The American Soldier Collection 16: Seeking Love in Salvation (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  The American Soldier Collection 16: Seeking Love in Salvation

  Valentina worked in the violent crimes unit for the NYPD. She's content in her work, and is always there for her sister Lois, a single mom. She feels for the victims and understands their fears. It's her calling to help those in need, especially victims of such violent crimes. Everything changes when she becomes the victim, and must save her sister Lois and her nephew from being killed by Lois's ex-boyfriend.

  Living in the city, a constant reminder of that fearful day they all nearly died, Valentina and her sister decide to move to Texas and a town called Salvation. Her friend Helena is a cop there and swears it's a safe town with caring people. Initially, Valentina is put off by the idea of having guardians and that all men watch over women. She's un-trusting, tough, and determined to not show fear, or her scars. The best way to do it, is fight off the attraction she feels for her landlords and everything this town of Salvation represents.

  Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Romantic Suspense

  Length: 50,374 words

  THE AMERICAN

  SOLDIER COLLECTION 16:

  SEEKING LOVE IN SALVATION

  Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  MENAGE EVERLASTING

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

  THE AMERICAN SOLDIER COLLECTION 16: SEEKING LOVE IN SALVATION

  Copyright © 2016 by Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-224-5

  First E-book Publication: May 2016

  Cover design by Ley Byerley

  All art and logo copyright © 2016 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of The American Soldier Collection 16: Seeking Love in Salvation by Dixie Lynn Dwyer from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Dixie Lynn Dwyer’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Dixie Lynn Dwyer’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  Dear readers,

  Thank you for purchasing this legal copy of Seeking Love In Salvation.

  To put it simply, love is a very powerful emotion.

  Valentina is struggling to be strong, to provide for her family, to be the rock even though she is crumbling inside. Landing in a special place like Salvation teachers her many things. That love has no limitations. That sometimes barriers or walls she thought were unbreakable could be broken because they were defense mechanisms to protect her heart and protect her from feeling vulnerable. She’s too loving, too giving and caring of a woman. You can’t pretend to care, to love and to want to make a difference. Valentina is special in so many ways.

  May you enjoy her journey of finding love in Salvation and proving to herself and to others around her that love heals all wounds, and can be powerful enough to even save lives.

  Happy reading.

  Hugs!

  ~Dixie~

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  THE AMERICAN SOLDIER COLLECTION 16:

  SEEKING LOVE IN SALVATION

  DIXIE LYNN DWYER

  Copyright © 2016

  Prologue

  “I hate you! I absolutely hate you, you son of a bitch!” Valentina screamed at the door. Her voice cracked, echoing inside the tiny bathroom of the apartment. He’d locked her in there. Caden Clover, that son of a bitch.

  She was frantic, looking around for a weapon, a means to open the door and help. She was in pain from the beating he and his buddy Don had put on her, but her thoughts were on little Kenny. She had been watching her sister Lois’s four-year-old son when his father arrived—a father who hadn’t been around in over a year, who was either shacked up with some whore or working his way to being locked up. His buddy, Don, was some big-shot in the thug world. As a cop, Valentina knew Don’s reputation all too well.

  She pulled open the cabinets, looking for something, anything, to get the damn door opened, when she heard the scream.

  “Lois?” she said aloud. Had her sister come home from work already? What in God’s name was going on?

  She listened at the door, her adrenaline pumping. The need to get out there and help them was making her bang against the door.

  Kenny cried out for help. She heard Lois screaming, asking Caden to stop, to not let their son see him take her like this.

  Valentina ran her fingers through her hair. What was he doing to Lois? Oh, God, please don’t let him kill them. Please, God, help me.

  She looked at the shower curtain rod. She pulled it down and started bashing the doorknob, trying to break it. The door wasn’t particularly thick, so it started to split as the screams got louder and louder.

  She could hear the trauma going on in the other room. Kenny was crying hysterically. Don was laughing and telling Caden he was a crazy
son of a bitch.

