The café had been everything Travis had claimed, and Berk and his family had been overjoyed with her offer to feature the restaurant on her show. She was sure it would give them just the boost they needed and her ratings would go up even more after it aired.
Glancing around the long and narrow café, she still didn’t see Travis. As with all the other times she’d looked for him, despondency plummeted in her core. He wasn’t coming.
“You be sure and thank Mr. Todd for us,” Berk said.
“I will if I see him,” she answered forlornly. After the way she’d left him in Anguilla, she really couldn’t blame him for not showing up.
“Ah, but you will.” A big smile beamed on his dark-skinned face. “He is here.”
Excitement and pure glee burst, perking her up. “H-here? Are you sure?”
“Yes. Yes. He came to see me just yesterday.” He leaned in conspiratorially. “He asked me not to tell you until after the show.”
What a sneak! “Where is he?”
Berk pointed to the exit. “Go and see.”
Really? He was here? Outside? Waving goodbye, she stepped out onto the sidewalk and saw him. He sat, calm as could be, on a patio chair. Waiting. Her heart rejoiced.
“I’m feeling a little déjà vu.” She walked over to his table and stopped, unable to subdue her smile. “The first time I saw you I was on travel for a show, too.”
Wearing sunglasses, jeans and a short-sleeved green shirt, he was so sexy she couldn’t subdue her infatuation. He stood and her breath caught. Seeing him reaffirmed how silly it had been to compare men she dated to her father. Travis compared to no man.
“Your father said he talked to you.”
Not responding to her lightness, she realized he was uncertain about her, about how she viewed him.
“Yes. All that happened in Anguilla made me open my eyes. About you. About my perception of my father...all of it. You were right. I put conditions on the men I dated to avoid commitment. I was too afraid of feeling the way I felt growing up with a father who couldn’t spend as much time as he wanted with me. That’s the key. He wanted to spend more time with me, but the time he could spend with me was precious. I forgot about that. But I remember now.”
“Good. You patched things up with him.”
He still wasn’t assured of her opinion of him.
“You think I still would expect you to quit your job with TES to be with me.”
“Your father not being around a lot affected you significantly.”
“Yes, but I love him and he loves me.”
At last, he removed his sunglasses and she could see his blue-gold eyes. “You might not want to raise your own kids the same way.”
“I’d teach them about love.”
He stepped closer and his arm went around her waist. “I told you once that I’d be there for the woman I marry and the children we had together.”
She flattened her hands on his big chest. “I remember.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” Did she ever! More than that, she loved him.
“Good, because I think I finally found a woman who’ll stick around for me.”
“You think?”
“Yeah, and it appears that my patience has paid off.”
“But you aren’t one-hundred percent sure?”
“Almost...but not quite.”
She looped her arms all the way around his neck. “What will it take, soldier? I’ll do anything.”
His brow rose. “Anything?”
“For you, yeah.”
“Marry me, then.”
That was easy. “Just say when.”
“How about right now?”
She leaned back a little. “Now?”
He indicated the street. A car waited there. A limo. And the driver was standing outside the back door, waiting.
Mouth dropping open, she stepped back from Travis and gaped at him.
“You didn’t think I was going to let you get away again, did you?”
Raeleen started laughing. She’d left him in Anguilla and he’d used that as an excuse to speed up their marriage.
“Is the minister in the back of the limo?”
“No. He’s waiting for us in an old church. And so are your parents.” He took her hand and started walking to the limo.
Her parents were here? He’d planned everything and she couldn’t be happier or more thrilled.
At the limo, she stopped and faced him. “What would you have done if I’d said no?”
He leaned closer, lips hovering over hers. “Taken you to my hotel room and kept you there until you said yes.”
“What makes you so sure I would have?”
“This.” He pressed his warm lips to hers.
“Yes,” she murmured before he kissed her again.
* * * * *
The Secret Soldier
Special thanks goes to Dave Baker for letting me have my way in the opening scenes of this story.
Dave, those hours in front of your whiteboard were sure entertaining! You have an amazing brain and your knowledge of the military was invaluable to me.
Any mistakes are my own.
To everyone who supported me on my long journey to publication, your positive influence kept me going at my lowest moments. Everyone at DigitalGlobe— there are too many to name you all. You know who you are. Gary Geissinger, don’t worry, you won’t end up in my novel. Neal Anderson and Walter Scott, any other bosses would have fired me for taking so much time off to write! Natalie Ottobrino and Margie Lawson, your strength resonates with me. To my entire family, who put up with my many absences so I could write.
Dan, even though we aren’t together anymore, you were an integral part of my success and will always be my friend. Jackie, you are my favorite twin—despite your poor taste in fiction. To Sandra Kerns and Annette Elton, for helping me make sure my characters didn’t do anything too stupid. And to every other critique partner I have learned from along the way.
