Never Say Never, Part One (Second Chance Romance, Book 1) Read Free

ruined.  
    She gathered up what was left of her makeup, snatched her keys off the sidewalk and turned to check what she’d bumped into.  
    It was a man. He lay face down in the dirt, and there was a pool of blood beneath his head.  
    “Shit!” Emily hurried to the body – god, please let it not be a dead body – then knelt beside him and dropped her cursed bag again.  
    He had dark hair and wore a suit. It was ripped open at the back.  
    No. It couldn’t be.  
    Emily wrestled him onto his side, and checked his air passage was clear. It was the suited jerk from The Tease, the nipple flicker. His jaw was slightly skew and he bled from a gash along his cheekbone.  
    She fumbled for his pulse and a soft flutter beat against her fingers.  
    “Thank God,” she breathed. If he’d died because of her nipples, she’d have been consumed with guilt. “Phone, phone, I need a phone.”
    Hers was back at home – she never took it to the club – but the road was clear of pedestrians. Flagging down a car was out of the question, but she couldn’t let him die here. What if he had a concussion?  
    Emily fumbled through his jacket pockets and brought out a wallet and a set of keys. She slipped them back where they’d come from and checked his pants next, coloring a little. This was a sight for passersby – a stripper digging through an unconscious man’s pants like a common criminal.  
    “Ah!” It was a smartphone and it was miraculously unharmed. She fiddled with the touchscreen and ground her teeth impatiently, technology wasn’t her strong suit, then managed to bring up a dialer.  
    911.
    “911, What is your emergency?” The male voice on the end of the line was calm, and it helped slow her breathing.  
    “Hi, yes, I found a man who’s been badly beaten. I think he might have a concussion or something.”  
    “Does the man have a pulse?”  
    Emily touched the stubble along his jawline and he moaned softly. “Yes, he’s alive. Please send an ambulance.”
    “What is your location?”  
    “Queens Plaza North, Long Island City.” She glanced around and the blood in her veins turned to shards of ice. A man stood in the shadows nearby; he was massive. And bald.  
    “Can you be more specific, ma’am?”  
    “It’s near The Tease. I don’t know the specific address.” She searched the buildings for a number and spotted brass lettering on an apartment block across the road. “We’re across from number 2403.”  
    “I’ve dispatched an ambulance and a squad car to that address,” the 911 controller answered, “Ma’am, can you stay with him?”  
    Emily glared at the shadowy figure nearby and gripped the phone to her ear; she squared her shoulders. “Yes. But hurry, his pulse is very faint.” She hung up and plopped the phone in her open bag.  
    The man in the dark hadn’t moved since she’d noticed him, but terror crept in. Who knew what he wanted from her. Money, murder, rape; they were concepts she didn’t want to familiarize herself with.  
    She’d been through enough.  
    Emily laid a hand on the beaten jerk’s arm and held him in place. Big Nick had obviously beaten the poor guy senseless after his foray in the club and that made this partly her fault.  
    The suit moaned in delusion, “Beautifaaa –”  
    She patted him lightly to keep him calm, not that he could be anything but calm whilst in a semi-coma with a bump the size of a baseball on his tan forehead – that would hurt in the morning.
    Movement caught her eye and she snapped her attention to the stranger standing nearby. He’d lit a cigarette, the red coal glowered at her, and moved a few paces closer, but he was still hidden.  
    A couple cars raced by and she squinted in the light, trying to make the watcher’s features out. He had a jacket on. God, was it Big Nick? Had he come to exact the damn payment from her already?  
    She pressed a hand to her stomach and pleaded silently for help.
    The stranger took