Excerpt from HIS CHERISHED LOVE
Patience
was not one of his virtues. Not that he had many of those, either.
The
chief studied him a moment as Jack lowered himself onto the padded navy chair.
Jack kept his face as straight and unreadable as possible, hoping like hell he
masked the pain that battered his system. It was more of an annoyance now than
a hindrance.
Yeah,
his arm hurt like a son of a bitch at times. Lately, between the doctor
mandated physical therapy and his own need to return to his post, he’d been
pushing his body and abused muscles to the point of exhaustion. That was the
thing no one told you about recovering from an injury or surgery. It could be
damn painful business.
The
first time he’d run after his injury, he had tossed the entire contents of his
stomach afterwards.
The
chief steepled his fingers as he stared. Jack liked the man. He had a weight of
responsibility that would cripple most people and he made carrying it look
easy. The chief finally responded. “Be that as it may, I would rather err on
the side of caution before tossing you back to the wolves. Which brings me to
the gentleman beside you. Detective, I would like you to meet Special Agent
David Carson. He has requested assistance on a case he is working in the area
and I think it would be perfect for you.”
Jack
nodded. See? A fucking Fed. “Good to
meet you, agent. What’s this case you want the JHPD’s help with?”
Special
Agent David Carson looked to be in his forties, given the gray dotting his
black hair, trimmed in a short military style cut. Carson shifted his tall,
lean form in his seat so that he faced Jack. “Let me start by saying, I’m glad
you survived the injuries. Chief Sheffield informed me about the particulars of
the case. It can be tough to get hurt on the job and have to go back. I’m a
handler overseeing an individual who is in the US Marshalls’ witness protection
program. It is the Bureau’s belief that her life is in danger. Again,
unfortunately. Your job will be to tail her, keep an eye on her at home and at
work.”
“You
mean you want me to babysit?” Jack’s voice dripped with derision. The case was
on par with desk duty.
Carson’s
face hardened, which turned his hawk like features uber sharp. His blue gaze
contained a cold fury. “Look. She helped the Bureau bring down the Giancarlo
organization ten years ago. This town is the third place she has started over
in the last decade. We believe Dominic Travino, the man who took over the mob
connections from Giancarlo, is after her. Even after going underground and
shifting his operation into online scams, he’s never stopped hunting her.”
Well, fuck me.
The
Giancarlo mob case? Jack remembered seeing all the reports on the news about
the case. It made whoever the witness was infinitely more interesting, and the
stakes in tailing her that much higher. He tried recalling all the particulars
of that case but drew a blank. However, the name Travino rang a bell. The man had
a particular skill set for vengeance, and meting out that vengeance in bloody,
brutal ways. He would execute someone only after he’d beaten them until their
face was unrecognizable and dental records the only thing that could identify
the victim. “And you think Travino is in Jackson Hole trying to locate the
witness? Why not move her?”
“Yes,
we do. Recently, he was sighted on street cameras in Laramie. That’s far too
close for comfort. The Bureau does not want to move the witness again, if at
all possible. Don’t get me wrong, we will if we need to, considering what our
witness did to help us break this case wide open. The Bureau and I would like
her to be able to live her life without constantly having to look over her
shoulder. Our objective at this time is to force Dominic Travino into the open
so we can apprehend him. We don’t know how many of his hired thugs he has with
him. But knowing Travino, I’d say he has at least half a dozen men.”
Jack
studied the agent and leaned back in his chair. “You plan to use this person as
bait to catch him. Is it the Bureau’s policy to put someone under witness
protection in clear and present danger?”
Agent
Carson nodded in the affirmative. “More or less, that’s the plan. She already
is in danger. Her life has been on the line since the moment she agreed to help
us out and became an informant. I hate even contemplating putting her life in
the line of fire once more, considering how much we owe her. But until we catch
him, she will be running for the rest of her life.”
“What’s
the catch?” There was a hell of a lot more involved here. And this case was
proving far more interesting than a simple tailing job.
The
agent’s brow quirked. Probably didn’t expect that Jack would pick up on that. But
he’d been in law enforcement for too long to realize that nothing was as simple
as it seemed. Even the best laid plans encountered hiccups. “She can’t know
you’re tailing her. I’ve worked with her over the last decade. If she knows
that Dominic has caught her trail again, she’ll run, and it will get her
killed.”
“What
does it matter to you whether she lives or dies? And why aren’t the US
Marshalls working on this? I thought they were in charge of WITSEC, the Witness
Security Program.” There was a part of the equation Jack was missing. The agent
was far too invested in this witness. Why would a Federal Agent be involved and
not the US Marshalls? Not that he shouldn’t care about an individual that
helped them crack a huge case, Jack did with each of his victims, but he also
kept an emotional barrier up between them. Emotions clouded one’s perception.
