Semiautomatic Marriage

by Leona Karr

  “I need your help. You can provide me with a legitimate cover for my investigation.”

  “How can I do that?” she protested. “I’m totally inexperienced, and it will take time for me to make any changes at the company. You would stick out like a sore thumb if I tried right off to put you in any kind of position at Horizon Pharmaceuticals.”

  “I know. That’s why we’d have to arrange something different. I’ll need a cover that will give me intimate access to the workings of the company.”

  The steadiness of his gaze told Carolyn that he had already decided what that cover should be. She felt a strange quiver in her stomach.

  “When you arrive at Horizon for the first time, Carolyn, I need to be there with you—as your husband.”

  She choked on her intake of breath. “My husband?”

  “In name only,” he hastened to reassure her. “Don’t you see? It’s the perfect cover.”

  Dear Harlequin Intrigue Reader,

  This month Harlequin Intrigue has an enthralling array of breathtaking romantic suspense to make the most of those last lingering days of summer.

  The wait is finally over! The next crop of undercover agents who belong to the newest branch of the top secret Confidential organization are about to embark on an unbelievable adventure. Award-winning reader favorite Gayle Wilson will rivet you with the launch book of this brand-new ten-story continuity series. COLORADO CONFIDENTIAL will begin in Harlequin Intrigue, break out into a special release anthology and finish in Harlequin Historicals. In Rocky Mountain Maverick, an undeniably sexy undercover agent infiltrates a powerful senator’s ranch and falls under the influence of an intoxicating impostor. Be there from the very beginning!

  The adrenaline rush continues in The Butler’s Daughter by Joyce Sullivan, with the first book in her new miniseries, THE COLLINGWOOD HEIRS. A beautiful guardian has been entrusted with the care of a toddler-sized heir, but now they are running for their lives and she must place their safety in an enigmatic protector’s tantalizing hands! Ann Voss Peterson heats things up with Incriminating Passion when a targeted “witness” to a murder manages to inflame the heart of a by-the-book assistant D.A.

  Finally rounding out the month is Semiautomatic Marriage by veteran author Leona Karr. Will the race to track down a killer culminate in a real trip down the aisle for an undercover husband and wife?

  So pick up all four of these pulse-pounding stories and end the summer with a bang!

  Sincerely,

  Denise O’Sullivan

  Harlequin Intrigue, Senior Editor

  SEMIAUTOMATIC MARRIAGE

  LEONA KARR

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  A native of Colorado, Leona (Lee) Karr is the author of nearly forty books. Her favorite genres are romantic suspense and inspirational romance. After graduating from the University of Colorado with a B.A. and the University of Northern Colorado with an M.A., she taught as a reading specialist until her first book was published in 1980. She has been on the Waldenbooks bestseller list and nominated by Romantic Times for Best Romantic Saga and Best Gothic Author. She has been honored as the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer of the Year, and received Colorado’s Romance Writer of the Year award. Her books have been reprinted in more than a dozen foreign countries. She is a presenter at numerous writing conferences and has taught college courses in creative writing.

  Books by Leona Karr

  HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE

  120—TREASURE HUNT

  144—FALCON’S CRY

  184—HIDDEN SECRET

  227—FLASHPOINT

  262—CUPID’S DAGGER

  309—BODYGUARD

  366—THE CHARMER

  459—FOLLOW ME HOME

  487—MYSTERY DAD

  574—INNOCENT WITNESS

  623—THE MYSTERIOUS TWIN

  672—LOST IDENTITY

  724—SEMIAUTOMATIC MARRIAGE

  LOVE INSPIRED

  131—ROCKY MOUNTAIN

  MIRACLE

  171—HERO IN DISGUISE

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Carolyn Leigh—A visit to a lawyer’s office makes her an heiress and a partner in a dangerous charade.

  Adam Lawrence—A man on a mission, who will use his status as a “pretend husband” to carry out his plan.

  Jasper Stanford—A newly found relative who has little interest in being an uncle or friend.

  Della Denison—An executive who seems willing to preserve her position at all costs. Her daughter, Lisa, is a spoiled young woman who lives a pampered life. Her son, Buddy, shows little interest in anything but pursuing his idle hobbies.

  Cliff Connors—An assistant laboratory assistant who has an unsavory past that threatens to endanger the present.

  Nick Calhoun—A man with a gambling habit.

  Susan Kimble—A woman dedicated to her job and searching for happiness.

  Nellie Ryan—A woman in love with a man who only brings trouble into her life.

  Love and thanks to my sons, Leonard and Clark,

  for their valuable help with this book,

  and to Cindy Karr for her supportive interest

  and encouragement.

  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

  Carolyn Leigh’s eyes rounded as she looked at the two men seated across the table from her in the lawyer’s office. “I thought this meeting was about my unknown benefactor, who’s helped me financially through medical school, using your firm as a conduit.”

  “Well, in a way it is,” the gray-haired lawyer, Mr. Bancroft, assured her as he pushed his glasses farther up his nose.

