The Girl Who Wants
Amy Vansant
©2020 by Amy Vansant. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by any means, without the permission of the author. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Vansant Creations, LLC / Amy Vansant
Annapolis, MD
http://www.AmyVansant.com
Copy editing by Carolyn Steele.
Proofreading by Effrosyni Moschoudi.
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 Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Other Books by Amy Vansant
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Chapter One
Three Weeks Ago, Nashua, New Hampshire.
Shee realized her mistake the moment her feet left the grass.
He’s enormous.
She’d watched him drop from the side window of the house. He landed four feet from where she stood, and still, her brain refused to register the warning signs. The nose, big and lumpy as a breadfruit, the forehead some beach town could use as a jetty if they buried him to his neck...
His knees bent to absorb his weight and her brain thought, got you.
Her brain couldn’t be bothered with simple math: Giant, plus Shee, equals Pain.
Instead, she jumped to tackle him, dangling airborne as his knees straightened and the pet the rabbit bastard stood to his full height.
Crap.
The math added up pretty quickly after that.
Hovering like Superman mid-flight, there wasn’t much she could do to change her disastrous trajectory. She’d felt like a superhero when she left the ground. Now, she felt more like a Canada goose staring into the propellers of Captain Sully’s Airbus A320.
She might take down the plane, but it was going to hurt.
Frankenjerk turned toward her at the same moment she plowed into him. She clamped her arms around his waist like a little girl hugging a redwood. Lurch returned the embrace, twisting her to the ground. Her back hit the dirt and air burst from her lungs like a double shotgun blast.
Ow.
Wheezing, she punched upward, striking Beardless Hagrid in the throat.
That didn’t go over well.
Grabbing her shoulder with one hand, Dickasaurus flipped her on her stomach like a sausage link, slipped his hand under her chin and pressed his forearm against her windpipe.
The only air she’d gulped before he cut her supply stank of damp armpit. He’d tucked her cranium in his arm crotch, much like the famous noggin-less horseman once held his severed head. Fireworks exploded in the dark behind her eyes.
That’s when a thought occurred to her.
I haven’t been home in fifteen years.
What if she died in Gigantor’s armpit? Would her father even know?
Has it really been that long?
Flopping like a landed fish, she forced her assailant to adjust his hold and sucked a breath as she flipped on her back. Spittle glistened on his lips, his brow furrowed as if she’d asked him to read a paragraph of big-boy words.
His nostrils flared like the Holland Tunnel.
There’s an idea.
Making a V with her fingers, Shee thrust upward, stabbing into his nose, straining to reach his tiny brain.
Goliath roared. Jerking back, he grabbed her arm to unplug her fingers from his nose socket. She whipped away her limb before he had a good grip, fearing he’d snap her bones with his Godzilla paws.
Kneeling before her, he clamped both hands over his face, cursing as blood seeped from behind his fingers.
Shee’s gaze didn’t linger on that mess. Her focus fell to his crotch, hovering a foot above her feet, protected by nothing but a thin pair of oversized sweatpants.
Scrambled eggs, sir?
She kicked.
He howled.
Shee scuttled back like a crab, found her feet and snatched her gun from her side. The gun she should have pulled before trying to tackle the Empire State Building.
“Move a muscle and I’ll aerate you,” she said. She always liked that line.
The golem growled, but remained on the ground like a good dog, cradling his family jewels.
Shee’s partner in this manhunt, a local cop easier on the eyes than he was useful, rounded the corner and drew his own weapon.
She smiled and holstered the gun he’d lent her. Unknowingly.
“Glad you could make it.”
Her portion of the operation accomplished, she headed toward the car as more officers swarmed the scene.
“Shee, where are you going?” called the cop.
She stopped and turned.
“Home, I think.”
His gaze dropped to her hip.
“Is that my gun?”
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Chapter Two
One Week Ago, Miami, Florida
“He isn’t dead.”
Tyler Vale stopped toweling his wet hair and scowled at the mirror, his cell phone pressed against his ear.
Something about his eyes...
I’m starting to look like my father. I’m not sure how I feel about that.
“Who is this?” he asked.
“You know who it is,” said the unfamiliar voice.
This caught his attention. Tyler lowered the towel and turned away from his image as if it were spying on him. He glanced at the closed bathroom door and lowered his voice.
“No, I don’t know who this is. And I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The voice on the opposite end of the line continued in its
