âYOUâRE IN DANGER.â
Bakery owner Shelby Simons canât deny a stalker is after her. Still, knowing sheâs at risk is one thing. Admitting she needs a bodyguard is quite another. Especially when the bodyguard is Ryder Malone. The former SEAL is too big, too tough and way too attractive. Yet Ryder wonât take no for an answer. If she canât find a place for him in her life, heâll make one, working undercover to protect Shelby and find her attacker. But as Ryder and Shelby get closer to answersâand each otherâthe killer starts closing inâ¦.
Heroes for Hire
Seeking the truthâat any cost.
Ryder scooped Shelby up, racing back across the yard as another explosion rocked the house.
It threw him to his knees, but he kept his arms tight around Shelbyâs soft, limp body.
âWhat happened?â she gasped, coughing on the acrid fumes.
âExplosion.â
âMaureenâs in there!â She shoved away, jumped to her feet and ran straight back toward the inferno.
He followed, heat searing his cheeks. âThereâs nothing we can do to help her.â
She turned, tears trekking down her cheeks. Near her temple was a deep cut that oozed blood. She didnât seem to feel the pain of it. Didnât seem to know she was hurt.
Memories threatened to overtake Ryder. He shoved the images down deep as fire continued to lick along the facade of the house.
Shelby stopped in her tracks, her face lit by flames and stained with soot.
Ryder took her arm and urged her to the front yard. There might be another explosion, and he didnât want Shelby anywhere near the building if there was.
SHIRLEE McCOY
has always loved making up stories. As a child, she daydreamed elaborate tales in which she was the heroineâgutsy, strong and invincible. Though she soon grew out of her superhero fantasies, her love for storytelling never diminished. She knew early that she wanted to write inspirational fiction, and she began writing her first novel when she was a teenager. Still, it wasnât until her third son was born that she truly began pursuing her dream of being published. Three years later, she sold her first book. Now a busy mother of five, Shirlee is a homeschool mom by day and an inspirational author by night. She and her husband and children live in the Pacific Northwest and share their house with a dog, two cats and a bird. You can visit her website, www.shirleemccoy.com, or email her at [email protected].
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
âPsalms 63:7â8
To my friends at An Orphanâs Wish who work tirelessly to shower His love on Chinaâs orphaned children. May God continue to bless your efforts.
ONE
âCome on, Old Blue, donât fail me now!â Shelby Simons turned the key in the ignition of her 1958 Cadillac and prayed that this time, the engine would turn over.
It didnât, of course.
That would have made her morning just a little too easy.
âFine. Stay here. I can walk the four blocks to Maureen Lewisâs place,â she grumbled.
She grabbed two large bakery boxes from the backseat and closed Old Blueâs door with a little too much force. She loved the car, but it was as fickle as its original owner, Grandma Beulah, had been.
The scent of chocolate wafted from the boxes as Shelby picked her way across the bakeryâs empty parking lot, and her stomach growled. Stupid diet. Eight days of starving herself, and she still could barely fit into the little black dress her sister had sent from Paris.
But Shelby would fit into it before the Spokane Business Associationâs black-tie dinner that sheâd planned to attend with Andrew Willis.
Andrew, her ex-fiancé, whoâd promised her a million dreams and given her nothing but lies.
Now, heâd be attending the function with Stephanie Parsons, and Shelby would be going alone, because there was no way she was going to stay home moping about her newly single status. Sure, sheâd been planning a wedding two short months ago, but God had had other plans, and Shelby had to believe they were better than the ones sheâd made for herself.
Marriage.
Family.
Forever with someone who loved her.
She sighed, hefting the bakery boxes a little higher and doing her best to ignore the fragrant aroma that drifted from them. Maureen would be pleased with the assortment of pastries Shelby was providing for the early-morning kickoff to Maureenâs birthday bash. Sheâd invited Shelby to attend the breakfast and the New York shopping spree she and her closest friends were going on afterward, but unlike Maureen, Shelby wasnât a bestselling true-crime writer with plenty of money to throw around. She had bills to pay and a business to run. Being at the bakery sheâd opened five years ago was the only way to do it. Though, she had to admit, flying to New York to shop sounded like a lot more fun.