Soldier's Pregnancy Protocol. Beth Cornelison

had a chance to voice her complaint, the scuffle of feet drew Alec’s attention to the side of the storage building. The SUV driver had regained consciousness. Hands still bound by the seat belt, the groggy man stumbled to his feet. And ran.

      “Damn!” Alec snatched his gun from his waistband and foisted it toward her. “Watch this guy. If he so much as blinks, shoot him!”

      Spinning away, Alec sprinted after the fleeing driver. Erin gaped at Alec’s retreating back then down at the weapon he’d shoved in her hands. Shoot Mr. Knife? Even if her own life were at stake, she wasn’t sure she could ever pull the trigger, kill another human being.

      Her stomach swirled, and she wished she had some crackers to settle the queasiness. She’d moved to Colorado hoping to build a new life, to escape the turmoil and tragedy that had plagued her the past two years. To heal, to make a fresh start, and to nurture Bradley’s last gift to her. But she’d only been in her new home a week, and already bad luck and danger had found her again. She had to be jinxed.

      Hands shaking, she set the gun on the passenger’s seat, terrified her trembling hands would make the gun fire accidentally.

      Her gaze darted to the letter—the root of this whole fiasco, the source of the danger she was in. She lifted the missive and held it to the sunlight, trying to see what was inside. Useless. The envelope paper was too thick.

      It occurred to her that, like the driver, Knife could rouse, could surprise her, could overpower her. Could steal the letter and escape.

      Then all of Alec’s efforts to hold on to the letter and rescue her would have been in vain. Mind spinning, Erin turned the letter over in her hand. Maybe she couldn’t bring herself to shoot Knife if needed, but she could do something to protect Daniel’s letter.

      Grumbling to himself in disgust, Alec balled his hands as he stormed back to the storage units where he’d left Erin. He’d lost his prey in the maze of alleys, small homes and parked cars. Worse than that, he’d taken off after the cretin so fast, he’d left Daniel’s letter sitting on the front console of the SUV. While mapping out a plan to keep Erin safe, he’d allowed her fearful eyes, her rebellious pout to distract him. For a man who prided himself on perfection, today’s accumulating list of mistakes chafed.

      He sidled up to the back wall of the storage building and peered around the corner to survey the scene at the SUV. If Erin had lost control of the situation, he didn’t want to walk into a confrontation unaware.

      Erin paced back and forth behind the rear bumper. Her attention remained glued down the driveway, in the direction he’d pursued the driver. As she marched back and forth, she gnawed a thumbnail, then frowned at the chewed finger. A bulge at the small of her back told him where she’d stashed his SIG-Sauer.

      He didn’t see the other thug, but that could mean the man was still slumped in the back seat.

      A shadow shifted near the front fender, and Alec tensed. He pulled out the knife he’d been using to cut the seat belts and narrowed his gaze. Grass rustled by the driver’s-side tire.

      Alec moved out, skulking toward the SUV with the knife ready. He’d only made it a few steps before cretin number two sprang from behind the vehicle.

      The bastard lofted a thick branch and closed in on Erin.

      “Erin, look out!” Alec shouted.

      Too late. The heavy branch crashed down on her skull, and she crumpled to the ground. Alec’s gut lurched with a sickening dread.

      As her assailant bolted down the driveway, he snatched something from the front pocket of her jeans. An envelope.

      Alec cursed. Racing to Erin, he fished the SIG-Sauer out from under her shirt and darted down the drive after the escaping thief. He fired a shot as the man dashed around the corner of a clapboard house. Training told Alec to go after the fleeing suspect, but the woman lying, unmoving, in the dirt spoke to something deeper in Alec’s soul.

      You left Daniel.

      He stared at the spot where Erin’s assailant had disappeared another moment, a razor pain slicing through him when he thought of the lost letter, the danger Daniel could be in with his missive in the wrong hands.

      Yet seeing Daniel’s handwriting had fired new hope in him that his partner was alive. Guilt and regret fueled his determination to get his search back on track.

      As soon as he was certain Erin was safe.

      He’d be damned if he knew why this woman compelled him to break with procedure, to jeopardize his mission, to act counter to everything he’d been trained to do. The inconsistency needled him.

      Rushing back down the driveway, he dropped to his knees beside the unconscious woman and felt for a pulse. He released a deep breath when he found a strong throbbing beat in her neck.

      Pulling her into his lap, he carefully examined her head for the goose egg sure to be swelling on her scalp. Her feminine scent teased him, and her silky curls coiled seductively around his fingers. Her limp body, her slack face, her vulnerability speared to his core. He’d been trained to steel himself against softer emotions, sympathies that could jeopardize a mission and blur his professional focus. But something about this woman slipped under his defenses and burrowed deep inside him.

      Wincing, Erin jerked and raised a hand to the spot on her head where he probed. “Ow.”

      Her eyelids fluttered open. With a gasp, she tried to sit up, but he caught her shoulders and eased her back to his lap. “Easy. You took a nasty blow. Go slow.”

      Her puppy-dog eyes turned up to his face. “Alec?”

      So she could talk and her short-term memory was intact. Both good signs. He focused on her pupils rather than the sexy sweetness of her mahogany eyes. Even. No abnormal dilation.

      “Are you dizzy? Numb anywhere?” he asked.

      She squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her head. “I … No. My head hurts like fire, though. What happened?”

      “Your charge cracked a limb over your head.” He was prepared to chastise her for her inattention to her prisoner, but she moaned in misery as she sat up.

      “Knife! Where’d he—” She whipped her head around, apparently looking for the thug, then yelped and cradled her head again.

      “I said go slow.” He slid a hand under her elbow to steady her. “And your man got away after he whacked you.”

      “Sorry.” She grimaced, and her face paled as she clapped a hand to her jeans pocket. “It’s gone. The envelope—”

      Alec gritted his teeth as renewed frustration wrenched inside him. “He took it.”

      Next, Erin patted her chest, and a corner of her mouth curled up. When she unfastened the top button of her shirt and jammed her hand inside her bra, Alec arched an eyebrow, undeniably intrigued. A flash of heat spun through his blood as his attention was drawn to the curve of breast that peeked from her open neckline.

      Erin chuckled and drew something out of her clothes. A folded paper.

      He sent her a dubious frown. “What’s that?”

      Her answering smile beamed, its wattage hitting him like a punch in the solar plexus. “Your letter.”

      Alec stilled. “What?”

      She extended the folded sheet to him, smug satisfaction glowing in her eyes. “I figured Knife might try to steal the letter again, so I hid the contents of the envelope. Just in case. I put the envelope in my pocket, so it’d look like I was at least trying to protect it. I figured if I left it completely unguarded Knife might get suspicious. I made the slit in the side as small and inconspicuous as I could.”

      As Erin prattled on, explaining her reasoning, Alec slipped the letter from her fingers and heaved a mental sigh of relief. Amazing. Erin’s forethought and creativity, the fact that she’d bothered at all to protect Daniel’s letter,