Safe in His Arms

Prologue

Mandy stared at the empty playground, surprised by all the changes. The big slide, its deep curve and metal slope providing hours of fun, no longer dominated the place. The swings weren’t even present. Instead a wooden structure—or maybe plastic-looking wooden structure—stood in the centre atop cedar shavings all corralled by a low yellow plastic kerb. Maybe the odd yellow plastic kept in all the wood from littering the grass, but it looked too confining as if it were stopping the play from spilling over outside its measured barrier.

Whatever,
she thought with a sigh. Everything changed, most not for the better. She’d driven over nineteen hours to reach this spot. She stood there, staring out over the Texas evening and felt…void. Empty.

She walked to where the slide would have been and perched on the steps leading to a round yellow tunnel connecting one part of the design to another. All of it was plastic. Rubbing her bare palm over the plastic step, she shook her head at the absurdity of it all. Someone had probably thought that old slide would hurt a kid, maybe it even had, but without those life lessons, how could people learn how strong they were?

Kids needed to trip and fall, or how could they ever learn to get back up when life threw some real punches?

Stupid whore. Did you think a woman like you was good enough for a man like Wolf? Bitch, he’s a hero, he deserves more than some slut’s daughter.

Mandy shivered. Under her jacket and sweater, a chill brushed her flesh. Her attacker reminded her of her stepdad Sarge, but with the added dose of evil her stepdad had always been too drunk to use. He’d always used his fists, not words to hurt her. Until her brother and Mac had put a stop to him.
Mac.
Just thinking his name brought a fresh rush of painful tears to her eyes. She blinked them back and refused to let them past the emptiness filling her.

She stared out beyond the deserted playground and dusk lining the trees to a memory from her past. Thunderstorms flashed through her mind, and the image of Mac as a rag-tag teenage boy offering to take her nightmares away.

Only he gave you a completely new set, didn’t he?

Frowning at the thought, she hugged her arms over her chest and rocked a bit on the step. Mac hadn’t meant to hurt her. He’d been trying to comfort her after her brother’s death. Mac was a hero. Her attacker had been right about that, he was a hero. He’d also been all she’d ever wanted but could never have. He liked brunettes, tall, leggy, dark-haired women. She knew that now. She’d watched him letting one go down on him in a bar instead of coming back to her as he’d promised.

‘Fuck, this was a mistake, Mandy.’

His husky words, so full of regret, still brought a sting of shame to her cheeks. She’d pushed him, hadn’t she? Pushed for more until he’d given it to her, then made promises she didn’t give him time to fulfil.

‘I have to go, but we’ll discuss this when I get back. I promise I’ll explain it all then, okay?’

She cut off the painful memories, forcing herself to think of something else, but still her mind swirled with the feel of him, the sight and sound, and oh, God, the taste of him. She’d had him, in her arms, so warm and real, so right.

In the end, he hadn’t needed to explain anything, had he? None of that mattered now. She’d never see him again, never stare into his handsome face, never stand by and watch him while he kept her at a distance. She should have known when Rob died that Mac had simply wanted to comfort her, not start a relationship with her. Sex did not equal a relationship. She knew that. But Mac…

Yeah, but with Mac she couldn’t remember a time since she’d met him right here, in this playground, that she’d not loved him.

She stood quickly, hearing something behind her, and spun to confront two little kids, a boy and a younger girl, both staring at her with big, startled eyes. Heck, she probably was staring at them the same way.

“Sorry, you startled me.” Her muscles screamed out in protest at the quick move. The bruises and torn skin burned but she sucked down the pain and tried to smile and not frighten the kids.

The girl grinned back and giggled. “We did? You sure move fast,” she said.

“You’re not from here, huh?” the boy asked, frowning up at her past his dark, thick bangs.

“No, I’m just visiting. I used to live here, though,” she offered, gesturing carefully off to the right where she’d lived with her brother Rob and Sarge. And Mac. He’d moved in after that first night. He’d even moved with them to Florida. But then he’d enlisted and left.