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She had to get away fro, because if she didn’t, he would own her soul And that terrified herher home ever had She would never be able to defend herself She knew his touch now, knew his kiss, and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would never love anyone as she loved Dawg Mackay

ONE

Sohthtmare, because she was pretty dahtmares, bullets weren’t real They weren’t real, and they weren’t exploding around the warehouse like hellish fireflies destroying everything they lodged inside

Night that it was a drea really good didn’t happen very soon, then she was going to have holes in her body that were not supposed to be there

She fought to hold back her screa in the wood crates around her and sending a shower of wood chips and shattered glass from inside around her head

This was bad Very bad She stared around, wide-eyed and dazed, as she scra for as much protection between her and the bullets as she could find

Crista Jansen was certain her horoscope hadn’t said anything about bullets today Sohts and ill-advised trips, but there had been nothing in there about bullets

She would have reed her plans

Oh boy, would she have changed her plans

Scuttling behind what she hoped was a very thickly packed crate, she covered her head with her arular bullets Those were fast bullets Auto The kind that spat fire as they pelleted out dozens of rounds at a tiht in the otherwise dark interior of the warehouse were a pretty good clue

A terrified squak, a cross between a squeak and a squawk, fell from her lips as chips of wood exploded from the sides of the crate she found to hide behind

They were serious out there People were killing people, and she was caught in the crossfire and wondering how the hell she was going to get out of this one

She knew this was a bad idea

She knew She had felt that sick feeling in her gut the minute she stepped into the cavernous warehouse and realized the lights didn’t work But had she, dumb ass that she was, backed out and left?

Oh, hell no, she had just pulled her penlight fro for that stupid box She told the delivery company to deliver to her home, not here Yet when she returned home froe had been dropped off at their local distribution warehouse and why, lookie, there had been the uess what? There’s no locker here, she told herself sarcastically No locker, but plenty of bullets singing a h the darkness

So now, rather than collecting her belongings, she was just trying to stay alive When did fate decide to bust Crista Jansen’s ass? For God’s sake, hadn’t she had enough bad luck in the past eight years?

This was all Dawg’s fault, she decided Every bit of it He lived and he breathed and because of it; fate hated her Fate was feht? It was probably jealous There could be no other explanation

This was so bad

"Where did the fucking girl go--?" a harsh, accented voice irl she knew of in this stupid place She had only heard male orders, commands, and screams since hell had erupted around her

Crista turned, crawling on her hands and bare knees--she should have worn jeans instead of one of her few good skirts--trying her best to get as far away from the mayhem and bloodshed as possible

She knew not to co? That panicked feeling? Hadn’t she learned years ago it s?

She had been feeling it more andof very odd events Clothes that would goand then turn back up in her closet, freshly washed The feeling of being watched and strangers who thought they knew her

Hadn’t she told her brother last week that so of screwy brothers, where the hell was hers? Damn it, Alex would have to disappear when she needed him most

Military mission be damned She didn’t need hietting her ass out of trouble

And she hadn’t told hie that she should reed herself into a dark, musty corner surrounded by crates and backed by a ceood-bye when she talked to hi up on hi along the lines of "Call Dawg"

Oh yeah, right She was going to do that

He should have known better than to one in the past eight years? Had he forgotten how hard it had been for her to stay in So had chased her with steady determination for months before the rest of her world had collapsed around her Even though it was more than obvious that he hadn’t reht she had spent in his bed, he had still chased after her with a tenacity that re

Because he never let up He never gave up

She flinched as a projectile tore through the side of the crate that she had hoped was thick enough to protect her She stared at the hole it ed

It was nearly the size of her fist