Shelter Me: A Shelter Novel (22 page)

D
rained
, we lay together on the soft braided rug. Lucas pulled the comforter over us and we remained skin to skin as the rain drove against the windowsills as if it wanted in so desperately.

But we were protected from the elements, or so I believed at that point. I'd started to drift off when the knocking woke me. I tried ignoring it, but it was loud and persistent, and I opened my eyes to see if Lucas was hearing it.

But I was alone. The bathroom door was closed, a sliver of light peeking out from under it. The shower was running. Sighing, I wrapped the comforter around myself and jerked the door open, sure it was either Susan or the landlady, both of whom were known to bring me food at odd hours.

But it wasn't either woman. It was Dan Turner. I went to slam the door, but he was fast, his meaty palm preventing me from doing so.

"Jared Connor is dead," he said bluntly.

I took a step back—stumbled, really, as the breath rushed from my lungs as though it'd been forcibly squeezed out. "What…how?" I finally managed.

"He was murdered."

"Murdered," I repeated.

"Lucas Caine is a primary suspect." When Turner mentioned Lucas's name, I instinctively glanced toward the bathroom door. Before I could protest, Turner was walking through my place, slamming his fist against the bathroom door, gun drawn.

Gun
drawn
.

"What are you doing? Why do you have a gun?" I demanded, but he was ignoring me in favor of opening the door.

"Because your boyfriend's a dangerous man," Turner finally told me as he stared into the empty bathroom. Lucas was gone. I didn't have time to ponder why before it was Turner's turn to do some demanding of me. "Where is he?"

"I don't know." I pulled the comforter tighter. "You're not the police. You can't come in here with a gun and arrest him."

His expression tightened menacingly. "Little girl, you have no idea what I can do. You'd better get your story straight or you'll be sitting in a cell next to him."

My back went up. "I'll call the police right now to discuss it. He was with me all night."

I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth.

"You're alibiing Lucas Caine." Turner smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "I'd be careful, Ryn. If he comes back, call the police."

But Lucas wouldn't—I knew he'd never put me in danger like that.

It didn't mean I wouldn't be there for him. "It's a far cry from fistfight to murder," I told Turner as he walked out the door.

He looked over his shoulder as he kept walking. "Not if he's been convicted of murder previously."

I shut the door so Turner wouldn't see me sink to my knees, the bile rising in my throat as his words echoed in my head.

L
ucas Caine is
the most complicated, intense man I’d ever known…and the only one capable of freeing me from my past.

We had more in common than I could know. Both damaged by our childhoods, we put up shields to keep the world away. But I was defenseless against him.

What I didn’t know was that he was equally so against me.

B
ane was already
outside Lucas’s house when he’d run out of it and vomited in the bushes. He’d still been on his knees when he noticed Bane’s old jalopy of a car idling in the street like a fucking angel’s wing.

Lucas didn’t hesitate. He had the clothes on his back, the bag he’d grabbed on the way out and some money. He hadn’t taken all of it, instead shoved it into the littler kids’ pockets for them to have when they woke.

He’d made Bane stop several blocks away so he could call the police too, because someone needed to be there for those kids.

He’d left the front door open so no one would scare them and he’d detailed to the police what he’d seen in the house, emphasizing that there were little kids inside who were sleeping. Who’d be scared—“scarred for life”—if the police came blazing in.

As he got back into Bane’s car, he could only hope for the best. For both of them. Bane was holding his arm at an unnatural angle and they both ignored that and the slate of bruises turning colors on the side of his face.

Instead, Lucas stared at the blood on his own hands as they drove through the night.

K
ayla's in witness protection
, being hidden from her twin sister by the US Marshals Office. When Kayla moves in next to a former Special Forces operative, she discovers that he’s got a dark, dangerous past of his own…and that he might be the only person who can help her survive.

Teige doesn’t want to like Kayla. Since the death of his CO and Teige's retirement from Delta Force, he’s been taking on the most dangerous jobs, pressing the luck he feels has followed him his entire life. He’s convinced it'll run out, because he knows no one can be that lucky all the time. And when he discovers who Kayla really is, and what kind of trouble's following her, he realizes he’s up against the most dangerous—and personal—job of his career.

S
helter
Me

Pieces of Me
(coming Fall 2016)

* * *

Mirror Me

Rule Of Thirds

Walk In My Shadow
(coming September 2016)

* * *

Vipers Run

Vipers Rule

* * *

Surrender

Unbreakable

Fragmented

* * *

Defiance

Redemption

Salvation

The Defiance Series Collection
(Defiance, Redemption & Salvation)

Temperance

* * *

Dire Warning
(prequel novella)

Dire Needs

Dire Wants

Dire Desires

* * *

Lie With Me

Promises In The Dark

In The Air Tonight

Night Moves

Lonely Is The Night

* * *

Hard To Hold

Too Hot To Hold

Hold On Tight

Holding On
(novella)

* * *

Night Vision
(novella)

* * *

Coming Undone

Risking It All

Beyond His Control