MILLS & BOON

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      Daniel answered, “O king, live forever!

      My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight.

      —Daniel 6:21, 22

      This book is dedicated to the caring and talented

       physical therapists at Lancaster General Hospital’s

      Columbia Medical Center, without whose

       help this book wouldn’t have been written.

      CONTENTS

      CHAPTER ONE

      CHAPTER TWO

      CHAPTER THREE

      CHAPTER FOUR

      CHAPTER FIVE

      CHAPTER SIX

      CHAPTER SEVEN

      CHAPTER EIGHT

      CHAPTER NINE

      CHAPTER TEN

      CHAPTER ELEVEN

      CHAPTER TWELVE

      CHAPTER THIRTEEN

      CHAPTER FOURTEEN

      CHAPTER FIFTEEN

      CHAPTER SIXTEEN

      CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

      CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

      QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

      ONE

      Somewhere in New Jersey

      “What part of ‘The mob’s got a contract on you’ do you not understand?”

      Dan’s whispered question didn’t faze the stunning blonde at his side. She shrugged. “I understand you’re trying to do your job, Mr. FBI Special Agent Maddox, but you should remember I’ve lived with these people all my life.”

      He went to press his point, but she cut him off.

      “Do you really think they don’t know where to find me?” She tossed her tawny mane. “They have more arms into more places, people and things than a family of octopuses…octopi?”

      Dan looked around at the innocent bystanders, busy pretending not to listen. Why did he always get the nutcases? “How about this, Carlotta—”

      “Hold it right there! Your memory’s not so hot, is it? I’ve asked you and asked you not to call me that. Carlie—that’s what you want to call me. It’s not so hard, is it? Try it, you might like it.”

      Her wink nearly sent his patience over the edge. “Do you ever take anything seriously?”

      “Yes,” she said, her eyes intent, her voice warm and vibrant. “I take God seriously. And then I leave the rest to Him.”

      Dan had heard this kind of crazy illogic before. David Latham, one of his closest friends and a fellow agent in the Philadelphia Organized Crime Unit, was a gung ho religion sellout. Then, after a recent case, his partner, J.Z. Prophet, went and married another one. To really throw him for a loop, J.Z. succumbed to the lure of false confidence in the same philosophical game of mirrors, and was now one of them.

      “You go ahead and do that,” Dan said, in a low voice. “But while you’re in the Witness Protection Program, you better leave the driving to me—so to speak.”

      She rolled her large brown eyes. “Speaking of driving—”

      “Would you please lower your voice? People are staring, and we don’t want to draw attention to you.”

      Carlotta—Carlie—laughed. Here he was, trying to keep the crazy woman alive, and she laughed.

      He tried again. “Don’t laugh like that. Keep it quiet. I just told you we don’t want to draw attention—”

      “Just look—at where,” she gasped between laughs, “we are. Then you tell me who’s causing the commotion.”

      Dan pressed his forehead against the aggressively pink door frame. “I know, I know, I know. But that’s the whole point. Why did you feel the need to come—”

      “Simple,” she said. “I love nice nails, and mine looked like fence posts after a dust storm. So where did you want me to go? A drive-in lube shop?”

      From the corner of his eye, Dan caught the fascinated stares of the nail techs, noses and mouths covered with baby-blue dust masks, and the dozen or so women in various stages of acquiring lethal prongs on the tips of their killer claws.

      He took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s go. We’ve overstayed our questionable welcome.”

      “But I’m not done yet.”

      “Oh, yes you are.” Dan grasped her upper arm and urged her toward the—what else?—pink door. “And I don’t mean the paint on the nails either.”

      “But I have no color—”

      “Believe me, you don’t lack in that department.” He glanced at the talons on her hands. “Even when your nails look like the glow-in-the-dark fake ones kids wear.”

      “How dare you? These are the finest acrylic—”

      “You want to die for plastic nails?”

      That finally made her pause. “Well, no. Of course I don’t.” She took a step toward the bubble-gum-colored front door. “But I’m not willing to live a shadow life either.”

      Dan took advantage of her forward motion and took hold of her hand. Carlie confounded him when she called out over her shoulder, “Bye, Dianna. Take care of little Davey, Sarah. Shonna, remember to tell your mom to try the echinacea for that cold. And Trish? Dump the jerk. He’s not worth it—”

      “What are you doing?” He turned to stare at her. “Who are all those women? How do you know them all?”

      “I’m saying goodbye. Don’t you do that when you leave?”

      “Why did you come to a place where you’ve been before? Don’t you realize that’s the quickest way for your brother’s pals to get you?”

      “I didn’t come back to where anyone knew me. This is the first time I’ve been here.”

      Why me? “So how do you know about the mother’s cold or the other one’s jerk?”

      “I don’t know. I said hi, and we got to talking. It’s not just about the nails, you know.”

      “But you still risked your life for them.”

      “I told you I don’t want to die for my nails.”

      He led them out of the shop and to his Bureau-issue car. “I’m glad you’re not ready to die for plastic. And that shadow life you mentioned isn’t a forever thing. All we need is a conviction on your husband’s