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- Herausgeber: Valley Publishing Ltd.
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Sprache: Englisch
Noah heard the woman’s cry for help through Levi’s phone, and he was already in the car and moving before anyone could stop him. He hated for any woman to be in distress, and this one sounded devastated. Having helped her once, he was determined to keep her safe, while the team tracked down her attacker.
Dianne was looking forward to her upcoming weekend seminar and even more to the few days with her friend, Ice, at the compound. Dianne wanted to talk over a business idea she was ready to put into place. Being attacked wasn’t part of the plan. Neither was Noah. Still she was happy to have him as a babysitter, given the circumstances.
Only someone has a grudge against Levi and sees Dianne as a way to get back at him.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
About This Book
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
About Tomas’s Trials
Excerpt from Ryland’s Reach
Excerpt from Damon’s Deal
Author’s Note
Complimentary Download
About the Author
Copyright Page
About This Book
Noah heard the woman’s cry for help through Levi’s phone, and he was already in the car and moving before anyone could stop him. He hated for any woman to be in distress, and this one sounded devastated. Having helped her once, he was determined to keep her safe, while the team tracked down her attacker.
Dianne was looking forward to her upcoming weekend seminar and even more to the few days with her friend, Ice, at the compound. Dianne wanted to talk over a business idea she was ready to put into place. Being attacked wasn’t part of the plan. Neither was Noah. Still she was happy to have him as a babysitter, given the circumstances.
Only someone has a grudge against Levi and sees Dianne as a way to get back at him.
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Prologue
Noah Wilkerson walked into Levi’s kitchen and sat down, hoping for a midmorning snack and more coffee.
“Hey, Noah. Even your buddy Bonaparte is hooked up now, isn’t he?” Levi asked.
Just then Bonaparte walked into the kitchen. “What’s this? I heard my name, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, how is Angela doing?” Levi asked him.
“She’s doing amazing,” Bonaparte said, with a big grin.
Noah stared at him. “I haven’t seen that smile on your face before.”
“Hey,” he said, “you haven’t met Angela.”
Noah laughed. “Nope, but I do hear that you were pretty resistant to the idea, before you went out there.”
“I sure was, but she changed my mind pretty damn fast.”
Noah looked over at Levi, just as Ice appeared. “So, you guys are running quite the matchmaking service, it seems.”
“Sometimes it works out that way,” Ice said, with a smile. “You interested?”
Noah thought about it, shrugged, and said, “Well, if you can find me a partner like the ones you’ve found for these guys, maybe,” he said. “I can’t say I’ve really been thinking about it though.”
“Of course not,” Ice said, her smile growing bigger. “Nobody really thinks about it, unless they’ve been trying for a long time.”
“Nope, not me. I broke up about a year ago from a long-term relationship and haven’t really found anybody interesting since.”
“What broke it up, Noah?” Bonaparte asked.
“She wanted a family, and, in the four years we were together, she couldn’t conceive. So she decided she wanted to change the herd sire.” They all just stared at him, and finally he shrugged, picked up his cup of coffee, and had a sip. It was the first time he’d really told the truth about it.
“Wow,” Ice said. “I’m sorry. Did you ever get tested? Or did she?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t. Don’t know about her. Maybe she did and didn’t tell me. I don’t really know. But that was the reason she gave for the breakup.”
Just then a phone call came in, Ice taking it.
“What’s going on?” Levi asked Ice, when her expression changed.
“Remember Di?” Ice asked Levi, while listening to the caller on the other end too.
“Which one? Diamond?”
“No, Dianne from Australia.”
“Oh, yeah, sure. What about her?”
“She’s in Houston, and she said—Wait, Dianne. I’m putting the phone on Speaker.”
“Okay,” Di said, and they heard her taking several deep breaths.
“Are you okay?” Ice asked.
“I’m not sure I am,” she said, with a tearful tone. “I was just attacked in my car.”
“Uh-oh,” Ice said. “Did you call the cops?”
“I would have,” she said, “but he, the guy, had a strange message.”
“What message?” Levi asked.
“Oh, good. Levi, I’m glad you’re there,” she said in relief.
“Dianne, are you hurt?”
“No,” she said. “Well, yes, but not badly.”
