted well and the characters are engaging with very different voices.”

  “The manuscript is clean and tightly written.”

  “The manuscript reflects beautiful writing.”

  Chapter One

  A chill gripped Karly Krane, even though the mountain air was finally above seventy degrees. Today would be the first time she’d seen Thad since he walked out of her life 3,726 days ago.

  Her heart thumped in synch with the car radio’s toe-tapping tune, but she wished the usual carefree bliss had followed along. She twisted the radio’s knob full volume to distract herself and avoid pondering the one thing she didn’t want to think about.

  For ten years, she’d struggled to understand why. Why, after she and Thad spent a good chunk of every day together for six plus years, he decided to leave Elkridge. Leave her.

  During their final three-minute phone call, she told him to never ever talk to her again. At eighteen, she had no notion of how long never-ever could last, because on that sunny spring morning, he did as she asked and disappeared from her life, only to show up again more than a decade later, wounded and alone.

  The soul-slicing pain had created a festering wound, and the hurt still burned deep, buried underneath the rubble of rationalization.

  If only she hadn’t promised her brother she’d look in on Thad. If only she didn’t need his help.

  I guess it’s time to put the big girl panties on and get this done.

  From the back of her mother’s hand-me-down red and tan Subaru hatchback, she retrieved the extra-large, folded up dog kennel and began reconstructing the metal frame next to Thad’s recently patched plank porch.

  A movement spotted out of the corner of her eye hitched her breath. Thad? She swallowed her anxiety. No, just an elk passing by.

  Get a grip. He doesn’t matter anymore, remember?

  “Yeah. Like that’s the truth,” she mumbled, and stood to wipe her hands on the jeans she’d washed so many times the chic, manufactured threadbare was threadbare.

  She opened the back passenger car door. The standard poodle mix studied her with his intelligent brown eyes and expressed his opinion of her procrastination with an impatient whine.

  “Take it easy, Custer. This is for your own good.” She scratched the dog under the chin, then leaned in to kiss his nose and fluff his ears. “This is your last chance. Don’t let me down.”

  Karly’s throat burned as she remembered the urine and feces stench which greeted her when she entered the hoarder’s home. She and three other shelters committed to finding homes for the animals, although the local kill shelter had already euthanized eight that couldn’t be saved. The thought of others suffering the same fate made her sick.

  The large furball shifted nervously in his security halter. “You need to get it together. You hear me?” She rubbed the dog’s fuzzy chest
, unclasped the buckle, then lifted the dog’s muzzle. “You’re too smart, and I don’t mean that in a good way. A little girl is depending on you. You’d better straighten up. Three weeks. That’s all we’ve got.”

  The young sixty-pound male, sensing freedom, nudged past her and gave her arm a good yank when she grabbed the end of the leash. She gently snapped the lead back, reminding him of his training, before shutting the door.

  “See, Custer? This is what I’ve been talking about. Stop fooling around. I need the money, and you need a forever home.”

  “Talking to animals again?” The familiar voice made the goose bumps pop up on her skin and shiver. She sucked in a rush of air.

  There he was. Heart-stopping, gorgeous Thad Lopez. “You scared the poop out of me.”

  “I didn’t want to interrupt your lecture.”

  Like a hunter tracking a deer, he watched her. Methodical. Calculating. Measuring.

  He shoved his hands into his pockets, which pushed his jeans low around his thin hips and cleverly displayed his black cotton boxers. A sight she had no right to gawk at, but curiosity made her look anyway.

  An army green baseball cap sat low on his forehead, and the long-sleeve performance V-neck tight across his chest made him look downright delectable. If it wasn’t for the intensity in his amber eyes, she might have sighed. Damn her breakable heart for the pang of regret.

  “Why are you here, Karly?” Thad asked in a low baritone that had once been a tenor.

  “You’ve changed.”

  Gone were the long hair, baggy clothes, and stand-aside cocky attitude. And looking him directly in the eye wasn’t possible anymore. He’d sprung up a couple more inches.

  “You haven’t.” He scratched his shoulder to relieve an itch. “Your hair is a bit longer, and you’ve grown some curves, but that’s about it.”

  Curves? Figures you’d notice. She gestured to the large, curly mutt looking at her with those please-don’t-leave-me eyes. She forced her attention back to Thad. “Rumor has it you’ve been looking for work.”

  Thad shifted his weight off his left leg and leaned against the side of the cabin, then crossed his arms. “Are you here to offer me a job?”

  His mocking disbelief almost made her get back in the car and leave. She would have if she hadn’t promised her brother, Kenny, she’d try to help Thad.

  And if she didn’t need the income to save her business and her four-legged friends.

  And if she didn’t believe an injured soldier returning home deserved and needed community support.

  And if this wasn’t literally Custer’s last happily-ever-after chance.

  All of which added up to a quadruple load of responsibility, an obligation she couldn’t ignore.

  Custer circled her legs and sat on her left foot—rather than beside her where he’d been trained to sit—then released an impressive, guttural growl, perfectly expressing her feelings.

  “As a matter of fact, I do have a job for you.” She raised her chin a couple of centimeters to generate a pump of courage. “I’ve partnered with several organizations who train service dogs.” Karly glanced at Custer, who at the moment was having a good scratch behind the ear, and doing his best to demonstrate that the past several days of training hadn’t made one iota of difference.

