Justice Mine: a Base Branch Novel Read Online Free PDF

decorated living room, but abruptly teetered. Something metal caught the toe of her sandal and upended her world, yet again. Metal clacked and clattered around her body as she landed hard on…she didn’t know what the fuck it was, but it hurt. Heavy footfalls thudded down the stairs in a rapid beat. And instantly her heart revved a notch.
    Easton Wells, her dad, didn’t get in a rush about anything, and he was a slender fellow. Not nearly as big as the thunder rumbling in her direction. Though her pulse ratcheted with each closing step, Mags’ brain kicked into gear after the tilt-a-whirl ride of the evening and she sighed in relief. Baine. Her brother was that big, but why in the world would he be in her father’s house?
    Still weary, Mags scrambled to her hands and knees. At least, she tried. Tubular metal polls rolled under her palm, caught the edge of the bag on her arm, and sent her sprawling again.
    “What the hell,” a deep baritone boomed. Not Baine . Baine’s voice was similarly bass, but this one held a rough quality that quaked its way down her spine.
    “Dad,” she screamed with every bit of air she held in her lungs. What had he done to her dad? Who was he? What did he want? That fucking weasel from the apartment…he’d held true to his word and worked too damn fast…
    A big hand clamped around her upper arm and pulled. Magdalena let the tote slip from her opposite shoulder as the behemoth hoisted her from the floor, and then balled her fist and rammed. She looked past the wide expanse of his bare chest and aimed for his throat, like Baine had shown her.
    Before she could blink, he had her restrained. Thick arms coiled around her chest and arms as he pinned her to his body. Her face burrowed into a valley of muscle while her breasts smashed against the rippled tract of his abdomen. Heat radiated from the man, warming every inch of her exposed skin from brow to ankle. He touched her everywhere. Encompassed her completely.
    Panic seized her as stories of sexual violation flooded her memory from the interviews she’d taken from Goma to Bunia. Now she’d have her own story, if she survived. Her arms and legs flailed of their own volition in a primal struggle for freedom. For life.
    “Magdalena, calm down.” His voice brooked no argument. And damn her body, but it obeyed, going rigid as a board.
    “How do you know my name? Where’s my father? Who are you? What do you want?” The questions, jumbled from her addled brain, fell out of her mouth in a breathless line of inquiry.
    “Baine said you asked lots of questions.”
    At the mention of her brother’s name she sagged into the man, completely spent. He accepted her weight without the slightest sway of his stance. On a pivot he leaned over her. Embarrassed and absolutely confused, Magdalena hid her face in the hard ridge of his chest as he hooked one arm behind her knees and collected her in his hold.
    “What are—" Her question was a whisper he cut off with that rugged voice of his.
    “No more questions. I’m still processing the last interrogation. You’d think you were a reporter or something.”
    “Journalist.”
    “College student,” he shot back.
    Mags hated the smile that curved one side of her mouth because she didn’t understand it at all. Nor could she comprehend why the sweaty musk of his skin made her want to lap it clean with her tongue.
    Son of a fuck, add it to the list of things you don’t understand about tonight.
    “That better?” His question came in time with the soft cushion of couch meeting her butt as he sat her before him like a child.
    The scene she would have thought couldn’t get any more awkward, did. When he pulled back he found himself pinned by her draped arms, which refused to release his warmth. She’d claim shock or jet lag for her peculiar behavior. At this point it was more like sleep deprivation anyway.
    “You’re all right,” he said in an even voice. His fingers glided up her forearms and