Love's Anchoring Strength

By Andie Renee

Fallan Reece, a U.S. Secret Service Special Agent trainee, has just about finished her long grueling training that has been taxing on her strength both mentally and physically. Seeing her shiny new badge, gun, and title within reach, she excitedly counts down the days to success. However, the days ticking by are actually leading her towards a full blown storm that rages against her life causing her feet to shift, and her already exhausted mind to falter. But God has lovingly prepared her path, keeping her firmly anchored in His love, while intimately revealing to her that only Jesus can truly calm the storms that rage against her, and heal the destruction left in their wake. And surprisingly, the only one able to give her the physical comfort essential to her healing is the very last man Fallan would have ever thought she could turn to.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andie Renee
• Release date: Jun 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310730818

Andie Renee

Under King Jesus’ reign, our physical blood is fortified with His blood, our heart beats within His commanding Hands, and our ears are attuned only to His Truth, while our mouth is under our Savior’s authority, and our eyes ache to only see Him.As one of Abba’s daughters passionately declaring His Love, His Guidance, and His Protection, I’m only able to write as the Holy Spirit guides my fingers. May our novels give you a few hours of enjoyment as well as inspire you to have a deeper fellowship with King Jesus as you actively live in His presence, and He intimately Shepherds you.

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Love’s Anchoring Strength

By Andie Renee

Copyright 2014 Andie Renee

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

eBook Cover Designer~Andie Renee

Anchor photo: CanStockPhotoInc./ rolffimages (csp 4227976)

When you read this book you will be experiencing...

Love’s Anchoring Strength, a novel about Fallan Reece, a U.S. Secret Service Special Agent trainee, who has just about finished her long grueling training that has been taxing on her strength both mentally and physically. Seeing her shiny new badge, gun, and title within reach, she excitedly counts down the days to success. However, the days ticking by are actually leading her towards a full blown storm that rages against her life causing her feet to shift, and her already exhausted mind to falter. But God has lovingly prepared her path, keeping her firmly anchored in His love, while intimately revealing to her that only Jesus can truly calm the storms that rage against her, and heal the destruction left in their wake. And surprisingly, the only one able to give her the physical comfort essential to her healing is the very last man Fallan would have ever thought she could turn to.

Chapter 1

"Don’t you understand, Reece?!"

Fallan’s arms gave out and she fell to the floor completely exhausted, her muscles refused to hold her up any longer while her ears continued to ache from the infamous Agent Garitte yelling in her face.

Didn’t he ever call in sick?

Now, all trainees take a good look at Reece sleeping while in training! Oh, what would the president say if he were to walk in here?

Fallan glared to the mat, Jesus, please give me your strength and discipline. I would love to hit him right now!

Her jaws clenched and after taking a deep breath she lifted herself off the floor again to position herself for another round of pushups in case he ordered it. Fallan waited for what was to come next. Her muscles burned, but she continued to keep her vision firmly focused on a discolored line on the mat, and tried to completely ignore his deep, husky voice that irritatingly made her skin crawl!

She wavered slightly. Lori!

She was going to get her later, thanks to her she was now noticing that yes he did have a very strong manly voice! Her abdomen tightened and slightly shook while Fallan desperately tried to ignore everyone around her.

Please Jesus do not allow me to even hear Lori’s voice or I will start laughing.

Fallan growled to herself, why did she always find herself wanting to giggle or laugh at the oddest times?

Probably because she knew that she couldn’t, or shouldn’t!

Ahhhh! And envisioning the instructors’ facial expressions in response to her laughing made her inwardly suffer even more. Her abdomen shook, her smile started, and her throat threatened to release the laugh. Focus, focus...

Jesus please take away my need to laugh.

Fallan groaned, if she were to accidentally laugh then the trio of instructors would misread it altogether and think that she was openly disrespecting them instead of being overcome by anxiety, exhaustion, and complete frustration. She could only imagine what new physically taxing thing she would be working on as a result of laughing in front of them during this time. And what if they tried to make her tell them why she was laughing?

Her face turned bright red.

Time stood still, her body ached and with a renewed determination she grit her teeth. She would not give in, and she most certainly would not give in to them, the Yelling Trio!

