To Catch A Cupid: Thomas (MacKenzie Family) by Liliana Hart

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1001 Dark Nights:
CAPTURED IN SURRENDER
     
    Coming March 11, 2014!
     
     
    Chapter One
     
     
    She was taking a risk. A big one.
    Naya Blade parked between two rusted pickup trucks and hit the kickstand of her bike with a booted heel. She turned off the engine and pulled the black helmet from her head, releasing long black hair that cascaded to the middle of her back.
    The last dregs of an Indian summer lingered—the air like hot breath slapping against the face, and the vegetation wilted and gasping for moisture. If the weatherman was right, there’d be storms rolling in some time after nightfall and the farmers whose livelihoods depended on their crops could breathe a little easier. The rain would only make her job harder. 
    She dismounted the bike and hooked her sunglasses into the front of her black tank top, then ripped at the Velcro of the black leather fingerless gloves she wore and shoved them in her pack.
    Her boots sent up plumes of dust as she made her way up the wooden steps to a row of identical shops. Her footsteps creaked across the clapboard sidewalk as she made her way to the glass door of the diner. She gave a quick wink to the two men playing checkers on the porch and opened the door to a jingle of bells.
    “Good afternoon,” the woman behind the counter said. “Just take a seat anywhere. It’s only me working the counters today, so service might be a little slow.”
    “I’m not in a hurry.” Naya headed to the far corner booth. 
    She moved with a sensual grace that had the two men at the counter following the sway of her hips and wishing they were forty years younger, and she tossed her pack into the seat before sliding in beside it, her back to the wall.
    The trip into Surrender hadn’t been her idea. Jackson Coltraine had made that decision for her. An idiot judge in New York had released Coltraine on a million dollar bond after he’d gunned down his wife and her lover in cold blood. But Coltraine’s family had money and the judge didn’t think he’d be a flight risk. Idiot.
    She ’d been two steps behind him all the way across the country. Until she’d caught a lucky break just on the border between South Dakota and Montana. Coltraine had caught some kind of virus that had slowed him down. It was hard to run when you were bent over puking every five minutes. She’d been inching her way closer ever since.
    When her skip crossed into Surrender, Naya could only shake her head at the irony that God would give Coltraine the plague but send her into hell with him by making her face a past she wasn’t ready for. Coltraine was in Surrender now. She could feel him. She just had to find him.
    “You’re a little past the lunch rush,” the waitress said, making her way to the table. She had faded red hair and her rouge fell into deep creases of skin. Her eyebrows were drawn on and her lipstick was fresh and cherry red. She wore jeans and a stained apron that wrapped around her bony body a couple of times. “We’re about out of everything except for cold sandwiches and what’s left of the vegetable stew. My name’s Gladys.”
    Naya’s lips twitched as the woman slapped down a plastic menu on the table. “A sandwich will be fine. And some coffee.”
    “Tourist season is over. Last of the vacationers headed out last week. It’s still warm enough, but the weather’s about to turn. You’d be smart to vacation somewhere else.”
    “I’m here on business.”
    “Never seen no businesswoman riding into