#WeWriWa - THE PROTECTOR: Rissa's Guilt

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors where authors share an 8 - 10 sentence snippet. Be sure to visit the other authors. You can find them here.

Here's another excerpt from The Protector (An Outer Rim Novel: Book 3). Dillan and Rissa are in her kitchen alone late at night. When she tried to send him away, he made himself at home--the way he'd done six years before.

Please forgive the creative punctuation (and changes from the original) to keep within the guidelines.

Rissa caught herself staring at his strong neck, the way his throat worked as he swallowed the ale, and hastily took a sip of her own. Six years ago, she’d tried to remember he was a kid—he wasn’t one then, and he sure wasn’t one now. She regretted not sending him on his way back to his ship, he made her think of things she had no business thinking of, not with him.

“The children are all right?” he asked.

“Yes, Fortuna’s girls are taking care of them.”

His expression—so serious—convinced her he cared about the children. He’d been that serious once before—when he lost his friend in a rock-slide up in the mountains. Even though their other friends left after a few days, Dillan stayed to help the search-and-rescue teams from neighboring colonies, and when those teams gave up, he joined another team hired by Konner’s father to continue the search.

His grief, compounded by survivor’s guilt, had led her to comfort him. Comfort that had almost gone too far. She wasn’t going to think about that time.

Who knew rescuing two girls from traffickers would bring down a world of hurt?

After tavern owner Rissa Dix rescues two girls from a slave ship, she must rally the townsfolk to prevent traffickers from returning. Mining heir Dillan Rusteran has loved her for years. Little do they know that by rescuing more children they're tangling with a galactic trafficking ring.

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