  The doorknob broke. Valentina grabbed ahold of it, kicked the remainder of the metal away, and got the door open. She gripped the curtain rod and went running down the hallway to the living room, where the screaming was loudest. Don had his foot on little Kenny’s back, holding the kid to the ground, facing her and away from the scene in the living room. The sight tore at Valentina’s heart as she swung at the back of Don’s head, knocking him to the ground. Then she caught sight of Caden. It all happened so fast. The sight of her sister’s battered, naked body. Caden rocking his hips against her while he held her hair. Valentina lost it. She jumped through the air, over the sofa, and slammed into him. He was a big guy, filled with muscles, and a mean son of a bitch. Lois fell over, and Valentina just kept punching him, using her police officer training to keep him from hitting her back.

  “Get the fuck off of him, you crazy bitch.”

  She felt the barrel of the gun at her shoulder. Don was there and she was so scared, so enraged at what was taking place. She used a quick move, swinging to the left as she gripped the gun and then elbowed him in the knee. Valentina felt the instant pain in her elbow and arm, but as the gun went off, her focus was on saving her sister and her nephew.

  She felt the pain in her side. He’d shot her. She reacted in anger.

  She pulled the gun from Don just as Caden came at her, and she fired twice, hitting him in the chest, and then turned to the left as Don pointed another gun at her and fired. She fired at the same time, unloading her weapon into Don’s body as he slammed into her. She just kept pulling the trigger as the burning pain hit her chest. She couldn’t breathe.

  The sound of sirens could be heard outside, and then police were entering the apartment. Valentina’s vision began to blur as she shoved Don off of her. Then she felt the tiny hands running though her hair, and she locked gazes with little Kenny, who was red-faced, runny-nosed, and crying.

  She felt the movement to her right as her sister crawled to her, crying and battered, falling against her side. “Val. Oh, God, Val, you saved us,” Lois cried.

  The police officers came closer, and she recognized two of them. They were friends, coworkers she knew from the department.

  “Oh, fuck, Val, what the hell. Shit. Dino, call for an ambulance. She’s been shot,” Corey said to his partner. As the adrenaline rush began to leave her body and she started to feel weak, Valentina knew they were all safe now.

  Everything is going to be okay now. They’re safe. All that matters is that they’re safe.

  Chapter 1

  “Where did he go? It’s been days since he’s been home.” Beck asked Sparrow as Sparrow began to unload the pickup truck of some feed for the livestock.

  “You know Jace does this. He could disappear for days, especially when he’s having episodes. He likes the time away,” Sparrow told him.

  Beck looked down the road toward the main entrance to the family farm. It was kind of crowded today, for a weekday. Spring was coming fast, and soon the blueberries and strawberries would be ripe for the taking and all the pickers would be coming out.

  “I worry about him and so does Ridge,” Beck said to him as he lifted up two bags of feed, threw them over his shoulder, and headed toward the barn.

  “It will be fine,” Sparrow mumbled and then continued to work. It had been difficult for all of them to retire from the service, leaving their lives as Green Berets behind them. Having family out here in Texas had helped, and especially living in a place like Salvation. There were plenty of other men and women in the military still serving or retired, plus a lot of first responders. It was a great place to live and to settle down and, hopefully, to find some peace.

  Sparrow thought about his cousins, Laverty, Ford, Ghost, and Evan, who also worked on the farm and lived a little ways past their ranch, five minutes from here. They were all close, always had been, and they’d made their parents crazy with worry when they all entered the service one by one. They were lucky enough to come back in one piece, except for Trevor.

  Sparrow swallowed hard.

  “Sparrow,” his other brother Ridge called out to them. He was walking over, carrying the truck keys.

  “What’s up?” Sparrow asked, wiping his brow.

  “Got to go head back to the house. Got some woman interested in renting the cottage.”

  Sparrow and Beck both responded, “Really?”

  Ridge nodded his head and then adjusted his brown cowboy hat. “Yup, and from the tone of her voice, she sounds like she’s from the northeast, New York or someplace.”

  “Okay, you want to take Beck along?” Sparrow asked.

  “No, I can handle this. Once you guys finish up we can call it a day and head out to Casper’s or something. Gunny and the guys are going to be there.”