The fact that they kept creeping into his cases lately had almost gotten him
killed.
“When
this case first began, to collect the evidence needed to convict Raoul
Giancarlo, my partner Nicolas went undercover. He spent an inordinate amount of
time with the witness. He began to worry that his cover was blown and made me
swear that if anything ever happened to him, I would ensure she was protected
at all costs. And there’s not a day that has passed since he lost his life on
that case when I haven’t watched over her. It’s the least I could do. When she was
placed into the Witness Security Program, I requested the US Marshalls keep me
involved in her protection.”
Jack
respected the hell out of that. It was never easy to lose a partner. His first
partner had died of a heart attack a few years back. Even under normal
circumstances, it had been difficult. Losing a partner in the line of duty was
not something a person would recover from well—if ever. “And who is the woman
your partner fell in love with undercover?”
“Raoul
Giancarlo’s daughter, Victoria.”
“We
have Victoria Giancarlo living in Jackson Hole? Get the fuck out! But her image
was splashed all over the place by the media. Surely, I would have recognized
her if I crossed paths with her.” Jack tried to recall images of Victoria
Giancarlo. They had been plastered across the headlines for months following
the trial. All he truly remembered were her haunted, sad eyes the color of
burnt caramel.
“Doubt
it. She underwent some plastic surgery after Travino found her the first time
in Santa Fe. He beat her pretty badly. Broke her nose and jawbone before my
team and I reached her. The surgery altered her features enough that she can
play it off as a case of mistaken identity. And the fucker still managed to get
away.”
“And
what is her alias now?” Jack asked, more intrigued by the case than he wanted
to admit.
“Before
I go any further, I need assurances that you are one hundred percent in on
this. That I can trust the information shared in this office goes no further—not
your partner, not the other officers in the department, not your girlfriend. It
is essential that her identity remain hidden. There cannot be a casual word
uttered on Main Street and a journalist catch a whiff of it. She would be
hounded, and the media would be able to get a clear image of what she looks
like now while Travino is still on the lam. My office, in coordination with the
Marshalls, is working to catch this fucker.”
Jack
blew out a breath. He glanced at the chief. The chief gave him a blasé stare,
leaving the decision up to him. It wasn’t his normal protocol. The chief was
doing it to give him a chance to ease back into work, to take a job that would
likely be more boredom than anything else. If Jack said no, the chief would put
him on desk duty for the foreseeable future. That was worse than having to
babysit. They had tag-teamed him and backed him into a corner. With a nod of
agreement, he said, “You have it.”
“Her
name is Rayna Thompson.”
Shock
riddled Jack. And he wasn’t shocked often. Rayna was Victoria Giancarlo? Rayna,
who steered away from him every time he got near her? Rayna, with her sweet
little body and heart-shaped ass, about whom he’d wondered more than once what
she looked like naked.
On Sale Now!
A Cuffs & Spurs Novel
Rayna Thompson’s entire life is a lie. She avoids relationships as if
they were the plague – mainly because the people who get close to her wind up
dead. And yet her newest next door neighbor, the sexy, stoic Jack Stone, is
making her want to break all her rules. The problem is, he’s a cop, and she
doesn’t know how long it will take before her past catches up to her and all
her secrets are revealed.
Jack believes in law and order. He keeps his work life separate from his
personal life. Not that he has much of a personal life as a Detective with the
Jackson Hole Police Department; most of it is relegated to the private
lifestyle club where he is a member. However, during his latest assignment, he
begins to blur the lines between professional and personal.
Rayna pushes each of his boundaries and makes him question everything he
knows about the law and what he’s willing to do for love. Will their newfound
relationship survive when her past comes back to haunt them?
Publisher’s Note: This steamy, suspense-filled contemporary romance
contains themes of power exchange. While it is part of the best-selling Cuffs
& Spurs series, it can be read and enjoyed as a standalone.
Amazon ~ Nook ~ Kobo ~ iBooks ~ Blushing Books
About Anya Summers
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Anya grew up listening to
Cardinals baseball and reading anything she could get her hands on. She
remembers her mother saying if only she would read the right type of books
instead binging her way through the romance aisles at the bookstore, she’d have
been a doctor. While Anya never did get that doctorate, she graduated cum laude
from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with an M.A. in History.
Anya is a bestselling and award-winning author published in
multiple fiction genres. She also writes urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and
contemporary romance under the name Maggie
Mae Gallagher. A total geek at her core, when she is not writing, she
adores attending the latest comic con or spending time with her family. She
currently lives in the Midwest with her two furry felines.
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