“Take it easy,” Ice said calmly, her tone measured and comforting. “You’re safe now.”
“Well, I am now that he’s gone,” she said, with a hysterical laugh. “Unfortunately he didn’t leave fast enough. He cut me.”
“How bad?” Levi asked sharply.
“My arm, my shoulder, and a slice across my belly,” she said. “None of them look bad. They’re just stinging and painful. I’ll have to get them checked.”
“So tell me again. Why call us and not the police?” Levi asked curiously.
“Because the attacker, he had a message for you.”
“For me?” Levi asked, standing now and walking closer to Ice. “What did he say?”
“He said, it was for—for past sins.” Then she started to cry.
“Jesus,” he said, staring at Ice. “Did you recognize him, Dianne?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “It was Maxwell.”
“Maxwell? Maxwell who?”
“Do you remember the guy who approached us on the boardwalk in Sydney a while ago? The really angry man, who lashed out verbally at the two of you? We were talking about me coming to Texas, when he ran up to us, screaming at you. Something about losing his son and it was your fault?”
“That Maxwell?” Levi asked.
“Yes.”
“But that makes no sense,” he said.
“No,” she said. “None of it makes any sense. But it was him. He was right here, attacking me moments ago, and something about past sins was your message.”
“But we didn’t have anything to do with the death of his son.”
“No,” she said, “but remember? He wanted your help, when his son was used against him.”
“And you really think that’s why he’s after us?”
She started to cry again.
Noah stared at the three of them in shock. “Hey, Dianne. This is Noah.”
“Noah? Do I know you?”
“I work for Levi,” he said. “I’m not sure if we’ve met before or not, but do you want me to come help you?”
There was silence as Levi looked at Noah.
Noah shrugged. “I don’t want to see her alone right now.”
“Where are you?” Levi asked Dianne.
“Just give me an address,” Noah said to her, “and I’ll head your way. What are you doing there anyway?”
“I’m here for a conference,” she said, “and, when I went to the underground parking lot for my rental, wanting a break, just to grab a coffee or a quick bite, that’s when he attacked me.”
“Sit tight. I’m coming.” Noah turned to Ice and said, “Can you get me as much information as you can, then hook me into the conversation, while I drive there?”
She nodded. “On it,” she said. “Dianne, I’ll call you right back. Noah is on his way.”
“Okay,” she said, her voice small, her tone teary. “I just don’t know why Maxwell used me to get to you.”
“Wrong place, wrong time,” Levi said.
“I don’t think so,” she said, her voice getting stronger. “The way he cut me, it felt like so much more than that.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of it. Noah is headed your way.”
Chapter 1
Noah Wilkerson was in one of Levi’s vehicles and out the front gate of the compound, racing toward Dianne’s location within a few minutes. It had been instinctive to grab one of the vehicles with bulletproof glass. But, if somebody was after her, it would be hard enough to deal with all the possible issues without getting sidelined by something unexpected. Sure, it was an abundance of caution—too much, perhaps—but that wasn’t a problem for him.
After spending several years working for people like Levi and Bullard all around the globe, Noah had settled back in his home country and had found that the violence was just about as bad in the USA as everywhere else he’d been. It was second nature for him to look around every corner for it. He didn’t think he’d ever met Di before, but he’d heard about her from their mutual friends. Then he thought about it again, and they may have crossed paths in Australia, but he just couldn’t think of the details right now.
The fear in her voice had been compelling. She was absolutely terrified. They didn’t have anybody in town right now, one of the few days nobody was running errands or picking up supplies or anything. Dianne just had to hold tight, stay on the phone, and talk to Levi and Ice, while Noah drove into Houston proper. He wasn’t even a few minutes out of Levi’s compound when his phone rang. He quickly punched buttons and was connected into a conference call between Ice, Levi, and Dianne.
“Any news?” Noah asked.
“Nothing yet,” Levi said. “She’s sitting still. The car doors are locked. She’s just terrified.” A gentle sob came in the background and then obvious efforts on Dianne’s part to regain her breathing.
“I’m … I’m okay,” she said.
“Just hold strong,” Noah said. “Fifteen minutes, that’s all.”
Levi said on a humorous note, “Unless, at that rate, you get pulled over.”
