Love on the Rocks 9
It Takes Special Forces
Essie Salter is not just shy, she's scared, too. A victim of stalking, forced to disappear and start a new life in order to survive, she winds up in South Carolina. Her fear of soldiers is justified. But she’s trying to learn to be confident and strong despite daily panic attacks and new insecurities.
However, it seems Special Forces can hinder her thought-out strategy of survival and remaining undetected. Especially since those forces come in the form of five very well-trained, attractive, and determined Special Forces soldiers. They infiltrate her heart and readjust her strategy, and just in the nick of time, as her stalker discovers her hiding place.
Her men have built up her self-confidence and given her the tools to survive, but it’s her need to fight for her life—and for her lovers—that will be put to the test in a do-or-die situation.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Romantic Suspense
Length: 56,982 words
IT TAKES SPECIAL FORCES
Love on the Rocks 9
Dixie Lynn Dwyer
LOVEXTREME FOREVER

Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: LoveXtreme Forever
IT TAKES SPECIAL FORCES
Copyright © 2017 by Dixie Lynn Dwyer
E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-818-6
First E-book Publication: January 2017
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2017 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
If you have purchased this copy of It Takes Special Forces by Dixie Lynn Dwyer from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
Regarding E-book Piracy
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This is Dixie Lynn Dwyer’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Dixie Lynn Dwyer’s right to earn a living from her work.
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www.SirenPublishing.com
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DEDICATION
Dear readers,
Thank you for purchasing this legal copy of It Takes Special Forces.
Essie is living in fear and unable to trust anyone she meets. She has a secret and it takes a good friend and a special town to help her see that there are people she can trust.
She was a victim of a stalker, an obsessed military man willing to kill anyone in his path to find her.
Essie never expected to fall in love, and certainly not with five men. She learns to trust them, knows that they understand her anxiety and fears, and they help her regain her self-confidence and once again feel like she is living a normal life.
Love is a very powerful thing, indeed. A woman once scared of her own shadow, timid and shy, becomes empowered by the support of loving, empathetic men as well as some self-defense training. The love of her men makes Essie ready to give the ultimate sacrifice to protect them, just as they are willing to give their lives to protect her and save her from her stalker.
May you enjoy her story. Happy reading.
Hugs!
Dixie
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
About the Author
Landmarks
Cover
IT TAKES SPECIAL FORCES
Love on the Rocks 9
DIXIE LYNN DWYER
Copyright © 2017
Prologue
Essie Salter walked down the side street of the city only a block from her apartment building. She was tired from a long day at work, her mind on having to go home and clean the apartment, and do grocery shopping tomorrow for the week. She exhaled. She was unorganized, frazzled, and wondered how she got to this point of monotony and routine. She always thought that living in the city would bring her excitement, some spice in her otherwise boring life, and entertainment. Well, the club scene, the bar scene, and the dining out with friends anyway.
Friday or Saturday evenings were becoming a bore. Her job was a hell of a lot better than if she took the one in the suburbs with Mr. Ranger, her dad’s old friend, though. How boring that would have been, to be the office sales manager, and basically secretary, for that man? God, her life would have been shit. Instead, she took a chance and applied to Strober and King, a large company in the city that promoted and sold over a thousand products and services throughout the United States. She applied for a job in one particular department that was hiring. The boss was a hard-ass. She found out months after being there that he didn’t get along with anyone, and his assistants didn’t last long.
She shook her head as she rounded the corner. Gary Perk was just an obsessive, compulsive perfectionist. He rubbed off on her, and they got along well because she was an overachiever and she didn’t want her parents to tell her “I told you so” if she failed. So, she sucked it up, took his bad attitude with a grain of salt, and eventually they got along perfectly. She had to smile. He was a great boss, and her job as product promoter and contract negotiator was awesome. Her ability to handle research and detail-oriented documents was a
gift. She could do a wide range of jobs, but this one was consistent and the pay excellent. She was making it on her own. Twenty-four years old and things were only looking better.
Her fellow colleagues couldn’t compete with her performance, and so Gary treated her with respect, and she was his number one employee. But, oh, what a process the last two years had been.
