Dawn Atkins - His Brother's Keeper

Common ground…uncommon attraction

Maybe Gabe Cassidy couldn’t save his brother, but he can save others like him. Which is why Gabe has dedicated himself to a program that keeps kids off the streets.

So it doesn’t make sense that he’s at odds with Felicity Spencer—the hot principal who’s as committed to these kids as he is. It’s true that her adolescent connection to his late brother adds a layer of tension to their interactions. And it’s also true that the attraction between them adds a completely different kind of tension. One that’s getting harder to ignore.

When they do manage to work together, they’re phenomenal. And when they finally give in to the chemistry, Gabe recognizes that this relationship could be bigger than both of them.

Gabe caught her before she hit the ground

He had a clear view to her bra, Felicity realized, glad she’d worn the black one.

She looked up at him, close enough for a kiss. She was vividly aware of his strength, the muscles beneath his brown skin, his intense eyes. He was all man and he had her in his power. He could crush her, snap her bones, but she knew he would never let her come to harm.

Her dress had ridden up on her thigh, but she had no urge to pull it down. She wanted him to see, wanted him to hike it higher.

He was staring at her mouth now. He leaned down and kissed her.

A charge shot through her, waking up every cell. She felt Gabe fighting to be gentle, holding back. He shifted his mouth, sliding his tongue to graze hers, the contact so thrilling she made a needy sound that should have embarrassed her, but didn’t.

He groaned, sounding as desperate as she felt. Felicity couldn’t believe this was happening to her. This amazing man was as hot for her as she was for him.

Dear Reader,

This is a story about redemption and forgiveness, about seeing beyond differences to the deeper connections between two people falling in love. Gabe Cassidy and Felicity Spencer seem the unlikeliest of couples. He’s a half Chicano martial arts coach with a gang-leader father and she’s white, wealthy and, worse, the new principal who wants to kick his gym out of her school.

On top of that, they have a painful history. Gabe’s brother Robert was Felicity’s boyfriend when she was fourteen. Gabe blames Felicity for the arrest that put Robert in jail and later led to his death at age sixteen.

Forced to work together to save her school and his program, Gabe and Felicity peel away the layers of blame, guilt and the differences between them to find their deeper connections and a love more intense than either has experienced.

The story is built around an inner-city school—familiar ground for me as a former teacher in a low-income school. Felicity is the best kind of principal—clear-headed, compassionate, dedicated and savvy as hell. Our schools need thousands more like her.

I hope you are warmed by the emotional journey Felicity and Gabe take to their happy ending. As I wrote, I found myself wishing I could give them both a hug and my best wishes for their future together. I hope you feel the same.

All my best,

Dawn Atkins

P.S. I love to hear from readers! Please contact me through my website at www.dawnatkins.com.

Dawn Atkins

His Brother’s Keeper

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award-winning author Dawn Atkins has written twenty-five novels for Harlequin Books. Known for her funny, poignant romance stories, she’s won a Golden Quill Award and has been a several-times RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award finalist. Dawn lives in Arizona with her husband and son.

To Calle 16, the real Phoenix mural project that inspired elements of this story…

¡Muy bien hecho!

Acknowledgments

Total thanks to Detective Tim Lantz from the Gang Enforcement Unit, who gave me vital background. Thanks also to juvenile public defender Mara Siegel, who steered me straight on juvenile justice issues. Any errors are strictly my own. Eternal gratitude to Carolyn Greene, Lynn Greener and Laurie Schnebly Campbell, who pulled me from deep weeds at crucial points in the writing of this book. Thanks always to my intrepid critique partner, Amy Dominy.

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 ONE

“YOU©FIGHT©IN©THE©GYM, not the street, Alex,” Gabe Cassidy said, easily blocking the fourteen-year-old’s jabs. “You know the rules.” The kid was so much like Gabe’s little brother it almost hurt to look at him.

“Li’l B disrespected Carmen,” Alex said, extending his leg in a side kick that Gabe blocked. “I couldn’t let that pass.” The boy’s eyes were on fire and he practically trembled with fury. Just like Robert, he had a lot of anger packed into his small body.

“You let him rile you.” Gabe led with his right fist in order to work Alex’s weaker left. “Stance,” he reminded quietly. “Elbows.” Alex forgot the basics when he got upset, so this was good practice for the upcoming meet. “Li’l B figures if you get kicked out of STRIKE, you’ll join the gang.”

Gabe’s fighters stayed in school and out of trouble or they didn’t train.

“Carmen’s my girl. I had no choice.”

“You always have a choice. You want STRIKE shut down? It’s bad enough the window out front got broken.” He worked Alex into the center of the ring, waiting for him to control his footwork.

“Li’l B’s crew threw Carmen’s bike at the window.”

“What about the tags on the plywood? Any of them yours?”

Alex was an artist—also like Robert. He exercised his talent too often as graffiti, risking fines and jail time, which worried the hell out of Gabe.

“That’s all toys,” Alex said. Toys were wannabe taggers.

“Tagged-up plywood over a broken window is no way to impress the new principal.” Last week, Charlie Hopkins, the principal who had let Gabe set up his gym in the charter school, had been fired over some political B.S. Now STRIKE’s fate lay in the hands of his replacement, due any day.

“They won’t do that,” Alex grumbled, guiltily ducking his face into the padded sparring helmet.

Good. Gabe could use guilt. He used whatever worked to get through to his kids and keep getting through, day by day, as the pressure to drop out, screw up and go gangster mounted in their lives.

“Alex didn’t throw a single punch, Coach.” Victor had abandoned the bags to defend his friend, though they all knew Gabe would be fair. That was the promise of STRIKE.

He’d named his program after the offensive moves in Muay Thai and because his kids had to hit hard to break the barriers they faced in life. This part of Phoenix was a tough place to grow up if you were poor, brown and male.

“Only because the cops stopped the fight,” Gabe said. His buddy on the gang squad had filled him in on the incident. The news hit Gabe hard. The idea of STRIKE was to give his boys the physical and mental confidence to stay clear of street fights, damn it.

He cared about all of his boys, but Alex got to him. The kid was a tough case, but he had so much potential.

“And he got the crew to step off,” Victor insisted. A strong fighter, Victor ran nearly a mile from North Central High after his last class so he didn’t miss a minute of STRIKE.

“You don’t know how Double Deuce rolls,” Alex said.