My Russian Hero Read Free Page A

Tonight he left clothes laid out on your bed, and the gift box with a dead kitten inside speaks volumes about what he wants to accomplish. He has big plans for you. Without knowing his identity, it is difficult to catch him… but there are other options for you.”
    “I can’t live like this,” I said, my voice shaky, on edge. “I just want to get far away from here. Somewhere he can’t find me. I just want to leave this messed-up life behind.” I choked back a sob. “I just want to be someone else, someone this guy doesn’t know, someone he can’t find, someone he doesn’t even know exists.”
    Margo smiled at me. “I think I can help you with that.”
    “What” I had been rambling, barely aware of what I had been saying. Be someone else? It was just a fantasy. “What do you mean?”
    “I mean you can have that fresh start, if you really want it.”
    “I do,” I said, almost shouting. It seemed too good to be true. “I really do.”
    Just like that, it was done, my old life left behind. Margo got me into the special victims of crime program, which was similar to the government’s witness relocation program. I was given a new identity and a new life. I welcomed the idea, the opportunity to begin my life again. It was hard to leave behind everything and everyone I knew, but it was a price I was willing to pay.
    And that’s when the life of Caroline Douglas faded from existence. That’s how I got my new name and new life. My name is Danielle “Dani” McCade. I am strong. I am powerful. I am a survivor.
     

“I’m a survivor, at least that’s what everyone tells me.”
    - Courtney Love
     

Chapter One
     
    Four Years Later
    The life Dani once knew had become a distant memory, hiding like a small child in a garden maze. It peeked around the blooming flowers and pristinely manicured greenery, winking at her, reminding her that who she is – or rather the life she now lived – could all fall apart in the blink of an eye. Thoughts like this sent chills down Dani’s spine, even on a warm spring day like today.
    She’d spent the last four years settling into her new life. The first year was the most difficult by far. Everything that had happened, and all that Dani had been through as a result, created a whole new way of looking at the bigger picture that was her life. It was hard as hell to trust anyone, to allow another person to get close to her. The worst was having to share a dorm room with someone... even another girl.
    What was so bad about having a roommate? Well, it’s simple; girls date boys in college, and Dani knew her roommate, Zoe, would have wanted them to attend all the college parties, to go on double dates, and have a thrilling college experience. Dani had wanted that too, but she had been forever changed in all the ways a girl could be changed.
    Did Dani McCade date? Not really! Letting a man close to her had been difficult in the beginning. As much as she wanted to set herself free and let a man close in the way a woman needs was frightfully difficult. She just wasn’t ready for a long time...but now, after so much time, has passed, Dani yearned for the touch only a man could provide, that heat that spreads like a wild fire burning out of control as your body throbs, seeking release. She was so damn ready to cut loose and take her life back.
    Zoe, along with the advice offered by Margo Waters, helped me to heal, to prepare myself, to let someone new come into my life. I was desperate for male companionship, you know. I needed someone to love me, warts and all, someone that could hear my story and not run for the hills in fear, a man that could be trusted.
    Zoe taught Dani to trust her judgement, to see that not all men were bad. Zoe wasn’t aware that during the first year of their friendship that she was helping Dani, but she did and she still does. Dani loves her friend dearly for that. Dani’s main problem was that she was just so damn afraid that he would find her and catch