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"I checked the books You’ve been without a paycheck for three months"

Lana winced She didn’t hide the financial records from Stacie, but there wasn’t usualy a need Stacie hated anything to do with numbers She’d been a pampered executive’s wife most of her adult life and had never had to so much as lift a calculator Until her husband and son were kiled in a car accident That had ended Stacie’s days of pa

"I won’t take another paycheck until you do," insisted Stacie

"I’m fine"

Stacie arched a brow "Liar"

Lana felt a save in to it "You’re not supposed to cal your boss a liar"

"For what I e benefits where I can," teased Stacie "I mean it, Lana You can’t run yourself into debt to keep this place going"

"I’h to pay her bils this roceries, but that was it After that, she had no idea what she would do

"Uh-huh When’s the last tiht yourself a new pair of shoes, or even a new shirt? I swear I see you in the same clothes every week And that backpack you use as a purse is ghastly"

"I’h Besides, I set the dress code around here, so lay off"

Stacie shook her head,her bun slide around on the back of her head Lana had no idea how she kept the thing in place, but it had never falen "Just don’t stretch yourself too thin I know you want toyourself too hard, you’l end up broke and sick, and our health insurance plan sucks"

"What health insurance plan?"

"Exactly my point"

Lana held up her hands in an effort to ward off any h of that on the weekends as it was "Okay I’l be good"

"Good," said Stacie as she rose to her feet and straightened a stack of papers into a file folder "Then you’l be leaving withlate"

Lana was saved fro of the bel on the office door

She squinted against the sun as the tinted-glass door swung open The transition fro swirl of eht back vividtiht, but she had never forgotten the way it felt to know she’d been rescued fro, broken, and knotted with pain, her heart had soared with the knowledge of her freedom

Every tiain She welcoht, reveled in the fact that she was alive and free enough to enjoy it

That brief feeling of freedom was short-lived, however, because as soon as she saho’d walked in, she knew she was in trouble

Caleb Stone

Lana would have known him anywhere, whether he went by Caleb or, as she’d first come to know him, as Miles Gentry, amoral ejust standing there a few feet away He el over six feet and a whole heaping pile of s were braced apart, and his hands were fisted at his sides as if he were expecting a physical blow

Shock stiled her mouth, and her pen fel from her hand onto the floor Her heart squeezed hard, and dread flooded her system He couldn’t be here This had to be some Shock stiled her mouth, and her pen fel from her hand onto the floor Her heart squeezed hard, and dread flooded her system He couldn’t be here This had to be soht voice of his

This was no nightmare, or rather it was, but she wasn’t asleep This was real He was here, torturing her al over again, bringing back those first few days when her world had been only pain and the sound of his voice He’d been beside her, deive up She was too weak to do anything but listen, too confused to do anything but obey his commands, and because of that--because of him--she’d lived

Soled to re for a response to his greeting What could she say? She wanted to scream at him to leave, to drive her fists into that solid body of his until he’d never dare show his face again