Read Convicted (Entangled Ignite) for Free Online Page B

the stories, more than she wanted to count. More than she could possibly forget.
    “The staff sergeant, he saw it, too.” Shana gulped, pulling herself together almost as quickly as she’d fallen apart. It wasn’t a true calm, Katrina knew. It was one tied together with thin strands of pride, but since that was almost all Shana had left, Katrina didn’t argue about it.
    “What staff sergeant?”
    “Rick’s friend, the new deputy. That’s what Rick used to call him in his letters, anyway. Staff Sergeant Evigan, right?” Shana took another steadying breath while Katrina nodded away her surprise. “He saved me.”
    And paid dearly for it…
    Uncharitable to her friend, maybe, but Katrina couldn’t help but think of the cost to the man she’d held outside.
    Making sure Shana was steady in her seat, Katrina pulled away to try to get a better look at the damage. It wasn’t good. “We’re going to need a hell of a lot of ice before we see how bad that eye is.”
    Shana only nodded, saying nothing when Katrina rose to fetch what she’d need from the kitchen—the removable icebox container, the first aid kit from the drawer by the fridge, and a few hand towels. Done gathering, she grabbed the other chair and sat while she laid out her tools. This, too, had become routine for them. Katrina treating wounds, checking for serious injuries. Counting bruises, if only in her mind.
    Efficiently, she made a compress and Shana obediently held it to her eye. They said nothing as Katrina helped her out of her blouse; dried blood covered her chest, having soaked through the fabric to Shana’s simple bra. “I don’t think you’ll be able to save either of these, hon.”
    “It’s not like anyone sees what I wear anyway.” Quietly. Too quietly.
    “Shana—”
    “Not yet, Katy, okay? Just…just a little longer.”
    Katrina clenched her fists, wanting more patience and hating that she couldn’t find it. Not with the deep rose color splashed over Shana’s ribs. The dark mottled marks on her back or the clear imprint of fingers on her arms and neck. “You can’t stay here anymore. It only gets worse.”
    “You know I have to.” Shana sank slowly back into her seat, hopelessness staining her trembling lips as she lowered the compress to her lap. “You know why.”
    Because he’d kill her. As sure as the sun set, Frank would find her, wherever she thought to go. But not before he killed everyone she loved. Not before he made them pay for her betrayal.
    He’d done it before.
    Shana had told Katrina the story of what had happened to her sister. Brynn Collins had been a friend of Katrina’s growing up, the Collins family’s wild child. The reason why Shana had come into Frank’s line of sight in the first place. Once he’d seen her, he’d wanted her and simply taken her. No one had stood up to him. No one tried to help her, except Brynn.
    They’d gotten as far as Barstow before Wheels of Pain caught up with them. The crew had run the car off the road, forced both women out of it and into the nearby fields. No one touched Shana except to hold her as a witness. But Brynn…
    She’d been forced to watch the brutalization of her sister. The beating. Until, finally, Brynn’s end came with a single bullet from Frank’s gun. Shana had no idea where her sister’s body was buried, the only proof of her death in the grim promise Frank had made to Shana if she were ever to run again. She still had parents. Another sister, this one younger. Even Rick, though she’d never said as much to Katrina. And when Jimmy was born, Shana knew he was added to Frank’s list of ways to control her. She’d take anything to protect her son.
    “But this isn’t protecting Jimmy, is it?” Katrina didn’t mean to ask the question out loud, but once the words were out, she couldn’t take them back. Didn’t want to. “Every time he hurts you, he hurts your son. Every time, Shana.”
    “Do you think I don’t know that? That I don’t