Best Selling Author

Burning Ice

Book 3 in the Heatwave Series

By Olivia B. Dannon

Edited by Kathy Krick
Burning Ice

Heatwave Series book 3

By

Olivia B. Dannon

Edited by Kathy Krick

Copyright © Olivia B. Dannon 2016

ISBN: 9781311231246

Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author's imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher/author. Printed in the U.S.A

Suitable for 18+ years old

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Chapter One

The ice cold winds stung the back of her neck, but it was a faint burn. Fresh air filled her lungs, and she sucked it in greedily. Fatigue weighed down on her but fear was keeping the exhaustion at bay. Lucia paced back and forth in bare feet over the frozen sidewalk by the payphone.

Her dad would be there soon.

He was going to pick her up and take her home. She would be safe. Lucia knew that even though he had to turn her over in the first place, it was fear that had blinded him to what he was doing. He couldn’t possibly know the way she was being treated by Nathaniel Fabbri.

The pounding in her chest was so hard it caused her back to ache. She’d been terrified for so long she didn’t know how her heart could keep going like it was.

“Come on, Daddy. Hurry,” Lucia said rubbing her hands together. She did her best not to see the mark Nathaniel had put on her but there was no missing it. Overlarge initials N.A. with an infinity sign. Lucia tucked her hands under her arms, folding them. It wouldn’t do her any good if someone who was familiar with the sign on her hands saw it and called Nathaniel.

She had probably killed the guard in the kitchen in her escape to get out of Nathaniel’s house. If Nathaniel caught her again he would kill her for sure. If he did catch her, she would most certainly want him to kill her. Lucia knew she couldn’t go on living in his house, in his clutches.

A black Lincoln Town car turned the corner. It was just like the one her father drove. The feeling of relief she thought she’d feel didn’t come as she waited.

The car slowed to a stop in front of her and she fought the urge to run. She was just scared but she didn’t need to be. Her father had come for her. She was going to be safe. The black tinted window lowered and Nathaniel laughed his dark disturbing laugh. “I found you, Chessie.”

Lucia shot up in her bed and jumped to her feet. She was breathing hard and covered in sweat from head to toe. Her back hurt from breathing hard and from the muscle strain.

She’d known it was a dream as soon as Nathaniel had called her Chessie. Francesca was the name they’d given her when she’d gone into the witness protection program with her brother Vince. She goes by Chessie now.

Her heart wasn’t slowing down and her skin was crawling. It was only two weeks away until her court date to testify against Nathaniel Fabbri. Two weeks that felt like two hours.

Chessie dropped down off the bed quietly and went to the bathroom to wash her face. The small bathroom didn’t help. She felt like the walls were closing in and she knew she needed air if she was going to calm down.

Returning to her room, she dressed in sweats and wound her hair up and out of the way. Her desperation for air made her want to run outside barefoot in the snow, but she didn’t give in to the urge. She shoved her naked feet into her sneakers and quietly walked down the hallway.

She didn’t want to wake Vince or her FBI handler who lived on the other side of the duplex. Chessie didn’t like Vince to see her this way. She didn’t like anyone to see her when she was having a panic attack. It destroyed Vince.

Opening the door, she sucked in the cold air, and immediately the panic began to recede a little. Chessie pulled the door shut twisting the door handle as she did to leave undetected. Her breath came out in puffs of fog in the chilly air. She was still breathing fast.

The door on the porch that belonged to her handler Greg opened, and he stepped out wearing running shoes and sweats with a heavy winter coat and earmuffs. Chessie could never get out without him catching her. He was going to make some kid a very good father one day. They would be safe with him.

Chessie was still way too wound up to carry on a normal conversation so she trotted down the steps and out to the heavily salted sidewalk. It was late January and the winter wasn’t ready to let go of Peaches, Colorado. Luckily, the neighborhood she’d been placed in with her twin brother was well kept and held many lovely homes.

Chessie started running.

She knew Greg hated when she did this because he wanted to work up to a run, but he wasn’t feeling the panicked racing heartbeat in her chest. He didn’t feel the demons at her back, or knowledge that he was being hunted. Chessie did and even though the running helped, she didn’t know if she would ever feel safe again.

Her shoes bounced off the pavement as she ran from the ghosts of her dream. They were memories, ones she had not shared with anyone. The attorney prepping her for her testimony did not like how little she shared during their practice over the phone but Chessie couldn’t help it.

Some memories were too painful to put to words.