“Naw, not happening,” Noah said. “The angels are on my side. They know I have to help someone.”
“I hope they are,” Di said, and then her voice gained strength. “And then I’ll want to know where they were an hour ago.”
Noah smiled at that, loving the grit in her voice. “Well, messages sent like Maxwell’s are never very nice,” he said. “And the reasoning behind all this, if we’re correct in our thinking, is even harder. When a man loses somebody very close to him, somebody he obviously cares deeply for, it’s understandable that he’d go off the deep end, but he can’t stay there. Levi, how long ago was it that his son died?”
“It’s got to be at least a year, I would think.”
Ice stepped in and said, “I think it was about eleven months ago.”
“So, long enough to recover from the initial wave of grief, yet not long enough to establish a new world order in your life,” Noah murmured. “And just long enough for something like revenge to grow.”
“Yes,” Levi said heavily. “We weren’t responsible for his son dying though, so I’m not sure why he’s latched on to us.”
“It doesn’t really matter, since it appears that he has chosen us, rational or not,” Noah stated. “What’s interesting is that he’s using transference and sees Di as a way to get at you.”
“I’m thinking that must have been something off the cuff,” Ice said. “Maybe he just saw Di, and it was a flashback of us together joined with Maxwell losing his son, and everything just aligned itself into this being what he had to do.”
Dianne gave a choking laugh at that. “My God,” she said, “that just makes me wonder how many people are out there who have a screw loose and are ready to blow.”
“Well, think about it,” Ice said in a calm voice. “Say he’s going along in life, doing the best he can to find a new way to live, then all of a sudden he sees somebody related to the worst horror he went through, and she’s sitting there in a fancy hotel’s parking lot, having a happy successful life, while he’s struggling, and his anger and rage just lashes out. It’s a simple case of transference. He knows you’re connected to Levi and me, so unfortunately you became an easy target that he could reach, instead of hitting out at the two of us.”
At that, Dianne calmed a little more. “I guess,” she said. “He seemed so angry.”
“That’s because he hasn’t dealt with his issues,” Ice murmured. “He’s still looking to lash out.”
“Survivor’s guilt?” Noah asked.
“Hey, I’m sure we could get into tons of psychological stuff here. The bottom line is that Maxwell’s targeting us and our friends,” Levi said. “Noah, you need to keep an eye out and make sure that somebody isn’t targeting you now.”
“Well, this vehicle doesn’t have any identifying symbols on it, and nobody knows that I’ve worked for you for years overseas,” he said.
A thoughtful tone came into Ice’s voice, as she said, “You know what? You’re right. You could be the best man for this job, since you are relatively unknown here now.”
“Except for a few of your guys, I’ve worked with,” Noah said, “nobody here will have any clue.”
“And the fact that Maxwell’s already targeted Dianne for his anger is interesting,” Ice said.
“I think either he’s just warming up or it doesn’t matter. As long as he can start on the fringes and hurt us, he’ll be happy,” Levi said.
“The question is, who might he see as his next target?” Noah asked. “Because Maxwell’s obviously in town here, so who all is in danger?”
“Everyone,” Ice said. “All of our team and their partners will immediately be put on lockdown.”
“Great,” Dianne said. “They’ll all love me for that.”
“Not if they understand what’s just happened,” Ice said. “It’s one of the rules of being here. You’ll always be on the edge of some kind of attack or another.”
“You know something? I used to think the USA was safe,” Noah said, with a laugh. “But it seems like, in some ways, it’s just as bad or even worse than anywhere else.”
“An awful lot of domestic violence is here,” Ice said. “But usually that’s targeted much closer to home than something like this.”
“Well, I’m just hitting the city limits,” Noah said, “so hold tight, Dianne.”
He clicked off the phone and maneuvered through the traffic just starting to build. He was an expert driver, and he needed to shave off as many minutes as he could getting to Dianne. He knew that she had calmed down and was doing much better than she had been, but he didn’t want the attacker sitting off to the side, waiting to come back and torment her again. Because Noah had seen that happen too. Sometimes an attack happened, and the perpetrator retreated, enjoying seeing the victim deal with the aftermath and the trauma, only to go after them again. That wouldn’t wash with Noah today.
