would have arrived on schedule but for the fact I spent all of yesterday tending to a loved one. Up at 3:30 in the morning, my mind didn’t start functioning at full capacity until today.

With my website undergoing re-construction soon this might be the last teaser until its back up. It’s from Thin Blue Line, the third book in my Scalera Family series. I’m shooting for a June publication.

Lana is still fighting the temptation that is Zach, still unsure she can be with someone who could leave her wearing widow’s weeds. Then the unthinkable happens and she begins to understand why he does what he does. In the same moment, he begins to understand what she feels when his life is at risk.

“Lana?”

As if frozen in time, she didn’t answer him, her heaving shoulders the only part of her that moved.

Placing his hand on her shoulder, wet wool beneath his fingers, he said her name again.

Her face finally registered recognition and she leapt across and into his arms. She gripped the back of his coat and she hung on for dear life. So did he, the prospect of losing her hitting him like a punch to the gut. The guys who had worked him over had nothing on what he felt now.

Her tears trickled down his neck, so he did what he could, placing his hand over her skull, holding her close.

Her grip tightened as she cried, “I saw him get shot, Zach. I saw him go down. Breathe his last breath…I…I…”

Finally looking up into Zach’s eyes, she repeated, with a sob, “I saw him get shot. He didn’t have a chance to defend himself.”

*****

Zach gentled his voice before he said, “You shouldn’t have come out here, Lana.”

“I…I didn’t think. I wanted to see if I could help him.”