"I ceased to believe in angels when I was three years old; when the evil from which my mother so valiantly tried to protect me came and took her, plunging me headlong into madness. Evil I know your name. And it has always been Father. Three times I thought I’d broken the bond for good. Three times I was captured and dragged screaming defiantly back into hell. This time there would be no escape. There was nowhere to run. It was sure to end in death.
"The fight had finally been knocked out of me by the time I was twenty-five. My father was all-powerful. His name rang through the halls of justice when an undesirable need arose to service the dark pleasures of those same men. I was his daughter, and I was not immune.’ My short life had been written in blood. I could smell cigarette smoke and stale beer and heard the sound of raucous laughter as I lie there drugged and fighting to maintain consciousness.
“This is some cold-blooded shit. She must have something big on the old man.”
“But… his own daughter?”
“Hey, it’s not for me to judge. He pays me for this kind of work. I never said I was a softie.”
“You have kids, don’t you?”
"I forced my eyes open as my heart still strained against the effects of the barbiturate cocktail they had injected me with a few hours beforehand.
“Yeah,” the fat one said, “I almost regret abducting this one. She just wanted to be...”
"My eyes were losing focus again, and it was hard to breathe. I spied a gun
out of reach. I’d learned how to shoot one out of necessity. I stretched my fingers as far as they would go to no avail. My fingertips brushed the gun’s grip. I knocked it to the ground, causing it to discharge. The men jumped.
“Goddamn it. Waste of a perfectly good bullet,” the fat one swore. “Tie her hands and feet.” The slender man hesitated. “Dammit, Johnson, if the old man isn’t hesitating in rubbing her out, what makes you think he’ll hold back on us?”
"Johnson grabbed my hands without mercy and bound them together until the rope dug into my skin. I was too weak to fight back. The will to survive overrode the pain. I saw men running toward us as they heaved me over the side of the Kennedy Bridge Were those FBI logos on their jackets? I screamed as loud as I could. I prayed they would rescue me as I plummeted towards the water. I did not want to die.
~~~
.
Gemini's War:
Gemini Rising--Book 1
By Amy McCorkle
She was only 10 when he saved her the first time. No matter that it hadn't worked--he had been shot and could not get her away. Instead, the little girl had managed to hide him and take care of him until he was well enough--but he knew without her he would have died...
Aldan had infiltrated her father's building because one of his men had taken the Queen's niece. He was the best man in the British Secret service and was sent to find her. Instead, when he'd broken in, he found Gemini being raped and had tried to save her! Jacobs Michael had shot him! The queen's niece had been returned but had been so damaged that he was still cloistered. Aidan had been ordered back into service...
Still, when he plunged into the river and saved her from drowning, it was hard to believe he had come back...
Gemini was now 25 and her father had finally decided she was never going to willingly accept him as her lover--or anybody else he demanded she give her favors to... But that didn't mean that since she was saved that he would just let her go! Once more he was on the hunt!
Aiden had saved her from drowning but he had been personally affected by all that had happened to him, including having been married and having a daughter... and now being alienated from both.
Just recently he had learned they were both killed in an accident and he grieved knowing that he had never been able to make up with his daughter...
“Try me. My life is an endless knot of troubles.”
“My ex-wife Michele and our daughter Christina were killed when a suicide bomber walked into a café in Mumbai.”
“Why would that be complicated? You loved them, didn’t you?”
“My daughter, yes, very much so.”
“How old was she?” “Nineteen.” For a moment I said nothing. It was unnatural for a parent to lose a child.
“You said ex-wife…”
“Our relationship was complicated. She was a double agent. She often played both ends against the middle, just to see what would happen. And when our marriage soured she used Christina as a pawn in her games.”
“Did you ever think about walking away from the secret service to raise Christina?”
“I had planned to do that when the Queen called on me to find her niece. She said if I brought her home I could walk away free, no strings attached.”
“And if you didn’t?” “She’d make it impossible for me to do so.”
“My father happened.”
He looked at me sharply. “You happened.” His words stung. A lump formed in my throat. But I forced it back down. “If you want to walk away, do it now. Because I’d rather be dead than treated like this.” He erupted.
“My daughter is dead because I was too busy chasing ghosts to fight for her. I’m sorry if I’ve offended you.”
~~~
“Michaels,” Aidan said curtly. “You are a tricky dick. You’ve done something no one else was ever able to do.”
“Pray tell.” The sound of my father’s voice was like an ice bath to my senses. Anxiety now hammered me over the head threatening to strangle me. I couldn’t breathe. “Why… you’ve seduced my daughter and made her love you, of course.”
