He held her close, stroking her shoulders and back

He held her close, stroking her shoulders and back as the men’s voices slowly faded and were swallowed up by the night.

“Wait a minute,” he said, holding up one hand. “I do know of a safe house not too far from here.” 

“The Pinkerton one?” She gasped.

“No, of course not. Another one that Mr. Tyler told me about. It’s located only five blocks from here, and they are always open,” he said. 

As a lone dog’s bark echoed into the night air, they hurried on, his hand still slightly clammy, but she could tell they were both breathing more regularly, and she took comfort in that. We’ll get good care now.

James actually smiled. “Almost there. We turn the corner here and we’re almost…”

When he bumped head on into Lockwood’s massive body, he yelled “Oh, no!” 

The lead agent grabbed James and held him tight.

Hannah stared in disbelief at the two of them. 

James drew a deep breath. “Hannah, this is Mr. Lockwood.”

“Agent Neely, Miss Mayfield, just the people I was looking for,” he said, snickering.

To Hannah, Lockwood’s face, illuminated by the other agents’ lit torches, resembled the devil, overjoyed at the prospect of ushering two new recruits into hell.

Excerpt from Genteel Secrets by S.R. Mallery

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"This anthology consists of twelve wonderful stories with the inherent theme of love and war contained in them. Out of the twelve authors, Uvi Poznansky is the only one that I was familiar with previously. So, in addition to becoming acquainted with new authors in this set, my 'to be read' pile has grown considerably. That is not a bad thing with the wind chill of a minus 10 as I write this review!!" 

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