Seeking Love in Salvation (The American Soldier Collection 16)

Prologue

“I hate you! I absolutely hate you, you son of a bitch!” Valentina screamed at the door. Her voice cracked, echoing inside the tiny bathroom of the apartment. He’d locked her in there. Caden Clover, that son of a bitch.

She was frantic, looking around for a weapon, a means to open the door and help. She was in pain from the beating he and his buddy Don had put on her, but her thoughts were on little Kenny. She had been watching her sister Lois’s four-year-old son when his father arrived—a father who hadn’t been around in over a year, who was either shacked up with some whore or working his way to being locked up. His buddy, Don, was some big-shot in the thug world. As a cop, Valentina knew Don’s reputation all too well.

She pulled open the cabinets, looking for something, anything, to get the damn door opened, when she heard the scream.

“Lois?” she said aloud. Had her sister come home from work already? What in God’s name was going on?

She listened at the door, her adrenaline pumping. The need to get out there and help them was making her bang against the door.

Kenny cried out for help. She heard Lois screaming, asking Caden to stop, to not let their son see him take her like this.

Valentina ran her fingers through her hair. What was he doing to Lois? Oh, God, please don’t let him kill them. Please, God, help me.

She looked at the shower curtain rod. She pulled it down and started bashing the doorknob, trying to break it. The door wasn’t particularly thick, so it started to split as the screams got louder and louder.

She could hear the trauma going on in the other room. Kenny was crying hysterically. Don was laughing and telling Caden he was a crazy son of a bitch.

The doorknob broke. Valentina grabbed ahold of it, kicked the remainder of the metal away, and got the door open. She gripped the curtain rod and went running down the hallway to the living room, where the screaming was loudest. Don had his foot on little Kenny’s back, holding the kid to the ground, facing her and away from the scene in the living room. The sight tore at Valentina’s heart as she swung at the back of Don’s head, knocking him to the ground. Then she caught sight of Caden. It all happened so fast. The sight of her sister’s battered, naked body. Caden rocking his hips against her while he held her hair. Valentina lost it. She jumped through the air, over the sofa, and slammed into him. He was a big guy, filled with muscles, and a mean son of a bitch. Lois fell over, and Valentina just kept punching him, using her police officer training to keep him from hitting her back.

“Get the fuck off of him, you crazy bitch.”

She felt the barrel of the gun at her shoulder. Don was there and she was so scared, so enraged at what was taking place. She used a quick move, swinging to the left as she gripped the gun and then elbowed him in the knee. Valentina felt the instant pain in her elbow and arm, but as the gun went off, her focus was on saving her sister and her nephew.

She felt the pain in her side. He’d shot her. She reacted in anger.

She pulled the gun from Don just as Caden came at her, and she fired twice, hitting him in the chest, and then turned to the left as Don pointed another gun at her and fired. She fired at the same time, unloading her weapon into Don’s body as he slammed into her. She just kept pulling the trigger as the burning pain hit her chest. She couldn’t breathe.

The sound of sirens could be heard outside, and then police were entering the apartment. Valentina’s vision began to blur as she shoved Don off of her. Then she felt the tiny hands running though her hair, and she locked gazes with little Kenny, who was red-faced, runny-nosed, and crying.

She felt the movement to her right as her sister crawled to her, crying and battered, falling against her side. “Val. Oh, God, Val, you saved us,” Lois cried.

The police officers came closer, and she recognized two of them. They were friends, coworkers she knew from the department.

“Oh, fuck, Val, what the hell. Shit. Dino, call for an ambulance. She’s been shot,” Corey said to his partner. As the adrenaline rush began to leave her body and she started to feel weak, Valentina knew they were all safe now.

Everything is going to be okay now. They’re safe. All that matters is that they’re safe.

Chapter 1