Bridal Reconnaissance Read Online Free PDF Page B

amnesia, but I don’t believe you’ve forgotten everything, Amanda.” His hand slipped through the crack in the door, his fingers brushing over hers on the chain. Then, exerting just the slightest pressure, he snapped the links and the door swung open. “I don’t believe you’ve forgotten that you’re my wife.”
    She gasped, more from surprise than fear, and stumbled back. He caught her elbows, steadied her, then closed the door behind himself. The house, already small, shrank around his awesome height and lean muscular build. But more imposing than his stature was his aura. Dark, powerful…like his rich scent,teasing her senses and her memory. Her husband? No, she couldn’t accept that.
    “Where’s the boy?” he asked.
    “Sleeping.” Why did she answer? Why didn’t she scream? Run? Where was the fear his action should inspire?
    “Good.”
    She trembled then, her reaction delayed.
    “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.”
    Physically. But emotionally, she bet he was very capable of hurting her. “Why are you here now? ” Why hadn’t he looked for her years ago if she were really his wife?
    “I want to talk to you.”
    “That’s why you’re here? In River City? Just to talk to me?” Not to take her home?
    “Since I talked to Sullivan.”
    “And before?” Why had he found her now, after all this time?
    “We’ll talk about that later, when we have this other situation resolved.”
    She laughed. She couldn’t help it. In her limited memory, we had referred to only her and her son. Nobody else. So she’d been the only one solving anything. Alone. And this man, this stranger, thought he could step in and rearrange her life? She wouldn’t allow that, even if he were her husband.
    Something flared in his dark eyes. “There’s absolutely no doubt now.”
    “No doubt about what?” Curiosity prodded her to ask.
    “You’re Amanda.”

    “The Amanda you searched for?” The one he claimed was his wife.
    He sighed. “For nearly six years.”
    But whatever had flared in his eyes was gone, leaving them dark and unreadable. No soft emotion accompanied his words. No tears of reunion dampened his eyes. He may have searched for her, but not out of love. She wouldn’t delude herself there. She’d already accepted that the only one to ever love her was her son. Her poor heartbroken little boy…
    “Something else is wrong,” he said, somehow attuned to her moods.
    She trembled again, fear of that emotional hurt intensifying. “Christopher doesn’t want to leave. Threw the tantrum of all tantrums and cried himself to sleep on his bedroom floor. Very unlike Christopher. Oh, he can be rambunctious, but usually he’s too controlled to throw tantrums.”
    Like a falling star in a dark sky, something flared again in the stranger’s eyes. “Controlled?”
    “Amazingly so for a five-year-old.”
    “But he doesn’t want to leave?”
    “No.”
    “So why are you?”
    “I thought you talked to Mr. Sullivan. You know he’s getting out.”
    “But that doesn’t mean your life will have to change. You have a new name—”
    She choked on another laugh, the bitterness leaving an acidic flavor in her throat. “He knows where I am. Last night I had a visitor. Someone broke into my van and warned me that I’m not safe. He’s going to get me when he’s released. He wants revenge.”

    The man, Evan Quade, blew out a ragged breath and some words beneath. “An eye for an eye.”
    She winced, catching the phrase despite the fact he’d muttered it. “Yes. And with him, undoubtedly more. He has resources. Money behind him. I’m not safe.”
    She doubted she ever would be again.
    Quade straightened, standing impossibly taller. “I have resources, too, Amanda. I can protect you.”
    She laughed, the pitch of it nearing the high brittle tone of hysteria. But she fought against it. “And who will protect me from you?” She gestured at her door and the broken chain dangling beside it.
    His handsome face