She felt proud, and just as the smile formed on her lips, and her heart filled with joy at her success here in the city, she felt the gloved hand go over her mouth, and a thick, large muscular arm go around her waist. Her entire body tightened up, and fear consumed her instantly. She reacted, squirming, pushing downward to get the man off of her. She tried screaming but couldn’t with the thick glove over her mouth and nose. She could hardly breathe. The panicked feeling consumed her when this person in black pulled her into the side ally. Oh God, I’m going to be raped and mugged. Oh God.
She tried kicking and moving her arms and legs, but it was no use. This guy was so big and strong, and then she was shoved against the building, and the strikes came at her one after the next. She didn’t have time to recover. A slam to her stomach and she lost her breath. She couldn’t scream. Then a shot to her mouth, her head, her stomach again. He was using her as a punching bag. She scraped at his body but whatever he wore was like armor, hard, rough, and her nails couldn’t penetrate through. He just kept grunting and striking her until she couldn’t take the pain and begged for mercy, and then begged for death.
Essie shot up from bed, gasping, unable to breathe.
She clenched the sheets covering her, threw them back, and fell from the bed to her knees on the floor, her mind coming back to the present from the horrific nightmare. She reached for the crumpled paper bag on the bedside table, knocking over her cell phone and the box of tissues. Her throat was so tight she could barely breathe. The inhale, short and painful as she somehow gripped the bag in a fist, brought it to her mouth, and started to focus on what the doctors told her to do. She took unsteady breaths as tears of fear and pain wracked her entire body. In and out, she breathed into the bag. Her chest ached as if a huge man was lying on top of her. She clenched her eyes and willed the thoughts away. It was mind over matter. She had to remember that.
Her stomach muscles were tight, her body so constricted she felt like she could break into a thousand pieces. She kept forcing away the memories of the attack, her fears that brought on this nightly trauma and kept breathing and trying to think happy thoughts. The morning sun was already beginning to push against the shades and light, thin lines of sun penetrated through the tiny holes in the shitty old blinds. She chose this small apartment in the back of a small gift shop because it was hidden and no one even knew it was there but the owner, Helen.
She was a nice lady who didn’t ask questions, and who knew her uncle, Tom and aunt, Sue. Essie hadn’t known that Helen knew her aunt and uncle when she’d caught sight of the small “For Rent” sign in the storefront window when she’d first arrived in town. She hadn’t wanted to stay with her aunt and uncle, just in case Blade somehow found her. She shivered, but at least her breathing was calming to a more natural pace.
She lowered the bag from her mouth and sat there on the floor, her feet tucked underneath her and her hands on the floor in front of her, just breathing and pushing away the aches and pains these panic attacks brought on.
When she tried to get up, she felt how weak she was. She didn’t bother to force the strength that wasn’t there to come. These episodes debilitated her. She probably would have wound up in a mental institution if the man had raped her instead of beating her. Thank God he hadn’t, and to this day, she still wondered why. What was it he’d wanted from her? She’d never dated him, never even spoken to him beyond the few times after the night they met. She just didn’t like him or feel an attraction to him, but Blade kept coming around. He kept trying to talk to her, or watch her. Then after the attack, when the police had gone through her apartment and found that he had been there, they’d also found the cameras.
He had been watching her. While she slept. While she dressed. While she showered. She felt so violated. It was as if he’d taken everything from her, including her whole life in New York, and she’d never even dated the man, kissed him, or really knew him. It was sick, and the only thing he hadn’t seemed to rip from her was her virginity. He would take that, too if he ever found her. She was alone in this world now. She couldn’t trust a soul or get too close to anyone, or they would be placed in danger, too when Blade finally found her.
She shivered. She pulled the hooded sweatshirt tighter. She no longer dressed in light clothing for bed. No matter how hot, or how sure she was that he wasn’t watching, she couldn’t let her guard down even as she slept. A prison. She was living life in a prison. But when she walked out that door and went to work, went to the dojo, or spoke with Helen, Precious, or the people she’d recently met, she pretended to be normal. Acted like a professional young woman working hard, taking care of herself, and new to this lovely town in South Carolina. They knew nothing of the turmoil she went through every day and every night. The fake smile, fake show of confidence. It was harder to show that confidence in the dojo, and definitely around certain men she’d recently met.
