They say young love doesn't last, but a girl from the wrong side of the tracks with unique abilities and the hometown golden boy were determined to defy the odds. For Zack Covington, Anna-Grace—his "Gracie"—was the one. But one night forever altered the course of their future; when a devastated Gracie disappeared without a trace, Zack was left to agonize over what happened to the girl he loved. As the years passed, his desperate efforts to find her uncovered nothing.
Now working for Devereaux Security, he stumbles across a painting featuring a special place only he and Gracie would know. The image is too perfectly rendered for it to be coincidence. His Gracie must be alive. When he comes face to face with her, he is shocked—and heartbroken—to discover the wounded shell of the girl he once knew and still loves. Her psychic gifts are gone, and worse, she believes he betrayed her all those years ago.
Zack has enemies, and once his weakness is discovered, Gracie becomes a target for revenge. He'll have to save her before he can earn her trust and her love. And he vows they'll never be torn apart again.
Chapter 1
Zack Covington simmered with impatience as he waited for the go signal from his
teammates. He didn’t exactly know what was going on in the basement of the
McMansion—one not unlike he’d once dreamed of building for the girl he’d
planned to spend forever with—but knew it wasn’t good. Sometimes bad lurked in
seemingly benign locations. People existed in denial it could happen in their
little corner of the earth. How very wrong they were.
It was a lesson he’d learned the learned the hard way. Coming from a small town
nestled against the shores of Kentucky Lake, he’d thought—just as most of its
citizens, likely—that they were impervious to bad. And Zack? He was more
confident than most, because his father was the chief of police, and he’d grown
up knowing his father’s job was to ensure the safety of the town, regardless of
size.
But he’d damn sure failed when it came to Gracie. Everyone had failed her and
Zack had lead the pack. His father’s refusal to use county resources on someone
who didn’t belong anyway had caused a rift between him and his father that to
this day hadn’t been mended.
It never would be.
Zack sighed as he contemplated the stately homes, the expensive cars, swimming
pools behind high privacy fences and the immaculately landscaped yards. The
white collar families who resided in the gated community that boasted top notch
security would be horrified to know that evil lurked in their midst. The irony
of it all, was that the affluent neighborhood had recently been voted the
safest and most desirable communities to live in the greater Houston area.
Hell, it had scored in the top five in the entire state of Texas and in the top
twenty for the whole country. So yeah, these people were utterly convinced that
they were safe.
But he knew better. Inside was a child. Just a baby. Well, not so much a baby
as she was only two years younger than his Gracie. Goddamn it. Not here. Not
now. It was no time for the past to intrude. Besides Gracie was hardly the
beautiful, innocent sixteen year old girl he’d loved over a decade ago. She’d
be twenty-eight now.
If she was even alive.
And she wasn’t “his” Gracie anymore. She wasn’t his anything.
Maybe he hadn’t been able to save Gracie. Maybe he’d failed her. But over his
dead body was he going to fail this young girl whose dreams were as big as the
sun. Not when the two most important people in her life—or at least should have
been the most important—had failed her in every possible way.
Alyssa Delacroix had been a very promising ballerina at a very early age, a
fact her mother had taken pride in when she’d participated in kindergarten
recitals, received high praise and glowing local and state accolades. Later,
when the demands of her training had encroached on both mother and father’s
social lives, Alyssa had fallen far down the list of their priorities.
Until the father had received pointed threats, aimed at Alyssa.
The Delacroix’s had five children with Alyssa being the middle child, with two
older brothers and two younger sisters. When Howard Delacroix had called in
DSS, it had disgusted Zack that the man seemed irritated, not that his daughter
was being threatened, but that he wasn’t the subject of the
threat. It was a blow to his ego that evidently he was not as important as his
daughter.
Pompous, arrogant pig who had no business having children. His wife was no
better. Zack could only dream of the life they had—a life he once thought
he would have—a houseful of children. Happy. And yet the
couple was more concerned with their social standing than the care of their
children.
They’d hired a nanny and it was the nanny who attended all sports events, dance
recitals and provided the love and support the parents should have. And now she
was dead, shot when trying to protect one of the younger Delacroix children
when masked men had burst into the auditorium where the dance recital was being
held, cut the lights, causing instant chaos when gunfire erupted.
The father? Had dropped like a fucking coward, hiding behind his wife,
while the nanny had saved his son. Zack would like to put a bullet right
between the asshole’s eyes for that alone.
The only reason Howard and Felicity Delacroix had even been there hadn’t been
to see their daughter shine. They’d attended solely because the CEO of another
oil company also had a daughter performing and Howard was in negotiations to
merge the two companies because the competitor was looking to retire and Howard
wanted to take over both companies and expand his “empire.” Hell, he and his
wife hadn’t even sat with their children, leaving the nanny to tend to them
while they sat a row back talking business while their daughters’ performed.
