Lahat ng Kabanata ng Solid Heart (Unseen Enemy 7): Kabanata 41 - Kabanata 50

Francine entered the kitchen, following the heavenly scent of fresh coffee. Sure enough, Mark had started breakfast while she’d been in the shower and she sat down to croissants, a fruit salad, and a latté.“Ummm.” She sighed as she drank the sweet coffee. “Perfect.”“What are your plans for today?” he asked her, sounding a bit tense about it.“My plans?” She stared up at him. “Well, first, I’m going to the clinic to grab a few notes about Alexandra’s history. Then I’ll be going to the hospital, and I’m taking Alexandra from there to the safe house. After that, I don’t know. Why?”He nodded at the TV. “Bad storm coming our way.”“Oh, really? What time?”“It’ll be a full-on blizzard by four o’clock, so I want you back here by then, OK?”“Back here?”“Yeah. Back here.” He lifted her hand to his lips, planted a tiny kiss on it. “I’m making you dinner and then we’re going to bed until tomorrow morning. You’re gonna show me some of your tricks.”“Oh.” She cocked her head at him. “I suppose

He sat five houses down from the house that Francine and the other woman had gone into. It was a nice neighborhood, actually, with huge, expensive properties. Flashy, pricey cars in the driveways, elaborate Christmas decorations on the houses and around the gardens. Hell, he even saw a few white picket fences, much to his amusement.The house that the two bitches had gone into was a bit weird, though. Lots of women and kids going in, none coming out, and no men at all. He watched as at the other houses, Dads arrived home from work early to avoid the storm, teenagers wandered in and out, entire families stood in front of open, well-lit windows. But the place that Francine and the dark-haired slut had entered was shut up tight, no drawn blinds, no way to so much as peek in. It also had the most high-tech security system on the block.He sat very still, staring at the house, thinking about all of this. And slowly but surely, pieces of the puzzle began to click into place.The house was v

“What? No!” Alexandra made a move to stop her, and Francine backed up. “No!”“Yes.” Francine was moving fast now, moving away. “I’m going to try to get him to take me to his cabin. You hear me, Alexandra? You understand why you need to remember the message?”She paused, suddenly seeing everything clearly. “Yes. Oh, God, yes.”Francine nodded, tried to smile. “You get Mark to that cabin, sweetie, and hopefully, I’ll be there. I’m going to try like hell to get away from Henri Delacroix before that, but if I can’t, then you tell Mark that I intend to be at the cabin, waiting for him to show up.”“Mary-Anne Delacroix,” Alexandra babbled. “Henri Delacroix. Henri’s cabin. Francine…”“One more thing.”“What?”“You take care of Emma.” Francine’s tone was uncompromising. “She’s the priority, and everything else – including me – waits. Not one word to Mark until Emma and her baby are safe.”“But –”“No ‘buts’. You make sure that baby boy gets here whole and healthy, and that Emma’s OK. I can ta

“Dean,” she gasped. “I’m having our baby!”“I know, angel.” He stroked her brown curls off her sweaty forehead. “I know you are.” “It’s too soon!” Her dark blue eyes were almost purple with pain and terror. “It’s not supposed to happen like this! I’m supposed to be in the hospital, and it’s supposed to be in a month, and I’m not supposed to have a huge knife gash in my side, in the middle of a blizzard! It’s all wrong, Dean!”All of his panic and rage had spiked as he’d stood in the door but as soon as he’d seen her eyes, he’d felt his Ranger training kick in. Dean knew a thing or two about staying cool in a crisis, about keeping his head when shit was hitting the fan. Emma needed him now, she was looking to him for strength and serenity, and he was damn well going to come through. “Baby,” he said calmly. “It’s going to be just fine. You hold on to my hand and you breathe. You just hang on for the ambulance, and we’ll get you to the hospital yet.”“Uh,” Alexandra said. “I’m sorry, b

Jim Alden disconnected the call with Dallas, stared out the hotel window for a few seconds. Everything in his huge, hard body strained to get back to Denver, to get to where he was needed, to just fucking move. If he were alone, he’d be packed and out the door by now… but he wasn’t alone. And the person that he was with was fragile at the moment.He was with Beth Harper in her home town of Foxburg Falls, Oregon, and this was nothing even remotely resembling a lovely trip down the memory lane of Beth’s idyllic time in the small town. They hadn’t had long, lazy dinners with Beth’s parents; they hadn’t strolled the tiny main street, reminiscing about Beth working at the hair salon there. They sure as hell hadn’t gone back to her old house and relived all the happy moments that Beth had enjoyed in it.No, they were back in Foxburg Falls for Beth to do some damn hard work. She had to deal with some horrific events, events which had changed and damaged her deeply, events which had haunted h