But the highest acknowledgment goes to my mother,
Joan Morey, whose passing inspired me to follow my heart.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Excerpt
Chapter 1
“One more week in this hellhole.”
Kneeling on the ground, Sabine O’Clery finished winding a water-level indicator reel from inside a borehole before looking up at her unhappy field partner. Samuel Barry scowled across the grayish-brown landscape of Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley. Sabine followed his gaze, a dry, hot breeze rustling the loose strands of hair that had escaped her ponytail. High, desolate mountains surrounded them under a clear blue sky, and yellow patches of grass covered the ground where they worked. She found immense satisfaction putting her hydrogeology degree to good use in places like this, but she couldn’t argue with Samuel’s sentiment.
“It’s pretty here,” she quipped.
Samuel grunted in disgust. “Yeah, if you like dirt and no amenities.”
“Everyone needs clean drinking water,” she said. She’d grown attached to some of the villagers, too.
Samuel grumbled as he put a portable reader on the ground next to the borehole. He was a big man who always talked about his wife.
“I can’t wait to taste Lisandra’s homemade oran
ge juice,” he said, as if on cue.
Sabine smiled. Would she ever find a man who made her feel like talking sweet nonsense about him? Ha! She wasn’t going to hold her breath.
“She makes a killer crème brûlée, too.”
“And her cheese soufflés?” she teased.
Samuel laughed. “My mouth is watering already.” He looked at her. “Sorry. I just miss her.”
“Really? I couldn’t tell.”
“Just wait ’til you get married. Then you’ll know what it’s like.”
Marriage seemed so foreign to her. “Not everyone falls madly in love and lives happily ever after.”
“Maybe not out here.” He gestured to the dry landscape. The pages of the field book he held flapped with the movement, his thumb keeping the ones against the cover flat.
Maybe not ever. She didn’t want to end up like her mother, loving a man who came around only when it suited him, always leaving for his next thrill. Nothing irritated her more than being treated like a thrill.
“You have to stop comparing every man to your dad,” Samuel said.
She set the indicator reel aside and reached for the borehole reader, wishing she’d never mentioned her father to him. “I don’t.” Not every man.
He sent her an unconvinced frown from above the field book but didn’t argue.
“I haven’t seen him since he showed up at my college graduation and ruined what should have been my best accomplishment. Why would I compare anyone to him?”
Samuel raised a brow, telling her without words that the emotional response had just answered her own question.
Okay, so he was right. Her father epitomized the kind of man she never wanted to marry. She remembered the way she had felt when he’d shown up at her graduation. Unchecked hope that he’d come for the right reason flashed before a too-familiar self-doubt. Did he know about that B she got her freshman year? Never mind the honors. Maybe hydrogeology wasn’t scientifically challenging enough. If she’d become the first female president of the United States, her father probably still wouldn’t have been impressed.
So why waste any energy thinking of him at all? It wasn’t supposed to bother her anymore. She’d overcome her insecurities and childish hopes the moment she left him standing in that college auditorium.
Connecting the reader to the piezometer inside the borehole harder than necessary, Sabine waited for the measurement to appear on the display. Samuel wrote the number down in his field book, eyeing her dubiously.
She’d never seen what real happiness looked like until she met her field partner. Maybe that’s what had her thinking about her father so much lately. Happiness was not a word she’d learned from his example.
She straightened from the borehole. They were finished for the day.
“Let’s go see if our supply helicopter brought us some cold beer.” Samuel closed his field book.
“If Aden came with it, there’ll be beer.” As CEO of Envirotech and the one who had contracted them to do the groundwater analysis, Aden Archer always made room in the supply helicopter for good beer.
“He sure does come here a lot. Have you noticed that?”
“He doesn’t come here that much.”
“He doesn’t need to be here at all.”
She didn’t think it was that unusual. “I saw him meet with one of the locals once. Maybe it’s business related.”
Samuel’s brow creased as he looked at her. “Who’d he meet?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t recognize him. All I saw was the back of his head.”
It took him a moment to respond. “Don’t you think that’s a little weird? Why would he need to meet with any of the locals?”
“Who knows.” Was Samuel as concerned as he seemed? Why? “He isn’t hurting anyone.”
Samuel looked at her a moment longer before he smiled, convincing her she’d misread him. “Especially if he brings beer. Come on, let’s go.” He started to walk toward the Jeep.
Sabine followed. She didn’t feel like drinking beer. What she’d really like was a long, hot bath. With bubbles. And a good fantasy of a man who cherished her more than anything else in his life.
She breathed a laugh. Samuel’s daydreaming was starting to rub off on her, apparently.