“How dare you use that word? You murdered my mother and raped me. You raped me. You are evil. Pure evil incarnate. You are unnatural! Incest is unnatural. Then you sold me out to your highest bidders to do what they wanted with me. You are sick. What you did was disgusting.”
“Shut-up, you insolent bitch! And as for you, Aidan Wells, I trusted you with my business years ago. I thought killing you would be enough to rid me of you. I guess I have to thank my brat of a daughter for your survival. I thought I was well rid of you. But just when I think I was rid of you both, you turn up like bad pennies. You’d think the death of your own daughter Christina would be enough to make you give up this crusade.”
"I was terrified. I wanted to curl up in Aidan’s arms and have him protect me from this man who wouldn’t let me go. But the mentioning his daughter had hit him hard. His body stiffened. His gaze hardened. I gathered up my courage and pushed my fear as far down as I could and seethed, “You rotten sonofabitch! You are a rapist, a murderer, and a pimp. You enslave women for your own sick pleasure and sadistic wants. You’re lucky you’re not here because if you were, a grieving father’s rage would be the least of your problems.”
“Oh look, isn’t she cute, the rat terrier defending her master. Just remember, Gemini, I’m everywhere. There’s no place you can go in this world, there’s no place you can hide that I don’t have someone who will hunt you down and bring you back to me. So enjoy your little field trip, because you will pay for it. And you, Aidan Wells—” A
"idan cut him off. With a quiet, grief-filled rage, his blue eyes glistening with unshed tears I was sure he would not allow Jacob to see, he said from between his teeth, “As for you Jacob Michaels, you have just signed your death warrant.” “Big words.” “Sleep with one eye open, you evil son of a bitch, because I’m coming for you. And I’m taking you down.”
"My father blinked. It was the first time I had seen him do it – nobody had ever stood up to him before, let alone threatened him. Aidan pulled out his gun and blew a hole in the dashboard. The sound was deafening. And I jumped so high my head hit the roof of the car. As we travelled down the road he holstered his gun. I didn’t know what to say or do. Everything in me said go to him. Even if it meant causing him to lash out at me.
~~~
Aiden and Gemini falling in love did not surprise me. Gemini had seen Aiden as her hero, her savior, even when he failed to save her when she was just 10... He had tried, he had been the first person to show any small piece of concern for Gemini since her mother had died...
But McCorkle totally caught me off guard with what happened as the climax of the novel! It was mind-blowing for me!
The merge of romantic love within human trafficking has been effectively done by this author! Kudos to her... There was just enough balance between both individuals being afraid of a relationship, given what life Gemini had been forced to live, and their need to relate to each other after their early meeting when Gemini actually saved Aiden's life rather than the other way around...
I was also amazed at the quality of hope that was given to Gemini by the author. Surely, when you can never, ever trust your father it would affect your ability to get past what has been done to you emotionally, physically and mentally. While anger was apparent continuously for Gemini, she exhibited a strength of character that had to be there to make this book work! I applaud the author again, for the depth of this character while presenting what happened to her so sensitively.
This subject is an emotional roller coaster for me. As an abused child, and knowing other women who were abused, I know what it takes to get past...that past... When it evolves from inside the family, it can be devastating... But the spread of human trafficking around the world reveals that there are so many individuals who have perverted their sexual desires--and just as many who use those perversions to achieve money and power.
How awful that an individual, like Gemini's father, can rise in the business world, by merely providing for those who are willing to pay for those secret desires!
I hate to consider that this could be true to some small or great extent...
If we are not willing to confront these issues through books and spread the word that it has got to stop, there seems no hope for America's and the world's future... This romantic suspense is an excellent way to see what happens and realize that those children taken are worthy of love, respect and, most of all...saving!
I consider this a must-read for anybody who cares about the young girls who you love and who could easily be lost within this world! Highly recommended! This is one of the best I've read on this subject...
GABixlerReviews
Amy McCorkle writes romantic thrillers and under Kate Lynd for her scifi and dystopian books has nine books including the Amazon Bestselling GLADIATOR, Bounty Hunter, and her memoir, Letters to Daniel. She spends most of her time writing books and feeding her pet kitty Chyna. She has been awarded for her books, screenplays, and her blogs as well. She aspires to write her own television series, an indie soap, and to gain a traditional publishing contract and agent. Her most recent achievement is having Stan Lee eat her food and winning Best Sci Fi Screenplay for Bounty Hunter with her best good friend, Melissa Goodman.
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