Love Heals Read online

  

  Cherry Hill: Love Heals Charlie can be stubborn when it comes to helping others even if it means a little danger. When it comes to her own love life, and four men she is attracted to, she lets the past get in the way and the fears she needs to let go to move on and be healthy. Taking her own advice is harder than she thought. As a therapist she helps people to make the right decisions and even take some risks with vulnerability. So why is it so hard for her to do the same? After being betrayed by the one and only man she loved, she definitely is intimidated by the four older Mullen brothers. Retired soldiers and a local sheriff, their attitudes alone scare people away. They are everything she fears, yet everything she desires. She just needs to let go and take that chance.

  As she takes a risk and falls in love, everything in her life and theirs is falling into place, but the world doesn't revolve around them. There are bad people out there, and her profession and theirs place her right in the center of danger. She could lose it all or die trying not to.

  Genres: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Romantic Suspense Length: 36,319

  CHERRY HILL 4: LOVE HEALS

  Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  Cherry Hill 4: Love Heals Copyright © 2019 by Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  ISBN: 978-1-64243-612-9

  First Publication: January 2019

  Cover design by Les Byerley All art and logo copyright © 2019 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  W A RNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

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  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  For all titles by Dixie Lynn Dwyer, please visit www.bookstrand.com/dixie-lynn-dwyer

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHERRY HILL 4: LOVE HEALS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Epilogue

  CHERRY HILL 4: LOVE HEALS

  DIXIE LYNN DWYER

  Copyright © 2019

  Prologue

  C harlotte “Charlie” McCabe just finished up a counseling session and was writing down some notes when Estelle knocked on her office door.

  “Hey, Estelle, I’m just finishing up some notes. What’s going on?” she asked and glanced up then back down as she typed the information into the computer. She looked back.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked when Estella didn’t answer.

  “Kyle Ellis. He’s outside in the parking lot, and he’s having an episode,” Estella said, and Charlie stood up, eyes squinted. “How bad?”

  “People are watching and concerned. I think they’ll call the sheriff.”

  “Shit.” She got up and headed toward the door.

  “Be careful, Charlie. You haven’t seen him in months, and he isn’t your client.”

  “He was until he moved with his woman, his brothers.” By the time she got outside, she could see the deputy patrol car pull up, and she knew it would be a matter of minutes before Sheriff Titus Mullen appeared, and maybe even her brother, too. The office was right on the border of both Cherry Hill and Central Valley. Anything happened, and both departments showed up.

  “Kyle?” She said his name, and he looked up, eyes wide, and he hurried toward her. She almost took a retreating step back, but she knew this man and hoped he wasn’t past the point of talking things out.

  The deputy got out of his car. Sheriff Titus got there next, and Kyle turned to look at them.

  “Kyle, what’s going on? How are you?” she asked. Approaching slowly, she turned and looked at the sheriff and Deputy Miles.

  “What do they want? They think I’m crazy, too? Did I do anything wrong?”

  “No, Kyle, you didn’t. Want to talk?” she asked and was feet from him.

  “Charlie?” Titus said her name, and she held her hand up and reached out to Kyle, placing a hand on his forearm and one on his shoulder. Kyle lowered his head. She could see his pupils were dilated.

  “What did you take? Come on now and tell me,” she said to him as Titus approached with Miles.

  He looked at them and then back at her. “My buddies said it would help. I don’t want Clare to know.” He was shaking, and she knew he was under the influence of drugs.

  “What did your buddies tell you to take?” she asked calmly and glanced at Titus who looked concerned and on guard with a hand on the butt of his gun and a protective stance. The man was huge, over six feet three and intimidating in appearance alone. Throw in the gun and that badge, and she was trembling seeing him in police mode.

  Miles was on the other side. “I don’t know. I was stupid, Charlie. So stupid, but the flashbacks came, and I didn’t want to tell Clare. Please, she’ll be scared.”

  She caressed his arm. “Easy now. My first concern is you and getting whatever you took out of your system.”

  “I couldn’t take it. I can’t take it.” He raised his voice and fell to the ground. He wrapped his arms around her waist and roared. Titus stepped toward them to grab Kyle, and she shook her head. She held on to Kyle. She rubbed his head and gripped his shoulder.