The target had been Alyssa. And Alyssa had been Zack’s responsibility. Hell,
she was all of DSS’s responsibility, but Zack had been the closest, and in the
clusterfuck that had ensued, a hysterical woman had blocked his pathway to
Alyssa, a mere foot away, getting shot in the process and Alyssa had been
abducted in a professionally executed hit.
This was no amateur operation, and Zack had to wonder why someone would go to
such lengths to kidnap the child of a high profile oil mogul when the man took
absolutely no security precautions, and if any research on Delacroix had been
done at all and ransom had been the aim, he would have been the obvious choice.
He’d give up a hell of a lot of money for his own life. But for his children?
Even Zack knew the answer to that, and he’d only briefly made the man’s
acquaintance. He’d despised him on site because he grudgingly had to part with
some of his precious money to protect his daughter for “appearance’s sake.”
After all, it wouldn’t do for it to get out that a father had ignored threats
to his child, and above all else, Howard Delacroix had an ego the size of the
state he resided in.
When the silence through his earpiece continued—and he’d already waited an
interminable amount of time—Zack lost what was left of his patience. Fuck it.
He was going in. The Delacroix’s may not give two fucks about their daughter,
but Zack did, and he wasn’t about to sit on his hands when each passing second
could mean the difference between life and death.
Stealthily, he crept toward the window of the guest room. DSS had pulled the
floor plans of the housing developments—they were cookie cutter houses after
all—and quietly inserted his knife around the edges and bottom of the window to
loosen the panes. Only when he was able to slide the window upward, did he
whisper into the com, “I’m in.”
He ignored the curses of Dane, heard an “about time” muttered by Eliza, while
Capshaw and Renfro said nothing at all.
Zack slid into the bedroom with ease and quickly drew his gun with silencer
attached with one hand and reached for a flash bang grenade with the other. He
knew the layout by heart having studied it until it was ingrained in his mind.
The house was eerily dark when he slipped from the bedroom, but in the
distance, the sound of a television could be heard. His partners could cover
the front. His aim was the lower level and he honed in on his target with
absolute focus.
A shadow appeared in his periphery and he immediately flattened himself against
the wall just as a man rounded the corner, heading directly toward Zack. A
quick assessment told him this wasn’t a resident of the house. He was dressed
in fatigues and a black shirt, a shoulder harness holding a pistol and several
Kevlar knives secured to his waist. What the fuck did these jokers want with a
fourteen-year-old girl? Were they running some sort of human trafficking ring?
And if so, why the one girl? There had been over two dozen
girls between the ages of eight and eighteen at the recital. In the utter chaos
that had ensued, they could have grabbed several others.
Zack yanked his gun up just as the other man spotted him and did the same. But
Zack had the element of surprise and only the thud of a dead body falling broke
the quiet.
“One down,” Zack said quietly into the comm. “And these guys are trained. Watch
your sixes.”
“Goddamn it, Zack,” Beau hissed. “Wait for back-up.”
“Alyssa may not have time for back-up,” Zack bit back, moving toward the
stairway at the end of the hall.
He paused at the top and peered downward, his ears straining for any sound to
indicate movement up the stairs. What he heard froze him to the core.
Soft weeping. The sound of pain and despair. And it broke his heart.
Resisting the urge to rush recklessly the rest of the way down the stairs, he
forced himself to take it step by step, making sure he made no sound as he
descended when his every instinct was to charge in and take out the fuckers
who’d taken and hurt an innocent child.
He paused at the bottom because there was only a small area between the bottom
of the stairwell and the wall. He would have to round the corner to enter the
larger area of the room. Where Alyssa was being held. Where soft weeping could
still be heard.
He couldn’t lob the flash bang grenade, because it would be devastating to
Alyssa, and she could be executed in a split second once her kidnappers were
aware they’d been found. As schooled as Zack believed them to be, they’d likely
been exposed to them before—and trained to withstand the effects while
adequately defending themselves. Or taking out the enemy.
Inhaling a quiet breath, he gripped his knife in his left hand and curled his
fingers on his right hand around the stock of the pistol, just brushing the
trigger. The sight that greeted him would live with him until his dying breath.
Alyssa, bloodied, bruised, pale with shock, eyes glazed with pain and the sheen
of tears was manacled to the brick chimney base. It was like something out of a
medieval horror movie.
But worse was seeing who her tormentor was.
Zack didn’t move. Didn’t so much as breathe, praying the girl holding a knife
to Alyssa’s neck wouldn’t be alerted to his presence and slice through the
delicate skin.
