Compromised Identity

by Jodie Bailey

  She shook her head, not trusting her voice. He was proud of her? “Dad, I’m not going to become an officer. I’m not going to college. And I’m staying in the Army as a medic.”

  “As you should.”

  A knock on the door broke the moment between them, and the nurse stepped in. “Need to check on the patient, if you’d care to wait in the hall?”

  Her father stood and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I hear you’re pretty good at patching up soldiers. But forgive the old man if he says a few extra prayers for you every night.” He squeezed her fingers. “I’ll be in the hall. I have to call your mother and reassure her you’re in one piece. She’s flying in tomorrow to help you make a late Thanksgiving dinner. Couldn’t stomach a ride here from Virginia on a chopper.” He winked and stepped out, a different man than Jessica had ever seen.

  The nurse took her vitals, offered more pain meds and was gone before Jessica could put everything together, her head still spinning with her father’s confession. She closed her eyes, half wanting to sleep, half afraid she’d wake up and find she’d dreamed that whole encounter with her father. She barely realized the woman left until another presence entered the room.

  “Jess?”

  Jessica’s eyes flew open. Sean. Her pulse throbbed harder, driving into a hard rhythm. “You’re still here?”

  “Where else would I be?” He looked amused, and more relaxed than she’d ever seen him as he settled into the chair her father had just vacated.

  “I don’t know.” She picked at the blanket. “Virginia. Another mission.”

  “Not without saying goodbye.”

  A sick feeling wavered in her chest. “You’re leaving?”

  “Eventually.” He reached for her hand, hesitated, then picked it up in his. “But not until I take a couple of weeks of leave.”

  The thrill that ran up her arm from his touch made her glad the doctor hadn’t hooked her up to a heart monitor. Half the hospital would think she’d coded. “Where are you planning on taking that leave?”

  His fingers entwined with hers, his thumb running a hypnotizing rhythm up the side of her hand, sending flutters into her stomach. “Here? I heard somebody needed her shutters painted.”

  Jessica choked on a laugh. “But not her grass mowed. That’s been done.”

  He chuckled with her, then grew quieter, his hand stilling in hers as he caught her eye. “I’m serious about hanging around for a bit. I want time with you without terrorists chasing our every move. If that’s something you’d be interested in.”

  Jessica nodded slowly, afraid to speak or she’d tell him what was truly on her mind—that she was already in love with him.

  “The major said I can stay with him. Keep everything above board, you know.”

  “I know.” She held back a smile that would tinge her swollen lip with pain.

  “I need to warn you, though.” A smile quirked the side of Sean’s lip. “I think it’s pretty possible I’ll be around longer than two weeks. If that’s okay with you.”

  “It’s more than okay.”

  “Because, you know, I promised you gravy.”

  She laughed again, this time through tears that refused to be held back.

  Sean swallowed hard. “I’m pretty sure, Jessica Dylan, that I’m crazy in love with you.”

  “Back at you.” Her voice was a hoarse whisper.

  Sean finally smiled fully, his grin bigger than she’d ever seen it. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the side of her mouth, a kiss that promised more than this moment—and more than his heart.

  EPILOGUE

  Jessica placed a pan of sweet potato casserole on the stove. From the living room, the NBA play-offs blasted through the house, her dad and Major White arguing over which team was going to take down the other. They hadn’t moved since they’d settled in after the Easter service.

  It was all way too domestic. Just like the discussion she was having with Sean. “I’m telling you. Turkey for Thanksgiving. Ham for Easter.”

  “So what’s Christmas?” He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms.

  Jessica swiped hair off her forehead with her wrist, and Sean reached over to tuck the loose tendril behind her ear. She almost shivered at his touch. Five months since he’d first kissed her, five months since he’d started spending every spare moment of leave he could at the major’s house, five months—and she still couldn’t get enough. She shook off the emotion before she kissed him right here in her own kitchen over the mashed potatoes with her mother looking on. “Christmas is both.”

  Sean cast a heated glance at her lips as if he knew what she was thinking, then turned to her mother at the sink. “You have rules for holiday food?”

  Her mother nodded, swiping the dishrag over a small bowl. “You could say that. It’s more habit than law. And what was your food tradition?”

  “Venison.” Sean sliced the air with his hand. “All the time.”

  Venison. Jessica had yet to like the game, no matter how Sean had cooked it. She couldn’t get over the childhood thought she was eating Bambi’s mother.

  Jessica’s own mother pulled the stopper from the sink. “Well, I’m going to let you two duke it out. I’m going into the living room to see if I can find something besides sports for the men to watch.”

  “Not an easy task,” Sean called to her retreating form. She was barely out of the room before he reached out and grabbed Jessica by the waist, pulling her close to him as he leaned back against the counter. His arms locked behind her waist, trapping her hands at his chest. “I saw that look you gave me a while ago.”