  She fidgeted and cleared her throat. “I know a hunting dog isn’t the same as a service dog, but training is training. Since you were always good at figuring things out, I thought you might like to help. The pay is forty-five hundred dollars if he passes the service tests and the service family adopts him.” She rushed on, no longer certain this last-minute training idea was smart. “I keep thirty percent. You get seventy.” She swallowed hard to keep the trepidation from choking off her air. “It’s real money for a couple of weeks worth of work.”

  He studied the dog, then her, his eyes narrowing with disbelief. “Double the time, and you’d be lucky to get that dog to sit properly.”

  She plucked her foot out from underneath the dog’s hind leg and moved to the wire kennel to lift up the plastic protector with Custer’s fact sheet displayed inside. “A little girl in Arizona has a rare disease and requires oxygen full time. She needs a large-breed dog that can carry the tanks and follow her around, even down park slides and around the yard. The insurance company picks up most of the cost. You would be making a difference.”

  “That’s not why you’re here.” The humor dancing in his eyes called her bluff. Damn you, Thad Lopez.

  “Yes, it is. My kennel is overcrowded, and Custer needs a handler.” She fussed with the dog’s eyes, gently rubbing the crusty goobers out, then dithered over a piece of dried mud on his leg, doing her best to not look at the man who at one time held her whole heart and all her dreams.

  Well, the “at one time” bit wasn’t quite true.

  He still had that giant magnet, the one even now drawing her closer and closer and closer, like a Star Trek tractor beam. She didn’t want to feel the tug. He’d broken her heart—smashed it into a million tiny pieces—and she wouldn’t allow him to do it again.

  When the silence got to be too much, she sought his face. He looked tired. No. He looked like life had dragged him out of his bed, beat the crap out of him, and left him by the side of the road.

  Don’t feel sorry for him. Don’t you dare.

  He dumped you. Remember?

  You’re doing this for Kenny and Custer. End of story.

  “I’d better go.” She pointed a thumb over her shoulder. “It looks like you need to get back to whatever it was you’re doing…or something.” Thankfully the trembling on her insides didn’t cause her voice to jitter. She tugged on the dog’s leash. “C’mon, Custer. In you go.” The dog entered the kennel, circled and then flopped onto the metal floor before she secured the latch.

  “Karly. That dog is not why you’re here.”

  It really sucks letting people into your heart. They get to know every mood, tic, and nuance. There isn’t any place to hide or find refuge from the hurt when things sour.

  “I’m here to offer you work which will help a little girl who needs a service dog.” At least that wasn’t a lie, but the excuse didn’t answer his question. Guilt nibbled on the edges of her integrity.

  Wiping her sweaty palms on her jeans, she retreated to her car’s hatchback to grab the donated items. “Here are Custer’s supplies.”

  He didn’t move, or offer to help. He just watched her drop the dog’s printed ceramic bowls and a twenty-pound bag of dry dog food by the crate.

  “You should call Kenny.” She made the wide-arc trek back to her car, maintaining her distance. “He’s worried about you being alone out here on the ridge.”

  “I need the quiet.”

  You need something, all right. She twirled the key ring around her finger, in time with her whirling misgivings. “Kenny’s worried. He thinks you should be around people. Not spend so much time by yourself.”

  The muscles across her shoulders tightened when he shifted to rub his unshaven jaw. The red, puckered skin on his hand disappearing under his shirtsleeve drew her sympathy. He noticed, and his expression hardened. He obviously didn’t want her sympathy. In fact, his go-away attitude made it clear he didn’t want anything from her.

  She clenched her fist and let stubbornness and the keys press into her palm. “Something happened over there—something bad—didn’t it?” She had trouble drawing in a complete breath, because she wasn’t sure she was ready to hear the truth.

  “Tell Kenny I'm all right.” Thad brushed off her comment as easily as a mosquito.

  “Tell him yourself.” She dropped her shoulders to keep the concern from destroying her need to remain indifferent. “You’ve been in the zone. You know what it’s like to get letters and phone calls. Soldiers need to hear from people back home—remind them who they’re fighting for.”

  She closed her eyes and wished she hadn’t blurted out that last bit. “Elkridge supports our military veterans.” She drew a li
ne in the red soil with her cross trainers, then squinted into the sun. “That’s what people in small towns do, right?”

  A shadow drifted over his eyes, and he became eerily still, except for his fingers twitching randomly at his side. Nothing in his relaxed stance showed alertness, but still, after all these years, she could sense the underlying emotional turbulence that had always plagued him.

  What are you thinking, Lopez?

  Thad walked to the dog crate with a slight limp and lifted the eight by eleven plastic envelope holding the training details. He shook his head. “You need to take this dog with you.” His whispered statement barely carried on the breeze. His expression escalated to serious. “I can’t do this. I can’t train him.”

  “Look, I know this is last minute and all, but—”

  “No.” His voice was raw in a way she’d never heard from him before. “You don’t understand.”

  Custer’s ears drooped, reflecting how she felt. This wounded soldier was his last hope—her last hope.

  The overlarge mutt stood and shifted uneasily in the wire box.

  “No, you don’t understand.” She gestured to Custer. “By law, I can only keep a specific number of animals in my kennel. I’m over the limit now. If you can’t train or keep Custer, then someone needs to take him back to the kill shelter, and that won’t be me. You hear me? I. Will. Not. Do. It.” She opened the driver’s side door, slid behind the wheel, and rolled the window down. “If you don’t want to train him, you take him to the kill shelter. The address is on the paperwork.”