The Unrelenting Tide (Islands of Intrigue: San Juans - Christian Romantic Suspense) Read Online Free PDF

assured herself that Marissa was indeed safe and having the time of her life. Now, to get her to tell him what had happened.
    She hung up and handed him the Blackberry.
    He took it and shoved it into his belt clip. Nothing for it but to plunge right in. “Tell me what happened, Dev.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “You said you planned for Rissa to stay with your mom and dad, but it wasn’t because of this…,” her hand gestured around the house. “So why?”
    He sighed. Alright, they could go there first. “I wanted to talk to you about…Kent…moving on…your life.” He left out the “us” that he really wanted to say because he had no right to say it.
    She whirled away from him. “I’m exhausted. I’m going upstairs.”
    “So you don’t have to talk to me? You don’t have to talk about Kent, but I do need you to answer some questions about what happened today.”
    She paused at the base of the stairs and he saw a dull flush creep up her neck, but she refused to look at him.
    “Can we just drop it, Carcen? Life goes on.”
    Was she talking about Kent? Or the man who’d assaulted her today? “For everyone but you?”
    Quick as lightning she turned on him. Her eyes flashed. “I’m going on! What does this look like to you?” She gestured around the house.
    Ah, so it was Kent, then. “It looks like a house, Devynne. A house that you haven’t left for more than three hours at a time for the past four years.” A house you’ve turned into a tomb .
    “What do you expect of me after my husband was brutally murdered? Should I have run out the next day and thrown a big party?” She tossed her hands in the air. “Why are we even talking about this right now?”
    His heart went out to her. He kept his voice soft. “It’s been four years, Devynne. You can’t hide from fun and pleasure for the rest of your life.”
    “I do not hide from pleasure. I am a single mother with a full time job. I don’t have time for pleasure.”
    He snorted. Of all the stubborn— “That’s a bunch of bull and you know it!”
    She stalked past him, doing her level best to keep him from seeing the tears that once again formed in her eyes, but he took her arm, turning her so she had to face him. Calm down, Lang. He tilted her chin up, dipping down until she met his gaze.
    Her face hardened and she raised her chin a fraction higher as she refused to allow the tears to fall. He sighed. He had known this would be hard, but it would be so much easier if she would quit hiding behind her stony self-possession. In frustration, he rubbed a hand across his jaw. His day old stubble scraped against his fingers.
    He glanced down at her again. What could he say to help her understand? When she bit her trembling lower lip, trying to keep control on her fragile emotions he reached out and slowly pulled her into his arms.
    “I’m sorry, Dev,” he whispered raggedly. “I’ve gone over and over and over that day, trying to see if I could have done something different. And I always come up with, ‘no.’ Nobody knows when it’s their time to go. And for some reason that was Kent’s day. Neither you nor I can change that. I’m just glad today wasn’t yours. And I want Marissa to know you for the fun loving person you are, not…”
    She began to sob and he closed his eyes knowing that her facade of control had finally shattered. “I can’t do this, Carcen. I can’t… There are things I never told you. Kent’s death was my fault.”
    Carcen felt the air leave his lungs as quickly as it had the time he took a bullet to his flak jacket.
    “Devynne,” he leaned back and tipped up her chin. “Kent’s death was not your fault!”
    Her face crumpled and she leaned into his shoulder with a broken sob. “Carcen I don’t know…. I just don’t know.”
    He eased his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his chest. He thought for a moment. “This has something to do with that scum who was in here today, doesn’t it?”
    She