  “What look?” She refused to give in that easily, even though she definitely wanted to.

  “The one that said you were going to kiss me whether your mom was watching or not.”

  “You were mistaken, sir.” If she didn’t stop staring at his lips, he’d know she was lying.

  “Oh?” His eyebrow arched over blue eyes sparking with things Jessica couldn’t even begin to handle. “So what would it take for you to kiss me?”

  “For you to never make me eat Bambi meat again.”

  He threw his head back and laughed. “Can’t promise you that.”

  She sighed. “Fine.”

  He tilted his head back down, gaze capturing hers. “What if I told you I’m getting out of the Army so I can follow you wherever the military sends you?”

  All humor evaporated from the moment. Jessica tried to step back, but he held her tight. “What?” Sean couldn’t leave the Army for her. It was his life. He’d resent her. They’d never even so much as discussed it.

  “I’m thinking it’s time for me to step away from guns and missions. Time to go back to my first love.”

  Sean had confessed the nightmares still crept up on him at times, worse after he’d taken on a mission with Ethan to find the hacker who’d wreaked havoc on his team. When the trail went cold, Tate took over the search while Sean stepped back. With distance, the visions had dialed back, but Sean still fought them on occasion. He’d said more than once he needed time to heal.

  He cleared his throat. “I finally talked to one of the docs and he agreed a change of scenery might be good for me. So I’m getting out. Going to join Ashley’s company and take down the bad guys from behind my computer like I always wanted.”

  Jessica grinned. He was right about going after his first love. She’d watched him many nights devising code, new ways to tear down terrorists at their source. “Sounds good.”

  “You missed the best part, though.” He pressed his forehead against hers.

  “What’s that?”

  His voice lowered. “So I can follow you wherever the military sends you.”

  Jessica’s heart nearly stopped beating. “Are you...?”

  H
e pulled a hand from behind her back and held it up between them, a diamond flickering on the tip of his ring finger. “Will you let me do that? Tag along around the world with you? Send you care packages when you deploy? Meet you at the airport when you come home for R & R?” He wagged his eyebrows at her, then eased closer, letting his lips hover against hers. “Say yes,” he whispered.

  Jessica didn’t say anything. Just closed the gap between them and gave him her answer with a kiss she never wanted to end. A kiss that promised him the rest of her life, whether under the same roof or on opposite sides of the world.

  A kiss that promised him forever.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from MOUNTAIN HIDEAWAY by Christy Barritt.

  Dear Reader,

  You have no idea how grateful I am for you! I’m also grateful to Leslie Herlick, for being all stealthy and adding realism to the scenes at the Soldier Center; to Ben Cash, who might be a mad awesome meteorologist in the real world but who is a seriously scary suspense scene brainstormer at heart; and to my daughter, who likes to write alongside me. And, as always, to my husband, who answers the world’s dumbest Army questions with massive amounts of love and patience.

  I am so glad you took the time to get to know Sean and Jessica, and I hope you enjoyed the visits from Ethan and Ashley, as well. While Sean’s war experience was extreme, our soldiers fight battles every day. Battles that they can never fully describe, even to their families. They bear scars, some seen and some unseen. No soldier returns from war unchanged. No family welcomes their warrior home to the same environment they left behind. The beautiful thing is that, in most cases, life moves forward with new joys and new experiences.

  Sometimes, though, the unseen wounds fester and fell even the strongest of soldiers.

  On September 11, 2001, I had to tell my second period freshman civics class that the whole world had changed forever. Like all of us who remember that day, the image and emotion is still vivid. In that room I taught two brothers, Jon and Aaron, who wanted nothing more than to serve their country. When 9/11 happened, you could see the resolve solidify. Both joined the Army. Both served overseas in the War on Terror. Both came home.

  But only one survived.

  I was standing in front of my third-period writing class in September 2011 when I received another life-altering message. Aaron was gone. The kid whose sarcastic humor and mischievous smile got the best of this teacher on more than one occasion had become a casualty of the war that followed him home. On home turf, alone, Aaron left us to wonder how he could survive a war and yet have the pain steal him away.

  Post-traumatic stress disorder is as real and painful a wound as any physical trauma, one our nation is only just now beginning to realize. It is not weakness. It is not shameful. It is an internal injury in need of treatment.

  Join me in praying for our men and women who fight the good fight on our behalf. Pray for their families, as well. Visit www.ptsd.va.gov to learn more. And thank a service member. Believe it or not, those expressions of gratitude mean the world to them and the ones who love them.

  Also, I’d love to hear from you. You can visit me at www.jodiebailey.com or email me at jodie@jodiebailey.com. I’d love to chat.

  Until next time...

  Jodie Bailey

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense story.

