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Category: Romance/Historical Fiction
Description: A killer sworn to protect the one she risked everything to destroy. Revenge is all Julia "Cade" Skye has left. Determined to avenge the death of her husband, Cade is shot by one of Colonel Grey's men, Hunter, a local native sworn to protect Grey. Not realizing he shot a woman, Hunter has no choice but to take Cade home to his people and nurse her back to health. While recovering, Cade opens up a world to Hunter, one of compassion and understanding, something the hardened warrior never had. Hunter, in turn, teaches Cade that forgiveness is possible. Can they each forget the pain of their pasts and find a future with one another?
eBook Publisher: DCL Publications LLC, 2010 2010
eBookwise Release Date: November 2010

1 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [147 KB]
Words: 31587
Reading time: 90-126 min.

CHAPTER ONE

July, 1757

Cade broke into a hard run.

Kid-skinned boots pounded the forest floor as she weaved between pine and birch, pushed through brush thick enough to swallow a child whole.

Panic tripped reflexes, stretched muscle, drove beyond limits. Briars grabbed her clothes, ripped her face, but she felt no pain. Felt nothing but blood pounding in her ears, breath burning her lungs.

Cade had taken chances she could not afford. She had known the risks going into this. All for nothing now, and now she was done in.

Bolting through a sea of knee-high ferns, she leapt over a rotted log, landed in a stream and soaked her breeches clean through. She skidded over moss-covered rock, hurried up the opposite bank, and cut around a wall of yellow birch.

The approaching sound of Wood Creek took her in the direction she hoped was south. To get lost out here was death, not that it should even matter now. It should not, yet strangely, unforgivably, death no longer seemed a viable solution.

For over a year, it had been the symbol of sweet relief, an end to unjustified suffering. Now the possibility of death brought a stubborn will to live, an inexcusable mask over her immediate fear.

Had she lost him?

Black flies clouded around her face. What seemed like a mile passed before she allowed herself to stop and listen. Her breath escaped her as heavy as a plow horse's, yet she heard nothing else. No birds, no wind. No sign of him.

Sweat dripped into her eyes and stung the scratches on her face, but she did not move. She did not dare.

She waited, watched. Nightfall clawed at the forest; dancing shadows which promised only fear.

Nothing.

Relief did not come directly. It never did. She had to coax it, convince herself it was all right, that she had survived.

Not that survival was deserved. Cade's accuracy with a firearm had always been flawless. She had only maimed Grey with a slight arm wound. He had bled like a stuck hog, but it was not enough. Not enough because he would survive from it. How she could manage such terrible aim, she could only blame on nerves.

And fear, of course, was inexcusable. She would have to go back. She had no other solution, no choice. Grey could not possibly be allowed to live, though death was too good for him.

Hell was too good for him.

She would have to go back before nightfall, and she would have to find where she had dropped her musket, another foolish mishap on her part. She would be careful this time.