She continued running as the memory of her dream forced her to think and replay it in her mind. When the face of the second person in the car cleared in her mind, hot tears ran down her face with the unrelenting pain from the memory. She’d turned and run when she saw the second person in the car with Nathaniel.

Nathaniel had called after her, “Run, Lucia. I’ll still find you. I’ll always find you.”

Nathaniel wasn’t lying about that. He did always find her.

Chessie’s legs stretched, her muscles burning in her thighs, but it helped. She breathed deeper, forced to do so by the exertion. With every step, she was further away from Nathaniel’s clutches, at least that was what she told herself.

The cold air stung her throat, but she loved it because it was clean, fresh air. She continued to run feeling better and better with every step she took. The run for her life pace slowed to a steady run. She wasn’t ready to jog yet, no the pain in her back told her she wasn’t finished.

Chessie was making her way down Main Street, past Heatwave when the smell of fresh bread from the bakery slowed her down. It always did when she took these early runs.

Greg matched her pace once they passed the bakery. He didn’t say anything, he always waited for her to talk first. Chessie liked that about him. He’d also been observant enough to know that she couldn’t tolerate his company until after they passed the bakery. She was his job. She knew that, but she appreciated the care he put into his job. He didn’t have to.

“What time is it?” Chessie asked Greg as they continued in a comfortable jog.

Greg pressed a button on his watch lighting the screen. “Four forty-five in the night,” he said.

“I think you mean morning,” Chessie corrected taking a left at the intersection with Greg.

“Four forty-five in the morning is not a humane statement. It is night. People are sleeping deeply, inside a warm heated house at this time of night. Well, except us and the poor bastard who runs the bakery,” Greg said.

Chessie shrugged. “You could be home in bed. I didn’t ask you to get up at four forty-five in the morning.”

“Nope, you asked me to get up at four twenty-two when you got up. I can’t have you out here by yourself – so vulnerable.”

Chessie knew that. They’d already gone over that many times. She nodded. “I guess I did.”

“I don’t mind getting up and running with you, Chessie. I do worry though. You’re getting up earlier and earlier the closer we get to your court date.”

They’d reached the hill, and Chessie took the opportunity to change the subject. Greg was kind to try to help her, but he wasn’t equipped to deal with the kind of stuff she’d survived. “Stop trying to wuss out, Greg. Let’s take down this hill.” She refused to slow down the pace they had set, and step by step they began to climb the steep incline.

At the top they were rewarded with the sunrise. The warmth of it on her skin as she breathed heavily was soothing and the ache in her back was gone. Each breath she took thereafter was full, filling her lungs completely.

Greg was breathing hard too and began to stretch though it was a little late for that. He was giving her the few minutes she needed to get herself back together. She knew this because even though he seemed to be completely unaware of her as she closed her eyes and soaked in the sunshine, she could feel him watching her.

Running with Greg was a comfort. Looking at him stretching never hurt either. He was built like a linebacker, broad and muscular. The running he did gave his muscles a lean look but he was no less powerful. His dirty blond hair was never messy, even at four forty-five in the morning. He was a fed and still she liked him.

“I’m going to miss our middle of the night runs when I’m through with testifying,” she told him turning toward him opening her blue eyes.

Greg was looking directly into her eyes as she opened them. He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly still staring at her eyes. Chessie knew her eyes were a very unusual color of blue since she and Vince had been told as much repeatedly their whole lives.

They were a bright turquoise blue with flecks and streaks of light blue, almost like streaks of lightning, and the outer ring was a deep navy color. Often times people got lost staring into her eyes for this reason.

Chessie lowered her eyes swallowing as she did. The break of eye contact seemed to bring Greg back to the present. “Yeah, I am too,” he said. His mouth smiled but his slate blue eyes did not. They were intent on her and wide with a look of sadness but then again, Chessie couldn’t pretend to know what his eyes were conveying.

He probably knew she had very little chance of returning alive from testifying against the Fabbri family. She knew it too.

Chessie’s stomach clenched at the thought. It probably should have killed her appetite. Perhaps because of the stretches of going without food, she was still hungry. “I gotta eat,” she said.

“Let’s go home. I’ll cook you some eggs.”

Chessie laughed. “Vince will not go for that, and you know it.” Her twin brother was overprotective ever since he’d rescued her from Nathaniel.

“Too bad for Vince. With the trial so close it’s best to keep you out of the public eye as much as possible. Besides, protein is better for you than bread.”

“Always the health nut aren’t you, Greg?”

