1. It was a cruel reminder that her attempt at freedom had failed.

2. It took no imagination to figure out what Rocchelli had planned for them.

3. The dog probably belonged to the kid Eddie...

'O' is original — 'R' is revised

1-O. She constantly had to remind herself that she was only a job to him.
1-R. Falling for Hagen had been easy. The hard part was remembering she was just a job...

This particular story is set in 1929 Chicago with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre just about to happen. I'm using a lot of gangster slang, hence "sap" is slang for billy club.

Hmmm... 'faking...

1. They’d both known the risks going in, but what she hadn’t planned on was falling in love with him.

2. She'd forced her feelings for him into the deepest, loneliest part of her heart with the...

This particular piece is in first draft, so it still has considerable editing ahead of it. I'll be watchful of those darn participles on the second edit.:detective:

Kaye

Original dialogue:

“Sorry.” Clearing his throat to mask his worry, he asked, “How badly are you hurt? They worked you over pretty hard.”

“Nothing serious. I rolled with the punches and obliged...

Belly down on cold concrete, Ceara Rocchelli fought her way to consciousness. Dirty, oily garage aromas accompanied her on the slow ascent into disoriented awareness. She squinted through the stale,...

Greetings. Kaye Spencer here. I see I'm a day late discovering this workshop, so I hope the 'better late than never' adage applies. :walking1:

I write romance with a bent toward the American Old...