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I feel in the mood to showcase a little action and danger (and cuss words! Oops!) this month. This excerpt is one of the new scenes I wrote when I completely revised, INTRUSION, my Golden Heart finaling manuscript.

Audra’s scream carried through the open window. The chilling sound vibrated down Cam’s spine, setting him off balance. His shoulder catapulted into the window with enough force to crack the pane. He tucked his head and struck the glass again, and again. Each one of Audra’s shrieks, each bump and crash went straight to his heart, fueling the blood pumping through his veins.

The fissures in the glass pricked through his t-shirt to scrape his skin, but adrenaline saturated his body and he kept ramming the window until it finally gave way. Shattered glass rained down on his head as he fell through the opening.

Sharp edges scraped across his face and neck. His chin hit the wood floor and jarred his teeth against his tongue. The tang of iron filled his mouth. He shook off the pain and rolled to his feet, but he’d forgotten to compensate for his left knee and it gave out on him, sending him sprawling back to the floor.

He popped back up, this time remembering to burden his right leg with most of his weight. His gaze found Audra, frozen, in the corner of the room between the bed and the wall with Walker, Nanodyne’s security guard, behind her, holding a knife at her throat.

“Make a move and I’ll slit her throat.”

Cam lifted his hands. Slowly. “Wasn’t that already the plan? Why else would you be here?”

Audra sucked in a breath. Her wide amber eyes glistened with unshed tears, and all the color had leached out of her pale cheeks making the strand of auburn hair against her cheek look almost blood-red in comparison. The scar beneath her right eye was stark white.

His chest tightened. He waited until she focused her gaze squarely on him. I will not let this bastard hurt you. A shudder rippled through her, and though he knew it wasn’t the right time or place to notice her curves beneath her gray tank top and those skimpy matching boxers edged in lace, he couldn’t help it. He was definitely going to hell. But not before he sent Frankenpitt there first.

He needed a distraction. Something that would get Audra out of harm’s way. He scanned the room, taking in the splintered door, the mattress hanging half off its frame, and the overturned nightstand near the bathroom door.

All of it was useless to him.

“Look, why don’t we settle this man to man?” He slid a step in Walker’s direction. “You don’t really want to kill a defenseless woman, do you?”

Walker’s eyes darted to Cam and he tightened his grip around the handle of the knife. “I have to kill her.”

“By whose order?” Cam kept his hands out in front of his body and took another step closer to Audra. “C’mon, Franken—err—Walker. We both know you’re a few beers shy of a six-pack. Who are you working for?”

Walker shook his head. “Back off or I slit her throat.”

Cam curled his lip. “You got me. Even if I lunge forward, your knife will end her life before I reach her.” He stopped, dropped his hands to his sides. “But, see, here’s where your logic fails. Because you kill her and she’s no longer a distraction to me. I can put one hundred percent of my attention into killing you.” He smiled and lunged. “Hell, I may even enjoy it.”

Walker reared backward and the knife jerked away from Audra’s throat. Cam folded his fingers into a fist and knocked Walker’s arm aside. He pushed Audra to the floor with his other arm, wincing when she cried out in pain.

“Go!” He shouted the command, but Walker grabbed him around the throat, strangling the word.

He heard Audra scramble to her feet and once he knew she was out of range, he dug his fingers into the security guard’s arm, twisting his body out of the way. His knee locked up in the tight space and he fell backward onto the mattress, taking Joe with him. The knife plunged into the pad beside him, narrowly missing his ear.

Joe grunted and yanked the blade out of the bed. He plunged it downward in a second attempt to skewer Cam’s heart. He rolled to the side, the mattress teetered, dumping him off. The back of his head slammed into the metal frame.

“Cam!” Audra screamed his name, but he didn’t have a chance to look at her before Walker fell on him again.

He grit his teeth and held the guard at bay, his hands wrapped around Walker’s shoulders. “Get out of here!”

Damn it, he hoped Audra was listening.

