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Straight From The Hip
Susan Mallery
Izzy has always been the fearless Titan sister.But when an oil rig blows up, leaving her barely able to see, her sisters find themselves as concerned by her emotional withdrawal as by the possibility that the explosion was no accident.Are the mind games their long-lost brother Garth has been playing turning physical? Or is someone else out to get them? When her sisters enroll her in a survivor training camp, Izzy is not happy. Nick, her instructor, is determined that she won't be left in the dark. In more ways than one.But if he tells her the terrible truth behind why he's helping her, he'll never see her again. Unless they're both willing to take the biggest risk of all.
Rave reviews for New York Times
bestselling author
SUSAN MALLERY
Sweet Spot
“Mallery is in top-notch form as she takes troubled and stubborn individuals and portrays their emotional growth. Drama and trauma abound in this winner!”
—Romantic Times BOOKreviews
“I strongly recommend Sweet Spot, especially to readers who like their family melodramas spiked with lots of laughter and hot romance.”
—The Romance Reader
Sweet Talk
“Sweet Talk is one sweet read! Susan Mallery delivers a deliciously satisfying first book in her new wonderfully written Bakery Sisters trilogy.”
—The Romance Readers Connection (4 1/2 stars)
“Amusing, heartfelt and wildly romantic, Sweet Talk is the perfect romance.”
—Joyfully Reviewed
“Susan Mallery provides a powerful, passionate backdrop to a fine contemporary romance.”
—Harriet Klausner
Accidentally Yours
“Mallery has once again proven to be a superb writer; romance novels just don’t get much better than this.”
—Booklist
“If you’re looking for heart-tugging emotions elaborately laced with humor, then Mallery is the author for you.”
—Romantic Times BOOKreviews
Tempting
“At turns witty and poignant, this hard-to-put-down book will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers.”
—Booklist, starred review
Sizzling
“[A] tasty dish…Mallery’s prose is luscious and provocative, and her characters worth following from book to book.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Sizzling is simply dazzling! You’ll laugh, you’ll hoot, you’ll raise your eyebrows, and yes, you’ll cry buckets, so have those tissues handy…. Highly Recommended!”
—The Romance Readers Connection
Straight from the Hip
Susan Mallery
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
STRAIGHT FROM THE HIP
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER ONE
IN THE MOVIES there was always a warning before something bad happened. Music swelled, the good guy promised everything would be fine now or the camera suddenly went into slow motion.
Life wasn’t so tidy.
Izzy Titan sat in the window seat, as she had every day for the past month, staring out at a blurry world and feeling sorry for herself. While it wasn’t a career choice everyone would make, it filled the day. She ignored her sisters’ pleas that she join them for lunch or shopping or even come downstairs to dinner. Like a regular person. When it got too annoying, she pointed out she wasn’t regular anymore—she was handicapped. If that didn’t work, she slammed the door and locked it until they went away. She’d always given everything she had, so she was ready to become the self-pity queen, if necessary.
Finally her sisters stopped bugging her. Which should have been a really big clue.
There wasn’t any warning. One minute she was sitting in her usual spot, the next, someone grabbed her around the waist, pulled her to her feet, then tossed her over a very broad, very hard shoulder.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she yelled as blood rushed to her head, making her a little dizzy.
“My job. Go ahead and fight me all you want. You can’t hurt me.”
It was a challenge she couldn’t ignore. But when she tried to kick her attacker, he wrapped one arm around her legs, holding her still. Wiggling didn’t help either. The man had muscles like rock and a month of immobilizing self-pity had left her girlishly weak.
“I swear,” she began, as the guy turned and started walking. “Do you know who I am?”
“Izzy Titan. Hey, Skye.”
Hey, Skye?
Izzy raised her head and tried to make the room focus. Unfortunately it was dark and blurry and she couldn’t see any details.
“Skye?” she yelled. “Are you there?”
“Oh, Izzy.” Her sister sounded concerned, but not worried. Not afraid. “We didn’t know what else to do.”
“We?”
“I’m here, too,” Lexi, her other sister, said. “This is for your own good.”
“Having me kidnapped?”
“Nick comes very highly recommended. You told us that your doctors wanted to put you on an antidepressant, which you wouldn’t agree to. This is better.”
“What?”
“You wouldn’t leave your room or talk to us. It’s been a month, Izzy.”
“You’re having me kidnapped because I wouldn’t go shopping with you? Are you insane?”
They moved into the hallway. She could tell because the room got darker and her fingers brushed against the walls. Then they were going down, down, down into more darkness.
Each step jarred her entire body. If she’d had that lunch her sisters were so hysterical about she would be throwing it up, right about now.
“I’m not kidding,” she yelled. “Stop this right now. All of you. Nick, I don’t care what my sisters said, I didn’t agree to this. Put me down or I swear I’ll throw your ass in jail for so long, you’ll actually learn to enjoy being Bubba’s love slave.”
“You signed a release,” rock-guy said calmly, still moving through the house.
“What?”
“You signed a release. I’ve got it here in my pocket.”
Izzy wanted to scream in frustration as she remembered Skye asking her to sign a few checks so her sister could pay Izzy’s bills. “She tricked me. I’m blind! I didn’t know what I was signing.”
They went outside. She saw the blurry outline of trees and the welcome light and heat of the sun.
“You shouldn’t sign what you can’t read,” Nick told her.
She could hear the humor in his voice and that really pissed her off. Seconds later, he opened a car door and dumped her onto a smooth leather seat. Before he could close the door, she pushed past him and bolted for freedom. She made it all of three steps before he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her against him.
It was like pressing against the side of a mountain. She kicked and tried to pull her arm free. Irritation turned to fury and betrayal. She turned toward the house—at least she could see something that big—and assumed her sisters were on the porch.
“How could you do this to me?” she demanded. “You’re my family.”
“Izzy, we love you.” There were tears in Skye’s voice.
Good, Izzy thought furiously. She hoped Skye felt guilty for the rest of her life.
“We didn’t know what else to do,” Lexi called, sounding less than sure.
“I would never do this to you,” Izzy screamed. “Don’t think I’ll ever forgive you. Ever!”
The last word was cut short as she was tossed back into the rear of a car or SUV. She couldn’t tell which. The door slammed shut before she could run again. She lunged for the door handle, only there wasn’t one. Nor could she open the windows.
Seconds later she discovered a thick, mesh screening behind the seat and between her and the front of the vehicle. She was trapped.
She heard the door open and vaguely saw Nick slide behind the wheel. Then they were driving away. Her sisters had hired a stranger to take her from her home and do God-knows-what to her. They’d abandoned her. No. This was worse—this was actual action on their part. The two people she’d counted on her entire life had discovered she was too much trouble and had tossed her out like the trash.
FOR THE NEXT THREE HOURS, Nick Hollister drove ten miles above the speed limit. He wanted to go faster, but knew he couldn’t outrun the inevitable. His pretty, dark-haired passenger was staring out the window with a determination that told him she was about ten seconds from losing it.
“You can cry if you want to,” he said. “It won’t bother me.” He’d seen a lot worse than tears.
Izzy didn’t turn toward him. “I won’t give you the satisfaction.”
“You think I win if you cry?”
“Don’t bullies always enjoy knowing they’ve hurt someone? You didn’t win. You can’t break me.”