Still, the traffic was just heavy enough that, for every minute he shaved off, he lost a couple more in lights and idiots. Never any way to deal with the bad drivers on the road and elsewhere, except to smile kindly and to keep going. What he wanted to do was take a battering ram and clear the freeway for his own use. It seemed like, anytime he tried to get anywhere, many more people were trying to get someplace too. And they were always in his face.
Still, by the time he drove down the designated street, looking for the hotel and the connected car park where Di was, he had made good time overall. He set up his phone again and called Ice. “I think I’m about thirty meters away.”
“We just got off the phone with her,” she said. “Second layer, spot D42.”
“Okay, I’m going in now.” He hung up, pulled into the car park, swung up to the second loop, and slowly drove ahead. When he found the spot, he stopped and frowned. He called Ice again on his phone. “Hey, what was that number again?”
“D42,” she said. “She’s got a dark green Honda SUV.”
“Well, a dark green Honda is here, but it’s empty,” he said. He turned off the engine and hopped out, his phone in his hand, as he walked over to the vehicle. “No sign of her,” he announced, followed by a moment of silence.
“I just got off the phone from her,” Ice said. “Not a minute ago.”
“And she sounded okay?” He looked around the area but saw no sign of anybody walking nearby. “The place is deserted.”
“Dammit,” she said.
Noah said, “Let me check inside the vehicle.” He opened up the driver’s side, surprised that it wasn’t locked. It was empty and so was the other side, and then he heard something in the back. He flipped the front seat forward, swore, and raced around to the back, where he popped the hatch.
“I found her,” he said, bending over the unconscious woman in the back. “She’s been stuffed in the back of her vehicle.”
“Goddammit,” Ice said. “Is she okay?”
“Well, I’m checking her out.” He laid down the phone, as he quickly checked her over. “It doesn’t look like anything major was broken, though she has some head trauma, and the cuts she mentioned. She’s moaning ever-so-slightly.”
“Let’s get her to the hospital.”
“Yeah, it’ll be easier if I take her.”
“No, not easier,” she said, “but faster and away from the bastard, who can’t be too far away from you.”
“You want to call ahead?” Noah asked, as he looked all around for anybody suspicious. “I’ve already got her in my arms. I’ll take her in the truck.”
“I don’t like this at all,” Ice snapped, and he heard her fretting on the other end of the phone.
“Well, we found her. She’s alive, and we’ll move on from here,” he said. “I’ve got her.” He struggled to open the truck door, but, when he finally did, he gently put her in the passenger seat and buckled her in tight, then shut the door, setting the car alarm. He raced back to the Honda, closed up the SUV, checked it, but he didn’t see anything useful other than her purse. She’d want that. “You might want to get her vehicle combed for evidence.”
“Yeah,” Ice said, “we’ll get it towed out of there.”
“Unless the cops want it for forensics.”
“I think we’ll handle this one internally,” Ice said.
“Well, send somebody for it then,” he said. “I’m getting out of here and heading to the hospital.” He raced back to his truck, turned on the engine, and quickly departed the car park. He checked on her several times, but there was no change; her pulse was slow and steady. As he flew toward the emergency entrance to the hospital, she opened her eyes, looked at him, and started shrieking.
He parked in the first available spot and said, “Calm down. Ice sent me.”
She looked at him and started to shake and quiver. “My God,” she whispered. “Are you Noah?”
“I’m Noah,” he said. “I came to get you but found you in the back of your vehicle.”
She stared at him, her eyes wide. “I just got out to stretch my legs,” she said. “I was so nervous and getting worried. I knew you were coming, but, at the same time, I felt trapped inside that vehicle. It just—” And her voice fell off. “It was stupid.”
“No, not necessarily,” he said. “It’s hard to realize that people out there are just waiting for you to make a vulnerable move like that.”
“It’s sick.”
He saw the tears in her eyes, but she was holding them back. “What I need to do,” he said, “is get you checked over. So, let’s get you inside.” She stared at him and blinked owlishly. He shut off the engine, then hopped down, went around to her side, and gently helped her down.
She looked up at the hospital. “Oh, I don’t need to go to a hospital,” she said, her voice getting stronger.
“You need those wounds cleaned and maybe stitched, but especially someone needs to see that head wound,” he said.
“No,” she said. “That’s not necessary. The expense and all.”
