REUNION ON THE RUN
When her apartment is besieged by masked gunmen, Yasmine Browderâs convinced itâs tied to her investigation into her brotherâs âaccidentalâ death three weeks ago. Narrowly escaping, she flags down the car of a passerby she thought sheâd never see againâher childhood crush. Unlike the local police, newly minted FBI agent Noel Black doesnât believe the attack is a coincidence, especially when the attempts on her life donât stop. Yasmineâs onto the truth about her brother, and someone powerful wants her dead. With nobody to trust and just days out of training, Noel must find a way to keep her alive...because now that heâs found Yasmine, he refuses to lose her again.
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for coming along with Yasmine and Noel on their whirlwind journey. Both of these characters started out feeling a sense of displacementâthey were at the start of new chapters in their lives and not entirely settled into the changes yet. I canât even tell you how many times Iâve felt like that. When folks ask me, âWhere are you from?â I tend to answer with, âWhich province? I grew up in four.â Yep, my family moved a lot! But each time I entered a new phase of lifeâand I donât even think a person necessarily needs to move geographical locations to feel this wayâthat sense of displacement was a God-given learning opportunity. Often a tough one (albeit not tough like bullets and car chases, phew!), but Iâve learned that home is, well, where you find the ones you love.
I also hope you enjoyed seeing a few familiar faces in this storyâif youâve read Fatal Freeze, you probably recognized the heroic CIA agent Shaun! If youâve read Unknown Enemy, you probably recognized Chief Black, who helped out Colin and Ginny, as well as a return appearance of the Kingdom of Amar via Yasmineâs family background. I hope these little cameos were as much fun for you to read as they were for me to write!
I love hearing from readers. Come hang out with me at michellekarl.com or find me on Twitter, @_Michelle Karl_. Thank you so much for reading Outside the Law!
Blessings,
Michelle
âWe have to get out of here before itâs too late.â
âLeave the safe house?â Yasmine asked.
Noel took her by the arm. âLetâs go.â
But when they stepped outside and saw a black SUV like the one that had smashed into them heading their way, he dragged her into the backyard.
âWhat are you doing?â she gasped.
âWe did an exercise like this in Quantico. Trust me.â
She followed him through the neighboring yard, sure her pounding heart would give away their position, then back to the garage. She joined him in the vehicle there and he pulled out. âSo much for our lead. They heard us.â
Of course they had. The past two days had been a nightmare that showed no sign of stopping. Yasmine watched in the side mirror as another SUV closed the gap between them.
Within seconds an arm snaked out the window on the passenger side, holding a gun.
For the first time since all of this had begun, a stark truth hit Yasmine right between the eyes.
They werenât going to make it.
MICHELLE KARL is an unabashed bibliophile and romantic suspense author. She lives in Canada with her husband and an assortment of critters, including a codependent cat and an opinionated parrot. When sheâs not reading and consuming copious amounts of coffee, she writes the stories sheâd like to find in her âto be readâ pile. She also loves animals, world music and eating the last piece of cheesecake.
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.
âIsaiah 41:10
To my editor, Emily R, for her invaluable insight, and to my KV sisters, for their cherished encouragement.
ONE
âIâm going to be fine, Auntie Zee. Please stop worrying about me.â Yasmine Browder hoisted her messenger bag higher on her shoulder and tucked her cell phone between her cheek and ear so she could reach back to pull her ponytail holder out of her hair. After having her hair up all day at the bakery, her scalp felt tight and in desperate need of relief. âIâm not lonely.â
It was a partial truth, but she wanted to ease her auntâs anxieties, not add to them.
âI canât help but worry about you, honey.â Her auntâs words were strained. âYouâve been back for only eight months and you work so hard, and now, with Daniel gone...â
Aunt Zaraâs voice trailed off, but Yasmine caught the unspoken meaning. She ignored it and slipped the hair elastic around her wrist. She pulled her sweater sleeves down, sneezing at the flour released from where it had become trapped in the fabric. She normally wore short-sleeved shirts to work, but the weather had cooled with the change of seasonsâand besides, she often found herself chilled by the weather in western New York State. Especially after having returned here only about eight months ago from a ten-year stay overseas in the Kingdom of Amar, the desert-swathed country where most of her motherâs family lived.