Her mind raced to find something else to concentrate on and immediately she recalled her favorite thing to do, shooting with her dad. She gently smiled as she remembered the last time they were shooting together which seemed like so long ago.

Her laughter rang out as she saw her dad’s shocked face when she shot down the third clay bird that he had again tried to sneak in with the rest.

His proud countenance sharply looked at her in surprise, How in the world do you do that, Falls?

She giggled, her eyes brightened and she lifted up one eyebrow, That is a mystery, dear father, that you may never know.

Shaking his head and picking up the empty box, he wisely looked to her. I think I know.

Movement and the sound of a door closing brought her back to the present.

Refusing to look up, she continued to look to the discolored line on the mat. She really did not want to see his smug, laughing, awful face in front of hers again. Praise Jesus that today is the last day for this. I really cannot wait to personally smile and wave goodbye next week to all three of them.

Agent Bryce had midnight dark blue eyes, Agent Trindle had light brown with flecks of green, and now, thanks to Lori, she knew that Agent Garitte had light brown eyes with flecks of gold in them. Fallan grit her teeth. Thanks Lori for wondering if I ever noticed!

Over ten weeks of complete in-my-face torture and how she had never known that was beyond her. Especially since these last two days have been even more painful with their monotonous yelling.

Her eyes glared daggers at the mat, and Agent Garitte was the worst of all three of them! I’m almost done. Then I won’t have to ever see their three dreaded faces, again.

"Did you say something Reece?"

Not for you to hear. No sir, Agent Garitte, sir! At least not for you to know, yet! Her arms started to rigidly shake while her eyes glinted with anger. She would never again enter this training complex under these conditions. Less than a week and I will be done with all of this.

It’s nice to know that you are finally hearing us, Reece.

A slight laugh unexpectedly slipped from Agent Bryce’s voice.

Something was definitely up. Okay, so he was the nicer one, but she still had never heard him comically reply to anyone before. She blinked and glanced up to the empty room save for the three relentless instructors’ eyes all boring into her.

Where was her class?

Her arms felt like they would fall off, and using all of her energy to pull herself up off the floor, she tried to stand as strong as possible, Sirs, may I follow my class and leave now?

"Follow your class?"

Oh, great! Now to add to her misery she had to go and say something completely wrong!

She felt her eye determinedly twitch while Agent Garitte’s harsh laughter again grated on her nerves. Her jaws tightened. They were like leaches and they would surely latch onto her misused words. Here we go again.

Agent Garitte’s face leaned down into hers, So if your class wanted to duck when the president was shot at would you duck, too? Something tells me that Mrs. Hawk would not approve of that. What do you think Agent Bryce?

She really, really disliked his husky, know-it-all voice.

No way! Mrs. Hawk would probably hightail it down here and ream us out for allowing an agent like that to come through our classes. You have heard her story have you not, Reece?

Give me strength Jesus, Yes, sir. I have.

Agent Bryce stepped up to her even closer, She was a pretty valuable agent.

Yes, sir.

"Reece, you may be the best shooter this training facility has seen in quite a long while, but sometimes you have to know when to duck and lay low, and have the individual patience, the individual strength, and the individual decisiveness to not shoot! And that is not following other people. It may be fine for Agent Garitte here to duck at the same time it is wrong for me to. Especially if I am in front of the president. So, will you be an agent that can think for herself, or one that will follow the pack into disaster?"

No, sir! An agent that can think for herself, sir. I think only through you, Jesus. I apologize, I used the wrong words, sir.

Oh, so are you going to apologize to the media that has already taped your words and instantly sent them out so they can have all the fun in the world looking to our agency and laughing at how we messed up again?

No, sir! She subtly shook her head when his harsh laughter rang out, I-I mean yes, sir!

Could she just hit herself right now? She was way too tired to think. Oh, help me Jesus, what is the correct answer here?

Agent Trindle’s added mocking reply really didn’t help her situation, she had messed up, again.

Agent Garitte took over Agent Bryce’s spot and stepped up again in front of her, toe-to-toe, "So, a little indecisive Reece? That is not proper agent mentality. Haven’t you learned anything in the lectures? You have to be able to make correct snap decisions, and those decisions will affect your partner, as well as the whole agency. His eyes narrowed and after taking a deep breath, he yelled, Drop and give me twenty and each time you come up I want you to say ‘no,’ and each time you go down I want you to say ‘yes.’ Now, drop, Reece!"

