Authors: Christina Dodd

Tags: #Contemporary romantic suspense, #Fiction

Virtue Falls (58 page)

“Ew.” Kateri didn’t want to go for more than one reason. “Do we have to? They’re auctioning off that ocean painting from Bradley Hoff … sick bastard.”

“Bidding is expecting to start at one hundred thousand dollars.”

“Bradley Hoff wasn’t the only sick bastard,” she observed.

“True. Who would want one of his paintings in their living room?” Luis started down the hill, and turning back, he shouted, “Ten minutes!”

When he was out of sight, she turned to the ocean. “Ten minutes. How do I express my feelings in ten minutes? How do I ask …
what the hell were you thinking?
I’m half Native American. My parents were divorced. My mother drank herself to death. I worked and challenged myself every day of my life. I became the commander of a Coast Guard station. I dedicated myself to the ocean, to knowing the currents, to worshipping the storms, to saving people’s lives. It wasn’t as if I didn’t know suffering, or hard work, or emotional turmoil—I did. Then you dragged me out of my cutter, broke me into pieces, drowned me, revived me, made me live through a rebirth … and for what? For what? So Landon Fucking Adams from Snob-ass, New York, could take my place as the commander of my Coast Guard station? So the United States government, which I swore to protect and uphold, could take Landon Fucking Adams’s lying, cheating testimony and sue me for incompetence in the loss of my cutter?” She closed her eyes, swallowed, and coughed. Sometimes, when she got excited, she felt as if she was drowning again.

She started again, more slowly, more quietly. “Sure. Witnesses came forward and said he was lying, that he’s the reason I couldn’t make it through the breakwater before the tsunami hit, and he was covering his ass. I got acquitted of all charges. But the assholes in town say stuff like ‘Where there’s smoke, there’s fire’ and ‘That Kateri, she’s American Indian, and her mother died an alcoholic,’ like that has anything to do with me. And the government, who knows Landon Fucking Adams slandered me, has given him my command.
My
command.” She put her hand over her heart. “He doesn’t know the West Coast. He’s going to get somebody killed. He only got the job because his uncle got reelected to Congress. I’m humiliated for myself and afraid for my men. But you don’t care, do you? You don’t care.” Into her mind floated those huge eyes, that gaping mouth coming closer and closer.

She should be afraid to challenge the frog god.

But what was he going to do? Kill her again?

“Care,” she whispered. “If you don’t care about me, I demand you care about my men.”

The earth quivered.

“Yes, you hear me. I know you do.” She sat quietly and gathered her thoughts. “My people tell me the frog god has a plan for me. My people think I make the earth shake, and they sort of worship me now. Which is damned uncomfortable, let me tell you. Also, the medical staff in Seattle are afraid of me. Not that the scientific types admit it, but they are. I know this because … sometimes I know things.” Up to now, she hadn’t even admitted that to herself—and she hated it.

She said, “I’m up to my ass in legal fees. The government would prefer if I bite it so they don’t have to pay the cost of my rehabilitation. I’ve got two new hips, a new partial knee, and a physical therapist who tells me I’ll never walk unaided again.” She moved the footrests out of the way. She put her feet firmly on the ground. She placed her hands on arms of her wheelchair. Slowly she hoisted herself into the standing position.

She took her first step in a year.

She took her second step. And her third. And her fourth.

She lifted her feet abnormally high. Balance was a challenge. Pain struck in the atrophied muscles.

Strength of will made up for it all.

The wind blew. The waves crashed. The earth quivered.

She braced her feet.

She lifted her fists to the sea, and shouted, “I’m here. I’m alive. I can walk. So tell me the plan. Show me the plan. You wrote the plan. Now I demand to know!”

ALSO BY CHRISTINA DODD

Candle in the Wind

Treasure of the Sun

Castles in the Air

Priceless

Greatest Lover in All England

Move Heaven and Earth

Once a Knight

Outrageous

A Knight to Remember

That Scandalous Evening

The Runaway Princess

Someday My Prince

Rules of Surrender

Rules of Engagement

Rules of Attraction

In My Wildest Dreams

Lost in Your Arms

A Well Pleasured Lady

My Favorite Bride

Scandalous Again

Just the Way You Are

One Kiss from You

Almost Like Being in Love

A Well Favored Gentleman

Some Enchanted Evening

Close to You

The Barefoot Princess

Dangerous Ladies

Trouble in High Heels

The Prince Kidnaps a Bride

Tongue in Chic

My Fair Temptress

Scent of Darkness

Touch of Darkness

Thigh High

Into the Shadow

Into the Flame

Danger in a Red Dress

Storm of Visions

Storm of Shadows

In Bed with the Duke

Chains of Ice

Chains of Fire

Taken by the Prince

Secrets at Bella Terra

Revenge at Bella Terra

Betrayal

The Smuggler’s Captive Bride

Last Night

Kidnapped

Wilder

Wild Texas Rose

Stone Angel

Lady in Black

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christina Dodd’s fifty novels have been translated into twenty-five languages, featured by Doubleday Book Club, recorded on Books on Tape for the Blind, won Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart and RITA Awards, and been called the year’s best by
Library Journal
. Dodd herself has been a clue in the
Los Angeles Times
crossword puzzle. With more than fifteen million copies of her books in print, her legions of fans always know that when they pick up a Christina Dodd book, they’ve found “an absolute thrill ride of a book!”

Enter Christina’s worlds and join her FREE mailing list for news, exclusive excerpts, and book sales at her web site, at
www.christinadodd.com
.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

www.stmartins.com

Cover design by Ervin Serrano

Cover photographs by
Shutterstock.com
and Andre Jenny/Alamy

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dodd, Christina.