Dear Reader,
Breakaway is the fourteenth novel in the enduring Hideaway series, which continues the themes of family, sensuality and suspense.
In this book you will find out more about Celia Cole-Thomas, a witness to the hospital massacre that left her fiancé fatally injured. To recover from the tragedy, she travels to her vacation retreat in North Carolina while awaiting the trial. There she meets undercover FBI special agent Gavin Faulkner, who is in the area as part of a stakeout operation to apprehend his brother.
Breakaway has all of the hallmarks you have come to expect from Hideaway novels, but with an added bonusâintense, passionate and very sexy love scenes.
I hope that you enjoy the serenity and splendor of the Great Smoky Mountains, the beauty of Virginiaâs horse country and the sultry Florida heat as Celia and Gavin willingly risk everything for a newfound love and a future that promises forever.
Yours in romance,
Rochelle Alers
Dr. Celia Cole-Thomas pulled back the curtain in the cubicle where sheâd dressed the sutured forefinger of an elderly man. She immediately heard screams for help in English and Spanish coming from the E.R. waiting room. Her heart rate quickened when she saw two young men in blood-soaked clothing struggling under the weight of a limp body.
âBring him over here!â She shouted to be heard above the yelling and crying. She motioned to an empty cubicle. âDr. Jones, help me out here,â she said to the pediatrician whoâd rushed over when heâd heard the commotion. Putting on a pair of latex gloves, she grabbed her stethoscope from the pocket of her lab coat, placing it against the chest of a boy whose breathing was becoming shallower with each passing second. âGSW to the chest, and heâs bleeding out fast. Call the O.R.â¦â
Whatever else she was going to say was drowned out by the sound of gunfire. There was one shot, then anotherâthe rapid fire exploding like cannons shot through the emergency room of Miamiâs busiest municipal hospital. At that moment Celia realized the E.R. was under siege. The curtain of the makeshift room was ripped open and she stared into the barrel of a large-caliber handgun. The young boy, gripping the semiautomatic with two hands to steady it, winked at her and her gaze went to the distinctive tattoo on the back of his left hand.
âStep off, doc,â he ordered through the white bandanna covering the lower portion of his face.
It was as if everything was happening in slow motion. The first bullet hit the chest of her patient, the impact causing his body to jerk several inches off the gurney. The second knocked Dr. Yale Trevor-Jones backward. He collapsed on the floor like a rag doll before Celia felt the impact of another bullet slamming into her midsection. The fire in her side spread throughout her body. She placed her right hand against her ribs as bloodâwarm and acrid-smellingâspilled through her splayed fingers. The shooting and screaming continued as she lay sprawled on the tiled floor, shutting out the sights and sounds of carnage tearing through the E.R. In less than a minute, four people had been injured and six lay mortally wounded.
Celia sat up, her heart racing uncontrollably. Placing a hand over her mouth, she cut off the screams caught in the back of her throat. Rocking back and forth, she cried without making a sound. The nightmare had returned. Itâd been almost a year and yet she could not stop reliving the horror of the night that so many innocent people had lost their lives.
Physically sheâd recovered from being shot at close range, the bullet having passed through her body and ending up in the wall behind her. But, Celia knew she would never forget the sound of her own voice, when hours later, sheâd asked the recovery nurse what had happened and knew by the womanâs expression that many people had died. She didnât learn the names of the victims until sheâd been taken to a private room and her family members had begun arriving en masse. It was her brother Diego whoâd finally told her that Dr. Yale Trevor-Jones and Dr. Colton Riley had died that night. Rival gangs had turned Miami Hospitalâs E.R. into a killing field. Her patient and three other gang members had also died.
Pulling her knees to her chest, Celia rested her forehead on her knees and waited for her heartbeat to return to normal. Sheâd taken a medical leave of absence in addition to grief counseling to cope with the death of the man sheâd planned to marryâYale Trevor-Jonesâbut she still was unable to exorcise the horror caused by Miamiâs gang fighting over a very lucrative drug operation.