The monotony began and continued until she forgot what she was doing.

Her eyes widened, Oh no, oh no, did I just do number nineteen or twenty? Please Jesus help me!

‘You’re done.’

Fallan sharply stood.

Agent Garitte’s loud clap rang out, Exactly twenty. I’m impressed because you could actually do more than three things at once, Reece.

Inwardly, Fallan sighed with relief, Praise you Jesus!

"Now, you have exactly ten minutes to get upstairs, eat your lunch, and then get into class lectures. Go!"

Fallan ran to the locker room and quickly changed into her black uniform, while the whole time she refused to think of how tired she was. She had known it would be rough today in class since it was their last one, but she really had not been prepared for how rough.

Quickly fixing her long ponytail, Fallan then stuffed her workout uniform into her bag, left the locker room, and made the decision to go the longer way out and around the building so that she didn’t have to pass by the trainers’ office. She couldn’t deal with running into them again, nor run the risk of being late for class.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Fallan slowed her pace the moment she saw a few of her classmates still milling around the snack area.

Hey, here’s your lunch.

Wiping her brow, Fallan gratefully turned and smiled to Snyder. Thank you so much, but I’m sure I don’t have time to eat it. I’ll just put it in my bag for later. She walked to the vending machines and proceeded to buy her favorite candy bar and soda. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten one. Not at all nutritional, but at least it would help her stay awake for the rest of today.

I wish I could have warned you that we left, but there was no way I could without feeling the wrath myself.

Tiredly, she leaned against the counter next to him while opening up her candy bar, Thanks, but I fully understand. There were quite a few times I felt the same way with some of the others. She loudly sighed, We’ve all had our time on the chopping block.

Yeah, it’s been a rough few months.

Fallan shrugged, I can understand why, though. We do need to be strongly disciplined for the job ahead. She tiredly laughed, But do you remember our first shock at even realizing that they did that sort of thing in training? I remember double checking my uniform quite a few times over the first few weeks to make sure it said U.S. Secret Service on it, and not U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marines, or any other military organization. I was in no way prepared for some of our trainers to act like drill sergeants. She shook her head, At least today is the last day of full instructions.

Yes, and then graduation next week. Snyder smiled and leaned into her, And since it is our last weekend here, would you finally accept my offer to take you out on a date to dinner and the movies, or something like that?

She laughed and playfully pushed him back, Stop it.

Oh come on, Fallan. We are basically the only single ones in our class so we should at least go out on one date together.

Smiling, she took another bite of her favorite candy bar, enjoying every last tantalizingly chocolate taste of it. Snyder, that’s a really lame reason. Besides, I don’t have time for a date. Eat, study, and sleep is all that I have planned for this weekend.

But you have done that every weekend so far.

Her back tensed when an all too familiar smell filtered into her nostrils. Why, oh why did they have to come in here now? Her jaws ached from the fierceness of her clenching them shut, and she refused to look at the infamous yelling, argumentative, overbearing trio. Their presence was worse than fingernails being scraped down a chalkboard.

"You know, Agent Bryce, some agents just do not know how to eat right. Actually, they do know how to eat right they just make wrong choices. The service provides them with lunch that contains sound nutrition..."

Fallan loudly slam dunked the candy bar and soda into the trashcan and stormed off towards the classroom without waiting to hear Agent Bryce’s obnoxious comeback to Agent Garitte. Nor Agent Trindle’s added mocking replies.

She didn’t care how hungry she was, there was no way she would be able to stomach any food while standing in the same room as their voices. Taking a deep breath, she turned to Jesus for patience, I know it’s only a few more days. Praise you Jesus that it is almost over. I really cannot take much more of it.

Fallan sighed, her last day was going to be awesome because that will be the day that she could loudly scream, dance, and say goodbye to the infamous trio. And if they were not present at graduation, which she really hoped that they weren’t, then she would have her dad slow the car down on her way out of the complex and look towards the gym smiling and waving as she left.

Quickly walking into the classroom, Fallan was bought up short as the whole class stood up and gave her a round of applause.

