Page 1 of The Duke's Surprise Heir

Prologue

She could see the orange and neon yellow flames from over a mile away. The horrific, macabre scene was topped by thick, billowing black smoke, lit up by the flames, which then disappeared into the dark, inky night sky. And the noise! Goodness, she could hear the flames! Or maybe she was simply imagining the sounds of her entire life, everything she owned, being burned to the ground.

In a panic, Macie lifted her phone, about to dial nine-one-one for help. But out of her peripheral vision, she spotted movement. Flashing lights! Blue lights? Were the police already on the way? Had one of her neighbors spotted the flames and called emergency services?

A moment later, the emergency lights were gone.

No, not gone, Macie realized as the tension in her shoulders increased. The flashing lights of two police cruisers had just been turned off.

Normally, that wouldn’t make sense. However, this wasn’t the first incident over the past two weeks that warned Macie that she’d fallen into something dangerous.

With gut-churning understanding, Macie realized that she’d ignored the dire warnings; the slashed tires, her garbage can set ablaze, a window in the back of her inherited home had been smashed, shards of glass scattered all over the old wooden floor.

And yet, she’d kept digging into the strange numbers. She’d kept trying to figure out what was causing the shipments totals to be different from the original calculations.

This was her punishment for ignoring the warnings. Her life was literally in flames.

No, not everything had gone up in flames, she thought as she turned and gazed at the most amazing man in her life. Correction, the only man in her life. Kyle, her three month old son, was now asleep, happily oblivious to the carnage happening less than half a mile away. The poor fellow had finally fallen asleep after hours of colicky wails of misery.

Kyle was her life. The remnants of whatever was in that fire were only peripheral objects that were meaningless. Kyle was the only thing that was important. And Kyle was safe.

For now.

As Macie sat in her car, watching the flames eat the home she’d inherited less than a year ago, she worked out a plan to keep her precious son safe. If it meant humbling herself and asking for help from the one man she’d vowed never to see again, then she’d do it.

For Kyle.

Chapter 1

Edward rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and tried to focus on the time. It was five-fifty in the morning! Normally, he would already be awake and working out by this time of the morning, but he’d been up the previous night closing out what he anticipated to be a very lucrative business deal. Since he’d only gotten to sleep about three hours ago, Edward wasn’t in the mood to deal with anyone this early in the morning.

Whoever was banging on his door and repeatedly pressing that damn doorbell was in serious trouble.

“I’m coming, damn it!”

Edward Henderson, Fifth Duke of Finhearst, angrily flipped the security lock on the door, fully prepared to cut off the person’s hands so they couldn’t ring that damn doorbell ever again!

It wasn’t even six o’clock in the morning! Who the hell was at his door at this entirely uncivilized hour?

Since autumn was quickly approaching, the sun still hadn’t peeked over the horizon, so after yanking the door open, Edward stood in the doorway, taking in the incomprehensible scene in front of him.

Before his sleep-deprived mind could make sense of the person about to ring his bell again, Edward was shoved out of the way.

“Thank goodness!” a feminine voice whispered.

The exhausted woman with an enormous duffel-bag hanging from her shoulder rushed into his house. She wore one of those olive-drab, military jackets with pockets all over the front, jeans that had some sort of glop staining one thigh, worn out sneakers, and a baseball cap pulled low over her eyes, disguising her features.

Edward wasn’t in the mood for pranks from the village teenagers. Furiously, he turned to confront the ragged-looking person now standing in his entryway.

“Who the hell are you and why are you banging on my door?” Edward demanded, leaving the door open as he glared down at the woman.

“Shut the door!” the voice whispered again, furtively glancing around, then peering towards the woods on the other side of his yard.

He noticed that the woman was terrified, white-faced, and shaking. There was something oddly familiar about her. But that was impossible. This woman didn’t look like anyone that he knew. And yet…?

That voice! It was the voice that sounded familiar. “Please, Edward! I need your help!”

The word “help” and the fact that the woman knew his name snapped at something in his brain. “Who are you?”

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