Banishing Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page A

just a silly one a couple of years ago. You know how stubborn we both are, we like to hold a grudge.” She laughed, wincing at the nervous edge to it.
    “Life’s too short to stay mad, kid. Talk to him, okay?”
    “Sure,” she lied.
    Luke looked at her thoughtfully. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
    Swallowing, she found a smile. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”
    He smiled back. “I’m your big brother. I’ll always worry about you.”
     
    Cord peered across the table at Kayla. Over the past two years he’d barely laid eyes on her. Three days after taking her virginity, he’d left the country, kicking himself for his lack of control. Kayla had deserved someone far better than him for her first time.
    Whenever he’d come home during the last two years, she’d either been away or busy.
    Busy avoiding him.
    Was she still angry over what had happened? Embarrassed? He tapped his fingers on the table, frustrated that he didn’t know what she was thinking. When she’d walked into The Rusty Hammer and seen him sitting there, he knew she’d considered bolting. It was written all over her pale face—in the way she’d paused, quivering. Then her shoulders had straightened and she’d walked over to the table where he sat with her brothers and their employees.
    This was the first time he’d gotten a good look at her in the fortnight since he’d been home and he was worried. Her long, dark hair lay lank and dull against her back, her skin was sickly gray, her eyes glazed. Perhaps she’d been ill. It would explain the fatigue he could see on her face, the weight she’d lost. But it didn’t explain the fear in her eyes, or the way she jumped whenever someone brushed past her.
    Kayla had always been a firecracker. She’d been brought up with a healthy sense of her own self-worth, her ability to do anything. Now she looked more like a frightened seven-year-old girl than a self-assured woman of twenty-three. And he wanted to know why.
    Cord Marsden knew exactly what sort of man he was. He knew his strengths and weaknesses. He lived with the demon inside—his legacy from his father. Restraining that edge of violence had turned him into the man he was today. Others might consider him cold, emotionless. He didn’t care. He wasn’t a man who hesitated, who ever questioned his decisions.
    Except where Kayla was concerned.
    He’d often thought back to that night Kayla had walked into Purgatory. He’d meant to drag her home and give her a brotherly scolding—he’d ended up seducing her instead.
    Now he’d returned with the full intention of seducing her again.
    Only this time he was here to stay.
     
    “Kayla, you listening?” Kayla shook herself free from her musings, managing a smile for Quinn as he scowled down at her. He might look like his twin but he was the complete opposite in personality. Where Joe was quiet, calm, Quinn was a hurricane, loud and volatile.
    Quinn pulled his cell phone from his pocket as it started to ring and glared at it.
    “Aren’t you going to answer that?” she asked, knowing the answer.
    He grunted, switching it off. Quinn hated mobile phones, using them only when he really had to.
    “I’m going to go to the bathroom.” She needed some space.
    Slipping off the barstool, she avoided Cord’s gaze as she turned to walk across the bar to the bathroom. Inside, she stared at herself in the mirror. She looked pale, stressed. She’d had enough. She’d put in an appearance, faced both Cord and a bar full of strangers. No wonder she felt so on edge.
    Time to go home.
    She stepped out of the bathroom.
    Rough, bruising hands grasped her harshly, pulling her back against a large body, a big palm covering her mouth. Chilled, starved for air, Kayla fought to take a breath through her panic-stricken throat. Dragged backward, she tried hard to fight through her fear.
    A door opened and she found herself being hauled through the alleyway behind the bar toward the road.
    And then as