  “You got this. You made a mistake, and we need to fix it.” He looked up toward her. She could tell he wasn’t really with it. How much did he take? What specifically did he take? How long ago? She was filled with questions, but she was concerned.

  Then suddenly he stood up, nearly knocking her over and turned toward Titus and Miles as he wrapped his arm around her waist and held her close. “Leave me alone. I need Charlie. I don’t need anything else,” he yelled at them.

  “Calm down, son. We’re here to help you, to help Charlie,” Titus said to him.

  “We got this. She said it. We got this,” he said, and she held his arm that was wrapped tight around her waist. She rubbed his arm.

  “Easy, Kyle. You’re okay, and the sheriff is right. He wants to help you, too. You know how Central Valley and Cherry Hill work. We’re all a family. All in this together. Why don’t we go to the hospital and see if we can get those drugs out of your system? Listen to me, Kyle. You’ll be in a better state of mind, calmer without those bad drugs in your system,” she suggested.

  “No,” he said, then he closed his eyes. His hand was tight over her wrist. She locked gazes with Titus, and she shook her head, wanting him to give her more time and to not react because he feared for her well-being. Charlie had gotten many clients through episodes worse than this. Her concern was the drugs and Kyle’s inability to decipher what he was doing, combined with the paranoia he seemed to be experiencing.

  “You need to go to the hospital. Let the doctors help get the drugs out of your system,” Titus said. He was close. Close enough to intervene. To save her if that were necessary.

  “I’ll go with you to the hospital. I’ll stay with you and make sure that you’re safe.”

  “Charlie, I can’t control it. I feel worse. I feel fucking wo
rse,” he said, hugging her from behind.

  She kept calm, making sure that her voice was soothing.

  “I know. It’s the drugs. Your friends steered you wrong, but I’m here, and I’ll steer you right. I’ll help you like always. Will you listen to my advice and come to the hospital?”

  He loosened his hold. “I don’t feel right,” he said, and she turned in his arms, held his hand, and placed another on his shoulder. He stared down at her, his eyes red, his pupils still dilated, and he was shaking.

  “Come on now. Sheriff Mullen is going to drive us to General right now. We’re going to get that shit out of your system, and we’re going to get control again. You want that?”

  He nodded and looked so defeated. “Sheriff,” she said and remained holding Kyle’s hand and placed her other arm around his waist, guiding him to the patrol truck.

  “Charlie, you want to sit up front?”

  She shook her head, and against Titus’s obvious order, she got into the back seat with Kyle.

  Sheriff Titus Mullen was standing around the corner of the emergency room unit, talking to his brother Corey over the cell phone. “She put her life on the line not even knowing if the guy had a weapon. When he grabbed her, Corey, Jesus I nearly drew my weapon I was so concerned. She, however, was calm as could be. Talked him down and accompanied him here. She isn’t leaving the man’s side.”

  “That’s Charlie. She gives all her clients, anyone in need a hundred percent of her.”

  “At what risk though?”

  “Have you spoken to her yet?”

  “No, and by the way, she told me I could leave, and that there wasn’t a need for police presence anymore. I’d say she was dismissing any discussion about things.”

  “Well, it may need to wait until later.”

  “More like tomorrow, Corey. She told Kyle that she wasn’t going anywhere. That she would be right by his side and help him through this. She’s waiting on his brothers and woman to get here. Shit. I think they’re here now. I have to go. We’ll talk later.”

  He ended the call and immediately recognized Ken and Smith Ellis as well as Clare. The nurse was going over things with them now.

  “Charlie is with him?” Clare asked with her hand against her throat.

  “Yes, right by his side helping us to do what needs to be done. He took some kind of drugs, and we’re flushing his system best we can. We’ll know more in a little bit,” the nurse told her.

  “Thank God Charlie was with him. That he went to her, or God knows what he could have done to himself,” Smith said, and it was observing the change from panic and fear in their eyes, to the instant change of relief when they found out that Charlie with Kyle, that it hit Titus. Charlie was their saving grace, an angel who would do whatever was necessary to save a life, to give a client, a human being in need a chance to live, and that was exactly what she was doing tonight. She rescued another soldier.

