Extreme Honor

by Piper J. Drake

  Okay then. Elisa took the items and made her way toward the seating area, thankful the nurse hadn’t asked her to give her name and pertinent information verbally. It was always a risk to share those things out loud. There was the slightest chance someone would overhear and take note.

  She’d learned over and over again. There was always a chance a slip of information in the unlikeliest of places would find its way to exactly the person she didn’t want to have it.

  It might not be crowded but just about everyone in the room had decided to sit with at least a chair or two buffer between them and the next person. The buffer seats were all that was left and most of the other people waiting to be seen were either men or women sitting with men.

  Of course, Elisa wasn’t feeling all too sociable either.

  Then she caught sight of a little girl sitting with her legs crossed in the seat next to the big planter in the corner. The seat next to her was open, and she was waiting quietly hugging a big blue plush…round thing. Whatever it was.

  Elisa walked quickly over and when the girl looked up at her with big blue eyes, Elisa gave her the friendliest smile she could dig up. “Mind if I sit next to you?”

  The girl looked around, her gaze lingering on the reception area behind Elisa for a moment before saying, “Sure.”

  Elisa took a seat.

  After a few silent moments, the little girl stirred next to her. “Are you sick?”

  Well, paperwork didn’t take much of her attention and it’d been a while since Elisa had been outside her own head in a lot of ways. Conversation would be a welcome change as she finished the forms, and a good distraction from the constant worry running in the back of her mind. “Not sick so much as hurt. I won’t give you the plague.”

  A soft, strained laugh. “Same here.”

  Elisa glanced, then took a harder look. The girl wasn’t hugging the big plush toy as she’d first thought. It was supporting the girl’s slender left arm, which was bent at an impossible angle.

  “Oh my god.” Why was she sitting here alone?

  “Don’t worry.” The girl gave her a quick thumbs up with her right hand. “The doctors are really good here and I’m in all the time.”

  Such a brave face. She had to be in an insane amount of pain. And here she was encouraging Elisa.

  “Is there someone you should talk to about how often you get hurt?” Elisa struggled for the right tone. It was one she’d heard more than once when people had been concerned for her. Some places had safeguards in place for…

  Blue eyes widened. “Oh, it’s not what you’re thinking. Trust me, people ask my dad. And it’s not like that at all. I study mixed martial arts. I get bruised and bumped all the time and usually it’s nothing, but Dad always makes me come in to get checked.”

  It was hard not to believe in the earnest tone. But monsters were everywhere.

  The girl gave her a rueful smile, still amazing considering how much pain she had to be in. “This time it wasn’t just a bump.”

  “Which is why they’re going to see you as soon as they can, Boom.”

  Elisa hadn’t heard the man approach or seen him approach. He was just there, kneeling down in front of the girl, gently tucking an ice pack under her arm while moving it as little as possible. For her part, the girl hissed in pain but otherwise held up with amazing fortitude.

  Elisa would’ve been in tears. The arm had to be broken. It didn’t take a doctor to figure that out. No wonder the man had been mad earlier. She dropped her gaze, unable to watch.

  “Here.” An ice pack appeared in her view. “Your wrist should be iced, too. Take down the swelling while you wait.”

  Speechless, Elisa looked up.

  The man’s words had been gruff, awkward. His expression was blank. But his eyes, a softness around his eyes and a…quiet in the way he watched her made her swallow and relax a fraction. Her heartbeat stuttered, but in a fluttery kind of way. A completely different reaction from what she should be experiencing if she were wise.

  Learn from your mistakes. You never know who a person really is.

  “You should listen to Dad.” The little girl had regained her earnest tone. “He’s usually right. Even when I think he’s crazy, it turns out he’s right and I wish I’d listened to him. Besides, he gets hurt even more than I do. He says ice is his best friend.”

  “So is ibuprofen.” Elisa snapped her mouth shut, not even sure why she’d let the comment pop out.

  The little girl gave her a brighter smile. “Yeah. He says that, too.”

  The dad in question stood, his knees creaking a bit as he rose up and took a step back.

  Elisa was grateful for the space even though he probably wanted to be near his daughter. His presence was intense even if his movements were all steady and smooth. No sudden or frenetic motion. Nothing to freak her out.

  “Have you ever had self-defense?” The girl was continuing. “Dad says every person should take at least one class or seminar. It’s what got me started in mixed martial arts. I liked it so much I started taking classes.”

  “I haven’t, no.” Elisa wasn’t sure if the man minded the conversation, but it did seem to keep her mind off her own wrist, so maybe it was a distraction for the girl, too. If it was, the least she could do was help a girl this nice. “But it sounds like good advice. Will you be worried about mixed martial arts now?”

  The girl gave a slight shake of her head, grimacing as she unintentionally shifted her arm. “I want to go back as soon as this is fixed. I’ve got a belt test at the end of the year, and I want to make black belt before I get to middle school.”

  “We’ll let the doctor take a look and get some X-rays,” the man interjected, his voice low and maybe amused. “Then we’re going to follow the doctor’s orders to let you heal up correctly.”

  “Then I’ll go back to class.” The little girl was not to be deterred.

  Elisa couldn’t help but smile. Dauntless. So much conviction in such a young package.