He nodded, and she noted his eyes were taking on a more serious expression. “I know you don’t want to talk about testifying. I get that but you need to talk. The prosecuting attorney is very concerned about the lack of information you’re giving during the practice.” Greg moved closer when she took a step back.

“I know, Greg. He doesn’t keep his worries to himself, or his ulcer problems either.”

Greg didn’t let up. “We have to put him away and your testimony is the only thing that can do it.”

Chessie concentrated on the warmth of the sun. She breathed in another calming breath. “I know.” She was sure he was going to push harder but he didn’t.

“Good,” he said. “I’m here if you need me for anything. Okay?”

“Yep.” Chessie nodded moving her weight from one foot to the other. “I need eggs. Let’s get back.”

Chapter Two

Vince awoke to the smell of eggs.

The blond he’d picked up at Swagger and Sway, the only club in Peaches, was asleep on top of him drooling on his chest.

“What the hell time is it?” Vince groaned.

His bedroom playmate rolled away with the covers. Vince sat up and looked with one eye open at the clock. “Five fuckin’ fifty?” He got out of bed and stepped into the boxers he’d shed the night before. Vince stumbled out of his room and stomped down the hallway letting his heavy feet and gravity do the work for him. “What the hell are you doing in my kitchen?” he asked Greg.

Greg met his gaze and put both his palms flat on the countertop. “I’m looking out for Chessie. What the fuck are you doing bringing random trash through here like a parade when your sister needs you?”

“Getting laid,” Vince said shaking his head. “Chessie is fine.” Vince threw his thumb toward the bathroom. “Hear her singing? She’s happy here.”

“She’s not getting any sleep. Went running earlier than ever and it was a seven mile run today, Vince.”

Vince swallowed but wasn’t about to admit to pretty boy fed that he’d fucked up so he frowned saying, “She’s nervous. Who isn’t when they have to testify? You saying she can’t handle this, blondie? Because my sister is the strongest fuckin’ woman ever to walk this planet.”

“She’s scared shitless. Be there for her,” Greg said, his shoulders raising.

Vince’s knee jerk reaction was to tell Greg to go fuck himself, but he knew Greg didn’t let Chessie take that seven mile run by herself. He also knew that with the way Greg was standing there with his back all riled up that he cared what happened to Chessie.

“Fuck, it’s hard to hate you when you’re looking out for Chessie,” he admitted. He gestured to the pan on the stove full of scrambled eggs. “Give her some bacon too will ya? Aside from you the rest of us enjoy flavor.” Vince held up his hand before Greg could start with his nutritional facts on bacon. “Fine, I’ll make the bacon. Shit.” He shook his head.

Greg pointed with the spatula toward Vince’s bedroom. “She won’t be joining us for breakfast.”

“That’s cold,” Vince said shaking his head. “Fine.”

He returned to his bedroom and got dressed as the woman lifted up onto one elbow. “What time is it?”

“Early,” Vince answered opening his door as Chessie passed by. She was dressed only in a towel that was wrapped around her snuggly. “Hey,” he said. “You alright?”

“Do I look alright?” she asked giving him her sass. Her eyes were a little bloodshot and a small dark shadow was beginning to show beneath her vibrant blue eyes.

Vince knew she didn’t need to hear this so instead he said, “Put on a fuckin’ robe, you streaker. There’s a fed in the kitchen.”

Chessie raised one of her dark black eyebrows at him. “Tell that to naked ass over there,” she said gesturing to the woman in his bed. Vince could see the smile in her eyes as she poked him back with her words before she continued to her room.

“Who was that?” the blond asked from behind him.

“None of your business. Ain’t your husband gonna wonder where you are about now?”

She sat up and began to root around his room for her clothes. “He don’t get up before noon,” she said. “Then he’s off to cheat on me anyway. What do I care if he finds out about last night?” She dressed quickly despite her words. “You gonna be at Swagger and Sway tonight?” she asked with a hopeful gleam in her eye.

“Sorry, babe. I got shit to do.”

She kissed him over zealously and then left without saying anything else. Vince stripped the bed and then remade it with clean sheets and blankets. He showered and dressed quickly knowing it was a bad idea to leave Chessie and Greg alone too much. Chessie was vulnerable and falling for a fed was the last thing she needed to do.

Chessie was dressed in a white sweater that hung off one shoulder with a green tank top beneath and tight, black, skinny jeans. Her long black hair was ironed straight and shiny hanging free down her back. She didn’t have any makeup on and seemed to be completely at ease eating eggs with Greg.

“I saw the wedding ring,” Chessie said when she spotted him.