His sweaty palms slipped off Walker’s shoulders, an error that cost him the upper hand. Walker’s thick hand wrapped around Cam’s throat and squeezed. He gagged from the pressure, blinking away the dark, fuzzy spots that crowded his vision.

His hand crept up to claw at Joe’s grasp, but he couldn’t gain enough traction to pull it away from his windpipe. He reached up and flailed for the knife. The tip nicked his palm, letting him know he’d found his target. He grabbed the hilt, covering Joe’s hand with his own, and wrestled the knife to the side.

Bright light suddenly blinded him. He heard the whoosh of something cut through the air, then a loud crash. Joe’s weight fell to the side. Cam went with him, reversing their positions, and in one fluid arc he plunged the knife downward. The resistance of muscle and bone gave way and the blade sunk into the guard’s heart.

Walker’s hand slid away from the hilt and Cam got his first good look at the intricate handle. It was made from cherry blossom jasper, with veins of black and white threading through the stone. Cam knew without a doubt the design was one of a kind.

Because it was his.

He’d had it commissioned just before he’d left the Special Forces. SCOTT was engraved on the stainless steel bolster at the end of the handle. If he pulled the knife out of Walker’s chest, he knew what he’d find: the last names of his A-team etched into the blade.

“Oh, shit.” His hands started to shake and he squeezed his eyes shut to calm the tremors.

What had he done?  

 Audra gasped and Cam jerked his gaze to her. She hadn’t left. Why hadn’t she taken off? Her choppy breath matched his own. She dropped the remnants of the lamp she’d used to attack Walker’s skull, and it hit the floor with a clatter.

“I told you to leave.” The words came out in a harsh croak.

“I couldn’t.” Her fierce whisper was like a cool drink to his raw throat.

He struggled to stand, but his shaky legs wouldn’t support him. Not yet. “Are you hurt?”

“No.” She sunk to her knees beside him and reached out to stroke his face. “You…saved my life.”

#  #  #

Audra lightly pressed her fingertip to one of the cuts on Cam’s cheek. It wasn’t deep—little more than a scratch—but droplets of blood welled to the surface, and all she could think about was how he’d paid so little regard to his own safety in order to ensure hers.

His skin was hot to the touch, his breath ragged. She looked into his eyes, so dark without their usual spark of teasing that they appeared raw, even a bit vulnerable. He stared back at her without uttering a word, and although she barely knew him, somehow she knew it was rare for him to remain silent.

She shifted closer, laying her other hand on his opposite cheek, and still, he didn’t respond. Oh, his eyes darkened and roved over her face, and he swallowed hard, but the glib retort she’d expected never came.

“Cam?”

His eyes suddenly blazed. “That bastard was going to kill you with my own fucking knife.”

She flinched at the edge in his voice and her gaze flicked to Joe Walker’s body. She’d been trying hard to avoid glancing at him, but now she couldn’t look away. Her stomach balked and the blood drained from her head. Cam’s knife protruded from the guard’s chest, a wash of crimson staining his clothes.

They’d taken a man’s life. It was Cam that had wielded the blade, but he’d done it to protect her. Didn’t that make her every bit as responsible? She tried to blink back a wave of dizziness, but was unsuccessful until Cam took her hands in his, grounding her.

His thumb ran over her knuckles in a gentle caress. “Hey,” he tipped her chin up, forcing her to look at him, “I killed him. Not you.” He brushed a strand of hair off her cheek, his warm fingers lingering there. “And I’d do it again, in a heartbeat, if it meant saving your life.”

The quiet sincerity of his words—his touch—wormed their way into her starved heart. Gone was the smooth-talking veneer that Cam wore on the surface, the cockiness that made him risky. In its place was a man with his own emotional bumps and bruises. Someone she could relate to—even trust.

She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “What are we going to do?”

“We?” His brash confidence flooded back into his face with nothing more than an arched brow, but this time it didn’t send a flutter of panic into her heart. “We are going to get the hell out of here.” 

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