  “Rojas?” A new nurse was standing in the double doors leading from the waiting room back into the emergency room area.

  Her father straightened. “Here.”

  The nurse nodded and motioned for a young man in scrubs pushing a wheelchair.

  In moments the girl was eased into the wheelchair, big round plushy support and all. She gave Elisa a wave as she was wheeled away to see the doctor.

  Elisa waved back.

  Wow. Just wow. Elisa took a deep breath. There was one heck of a personality. Someday that little girl was going to grow into a powerful, confident woman.

  Someone cleared his throat near her.

  She jumped.

  For the second time in the space of a few minutes, the man had snuck right up on her. This time he was holding out a cup of coffee and a card. “Revolution Mixed Martial Arts. It’s local, if you’re staying in the area. There’s a women’s self-defense workshop coming up in the next couple of weeks. Boom made me promise to come give this to you.”

  Words stuck in her throat as she stared at the proffered card. It took a minute for her to pull her wits together long enough to take it from him, and the coffee, too. His hand remained steady until she had both in her own. As she gingerly took the offerings, he didn’t extend his fingers to touch her the way some men did.

  Warm brown eyes, the color of dark chocolate, studied her. “The workshop takes it slow and easy. It’s assumed everyone is a beginner. If you mention my name, you’ll get a discount. Rojas.”

  She blinked. “Oh, but that’s not nec—”

  “You distracted Boom for a while and I appreciate the help.” His words had gone back to gruff, his speech concise in cadence. “And she’s right, you’d benefit from the workshop.”

  He turned on his heel and headed back to the ER.

  Okay then. Elisa studied the card for a minute. She was too new to the area to recognize the address, but if she could get a hotel room with Wi-Fi, she could map it pretty easily.

&n
bsp; Exhaustion rolled over her in a wave. If she decided to get a hotel room tonight. Everything she owned was stuffed into her car, not that there was much. She could find an out-of-the-way rest stop and catch a little sleep before trying to find a job tomorrow morning. Nothing like her last job, but hopefully something full time with some sort of benefits. Even fast-food restaurants had full-time positions, if it came down to it. But she’d try bookstores or maybe a nearby mall first. Anything to get an income going while she looked for a more stable position.

  She took a sip of coffee. She’d think more on it. Later. After she had her wrist examined. One step at a time.

  As she worked through her jumbled thoughts, realization washed over her in a wave of caffeine. She’d completely misjudged him at first, and he’d done one nice thing after another and she hadn’t thanked him. Not once.

  Elisa looked around the waiting room. A few people had entered but the room seemed emptier somehow, without the girl and her dad. Boom, he’d called her. Had to be her nickname. And, somehow, Elisa could picture the girl kicking butt in a martial arts class. Boom was probably appropriate. Imagining what her father could do was something Elisa shied away from, but the thought was tantalizing more than frightening.

  Elisa shifted her position in her seat, her hamstrings and backside aching from hours of driving. Her foot hit something and she looked down to see a stray glove on the floor almost under the chair. She bent to pick it up and found a tag on the inside wrist of the glove.

  Boom

  Hope’s Crossing Kennels.

  Oh, no. Elisa rose and wondered if she could ask the nurse to return the glove to Boom and her father. After all, they’d be there a while.

  But as she approached the desk, the nurse took the clipboard from her without looking at her. “Thank you, dear. They’ll be calling you any minute now to take you back. Have a seat.”

  Before Elisa could say anything about the glove, the nurse had turned her attention to another person who’d just entered. And there were two more coming through the doors. The night was getting busier.

  Elisa returned to her seat. Hopefully, she’d either catch sight of Boom in the ER area or ask a nurse to find the girl and her father to return the glove.

  She really wanted to manage to thank him if she saw him again.

  Fall in Love with Forever Romance

  EXTREME HONOR

  by Piper J. Drake

  Hot military heroes, the women who love them, and the dogs that always have their backs. EXTREME HONOR is the first book in Piper J. Drake’s high adrenaline True Heroes series.

  THE BET

  by Rachel Van Dyken

  Lose a bet, lose your heart. Kacey should have run the minute Seattle millionaire Jake Titus’s mouth said he wanted to marry her. Instead, she made a deal with the devil in hopes of putting her past behind her once and for all. The #1 New York Times bestseller from Rachel Van Dyken is now in mass market.

  DUKE OF MY HEART

  by Kelly Bowen

  Captain Maximus Harcourt can deal with tropical storms, raging seas, and the fiercest of pirates. But he’s returned home to a crisis and has only one place to turn. So now he’s at the mercy of the captivating Miss Ivory Moore, known throughout London for smoothing over the most dire of scandals.

  Max has never in all his life met a woman with such nerve. And such magnetic appeal…

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  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Welcome

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  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

  About the Author

  A Preview of ULTIMATE COURAGE

  Fall in Love with Forever Romance

  Newsletters

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 by Piper J. Drake

  Excerpt from Ultimate Courage copyright © 2016 by Piper J. Drake

  Cover illustration by Michael Heath

  Cover design by Elizabeth Turner

  Cover copyright © 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  First ebook edition: January 2016

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  ISBN 978-1-4555-3603-0

  E3