  He understood her need to try to help anyone who asked, who got to her or was referred to her. He knew her fiancé was a soldier and that he died by committing suicide in the field. He didn’t know much more, and so he and his brothers put it together that Charlie was on a mission to save other soldiers from such a fate. But what about her own desires, her needs, her emotions? When did she ever focus on herself? That’s where he and his brothers wanted to come into the picture. They wanted to be there for her, to explore the deep attraction she was avoiding, more than likely out of fear. He warned her two weeks ago that things were going to change. As he kissed her lips, and she kissed him back, he knew she was resisting out of fear. She deserved love. To be cared for, catered to, and not left behind alone. He took a deep breath and released it, then felt his chest tighten the moment she walked out of the room and headed down the hallway to the right and the exit.

  Charlie leaned against the building and exhaled. She had her eyes closed and just breathed in the cool night air. She thought about Kyle, about what he did and how close he could have come to death, and then reminded herself that he didn’t die. That he came to her and she was there for him to help him best she could. To give him that extra chance to survive and not give up hope. She hadn’t been there for Tavern. Had thought his abuse, his violent tone, and the way he struck her before he left meant he changed and had become someone different, someone she couldn’t trust. Could he have done those things to her on purpose to make her hate him? To make it so that when he took his life in combat, it would make it easier? The stupid bastard screwed her head up good. Made her fear letting her guard down and letting anyone too close. At least anyone who wanted to connect on an intimate level. When she was overseas, she could have engaged in meaningless sex, but she declined. Being vulnerable again was her greatest fear. Plus, she thought of Titus, Corey, Aleck, and Mavis the moment one of the soldiers, Gus, started kissing her and exploring her body. She stopped him from going any further as she realized she wasn’t ready, and certainly wouldn’t have sex just to do it or to prove a point to herself. That she wasn’t weak, that she didn’t fear intimacy, and that sex was just that, sex and nothing more when it was something more.

  She took another unsteady breath and heard the footsteps. “Are you okay?” Titus. Always here for me. Always seeing through the walls I put up. Why can’t I admit that I have feelings for him and his brothers? Why?

  He stood in front of her, and when she felt his large, warm hand on her hip, she opened her eyes. Titus towered over her, standing about six feet four, with his dark brown hair, firm jaw, thick, solid body that could crush her so easily, and his handsome seasoned expression. He was a lot older than her. Fifteen years plus. He was very good-looking, tanned skin, capable expression, and she knew he was an expert martial artist and boxer, a retired Marine. He stepped closer and pressed his palm against the wall right above her shoulder.

  “You’re amazing, baby.” Her eyes widened, and she held his deep blue ones, and couldn’t help but to look at his lips, and feel how dominant his presence was. It aroused her and intimidated her at the same time. “The way you spoke to Kyle, calmed him down, was unbelievable to watch. I have to admit,” he said as he stroked her hip, then used his thumb to caress along her temple softly. “That I was scared. Really worried about your safety, but you held his gaze and held your ground and talked him down. You saved him,” he said, and those words hit her hard as a tear escaped her eye. He squinted, swallowed hard and then wrapped her up into his arms and hugged her tight. She held on to him, not even realizing that she needed this. Needed him and felt like she could let go. That’s when the walls shot back up. When she composed herself and pulled back.

  “I appreciate the support, Titus. You’re a good friend, and I know you understand,” she said, and she saw the change in his expression, then the slight scowl. He maneuvered her against the wall.

  “Call it friendship if you like for now, but I know it’s a whole lot more and so do you. I believe I warned you about my patience level.”

  “Titus.”

  He shook his head. “No, woman. You are going to listen to me and listen good and hard, so you get it. My brothers and I are planning on making you our woman. We’ve been patient. Waiting on you to deal with what you need to, but this running away, pushing us away, it has to stop. We can’t take it no more,” he said and looked at her lips. She felt her body shaking, and she was caught off guard more than likely by the emotional evening she had and would continue to have as she remained here with Kyle and his family.

  “Titus, I can’t do this now. I told you I’m not ready.”