Romano broadly smiled, Well Reece, looks like today was your day.

She laughed, Yep, it sure was.

Last, but certainly not least! Today was all about you, Fallan. Usually it is a few of us at once, but thank you, you really took the heat off of us and I must say that you did a phenomenal job holding your own with all three instructors. And now we all can officially say that we have all been effectively brought through the ringer more than a few times, and it is finally over!

The whole class laughed, cheered, and whole heartedly agreed.

Snyder chuckled, Except for the final. Do not forget about that.

Lori glared behind her, "Snyder! You had to remind us, didn’t you? She shook her head, I’m going to try and wear extra padding, that’s all I’ve got to say."

Fallan looked to Lori as she sat down in her seat, Yeah, you do that and I’m sure they will figure out some way to get you back by giving it to you even harder for doing that.

She laughed, Probably so. Okay, on second thought scratch that, I’ll just stick it out like the rest of you.

Fallan’s eyes narrowed, and she leaned in close to her, "That reminds me, Lori, I do have a bone to pick with you."

She wiggled her eyebrows, and whispered, You noticed didn’t you?

Fallan loudly groaned, covered her face and rested against the desk rapidly nodding.

Lori’s laughter exploded as someone yelled, "Class!"

Tightening her lips to keep her own laughter firmly under control while looking straight ahead, Fallan quickly stood with the rest of her class, formally welcoming their next instructor as he walked into the room.

Thank you so much Jesus, with your help I will be able to stay awake for this final class.

Just under her breath Lori commented, "Girl, I told you there were gold flecks in them eyes to accompany that manly voice of his."

Clearing her throat, Fallan’s blue eyes glared straight ahead trying desperately not to lose it.

Lori clicked her tongue, And that Agent Bryce, you noticed his darkening blue ones, didn’t you? Just like midnight madness.

Firmly shaking her head from side to side, she got out her notebook and leaned far away from Lori so she wouldn’t get distracted.

Oh yeah, you sure did. That is all the answer I needed.

Covering her reddening face, Fallan looked to her notebook and inwardly laughed. It was going to be a long afternoon.

Inwardly groaning, Fallan leaned over the bathroom sink and splashed cold water on her face. It really was a long afternoon, and she still had two more hours to go. Thank you Jesus for helping me stay awake, please continue to help me.

Stifling a yawn, she walked out of the bathroom and back into the classroom where only a few classmates were standing around during break. Tiredly pulling out her chair, she looked to the top of her desk and froze.

Her favorite candy bar was resting directly on her opened folder. She looked to the few guys standing nearby, Did one of you guys buy me this?

They both shook their head no and went back to their in-depth conversation.

Who could it have been, then?

Frowning, Fallan thought about it for a moment and sighed.

Snyder. It had to be him.

Delving into the candy bar so she could finish it before class restarted, Fallan quickly looked to Snyder when he returned.

Thank you, I really needed that.

Thank you for what?

The candy bar. Didn’t you give it to me during the break?

He gave her a funny look, No. I thought you already had one before class.

I did, but I threw it away. Weren’t you there?

I was, but the moment those three walked in, well, I scurried off. If I would have known you wanted another one, believe me, I would have bought it for you. He charmingly tilted his head, Do you want me to get you one? I will, if you want me to. Especially, if you want to give me a hug for it. He broadly smiled and opened up his arms wide.

She rolled her eyes and turned back around, Never mind.

Fallan continued to look around the classroom, but no one seemed to be looking over to her, and after asking a few more people around her, she still was unable to figure it out.

Thank you Jesus for the person that bought me the candy bar. Praise you Jesus, you sure do know what I need.

Feeling a little bit more alert, Fallan began to review some of the notes that she had taken for their last counterfeiting class and couldn’t wait for this final class to be over with because then she could go back to the suite, call her parents, take a nice relaxing bubble bath, and after that, she would get a jumpstart on studying for her finals while relaxing on the couch.

Excitement flowed through her system. What an amazing feat, this time next week she would be an actual United States Secret Service Special Agent!

Chapter 2

"Dad, stop, it!" Laughing, Fallan fell back onto the bed and listened to her father while he continued to completely ignore her.

"I’m telling you, Falls, something is really happening behind the scenes. Just think about the