Relentless Flame (Hell to Pay) Read Free

frustration when she didn’t give in to his obvious pass—those lips made her wonder what she’d been missing all these years.
    She had watched several female customers—and one male—sidle past Dante with a touch on his massive arm, a whisper, or a press of paper into his hand. A wink, accidentally brushing into him, licked lips, tossed hair—he had politely ignored all of the advances.
    But then he had looked at her with what appeared to be male interest. In her twenty-four years on this Earth, she’d never encountered someone this handsome and persistent.
    Seriously?
    She examined her shapeless but neat thrift-store clothing—appropriate for work but no one would accuse her of being a fashionista. Heck, no bumps or curves pushed the fabric in any enticing pattern. Her clothes went straight from her shoulders to the floor.
    Guys like Dante did not go for her.
    No guys went for her. For the past four years, she’d rejected the few men who had showed even the slightest interest. She refused to allow anyone to come close. Not with her stepfather, Ray, still out there. Not with what he’d done and what she had to hide.
    Even now, she jumped at shadows and sounds, paralyzed stupid by fear. But her fear was warranted. One day, if she relaxed her vigilance, Ray would again find her and her brother, Scott. It didn’t matter that she’d changed their names. Jess—no, Hannah, damn it. Flustered as she was by Dante, she had to make a conscious effort to maintain her identity, even in her own mind. In truth, the woman that stared back at her in the mirror was no longer Jessica Miller. Jessica had disappeared four years ago in Philly, never to be seen again.
    Didn’t matter that she and Scott had fled from Philly to Portland. Ray was out of jail. And he was pissed.
    She reached down to rub the ridge of scar and misshapen bones on her right foot. The sole remained numb, and the top of the foot still ached when the weather changed. Even with surgery, the damage remained. At least bones could be pinned and skin stitched together. Other injuries weren’t as obvious.
    Geez. Snap out of the pity party already.
    But she couldn’t help herself. She peered into the mirror, trying to imagine what Dante had seen. Brown eyes behind rectangular glasses looked back at her. Freckles splattered across her pale face. Her dull clothing. The weight she’d lost when ... everything happened had never returned to her frame. Four years of fear, of waiting for him to return. She never relaxed her vigilance.
    Had it really been four years since she and Scott ran away? How long would it take to have a normal life?
    At this rate? Never.
    Damn Ray to hell.
    Damn her for not being able to move on with her life.
    Would she ever have a normal relationship with a man? Logically, she acknowledged that there were good guys out there who could be trusted. Maybe Dante was one of them. Beyond the swagger, she could see ... more. And oddly enough, he didn’t scare her, which was a first. He made her laugh with his attempts at flirting, but for all his massive bulk and impressive height, her reaction to him wasn’t fear. It was interest.
    Interest. Now there was a new and terrifying emotion.
    What about trusting herself? Problematic. The minefield of her physical wreckage paled in comparison with the emotional damage. Maybe one day she’d get over it, but that wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon.
    Past traumas aside, how would she explain her fake last name, attempted murder, and larceny? How would she explain withholding her strange power?
    She shook her head. She’d never open up that piece of her life to anyone, would never tell what she and Scott had done to get away from Ray. Better to avoid a serious relationship rather than risk rejection or, even worse, discovery.
    Oh yeah, I’ll be going steady with Mr. Gold’s Gym Meets an Archangel by week’s end.
    Why try to change her life now? Jobs, a few college courses—she and her brother were