“Don’t you have traveling insurance?”
“Sure,” she said, “but it’s a pain in the ass.” She shook her head, wincing. “I feel fine, really.”
“That’s not the point,” he said firmly. “We need to make sure you’re okay.” She glared at him. He shrugged and said, “I’ll take you in there.”
“Against my will?” she challenged.
He raised both eyebrows. “If necessary, yes,” he said. “You don’t know what happened while you were out. You don’t know how bad that head wound of yours is, and those cuts are still bleeding and should be looked at.”
At his words, immediately her hands went up to her head. “Head wound?”
“Exactly,” he said. “You’re probably in shock and don’t even know you’re hurt.” She frowned at him, and he said, “If you can walk in a straight line, without any hesitation, to that front door, like you’ve got some oomph and some meaning behind it,” he said, “I might reconsider.”
She glared at him and muttered, “Who made you the boss?” Then she strode forward to the front door. But she made it about four steps and started to pitch forward.
He caught her as she went down and said, “Case closed.”
“Hate you,” she muttered.
“Love you,” he snickered. “Even though you’re not very nice.”
“I’m very nice,” she said.
“Normally I’m sure that’s true,” he said. “But, when you’re hurt and argumentative and cranky—which, I understand, is not quite your normal personality—I have to assume something’s going on.”
“Doesn’t matter,” she said, yawning. “I won’t stay.”
“You don’t have to stay. We just need their equipment and their expertise to inspect your wounds.”
“I’m sure Ice has the same equipment.”
“Maybe, but we aren’t at the compound now. This hospital was the closest,” he said. He took her into the emergency entrance, and a medical team was already waiting for him. He loved that they could get such perfect service. But then Levi and Ice donated a lot of money to the place—and unfortunately donated a lot of patients too.
When the staff came forward with a gurney, Noah sat her gently there and explained what had happened. She was taken away, while he did paperwork and called in to Levi with an update. “I’ve got her at the hospital. They’re checking her over right now. She took four steps and collapsed, so I couldn’t not take her in, even though she really, really didn’t want to go.”
“No surprise there,” Levi said. “She’s always been like that.”
“Cranky?” Noah said, with a note of humor. “I figured that was the head injury.”
Levi laughed. “Well, maybe, but she tends to be a little contrary, always has been. It’s part of her charm,” he said. “But we needed to get the head checked anyway, so you’re right on.”
“So, am I bringing her back there to the compound?”
“Yes, Ice and I have already discussed it. We need to get more details from her and figure out what’s going on.”
“Are you still thinking it’s the same guy?”
“Well, Di remembered Maxwell and recognized him. I’m just not sure what’s driving him or how far he’s prepared to go.”
“It seems like he’s already prepared to go pretty far, especially if he’s the one who came back and attacked her afterward.”
“That’s the curious thing about it. Why? Why not just leave her there in a panic?”
“Maybe he thought she was just way too lively,” Noah muttered. “I mean, who knows what makes these guys tick? Something’s broken.”
“Something’s broken is a good way to look at it,” Levi said, “and, if it’s broken, everybody wants to try to fix it.”
“But some of these guys are beyond fixing,” Noah warned.
“That’s all that awesome global experience of yours speaking,” Levi said in a light tone.
“Maybe. As soon as I know more,” he said, “I’ll call you back. Otherwise, expect us home this afternoon.”
“Good enough.”
“Did you pick up her vehicle?” Noah asked Levi.
“I did,” he said. “That’s in progress right now.”
“Good.” Noah hung up from the call and turned to see the doctor walking toward him.
“Light concussion and no serious side effects. She can go home with you, as long as she’s not left alone.”
“She’s going back to the compound with Levi and Ice.”
The doctor smiled. “That sounds great. Ice has a fabulous facility, with practically everything I have here, and more,” he said enviously.
Noah smiled at the doc. “You know that you only have to ask for what you need.”
The doc nodded. “It’s just not that easy,” he said. “Hiring extra personnel, training, space, and upkeep must be considered. Sometimes it’s all just a big headache.”
“So, no lasting injuries, nothing else except the head?”
