Operation Swift Mercy Read Online Free

settled back into a normal rhythm she lifted her head and found the large, strangely comforting presence of Chase over on the sofa across the room . She felt a twinge of guilt that his long frame was squashed on the small lounge chair, but brushed it aside. She hadn’t asked the man to stay. In fact, his whole he - man attitude was a little annoying.
    Yes, she knew she wasn’t in a position to be throwing away offers of help—she still had to work out a plan to get down town and get her hands on some money without drawin g too much attention to herself and there was the small matter of no clothing . She fr o wned at that. What was she going to do about finding something to wear?
    Her ribs hurt when she moved, but it was a bearable pain. Her head didn’t ache as badly as it had when she’d first awoken in hospital — all things considered , she had been incredibly lucky she hadn’t sustained a lot more injuries. A shiver raced through her as she recalled the lead up to that terrible moment she thought she was about to die.
    A sickening feeling settled inside her stomach as the events of the last week flashed through her mind. She’d thought up until now she’d done remarkably well keeping herself together even though her entire world had just fallen apart. If only she hadn’t overheard that meeting…if only she could no longer disregard her instincts, the little alarm bells that had been ringing in her head for the last few months…if only she hadn’t been so gullible and weak to have fallen for a man like Nikkos Petros in the first place.
    Mercy’s upbringing had not been ideal. She’d watched her mother bounce from one relationship to another her entire life. She wasn’t sure who her real father was, but she prayed every night that one day he would come bursting through the door and take her away to his beautiful house where he’d lavish his attention and money up on her, because let’s face it, if you were creating a fantasy, it may as well be a good one.
    Her mother worked whatever jobs she could find and money was a scarce commodity. Mercy’s mother swung from bouts of terrible depression to euphoric highs when she found a new man that she was certain would be the one. And through it all Mercy was there to pick up the pieces and comfort her mother when it all inevitably ended badly.
    She’d never been quite sure what her mother had been searching for, but she hadn’t found it with any of them men she brought home . As she grew older, Mercy’s dream of meeting her father dimmed, but never quite extinguished, which was the only crack in her defences a man like Nikkos had needed .
    She dreamed of the day she could leave home and escape her mother’s destructive cycle of dysfunctional relationships, but the guilt that followed swiftly always dampened her rebellion. There was no way her mother could function on her own. She couldn’t be left to her own devices when she hit a low…she’d come to accept the fact that she would have to be her mother’s keeper. Which was why she had lacked the social skills most other young women had developed by the time she was twenty three.
    Working as a secretary in a legal firm, she avoided making any close friends, and turned down dates, knowing there was no way she could expect someone she cared about to fit in with her mother’s unrealistic demands . S he simply did her job and went home . Then one day her mother just seemed to give up. The cycle of highs following a depression never arrived and Mercy came home one evening after work to find her mother in bed with an empty bottle of pills on the floor beside her. Even though Mercy had been taking care of herself for a long time, the realisation that she were now truly alone had been a terrifying discovery.
    Then one day shortly after her mother ’ s funeral, in to her office walked the most beautiful man she’d ever laid eyes on.
    Nikkos Petros was a man who demanded attention. He was in his early forties, but