“Why are you doing this to me, Lana?” Alyssa whispered, choking on her tears as
she stared dully at her tormentor. “I thought we were friends!”
“Because with you out of the picture, I’ll be the best.
Not you,” the teenage girl hissed. “It’s always been about you. I’m
sick of hearing about how great Alyssa is. How talented. How you’re destined
for stardom. What does anyone say about me? Runner up. To you.
Always second place. Now I’ll be the star and no one will even remember your name.”
Always second place. Now I’ll be the star and no one will even remember your name.”
Jesus. Zack recognized the girl. She’d performed just before Alyssa, and
obviously displayed talent, but from the moment Alyssa had taken the stage, it
had been equally evident that Alyssa had clearly outshone the other girl.
The sheer hatred for Alyssa was obvious in her rival’s voice. The malicious
triumph in her voice sickened Zack. A thin rivulet of blood slipped down
Alyssa’s neck and she gave a small cry, more of distress and fear than of pain.
What was more horrifying was that there was no way this girl could have pulled
off a plan so flawlessly. Nor would she have knowledge of such men capable of
executing a professional hit. Which meant her parents not only knew what was
happening in the basement of their home but had likely masterminded the entire
event.
Zack had to act fast. He was very good at reading people and he didn’t doubt
for a second that the jealous teenage girl would kill Alyssa if he didn’t step
in now. In no way did he want to kill a teenage girl, just a child—but no, this
was no child. She was a cold-blooded psychopath who thought nothing of removing
someone she perceived as competition.
And then the decision was ripped from him when Alyssa glanced past her captor
and betrayed his presence by widening her eyes in alarm. Thankfully, the girl
lowered the knife and turned, perhaps thinking he was one of the men who’d
abducted Alyssa. But when her gaze settled on him, she raised the hand holding
the knife, her expression so vicious it gave him chills. Then she turned,
clearly directing the knife toward Alyssa’s chest.
It all happened in a split second, and yet it was as though everything was in
slow motion.
Alyssa screamed, straining sideways to avoid the wicked edge of the knife. Zack
fired, his aim precise, penetrating Lana’s arm just above the wrist, causing
the knife to drop. Lana’s scream mimicked Alyssa’s own and yet the obvious pain
the bullet wound must have caused didn’t deter her from her determined
vendetta.
She lunged at Alyssa, scratching furiously at Alyssa’s face while her other
hand hung uselessly at her side.
Goddamn it!
Zack hurled himself forward, grabbing a fistful of the hell cat’s hair and
yanked her back. In his ear, two voices were demanding a status report. He
ignored both, more worried about defending Alyssa from further harm if someone
not on his team came down the stairs.
“I’ll kill you!” Lana screamed, turning her fury on Zack.
And just as suddenly, her anger turned to triumph as she turned a spiteful look
in Alyssa’s direction.
“You’re too late anyway,” she said smugly.
Zack didn’t pause to consider what the crazy ass girl meant. He shoved her down
into a nearby chair and handcuffed her uninjured wrist to the arm. This time it
was she who gave away the presence of another. Relief flared in her eyes and
Zack immediately dropped and rolled toward Alyssa, placing his body between her
and any possible threat.
His gun was up and he didn’t hesitate when he saw a man who was similarly
attired as the one Zack had already taken down on the upper level. He didn’t
have time to go for the kill shot but put a bullet in the assailant’s upper
leg. Judging by the blood pumping from the wound as the man went down, it was
likely Zack had hit his femoral artery. If that was the case, the man was
finished and would bleed out in a matter of seconds.
Still, not one to assume anything, he took aim and put a second bullet through
the downed man’s neck.
“Goddamn it, where the fuck is everyone?” Zack demanded, addressing his
teammates for the first time. “Alyssa’s in the basement and two of the
kidnappers are dead. Anyone care to offer some back up here?”
“Well, if you’d been a little more patient, you’d have gotten your back up,”
Dane said dryly.
“If I’d waited any longer, Alyssa would be dead right now,” Zack snapped.
“We’ve cleared the main level,” Eliza broke in. “On our way now. And Zack, this
is some fucked up shit we’re dealing with.”
“You don’t even know the half of it,” Zack said grimly.
Satisfied that he’d encounter no further nasty surprises, Zack picked himself
up and quickly freed Alyssa’s wrists, using the key lying on a table just a few
feet away. As soon as she was free, she threw her arms around him and sobbed
into his neck. He closed his eyes, cupping the back of her head as he gently stroked
her hair.
“It’s all right now, sweetheart. You’re safe now.”
“No it’s not,” she said with gulping sobs. “It’ll never be all
right again.”
