Free Worth Dying For by Beverly Barton Page A

since Leslie Anne had been drugged, she didn’t have the ability to fight him.”
    Unbearable emotional pain ripped through Tessa, a pain so fierce that it exceeded all the physical pain she had endured during her months of recovery after her “accident.” “No…no…no!” There was no agony on earth more brutalthan the one felt by a parent on behalf of his or her child. And no love so unconditional as that of a mother and father.
    Like a mother tigress, aggressively protective, Tessa wanted to rip apart the person responsible for hurting her baby.
    She understood now, as she’d never understood before, how her father must have felt all those years ago when he’d sworn he would move heaven and earth to see her rapist captured and put to death.
    Dante turned Tessa straight into his arms and held her protectively against his big body. She allowed herself to yield completely, to give herself over to his care. She couldn’t remember ever instinctively trusting another human being, other than her father, the way she did Dante Moran. And why, she didn’t know. This instant trust and physical attraction puzzled her, even made her question her usual sound judgment. But God, it felt so good to have him here to lean on.
    “We’ll take her home to Fairport tonight. I’ve already cleared it with the Tuscaloosa police.” Dante eased Tessa out of his arms. He whipped out a white handkerchief, grasped her chin with one hand and then reached up to dab the tears from the corners of her eyes.
    She hadn’t even realized she was crying.
    Tessa gazed up into Dante’s eyes, so dark a brown they appeared almost black. What she saw in his intense gaze unnerved her. Longing. That was the only word to describe it. A soul-deep longing. Part sexual, but equally pure, raw emotion. Was what she saw, what she sensed, coming from Dante alone or was it also a reflection of what he was seeing in her eyes?
    Forcing herself to break eye contact with him, Tessacleared her throat, turned around and glanced down the hallway toward room number three. “Mr. Shea told Lucie and me that Leslie Anne wouldn’t let you out of her sight. I want to thank you for not only rescuing my daughter, but for making her feel safe.” And that was the way he made Tessa feel, too. Safe. As if he could protect her from all harm.
    Dante clamped his hand down on her shoulder. “She’s one scared young lady. She’s going to need you now more than she ever has in her life.”
    “I know.”
    “Yes, I suppose you do.” His voice went deep and whisper soft. “Only too well.”
    Clenching her teeth, Tessa swallowed. “I don’t suppose she told you why she ran away from home, did she?”
    “No, she didn’t.”
    “My greatest fear has always been that someday she’d find out the truth.”
    “Did you ever plan to tell her?”
    “No.”
    Dante’s grip tightened. “My mama used to say that the truth always has a way of coming out.”
    “If Leslie Anne found out about—I can’t imagine how it could have happened. At the time, Daddy did everything in his power to keep things hush-hush. He—we didn’t even tell my mother what had really happened.”
    “If Leslie Anne did find out that her biological father was—”
    Tessa whipped around and glared at Dante. “An inhuman monster. That’s what he was. How could she ever cope with that knowledge?”
    “With a great deal of love and understanding. You’ll have to find a way to convince her that she didn’t inheritany dangerously negative traits, that she doesn’t have to worry that the day will come when she’ll become her father’s daughter.”
    Tessa gasped. Hearing her own fears voiced aloud shocked her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, all these years, she had wondered if it was possible to inherit criminal tendencies. But Leslie Anne’s gentle, loving personality had allayed those concerns. For the most part. If those hideously ugly concerns existed in the remote corners of Tessa’s heart, how