Rescue My Heart Read Online Free Page A

overlooked the property, which at the moment was nothing but dark looming shadows only hinting at the remote beauty beyond.
    Pretty much like the woman in front of him.
    She wasn’t particularly fond of him, and he couldn’t much argue with that. Adam wasn’t particularly fond of himself, either, but whatever her reason for being here, it was pissing her off.
    She turned and faced him then, and he realized she wasn’t angry at all.
    She was scared.

Two

    H olly’s heart was pounding against her ribs, hard and way too fast. Her stomach hurt a little bit, too, but this might have been the fast food she’d grabbed for lunch on the run. Or the fact that because of said fast food, her jeans were a little too tight.
    Normally, she prided herself on being in control, but that control deserted her completely now that she stood toe-to-toe with the tall, dark, and attitude-ridden Adam Connelly.
    She’d faced him before, of course. Just last month she’d seen him here at Belle Haven, a memory burned in her brain. He’d been outside in the yard surrounded by a pack of dogs all suited up in their S&R vests.
    Adam had been training them off leash, putting them through their paces on an obstacle course. The animal center behind him had been packed with dogs and cats and various other four-legged and not-so-four-legged creatures coming and going right past the training session, and yet the S&R dogs’ attention never wavered from the calm, confident Adam.
    He’d obviously built a relationship with each of them based on trust and respect, and Holly remembered exactly how he’d looked working them in a pair of battered Levi’s, sweatshirt with the hood up against the cold, and five-o’clock shadow on his jaw. He’d looked good. Too good.
    Now he stood in front of her in nothing but a towel and a few water drops. Sweet baby Jesus, he was built. As a teenager, he’d been lanky lean, almost too lean, though even back then the breadth of his shoulders had indicated he had more growing to do.
    He’d come into that promise. He’d filled out in all the right places, leaving his body as good as a body could get, born from a life of outdoor, physical labor. Dark eyes, dark life.
    Adam had been her first crush. Her first dance. Her first date. Her first kiss. Her first everything. And once upon a time she’d loved the wild, adventure-seeking troublemaker with all her eighteen-year-old heart. She’d have done anything for him and he’d known it.
    He’d chosen to rip out her heart and stomp on it.
    But that was in their past. She’d since grown up the hard way, and so had he. By all accounts, the military had beaten back the wild, reckless part of him, molding him, leaving him guarded. Stoic. He wasn’t the same, and neither was Holly. She reminded herself of that, even as her gaze drank in the sight of him.
    Focus
, she ordered herself. She wasn’t here for a walk down memory lane. She needed help. Needed it badly enough to come to him.
    Unlike her, Adam didn’t appear unsettled by her presence, although he was the master of hiding his feelings so it was hard to tell. He stood there quiet, calm, expression impassive, tracking her with that always-aware-of-his-surroundings air he had.
    A battle-ready soldier.
    And the best tracker she knew. Actually, the only trackershe knew, other than her brother Griffin. But Grif was on the other side of the world, still in Afghanistan.
    “I need your help,” she heard herself say, her voice not nearly as strong as she’d have liked.
    Adam arched a brow. He didn’t like to waste words. She imagined that was what made him so good at what he did. He was pragmatic, confident, and utterly irritating. “My dad’s missing,” she said. “He went hunting three days ago and didn’t return.”
    He relaxed very slightly, making her wonder what he’d expected. “And…?” he asked.
    She knew what he was really asking. Her dad vanished all the time on hunting trips. In fact, he used the