  “Great. Good luck,” Beck said, and then Sparrow watched Ridge walk toward the truck. He wondered who the renters might be and hoped they weren’t nosey or annoying. The cottage was a good distance from the main house, but he could still see the back porch and yard from where their wraparound porch was.

  “I wonder who it is and if they’ll like the place?” Beck said aloud, carrying the last two bags of feed.

  “What’s not to like?” Sparrow barked. “We renovated the whole thing, and everything is new in it. Plus, the price is cheap.”

  “We could have charged more. Plenty of guys are coming back this way and looking to settle down.”

  “Well, it’s a good twenty minutes form the main town. Not everyone likes that, and the only two ranches are ours and our cousins’ place.”

  “I guess you’re right. We’ll just have to wait and see what Ridge has to say when he gets back,” Beck said to him, and they went about finishing up their work.

  * * * *

  “I don’t know about this. It’s, like, far from town. Are you sure your friend is trustworthy?” Lois asked Valentina as they waited in the long driveway to the small, nice-looking cottage. It was out in the middle of nowhere, with trees and gorgeous greenery. Not far to the left was a large, picturesque ranch with livestock and it looked impressive. To the right was another house, just as big but designed differently. They were both stunning and both had the letter B in script on their front gate entrances.

  Valentina swallowed hard. She knew Helena back in the police academy in New York. They even worked together for a few years, but then Helena’s mom got sick and she wanted to be closer to her back in Dallas. She got the transfer to the Dallas PD and then went into the special operations unit for the police department. She was tough and always gave Valentina a run for her money when they sparred in the gym together. Helena was already making plans for Valentina to train at some cool dojo, but not until Valentina was fully recovered.

  She stretched her arm and felt the ache in her side and her chest. Multiple operations and months of physical therapy and she was feeling almost herself again. Except for the anxiety and occasional nightmares.

  “Helena wouldn’t steer us wrong. Look, there’s even a fenced-in yard, which will be perfect for Kenny,” Valentina said and glanced into the back seat to see him sleeping. She swallowed hard. The poor kid and his mother had post-traumatic stress disorder. They were going to meetings with the school this week to see about homeschooling him for a year or two.

  “Here comes a big pickup truck. Probably some redneck hillbilly with his teeth missing,” Lois stated, looking wary but trying to act tough.

  “I doubt it. Weren’t you paying attention during that drive through town? Seems like something good is in the water. I’ve never seen so many good-looking people in one place,” Valentina said to her and then got out of the car. She glanced at her sister.

  “I’ll stay here with Kenny.”

  “Don’t you want to walk through and see it? We’ll be living here together and we need to make these decisions together.”

  “I trust you,” she whispered.

  Valentina’s heart tightened at those words. Lois did trust her, with he
r life and with Kenny’s.

  She closed the door and prepared herself for whatever was about to take place. She didn’t know if this guy would be friendly or have an attitude. She got her police guard up and then stopped short as he got out of his truck.

  Goddamn, was this guy hot. Totally cowboy from head to toe, hat and boots included. The added bonuses were his tight blue jeans and that firm, fierce expression as he took in the sight of her and seemed shocked.

  “Valentina?”

  She gave him a nod and reached her hand out. He towered over her by at least a few inches. She was average height, about five feet four. He was big, thick all over with muscles, and had a nice tan, to boot. His dark brown eyes bore into hers, and then she felt him gave her body a quick sweep with his eyes. Man, did he pack a punch.

  “I appreciate you meeting us out here like this. I thought we would have arrived late tonight, but I made good time.”

  He glanced at the car and saw Lois.

  “Are just the two of you interested in the place?” he asked and then looked her over again.

  “Yes.”

  He nodded and then looked at her strangely as he pulled out a key.

  “Does she want to come check it out, too?” he asked.

  “No, she’s leaving it up to me,” she told him. He raised one of his eyebrows at her funny-like and she didn’t know why. Then he gave her a nod and started showing her the place. It was absolutely stunning outside, and as he unlocked the door, she was shocked at how beautiful it was inside.