She swallowed hard and focused on her breathing and clearing her head.
She didn’t want to think about Blade’s capabilities. Of what she’d learned from the detective who couldn’t prove shit. That Blade was a soldier relieved of his duties on a dishonorable discharge for assaulting his commander and threatening to kill him. She didn’t want to think about his frame of mind, of how Blade was resourceful and so slick that even the detective feared his capabilities. It became clear after the attack that she wasn’t safe in New York, or anywhere nearby. She had no choice but to leave her perfect job. To disappear in the middle of a night, wearing a disguise, acting like some secret agent, instead of being able to live a normal, successful business life as a twenty-four-year-old woman.
She worried constantly about naked pictures or videos of her showing up on the internet that the man had been taking. It made her shiver with disgust. How could he do that? How did he even get into her apartment and set those cameras up? The detectives explained about his capabilities as Special Forces, yet they still seemed unable to prove that it was Blade, and still questioned her part in this situation. How many times had they asked her if she’d had sex with, dated, kissed, or led the man on? Assholes. She never led him on. She’d been honest from the start and declined his offer of a date.
The man destroyed her success, her life, her everything, because of some fucked up reason Blade chose her to become his obsession. He took her independence, her ability to achieve and to fight, away from her. He turned her into this—a sniveling, scared, timid, panic on a moment’s notice woman.
She slammed her hand down on the rug.
Eight months and she still had these freaking attacks. She’d thought she was getting stronger. Felt the training at Magnum’s dojo was making her mentally and physically stronger, but then every night she had these. Every morning she woke up like this. She was so sick of it. She wanted to move on with her life but was afraid of her own shadow. She was afraid to make other friends, and when she forced herself to go out—like the night everyone celebrated that Precious had been safe and survived being abducted—she was scared.
She couldn’t even converse with anyone other than Magnum, Carlyle, Cavanaugh, and Precious. She even shied away from conversation with Ronin and Bobby. Forget about those huge friends of Magnum’s, the Stames brothers. Holy shit, when Turbo came over to talk to her and some of the people from the dojo, she slid away and made an excuse to leave, then snuck out and headed home.
She shook her head. Those men were gorgeous, hard, incredible, mysterious men. It didn’t help either that the class she knew she should take, the self-defense one, was now being run by Ford, Max, and even Cobra. They were all Special Forces soldiers, and all she kept thinking was, Blade i
s Special Forces, too. Some one-man army and killer. She felt her throat tighten up, and realized that just thinking about the Stames brothers made her feel panicked and sick. Just because they were soldiers, didn’t make them potential psychopathic killers. Look at the Mather brothers, and Magnum, and even at Bobby and Ronin. All soldiers, all normal. She swallowed hard and reached into the drawer for the energy bar. She shifted on the rug, feeling the energy slowly come back into her body and eliminate the weakness. She opened the bar and took a bite. She leaned back, and in between bites, took sips from the large water bottle she kept on the bedside table.
She looked at the clock. She wouldn’t make that seven a.m. class. It was six a.m. It would take thirty minutes, maybe, to fully recover from this. Then she had to get dressed, eat, walk, run or bike to the dojo. She closed her eyes. Excuses. All excuses based on her fears. She wanted to take the self-defense class, but she didn’t want to take it with one of the Stames brothers.
She felt her heart race. They intimidated her, put a fear in her so badly, and she didn’t know why. Well, she kind of did know why. She found them attractive. She couldn’t help but seek them out, and check them out. Jesus, I’m such an idiot. One psycho soldier stalker, and I’m attracted to four total badass soldiers that no one, not even Precious knew much about. What Essie did know, was that they were resourceful and somehow finagled the capabilities to charter a plane, organize, initiate, and complete a mission and save Precious’s life.
It Takes Special Forces [Love on the Rocks 9] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) Page 1