“Yeah,” he said, motioning Noah to the curtained-off rooms. “The cuts are largely superficial, except for a couple spots she needs to watch, where we put in a few stitches. If she has any further negative symptoms, don’t hesitate to bring her back in again.” At that, he pulled open the curtain.
Dianne was sitting up, looking a little worse for wear. She glared at him.
Noah smiled. “You ready to go home?”
At that, she looked at him. “Home?”
“To Levi and Ice at the compound.”
She smiled and said, “Yes, that I would like, although I do have a hotel room. They know that, right? I don’t need their largesse.”
“That’s got nothing to do with it, and you know it,” he said in exasperation.
She shrugged. “Just so that everybody knows I’m not on the street or anything.”
“You’re visiting the country.”
“Actually I’m not,” she said. “I’m on my—I just moved back. And I’m attending this conference at that hotel, while I figure it out.”
“And why move here?” he asked, as he led her back to the truck.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I spent a lot of years here when I was in college. I’ve always felt like I needed to come back here.”
“And often that’s the only reason we have,” he said. “Otherwise you could have stuck a pin in a map and gone anywhere.”
“I could have, but I have friends here.”
“Ice and Levi, you mean?”
She nodded and smiled. “And several others at the compound. I’ve met a lot of them over the years that I’ve known Ice and Levi. They’ve always been big on health and fitness, hence them crossing over to my area. We met when they were working in Australia on a job years ago. Ice and I just hit it off, and we’ve been friends ever since.”
“Did you ever ask Ice for a job?”
“Wasn’t sure I wanted one, honestly. I was thinking about setting up my own business, but, right now, I can’t even think straight.”
“And, right now, you don’t even need to,” he said cheerfully. He helped her into the truck and said, “Just rest, okay? We’ll be about forty minutes.”
“I thought you said it was a fifteen-minute drive?”
“Because I was coming to help a woman who was injured and in trauma,” he said. “Now I have that same woman in the vehicle who doesn’t need any extra trauma or stress from the drive,” he said. “So we’ll slow down and take it easy.”
When he got in, she rolled her head to the side and looked at him, and said, “Since when did you become such a knight in shining armor?”
He looked at her. “I thought it was a prerequisite for working for Levi.”
*
Di burst out laughing at that. “Oh my,” she said, as she grabbed her head. “That’s the best line I’ve heard yet.”
He grinned at her, an all-too-endearing grin, as he reached over, patted her gently on her knee. “Just shut your eyes and rest. Don’t laugh, until your head stops hurting. And don’t worry. Just rest.”
“Yes, boss,” she said, closing her eyes, as he pulled out of the hospital parking lot into traffic. It was nice being in a big truck like this too, high above the traffic, not feeling like she would get hit by any other vehicle. She wasn’t a nervous driver, but sometimes the traffic here in Houston really got to her. And she’d driven in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and some parts of Thailand that were completely uncontrolled. Yet this was very different, had an aggression to it here that she didn’t like. As she settled into her seat, she wondered at the turn of events that brought her here and to this.
“Heavy thoughts?”
She rolled her head ever-so-slightly to him. “Just wondering about that strange attack.”
“And yet he knew who you were?”
“Well, I presume so,” she said. “After all, he had a message for Levi.”
“Yes,” he said, “so that makes some sense, if any of this does.”
“That’s the thing though. None of it does,” she said.
“You know that Levi and Ice will need all kinds of information from you, when we get you there.”
“I don’t have anything to give them,” she murmured. “Some idiot came out of nowhere, attacked me, told me it was a warning for Levi, and took off. And, even then, I don’t understand why Maxwell would attack me a second time.”
“Any reason to think it wasn’t the same guy?”
Her eyes widened. “Oh God,” she said, “I really need it to be the same guy. To think that I was attacked by two separate people, that’s too much.”
“I hear you.”
He kept his thoughts to himself, and she appreciated that; yet his question ate away at her. “Do you think it wasn’t the same guy?”
“I don’t know what to think,” he said. “We just need to stay open to ideas as we get on top of this.”
She sank back against the seat and wondered. The fact that she would see Ice and Levi earlier than planned was huge because they were really good friends, and she never really got a chance to visit them at the compound. It always felt like coming home whenever she saw them. It didn’t matter where in the world they were; they always had the ability to make her feel like she was a part of their family. Dianne really appreciated that.
