Fire Burns Hot ((An FBI/ Romance Thriller~ (Book 5))) (79 page)

Elizabeth could hear the fear. “She’s been better, Julian. But I called and checked on her two days ago.”

“Thank you, Elizabeth,” he said, hanging up. Now he needed to drive three more hours back home to get his girl.

Julian pulled into the medical center and ran for the front door. Once inside, he searched for his heart. He probably looked like a lunatic, but he was beyond caring.

“I need to see Victoria Christensen,” he demanded.

The woman pulled her information up on the screen. “She’s probably in the rec room. She just had therapy.”

“Directions please?”

The woman pointed and explained.

Julian took off down the hallway, taking in the wounded and damaged soldiers all over the place. Some were missing limbs, some sat silently, and others were roaming the halls.
But all proudly wore their camouflage, as they hoped to be put back together again.

Julian
once again stopped a nurse to ask where he could find her.

“Christensen is in that room over there watching TV last I saw her.”

Julian thanked her and headed off to find her. Once in the room, he passed a few soldiers playing poker. Then he saw her. She wasn’t watching TV, she was sitting alone staring out a window. It made his stomach drop that he barely recognized her. Her face was gaunt, her arms stick thin and her body was withering away. She wasn’t kidding when she said she was giving up.

“Oh Tori,” he said, not realizing it was
spoken out loud.

Her head turned
and his breath caught in his chest. Her eyes were completely dead, and life looked to be leaching from her with every breath. The vibrancy was already long gone.

Walking towards her, he dropped to his knees in front of her. Part of him was terrified to touch her, because she looked fragile
and breakable.

“What’s happened to you?” He wanted to weep at what she’d become in a mere five weeks.
He wanted to cry at what he’d pushed her to be, when all it would have taken was for him to swallow his pride for the woman he loved.

“I’m dying with
out you, Julian,” she whispered, finally able to tell him the truth. If this was the last time she saw him, he deserved to know what was in her heart.

She owed him that much.

His eyes filled with tears at her words and their implication. “Oh honey, I’m so sorry.” He picked her up and was physically ill at how light she’d become. “You don’t look so good, Victoria.”

She nodded. “I can’t eat or sleep.
I’m just waiting to die a soldier in a war that I can’t win.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the necklace and dog tag. “I’m here now, and we’r
e going to get you out of here. You’re not dying here or now.”

Tori couldn’t believe he was there. The scent soothed the jagged shards of her heart.
For the last five weeks, she’d promised if he came, she’d tell him the truth. “I love you, Julian. I’m sorry I lied. I’ve loved you since the day I knocked you into lee
ch infested water. I’m sorry I hurt you. I didn’t want you to have to deal with me like this.”

Julian’s heart flipped. “I’m so in love with you, Tori. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” He lifted her chin and delicately kissed her
. “I’ll take you any way I can. Of course you’re broken without me, honey, but together we’re whole.”

Tori
held onto him and laid her head on his shoulders. “I don’t want to stay here,” she whispered.

“Where do you want to be, Tori?” he asked gently.

It didn’t take long to think about it. “Home. Please take me home.”

“Mine or yours, Tori?” he asked,
forcing her to stare into his eyes. He’d let her choose and then follow.

“Ours.”

Julian buried his face in her neck and just held onto her with everything he had in him. “That sounds perfect, Victoria,” he answered, picking her up and carrying her out of there. Julian carried her past the fellow soldiers that were damaged and broken and out the front door.

They
were going to go home and begin healing.

Together.

Because love would save them both.

Meanwhile….

Two months later

Justice mattered and needed to be done.

For too many years they’d been stomped on and forgotten by the outsiders. Now it was time to repay them all for their blatant destruction.

They came and stole their resources.

They took their land.

They polluted the water.

The outsides had been nothing but trouble and now it was time to make them see what the cost would be.

Sharpening his knife, he visualized the cuts needed in order to strip the skin from their bodies. A cut here, a slice there, and it would be free from the meaty flesh.

Then the ritual would begin. There was nothing more sacred to the skinwalker than the use of an animal pelt. The power was passed on, and the energy absorbed.

Imagine the strength when completing the ritual with the full skin of a human. There could be nothing else to rival it.

Watching the farmer fix his fence, he knew it was time. The man would be his first and far from his last.

As long as there was sin against the Native man he’d be the law and balance the scales.

Justice was his
way and death was theirs.

Coming Next:

Celestia is Falling (book 1

 
Croft & Croft Romance Adventures

             
       &

D
arkness of Truth (book 6)

Other books by Morgan Kelley:

Stand Alone FBI

The Junction

Serial Sins

FBI Thriller Series

The Killing Times (book 1)

Sacred Burial Grounds (book 2)

True Love Lost (book 3)

Deep Dark Mire (book 4)

Fire Burns Hot (book 5)

Croft & Croft Adventures

Celestia’s Falling – Spring 2013

Vegas is Dying – Fall 2013

The ‘Blood’ Series

The Blood Betrayal

The Blood Redemption

The Blood Vengeance

The Blood Retribution

Please feel free to visit her
www.morgankelley.com
, or visit her blog at
www.morgankelley.blogspot.com