She clung tightly to him her grief causing a knot to form in Zack’s throat. The world was filled with all kinds of sick, twisted fucks, but even this had the power to surprise him. That someone so young was so evil and…sick. He didn’t have words.”
“Can you get up or do you need me to carry you?” Zack said, using a soothing, calming voice. “How badly are you hurt?”
At his question, she completely fell apart, her cries so hopeless that it enraged him that such innocence had been destroyed. But even then, he wasn’t prepared for her answer.
“She broke my knees,” Alyssa sobbed. “She made it so I’ll never dance again. Dancing was all I had and now it’sgone. She was supposed to be my friend. We were going to room together, go to the same performing arts academy. Oh God. What if I never walk again?”
Zack went utterly still with shock. As gently as he could, considering he was shaking with rage, he pulled her away, just enough that he could evaluate her legs. He hadn’t seen them before. He’d been too focused on Lana and the knife she’d held and the fear in Alyssa’s eyes.
And what he saw horrified him.
The leotards she’d worn in her recital were torn and bloodied, impossibly stretched by massive swelling caused by trauma to the kneecaps. He’d never felt so sick in his life. Not since the day…
He shook his head, refusing to go back to that time in his life. There was a young girl who needed him right now. He was all that had stood between her and death. And to her, such a devastating injury was tantamount to death.
He very carefully slid one arm underneath her thighs, above the backs of her knees and below her behind and the secured his other arm around her upper body, hooking it underneath her armpit.
“This will hurt, honey, but I have to get you out of here and to a hospital where it’s safe. Perhaps your injuries aren’t as severe as you fear.”
Devastation and doubt were clear in her tear-swollen eyes, but she clamped her lips shut and leaned into him, not uttering a single sound as he lifted her and carried her past Lana who was still handcuffed to the chair.
“What about me?” Lana shrieked. “You shot me!”
Zack turned his cold gaze on her, ensuring Alyssa’s head was tucked firmly beneath his chin, her face buried against his neck so she would no longer have to lay eyes on her torturer.
“Sue me,” he growled.
I love a second chance story, but Zack and Gracie's story broke my heart. The reason for their separation twelve years ago is unknown to Zack, but it has made Gracie afraid of him. Unfortunately this tragic event is kept a secret for a large part of the book and it makes the story a bit repetitive. I get why Gracie feels the way she does towards Zack, but it really breaks my heart to see Zack hurt by her. It also keeps them from rebuilding their relationship, removing the romantic aspects until practically the end. It was still an enjoyable read, and I hope there are more books in the series.
I received an ARC via Edelweiss for the purpose of an honest review. I was not compensated for this review, all conclusions are my own.
THE SLOW BURN SERIES
KEEP ME SAFE: A SLOW BURN NOVEL
By Maya Banks
When Caleb Devereaux discovers his younger sister, Tori, is kidnapped, he quickly turns to an unlikely source for help: Ramie St. Claire, a beautiful and sensitive woman with a psychic gift for finding answers others cannot. The two quickly find out their chemistry is undeniable and an intimate relationship follows.
While Ramie can connect to victims and alert authorities to their locations, her ability comes with a steep price. Every time she uses it, she experiences the same torture as the victim. Helping the infuriatingly attractive and impatient Caleb find his sister nearly kills her. Even though his sexual intensity draws her like a magnet, she needs to get as far away from him as she can.
Deeply remorseful for the pain he has caused, Caleb is determined to make things right. But just when he thinks Ramie’s vanished forever, she reappears. This time she’s the one in trouble and is in desperate needs of his help. Caleb will risk everything, including his heart, to protect her from a relentless and cruel murderer, who will stop at nothing and no one until he gets to Ramie.
IN HIS KEEPING: A SLOW BURN NOVEL
By Maya Banks
Arial knows the rules that keep her safe. She’s been following them since she was a little girl: Do not tell. Do not show. But in a moment of terror, facing an attacker intent on taking more than just her life, she has no choice but to unleash the psychic powers she’s been hiding since childhood.
Now, with Ari’s abilities revealed, a bigger threat looms - something that makes her question everything she thought she knew about her parents and her secretive upbringing. But this isn’t a fight she can face on her own.
As the head of Devereaux Security, Beau Devereaux is no stranger to the bizarre. But when he takes on a new client--a beautiful young woman with an extraordinary gift--Beau isn’t prepared for the extent of his attraction to her. What began as a simple assignment quickly turns personal as he discovers he’ll do anything it takes to protect Ari, the woman he loves.
KEEP ME SAFE
IN HIS KEEPING
SAFE AT LAST
To learn more about her please visit her online at www.mayabanks.com or at www.facebook.com/AuthorMayaBanks
Twitter: @maya_banks
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