  “Am I expected to pay it back?” she asked evenly, trying to keep the apprehension out of her voice. What she didn’t need was more indebtedness. After having just graduated a month ago, she was trying to find a full-time medical position as soon as possible to alleviate her other debts.

  “No, the grant was yours, free and clear,” the lawyer assured her. “The news we have for you is good.”

  Carolyn tensed. Good news? Growing up as a sickly foster child, her life had been filled with people telling her they had good news for her, when the truth was she was just being shifted from one unsatisfactory foster placement to another. Even though she was an adult now, and had managed to get herself through medical school by sheer grit, and working a job for nearly six years, a remembered anxiety suddenly tightened her stomach. She still had nightmares about being helpless as a foster child, thrown into one traumatic experience after another. She’d felt like a pawn in some diabolical game. Here we go again, she thought, trying to steel herself for whatever was about to crash into her well-laid plans.

  From the first moment Carolyn walked into the office, she’d sensed a certain hesitancy, as if the two men weren’t exactly sure how to proceed. She’d only met William Bancroft, the elderly lawyer, once before, and had never met the good-looking, younger one, Adam Lawrence—Bancroft introduced him only by name, without identifying who he was and why he was there. She assumed he was a junior associate.

  They politely offered her coffee, which she refused.

  “Well, then, why don’t you lay the groundwork, Adam?” Bancroft suggested, nodding at him. “We’ll cover the legal details after that.”

&
nbsp; The dark-haired man smiled at her, and she was aware of his strong features, slightly tanned complexion and the determined jut of his chin. Somewhere in his thirties, he must have been, and his clear, gray-blue eyes narrowed slightly as if he were searching for the right way to begin. Carolyn’s heartbeat suddenly quickened as she waited for Adam Lawrence to speak. What was this all about?

  “You’ve heard of Arthur Stanford,” he began in a conversational tone, and smiled, as if he recognized her tenseness.

  “No, I haven’t,” she answered with her usual honesty.

  He seemed a little surprised at her directness. “Have you heard of Horizon Pharmaceuticals?”

  “Of course. Everyone in the medical field is aware of Horizon. It’s a major supplier of pharmaceutical drugs. One of the oldest companies in the Northwest, I believe.”

  He nodded. “That’s right. Arthur Stanford is the owner of Horizon Pharmaceutical. He passed away recently.”

  “And there’s some reason I should know this?” This man’s death had probably been in the news, but she’d been too busy studying to read the newspaper. Something about this whole meeting put her on the defensive. There was an undercurrent in the room she didn’t understand. Was she on the hot seat for some unknown reason? Plenty of schoolyard scuffles had conditioned her to get her mitts up before an expected blow came. She mentally geared up to be ready to handle whatever he was about to lay on her.

  “The financial aid you’ve been receiving for medical school came from Arthur Stanford. He arranged for the grant to be paid through Mr. Bancroft’s office.”

  “Really?” she answered in honest surprise.

  “Yes, really.”

  She’d often wondered who’d set up the grant that had made it possible for her to attend medical school without interruption. She’d assumed that it was an organization, not an individual. The truth was, she’d applied for every financial aid listed in the college office. No one was more surprised than she was when the university’s director of admissions called and told her that she’d been selected by an anonymous donor for a generous stipend.

  “I’ve been very grateful for his financial help,” she readily admitted. “It would have taken me an extra two years to work my way through medical school without it. My grant was a great deal more generous than most awards. Did Mr. Stanford financially help many medical students?”

  “No, you’re the only one.”

  “The only one?” she repeated in disbelief. “But why? I mean, why was I the fortunate one?”

  Adam hesitated, not at all certain how to proceed. Bancroft had insisted that he be the one to tell her the truth, and he’d readily agreed, but Dr. Carolyn Leigh wasn’t at all what he’d expected. By any standard, she was a very attractive woman: petite features, soft, shapely mouth, large, sky blue eyes and blond hair the color of rich honey. Even her simple, inexpensive pink summer blouse and navy skirt couldn’t detract from a slender, shapely body that could easily give any man ideas.

  Even though Adam had only been in her presence a few minutes, he’d already recognized that there was more to her than her appealing looks. An undeniable toughness and resilience radiated from her. He’d bet she could put any leering male in his place with a sharp word or a well-aimed kick. It wasn’t hard for him to imagine her in a doctor’s white jacket, a stethoscope around her neck and a bedside manner that could either charm or deftly manage the most unruly patient. No, she wasn’t at all what he’d expected. He wondered if they were handling this all wrong. There was nothing to do now but plunge ahead and be as honest as he could.

  “It wasn’t an accident that you received the generous stipend,” he explained. “You see, Carolyn, Arthur Stanford has a personal interest in you.”

  “How could that be? I told you I didn’t know Arthur Stanford,” she replied firmly. “I’ve never heard his name, as far as I know. And I have no reason to believe he’d have a special interest in me.”

  Clearly she wasn’t about to accept the truth until she had more facts to back it up. Adam suspected this strong fiber in her personality was going to play havoc with his plans. He tried to keep his tone neutral, as if they were discussing something that wasn’t going to change her life forever.

  “It’s true, isn’t it, Carolyn, that you’ve grown up without family and without knowing who abandoned you as an infant?”

