ACCUSED OF MURDER
After four years in prison for crimes she didn’t commit, Catherine Miller just wants to lie low at her isolated farmhouse. But someone still thinks she’s guilty—and should pay the ultimate price. Someone angry enough to spray-paint murderer on her home and attack her in broad daylight. Her neighbor, former navy SEAL Darius Osborne, vows to hunt down her predator. The handsome security contractor has as harrowing a past as Catherine’s, and won’t let anyone get too close. Yet with a cold-blooded killer on her trail, they’ll get closer than either ever imagined.
Darius approached cautiously, his senses alert, his nerves alive with anticipation.
A red shoe print marred one whitewashed floorboard, and letters were painted across the width of the porch floor, covered with a thin layer of white paint.
Murderer.
Had the person who’d attacked Catherine vandalized the property first? He frowned, stepping into the foyer.
A small sound made the hair on his neck stand on end, and Darius paused, listening to footsteps on wood flooring. A floorboard on the stair creaked, and he eased back into the room.
A shadow moved across the open doorway, and he lunged, tackling the intruder. He slid his forearm across a soft throat, pressing just enough to stop his squirming, wiggling captive.
Red hair.
Pale face.
Dark blue eyes.
Catherine!
He backed away, panting hard, and offered a hand to pull her to her feet. “You’re supposed to be at my place,” he said. “Someone just tried to kill you.” He didn’t bother keeping exasperation from his voice.
Catherine frowned. “He’s gone,” she whispered.
“Maybe.”
SHIRLEE McCOY
has always loved making up stories. As a child, she daydreamed elaborate tales in which she was the heroine—gutsy, strong and invincible. Though she soon grew out of her superhero fantasies, her love for storytelling never diminished. She knew early that she wanted to write inspirational fiction, and she began writing her first novel when she was a teenager. Still, it wasn’t until her third son was born that she truly began pursuing her dream of being published. Three years later, she sold her first book. Now a busy mother of five, Shirlee is a homeschool mom by day and an inspirational author by night. She and her husband and children live in the Pacific Northwest and share their house with a dog, two cats and a bird. You can visit her website, www.shirleemccoy.com, or email her at [email protected].
Navy SEAL Rescuer
Shirlee McCoy
MILLS & BOON
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Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.
—Psalms 31:2
To my children.
There is nothing I enjoy more than being your mother!
Contents
ONE
MURDERER!
Red letters dripped like blood down the front of the freshly painted house.
Smaller letters marched across the newly whitewashed porch floor.
Murderer.
The painted words seemed to taunt Catherine Miller as she trudged to the back of the old farmhouse and grabbed two nearly empty paint cans from the dilapidated shed. Hopefully, she had enough to cover the vandalism. She snagged a couple of paint pans, tucked paint rollers under her arm and carried everything to the