No Quarter Given (SSE 667) Read Free Page A

report. She looked disheveled and in need of some care. Internally, Griff chastised himself. He'd gotten out of divorce court only six months ago. Carol, his ex-wife, had appeared strong and capable. But during the five years of their disastrous marriage, Griff had discovered his wife was a clinger, not a woman who could stand on her own two feet as his equal. Carol had fooled him completely. Sensing what he'd wanted, she'd become that for him while they were dating. He was a brash, cocky, fighter pilot who'd earned his wings out of Annapolis. Carol, an only child from a banking family, had fallen in love with his image; he'd fallen in love with her facade.
    Disgusted with himself, Griff forced himself to look away from Dana. She had the face of an angel, with eyes the color of the sky he loved to fly in. And that mouth of hers... Groaning to himself, Griff wondered if the adrenaline flow was making him unusually responsive to her. Hadn't he learned his lesson about being drawn to women too quickly?
    The police officer rose, giving Dana a hand to her feet. She brushed off the seat of her pants. A young woman came up, offering her a Kleenex for her bloody forearm. Quietly thanking her, Dana looked up at the officer.
    "May I go now?"
    "We've got your address, Ms. Coulter. When and if Mrs. Biddle presses charges against this guy, we'll be in touch."
    "Okay." Dana looked past the policeman. Griff was being kept busy by the other officer, who was taking his report.
    "Look, you sure you're okay? The ambulance will be here in just a minute. Maybe you ought to go to Emergency and get checked over. That's quite a shiner you've got in the making."
    Forcing a slight smile for the officer's benefit, Dana said, "I'll be fine." Then she disappeared into the crowd. Right now, all she wanted was to escape Griff's gray, eagle gaze. Her instincts told her he wanted to be sure she was all right. Dana wavered between disbelief and fear that a man honestly could be concerned about her. She picked up her luggage and hailed a taxi, ignoring the stunned look of the driver. Collapsing in the back seat, she gave the cabbie the address where her roommates, Maggie and Molly, awaited her.
    Dana ignored the pain it cost her to sit forward and look across the crowd. Griff stood tall and straight, his shoulders thrown back with natural pride—an eagle among a bunch of chattering blackbirds, Dana thought tiredly. As she sank back again, closing her eyes, his gray eyes haunted her heart. Her tightly coiled emotions begged to explode outward in a sob. Suddenly Dana realized just how tired she was—a kind of bone-deep exhaustion that frightened her more than men did.
    She ignored the sunny April weather, the humidity, and the tropical foliage that lined the wide boulevards. Coming to Whiting Field to face her ultimate test had been the culmination of the past four years of her life. Her mother, Ann Coulter, had finally found the courage to divorce her father, Frank. Even her best friends, Maggie and Molly, knew little of her abusive childhood. It was something she was ashamed of; something she wanted no one to know about. Griff's harsh features swam in front of her tired eyes. An eagle with the heart of a dove. Was that possible? Did any man own a heart sensitive to anyone other than himself? Something inside her wanted to believe that Griff might.
    Griff... His voice had soothed the pain in her cheek and the ache in her head. How badly Dana wanted simply to sit and talk to him, to find out more about him. But she would never see him again. A terrible sadness overwhelmed Dana. She could have stayed at the airport and waited for him to come back to her. But she'd been frightened by the way he affected her strewn senses. Never would she give her power away to a man again.
    ***
    "Where is she?" Griff demanded, craning his neck.
    "Who?"
    "The woman who tackled the thief."
    The cop looked around and shrugged. "Dunno, Lieutenant. I told her she was free to