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  Mountain Hideaway

  by Christy Barritt

  ONE

  Tessa Jones flung herself across the couch toward the lamp and pulled the switch so hard the ceramic base nearly toppled onto the wooden floor below. With quick breaths, she darted toward the wall.

  She pulled her sweater closer around her neck and forced air into her lungs. Anxiety pressed down on her and adrenaline surged, the mix making her head spin.

  Slowly, she edged toward the window. She had to look. She had no choice.

  With all the lights extinguished in her home, anyone lurking outside shouldn’t see her. Still, she had to be careful. She had no idea who or what was on the other side of that glass. Here in the middle of nowhere, there were no neighbors to hear her scream, to rush to her rescue. If something happened to her, she might not be found for days.

  That had worked to her advantage...until today.

  At this moment, she craved having someone nearby to help her, to be a second set of eyes. But she’d been mentally preparing for months to be self-reliant if a situation like this ever occurred. She’d only hoped it would never come to this.

  As she turned toward the window, her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She stared hard yet cautiously into the abyss of thick woods surrounding the property.

  Certainly, the speck of light bobbing on the horizon had just been her imagination. There was no one out there among the trees and the steep landscape of the mountain terrain. There couldn’t be. No one even knew this place was here.

  Blackness stared back, and her heart slowed.

  It had been her imagination. Just her imagination. Maybe her paranoia. It didn’t matter, as long as what she’d seen hadn’t been real.

  Just then something flickered in the distance.

  She blinked, her momentary relief instantly vanishing. She clutched her chest as her heart thumped out of control. Despite the cold, sweat spread across her forehead.

  The light was small, like a flashlight, and it continued to bob through the woods.

  Someone was walking. Toward the cabin. Toward her.

  Leo’s men had found her, she realized.

  Fear paralyzed her.

  It didn’t matter that she’d run through this potential scenario a million times. That she’d rehearsed what she would do. That she’d planned the best course of escape.

  Right now, all of those thoughts disappeared.

  She’d been here eight months. She’d thought she was safe. She’d prayed she was.

  But God had stopped answering her prayers a long time ago.

  The beam grew larger as it neared the property. Whoever was holding the light had probably seen the lamp on. Knew that Tessa was here. Hiding, at this point, would be fruitless.

  No, she had to run.

  She shook her head, thoughts colliding inside.

  If she ran, the mountains would kill her, even if whoever was after her didn’t. It was too dark. There were too many cliffs. Too many unknowns.

  Either way, she had to move, and now!

  She grabbed a backpack from her closet. She’d put it together just in case something like this ever happened. It had a flashlight, some cash, some water and a small blanket. After she slung the bag over her shoulders, she crept to the back door. She had to be decisive, to stop hesitating. If she wasn’t, the person out there would reach the cabin and might hear her leave. Might sneak around to the back and catch her.

  It took every ounce of her determination to pull the door open. A brisk wind blew inside. Though it was late autumn, the air felt brutally cold here in the middle of the mountains, especially at night.

  She was going to miss this cabin. Miss this life.

  The thought of starting over again made Tessa’s head pound, made her feel as though a rock had been placed on her chest.

  But she’d have time to worry about that later. Right now, she had to concentrate on surv
iving.

  She quietly closed the door behind her. On her tiptoes, she started toward the woodshed in the distance. She’d hide out there and see what unfolded. She didn’t have much choice. If the intruder came too close, she could dart into the woods. She’d take her chances there before she’d take them at the hands of the ruthless men who Leo had probably sent after her.

  Ducking behind the rough wood of the shed, she crouched, desperate to stay concealed. As the wind blew, the leaves swept across the ground. The sound, normally comforting, made her nerves tighten.

  She held her breath, listening for any indications of the intruder.

  She heard nothing.

  That was when her mind began running through scenarios and she remembered—

  Her car!

  Of course, anyone after her would see her car. They’d know she was here. They’d tear everything apart until they found her. And once they found her... She shuddered to think of what would happen then.

  If she somehow happened to escape, they could easily trace her license plate. They’d put one and one together. She felt hunted and as if there was no safe place for her to hide. Her cubbyhole away from the world had been compromised.

  She’d have to start over again with a new identity, a new home, a new everything.

  How could she go on like this for the rest of her life? Living with this kind of fear wasn’t living at all. It was surviving.

  Just as she closed her eyes, on the verge of praying for mercy, she heard a bang. She clutched her chest. As she peered around the corner, the back door flung open.

  The wind! Tessa realized.

  The door had never latched easily. In her haste to get out of the house, she must not have pulled hard enough.

  Now there was no hiding the fact that she was nearby. It was a matter of evading the intruder more than it was about hiding.

  Despair bit deep. Maybe it would just be easier to give up.

  No, Tessa reminded herself. No matter how tempting the thought might be at times, she knew she couldn’t surrender. Leo didn’t deserve to win, and she wouldn’t go down without a fight.