  She nodded. Her unknown roots had been like an albatross around her neck since she was old enough to know what the word orphan meant. She’d always been treated like a changeling, not belonging anywhere, not to anyone. She’d learned very young to make her way in the world alone, and as far as she was concerned that wasn’t going to change.

  “I don’t see why my background is of interest here.” She firmed her chin as she locked her gaze on him. “What is this about?”

  “I know that what I’m going to tell you, Carolyn, will be a shock. I guess there’s no way to prepare you for the news, so I’ll just come right out and say it.” Adam had the foolish urge to reach out and hold her hand, but realized she’d reject the gesture. “Arthur Stanford had a very personal interest in you, Carolyn, because he was your grandfather.”

  Grandfather. The word exploded in Carolyn’s head like a grenade. She tried to say something, but for once in her life, her mouth wouldn’t work. Almost instantly shock turned into disbelief. It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. With great effort, she found her voice.

  “Let me get this straight. You’re telling me that the money I’ve been receiving is from Arthur Stanford and he’s my grandfather?”

  He nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you. There’s no doubt about it. You’re Arthur Stanford’s granddaughter.”

  Her whole life, Carolyn had dreamed of belonging to someone of her own flesh and blood, longing to know what family genes she carried. She’d fought all her battles from a sense of aloneness, and as she looked into Adam’s reassuring face and gentle eyes, she pleaded silently, Please, let this be true.

  He must have read the plea in her expression, because he smiled and took her hand. The warm contact gave her the reassurance she needed to believe the impossible.

  “I have a complete report here,” Bancroft said, handing Carolyn a folder.

  Both men fell silent as she read the file.

  For the first time Carolyn learned the mystery of her birth. Her mother, Alicia Stanford, had been a sixteen-year-old who ran away when she discovered she was pregnant. Her affluent family’s efforts to find her ended unhappily a year later when she returned home with a terminal disease. She refused to say what had happened to the baby and would not identify the father. Apparently nothing was done to try to locate the baby until a few years ago.

  Carolyn learned that she was just starting medical school when the investigators her widowed grandfather hired finally tracked her down, and the millionaire began to support her education.

  “He knew for four years that I was his granddaughter!” Disbelief gave way to deep disappointment. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes. “Why didn’t he tell me? Why did he keep it from me?”

  “We don’t know,” the lawyer admitted. “When your grandfather arranged for your financial grant, he insisted on total secrecy.”

  “He received continuous updates about you,” Adam told her. “He knew that you went to work for the financial firm Champion Realty and Investments right out of high school and could have worked your way up in that company. From all the reports, Carolyn, you certainly could have a career in business, as well as medicine.”

  Bancroft shoved his glasses up his nose and cleared his throat. “And that brings us to the legal matter at hand. The good news. The matter of his will.”

  Both men looked at her in a way that made her breath catch. “He left me…something?”

  Adam couldn’t resist a chuckle. “More than just something, I’d say.”

  Bancroft beamed. “Arthur Stanford made a new will just a few months before his death. Carolyn, you’re the primary ben
eficiary.”

  The lawyer proceeded to inform her that Stanford had bequeathed her fifty-one percent of Horizon Pharmaceuticals, his elegant mansion and other considerable monetary assets.

  She stared at both men incredulously, her blue eyes rounding. What kind of macabre joke was this? She’d never been one to believe in fairy tales, and she certainly didn’t believe in this one. It had to be a hoax! A cruel manipulation of some kind.

  Seeing a red flush mounting her neck, Adam said quickly, “It’s true, Carolyn. Your grandfather died several weeks ago, and all the legalities are settled. There were just a few necessary verifications to make before telling you.”

  “You’re expecting me to believe that Arthur Stanford bypassed everyone else to leave a fortune to his long-lost granddaughter?”

  “Yes, Carolyn, that’s exactly what has happened.”

  “What about the other people in his life?” Carolyn demanded as a blessed logical detachment allowed her to get her emotions under control. She wanted facts. She wasn’t about to accept anything at face value. Especially not a Cinderella story like the one they were trying to lay on her. “There were other people in his life, weren’t there?”

  “Yes,” Bancroft answered readily. “There is one son, your mother’s older brother, Jasper. He’s mentioned in the will, but in a lesser way.”

  “Why would Arthur Stanford do that? I mean, I don’t understand why he didn’t leave his son the company and everything else.”

  Adam spoke up. “Maybe because Jasper ran two companies and property of his own into bankruptcy, and his father had to bail him out. Obviously Stanford didn’t want the same thing to happen to Horizon.”

  “And there’s no one else?” she asked with a dry mouth.

  “No blood relation, other than Jasper. You’re the only one,” Bancroft answered. “Jasper is a laboratory scientist at Horizon, and your grandfather left him some stock, but you hold the controlling interest. Jasper never married, but he has maintained a five-year romantic relationship with Della Denison, a very capable career woman, who also works at Horizon. They live in the Stanford mansion, along with Della’s two children, both in their twenties.” He paused. “Apparently your grandfather found this arrangement amicable.”