Convicted (Entangled Ignite) by Dee Tenorio Read Free Book Online Page A

kind of bullshit explanation. Shana would be lucky to get her house back to rights.
    When they’d pulled out, just behind the medics she had flatly refused to allow examine her, she watched from her porch, a white-knuckled grip on the kid’s pajama shirt as she clutched him close to her. Cade wasn’t sure what bothered him more: the jaw-clenching fear he saw in her eyes, or the blankness he’d seen in her son’s.
    More disturbing, he couldn’t quite forget the feel of Katrina Killian wrapped around him. Where the hell had she even come from? How had she known what to do for him, when Cade himself had no clue? The more time that passed since leaving Carter’s house, the more the questions nettled. That he had them at all nettled. His mind should be quiet, completely unperturbed by a pretty face or a warm body. He’d worked hard for that mental silence, needing it to hold back the storm of emotions that could tangle him worse than a fish in a net. He should at least be paying attention to the passenger in the cage behind him.
    Instead, he continued to brood.
    Why did he respond to her? Her touch, her scent. Her voice . He could still hear it, still feel the press of her lush breasts against his back, making his skin there itch. Made him sting.
    It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen a woman since returning from Afghanistan. He simply hadn’t cared about the ones he’d come across. He hadn’t cared about anyone, and they certainly hadn’t given a shit about him except to stay as far away as possible.
    People had become little more than noise or irritation to him since he’d come home. Small and sleepy as it was, even Marketta was like a beehive in his head. A few days here and he was already longing for his cabin and its blessed silence by the lake. Still, no one slipped through the state of numbness that had been part of him for almost two years. The last thing he needed was some woman able to slide under that layer as if it wasn’t there.
    And that, he realized, was what really pissed him off.
    He held tight to his mental barrier, willing it to close around him. Shut her out and forget she’d ever come near. Because when the numbness was gone, when something pierced the cotton, it might as well be lightning across his senses. Leaving him burned, raw and out of control.
    Then God help everyone…
    Rick parked the truck with a loud cranking noise as he pulled up the brake. They all sat in place for endless seconds before he turned to stare into the cage.
    “Problem, Sheriff?” Carter was a cool one when he wanted to be, Cade had to admit.
    Then again, Frank Carter had this entire county in his pocket. So maybe he didn’t have any worries at all. Either that or he had no idea that Rick could kill him in two seconds flat…
    “What is it you have on her, Frank? Off the record. Shana’s smart. She knows better than to stick with a sack of shit like you. Why the hell won’t she throw your ass in jail?”
    Carter grinned, glancing back and forth as if the two of them were the ones locked in the cage. “Shana’s loyal, Trelane. You soldiers know the meaning of that word, don’t you?”
    Rick’s eyes narrowed at being called a soldier, but he held back the bristle even if Cade couldn’t. “Yeah? Then why do you keep beating the shit out of her?”
    The amiable glint went hard in a second. Less. “What happens between a man and his wife don’t have shit to do with you, cop.”
    “Every time you put your hands on her, it has everything to do with me. Next time, I may let my friend here do a little more than put you on your ass. See how you like it.”
    Cade kept his surprise off his face as best he could. Rick didn’t need anyone’s help in a fight.
    “You can bring all the fucked-up war buddies up here you want, Trelane. It’s not gonna change anything about this place. I’ll always have more money than you. More men than you. Hell, I got the whole goddamn town. Unlike you, they all know what’s good for