March 2017
On Sale: March 1, 2017
Featuring: Matt Cluver; Dara McKinley
137 pages ISBN: B01N00IAQB EAN: 2940156794225 Kindle: B01N00IAQB e-Book Add to Wish List
This is a sample of Lindsay McKenna's latest romantic suspense, NEVER ENOUGH, the novella
sequel to FORGED IN FIRE. Both are part of the Delos Series.
Can a vacation in paradise heal her trauma and allow love to shine through…
Matt ambled down the busy hall of the Delos Charity in Waianae,
Ohau, Hawaii.
There was nothing but women here, and he liked the low-key, warm, nurturing
energy that pervaded the place. All of the people he saw were women working
under Alani’s direction. Running this place took a lot of paperwork, a lot of
people who knew the law enforcement and other governmental systems that were in
place to help women who were trying to escape abuse. He located the examination
room and saw ten women with squirming babies or toddlers in hand, waiting
patiently in line.
They gave him a wary look, and Matt felt bad for
them. He was male and a
stranger to them. Therefore, a potential menace and threat. He saw the door to
the examination room open as a mother with a six-month-old baby in her arms
left, smiling, relief in her expression. Matt smiled and nodded hello in her
direction as he came and stood in the doorway. It looked like Dara had a girl of
twelve whom she was teaching how to be her assistant. The young curly-haired
redhead was pulling the paper over the examination table, preparing it for the
next patient.
“Hey,” Matt called softly, seeing Dara lift her head from
the form she had been
filling out on her last patient. “Got two minutes?”
She smiled. “Sure.”
She turned to the carrot-topped preteen girl.
“Stacy? Can you tell our
next patient I’ll be ready in just two minutes for her?
See if she needs anything while she waits.”
Stacy gave Matt a very
distrustful look and edged warily toward the door near
where he stood. “Sure, Dr. McKinley.”
“Thanks,” Dara called, giving her a
smile. She pointed toward Matt. “This is my
fiancé, Matt Culver. His family owns Delos. He’s a friend, he won’t bite . .
.”
That information erased the fear in Stacy’s large green eyes.
Matt could literally see the girl’s slender shoulders drop, and she
instantly
relaxed. He held out his hand toward her. “Hi, Stacy. I’m Matt. Nice to meet
you.” She appeared to be around twelve, with bright copper freckles across her
nose and cheeks. He felt her trepidation over shaking his hand. He was going to
withdraw it, but suddenly, she gave a little cry and threw her arms around his
waist, hugging him with all her child’s strength.
“Thank you! Oh, thank
you!” she sobbed into his belly. “You saved my mama, my
brother, and me!” She broke into a gale of tears, clinging to him.
Matt
swallowed his surprise and he curved his arms around her, patting her gently.
“We’re here to help you all,” he murmured, running his hand over her
tousled red
hair. It needed to be cut. She looked like little more than a ragamuffin, her
feet bare, the muumuu she wore thin, in some places torn and in need of mending.
Her little body shook as she cried in relief. Matt was glad the door was shut.
This little girl had gone through and probably seen too much. Casting a glance
over at Dara, who sat there, tears in her eyes, he fought back his own. A
child’s crying always ripped him up the most. He’d seen too much of it in broken
Afghan villages that had been raided by Taliban. Smoothing her hair with his
hand, he eased her arms from around him. Crouching down, he offered her a tissue
from a nearby box. “It’s going to be okay, Stacy,” he murmured, looking into her
tear-filled eyes, watching her wipe them and then blow her nose.
“W-we
were so scared,” she whispered brokenly, clutching the damp, destroyed
tissue.
“My daddy hurt my mommy. He hurt me. He was going to hurt my
baby brother. We
were so scared. We had nowhere to go. But Mama came here and Mrs. Alani took us
in.” She wiped her reddened eyes, whispering, “We thought Daddy was going to
kill us. We’re afraid he will if he ever finds us.”
“You’re safe here,
Stacy. You, your brother, and your mom. How long have you
been here?” He eased a few strands of hair sticking to her damp cheek behind her
ear, trying to give her some comfort.
“T-two weeks. I-I never slept at
night. Here, I sleep. It’s wonderful.” She
shyly reached out, touching his shoulder. “Thank you for saving us . . . Thank
you . . .”
“You’re more than welcome,” he said gruffly, trying to stuff
his own emotions
back down deep within himself. “Listen, I need to talk to the woman I love and
am going to marry this coming June. Could you let us have a few minutes? And
then I’ll leave and you can come back in here and help Dr.
McKinley?”
“S-sure,” she snuffled. “Just . . . thank you . . .” She
turned, quickly exiting
the room and closing the door quietly behind her.
The "Top Gun of Women's Military Fiction," Linsday McKenna has had 145 books
published under the McKenna name since 1981, most dealing with military or
mercenary subjects, for several publishers: Simon and Schuster, Warner, Avon and
Berkley, Harlequin/Silhouette. She is the originator of the Military Romance
genre, with "Captive of Fate," Silhouette Special Edition, 1983. She has sold 23
million books worldwide and in 33 foreign languages. She proudly served in the
US Navy and was a meteorologist.