“What?” he asked eyeing Greg, who was looking anywhere but at Chessie, which was very telling.

Chessie spun on the stool so she was facing him. “That woman who just took her walk of shame through our living room was wearing a wedding ring. You know that ain’t right,” she said not at all teasing.

“You’re right,” Vince said because she was.

Chessie nodded with a grin. She was surprised he didn’t argue or try to justify his actions clearly. “Well alright then. I’d really like it if you could find a nice woman. Someone who’s gonna be good to my nieces and nephews.”

“Oy, Chessie. I ain’t got no kids yet. Go fawn over Eileen. She’s giving you a niece or nephew soon enough,” he said referring to Will’s wife. Will was in the witness protection program too because of his own dealings and beef with the crime families of New York.

Vince figured either they both had great luck being on the run from the mob and in the same town to watch each other’s backs, or they were fucked because if one of them messed up and were found they were all going down.

“Vince, I expect you to quit with the one nighters. Enough mooning over your ex in New York.”

“I ain’t still mooning over her.” Vince pulled up a seat next to Chessie and dished up his plate with eggs and sliced tomatoes. “You want me to fry you up some bacon?”

Chessie shook her head, and he noticed her nose scrunched with disgust.

“What the hell? You love bacon.”

“No, Vince. She doesn’t,” Greg said a little too proud of himself if you asked Vince.

Chessie did not weigh in, instead she took her cleared plate to the sink and began washing the dishes.

“When are you going to work?” Greg asked him getting right back under his skin. He’d been given a cover as a fuckin’ florist.

“Are you fuckin’ kidding? Never. I quit.”

“Then go home but Chessie is staying here,” Greg said with that same intense look that welcomed no nonsense.

Vince wiped his mouth with his napkin and reminded himself that both Chessie and Will liked Greg. Why? He couldn’t fathom at the moment. “I will find a different job.”

“This is the job you were given. It is the one you will take for at least the next three months if you wish to remain here. After three months, you can go in a new direction if you wish. Understand?”

Vince smiled because he knew it would piss off Greg. “Yeah.”

The phone rang, and Chessie jumped behind Greg at the sink.

Vince went and picked up the phone on the end table in the living room. “Yeah? What?” he said into the mouthpiece.

“This is District Attorney Turnforth. I’m calling to speak with Agent Donovan.”

“In regards to what?” Vince asked knowing how this went. The lawyer wasn’t allowed to know Chessie’s new name or location and had been forwarded through the FBI to their number. He would tell Greg Donovan he wanted to go over testimony with Chessie and his sister would be even worse off.

There was a pause. “I am not at liberty to say.”

“Today isn’t going to work for her so practice tomorrow,” he said meeting Greg’s angry gaze. “Don’t call back to talk to her.” Vince hung up the phone and challenged Greg with his eyes to say something.

Chessie’s shoulders sagged in what was obvious relief.

Greg didn’t say anything.

Vince wasn’t surprised she was dreading practicing her testimony and cross examination. Whenever he’d pressed her to find out what happened at Nathaniel’s she’d never once opened up to him. In fact, all three times he’d tried to get her to talk about it, she’d just sobbed unable to tell him anything.

He knew more than she realized. He’d learned a lot when he’d been preparing to rescue her from Nathaniel. Truth be told, he’d been planning to kill Nathaniel. His desire to do so still was overpowering.

Vince went into the kitchen to stand next to his sister and best friend. “Tell me what I gotta do to help you feel safe? You know I ain’t gonna let anything happen to you. Not again.”

Chessie looked at him. “No worries, Vin. I feel safe here. You know I don’t like talking about my time with him,” she said not even wanting to utter his name. “Soon I’ll have testified and we can really get on with our lives.”

“That’s right. But today I don’t want you to worry about any of that. Put it to the side. Today is your day off.”

Growing up in a mob family, this situation wasn’t the first that stressed them out or put them in danger. This day off method he was suggesting was a coping mechanism they often used, and it usually worked.

“I could use a day off, good idea, Vin.” She smiled a real smile at him and he felt the tension in his shoulders ease a bit. “Now I know you gotta spend it with this badge, but hey, you can still have a good day. Watch chick flicks, I bet Greg knows them all by heart.”

“Go to work, Vin. Meet somebody you know I’ll like and treat her right,” Chessie said giving him a shove.

Vince nodded, though he doubted he was capable of being the kind of man a woman would want to settle down with. He didn’t have time to date traditionally and lacked the attention span a woman expected. Chessie going back to New York was a living nightmare, and it was consuming him.

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