Page 53 of Broken Rules
“What time does your shift start?” he asked stiffly.
“A little over an hour from now.”
“Will Joe be there?”
She nodded.
“When does he typically leave?”
“After the dinner rush, like nine or nine-thirty.”
He shook his head. “That’s too soon. Keep Joe at the restaurant. Can you do that?” he asked, turning hard amber eyes on her.
She swallowed, her heart pounding with fear, but she managed to nod and say, “I can do it.”
He stripped his T-shirt off. Her eyes scanned the shifting and taut ridges of his chest and abs as he pulled on a thin vest.
She reached out a tentative hand and touched the strange fabric. “Is this...” her words trailed off.
“Yeah, it’s Kevlar.”
Nodding, she took a deep breath.
Some women watched their men getting ready for work, knotting their ties, polishing their shoes, or pulling on heavy work boots. Meanwhile, her boyfriend was strapping on his bullet proof vest just in case...everything went wrong!
“Oh my God,” she muttered, her pulse racing.
He stopped loading gadgets into the slots of his black utility belt.
When he looked at her, his hard face softened. “Listen, Savannah. Why don’t you head to work. You don’t want to be late.” He cupped her cheeks with both hands. “I told you once that I never bullshit. Do you remember that?”
She nodded.
“I’ll be fine,” he promised. “I mean that.”
Biting her lip, she looked down, but he crooked his thumb beneath her chin, demanding her gaze. Confidence upturned the corner of his lips as he slowly lowered his mouth to hers. She swallowed the plea to forget the whole idea as she clung to him and kissed him with her whole heart.
He gently broke away, ending their kiss. “Get going,” he said softly.
She took a deep breath and backed up, unwilling to tear her gaze away from his beautiful face. Tears stung her eyes. She wanted to tell him to forget it all. They could just get in her Jeep and drive until the world fell away.
But then an imaginary newspaper article flashed in her mind’s eye of what the future could hold...
Local Restaurateur, Joseph Wilder, Murdered
Joseph Wilder, owner of The Cove in Rye Beach, New Hampshire, was shot point-blank by Jersey mafia thugs...although one woman, Savannah Honey, might have been able to prevent it all...
She took another deep breath, steeled her shoulders, and began her descent down the rickety ladder. Resisting the urge to race back to his side, she climbed into her Jeep and drove away. Fear tore through her, tightening her chest, for she knew that if something...anything went wrong, she may never see Damien again.