The sound of a vehicle made her stop and turn with a rush of alertness. No one ever came to see them out here. A pickup truck with the cab cut off bounced along the terrain. Several dark-skinned men were inside. Her heart slammed into a wild beat. They all held automatic weapons.
Samuel swore and dropped his field book before taking her hand to pull her ahead of him. She tripped as she started to run, her hand slipping free of his. Get to the Jeep. That was her only thought as she pumped her legs as hard as she could. But she could already see that the Jeep was too far away.
They weren’t going to make it.
Oh, God, please no.
She heard Samuel’s heavy footfalls behind her. Hard breathing. More swearing.
“Run faster!” he yelled.
She didn’t have to be told. If they were caught...
She couldn’t think it.
Gunfire exploded. Sabine screamed and scrambled to dodge the spitting dirt where bullets struck the ground. The truck skidded to a halt between them and the Jeep. More bullets sprayed at their feet, forcing them to stop running.
Several men jumped off the open truck, shouting in Farsi, “Don’t move! Don’t move!”
Samuel grabbed Sabine’s arm and pulled her behind him. She wanted to keep running. Instinct urged her to get away. But they’d shoot her if she tried. Shaking, she peered around Samuel’s big arm and watched in horror as rebels surrounded them.
* * *
After a stuffy flight from Washington, D.C., Cullen McQueen left Miami’s sweltering heat and entered Executive Indemnity Corporation. A security guard behind a reception desk looked up and smiled.
“I’m here to see Noah Page,” Cullen said. “He’s expecting me.”
“Your name?”
“Henrietta,” Cullen answered.
The man nodded his understanding and stood. He led Cullen to a locked door and let him through. Cullen entered a sprawling office area surrounded by closed doors. He spotted a woman standing near one of them.
She smiled. “You can go right in, Mr….”
“Thanks.” He smiled back at her and went into the conference room. Only one person knew his name here, and he was going to keep it that way.
Noah Page stood with his arms behind his back, staring out a panel of tinted windows on the far side of the room. He turned as Cullen shut the door. His face was lined and pale. Dark circles matched the grave worry in his blue eyes and his gray hair looked as if he’d run his fingers through it several times.
Cullen walked the length of the long conference room table and stopped before Noah, shaking his hand.
“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” Noah said.
“You said it was urgent. Something about your daughter?”
Noah swallowed, a scared reflex. The notion of a man like Noah Page being scared piqued Cullen’s curiosity. And a heap of foreboding.
“She’s been kidnapped.”
Cullen went still. “Do you know where she is?”
“Yes... Afghanistan. The Panjshir Valley.”
That was in the mountains. The Hindu Kush. There weren’t many worse places Noah’s daughter could have been captured. “What’s she doing there?”
“She’s a contractor for Envirotech. She and another contractor were assessing groundwater conditions near one of the villages in the valley when they were abducted. I need you to get her out of there, Cullen. You’re the only one I know who can do it.”
Cullen laughed without humor. “You must have me conf
used with God.”
“No.” Noah sounded certain. “You know the terrain. You’ve done this kind of mission before. You do it all the time.”
Not suicide missions, Cullen thought. He curbed his instinct to flat-out refuse Noah. “I know you’re worried about your daughter, but you have to realize how difficult it will be to get her out of there. Not only is Afghanistan unstable, it’s landlocked. You’d have to cross Indian and Pakistani ground defenses to get there.” That didn’t even begin to address U.S. forces inside the border.
“I’ve already met with the Minister of the Interior in Pakistan. He’s agreed to clear you a flight plan into Afghanistan. There are regularly scheduled flights we can use as cover.”
Cullen just stared at him.
“I’ve also procured two armed Mi-8 transport helicopters capable of flying high altitudes, one for backup and to carry extra fuel,” Noah continued. “You’ll have a DeHavilland Twin Otter equipped with a special jamming pod. It’s been modified to fly long distances, too. I spared no expense on the equipment.”
Rising tension tightened Cullen’s jaw. He could not agree to this. But it was Noah asking.
“She’s all I have left,” Noah said in the silence, a pleading sound that didn’t match the man. “I wouldn’t ask if I had any other option.” He leaned over the conference room table and pushed a newspaper toward Cullen.
Slowly, Cullen lowered his gaze. The page covering the kidnapping of two American contractors was exposed. Cullen had read about the kidnapping and seen it all over the news, but he’d never connected the name Sabine O’Clery with Noah Page. The media had stirred huge public interest in the female contractor who’d been taken by terrorists along with her partner, Samuel Barry.
He looked at the photo of Sabine. She smiled wide and had bright, green eyes dancing with life, red hair long and thick. She was a beautiful woman. He’d thought so the first time he’d seen the photo. He’d also thought with regret that she would probably be killed before anyone could do anything.
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