Praise for
SUSAN MALLERY
“Susan Mallery is warmth and wit personified. Always a fabulous read.”
—New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd
“Ms. Mallery’s unique writing style shines via vivid characters, layered disharmony and plenty of spice.”
—Romantic Times BOOKclub
“A gifted storyteller, Ms. Mallery fills the pages with multi-faceted characters, solid plotting and passion that is both tender and sizzling.”
—Romantic Times BOOKclub
“If you haven’t read Susan Mallery, you must!”
—New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Forster
SUSAN MALLERY is a USA TODAY bestselling author of over eighty books and has been a recipient of countless awards, including the National Reader’s Choice Award. Her combination of humor, emotion and downright sexiness has made her a reader favorite. She makes her home in Southern California with her husband, her very dignified cat and her not-so-dignified dog. Visit her Web site at www.SusanMallery.com.
SUSAN MALLERY
The Only Way Out
To Jan. Okay, so it was tough at first. It’s turned out
to be more than worth the trouble. I wish I could
find the words to say how much your support and
friendship have meant to me. You’re terrific. (I know
it’s supposed to be a secret, but hey!) Here’s to being
R&F, to maids, summer homes and bright futures.
Contents
Prologue
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
Chapter 14
Epilogue
Prologue
He was less than twenty feet from the car when it exploded. The deafening blast threw Jeff Markum up against the side of a clothing shop. Glass, chunks of wood from a corner fruit stand and pieces of twisted metal from the car itself peppered his body like buckshot. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, couldn’t hear anything except the powerful echo of the explosion. The blackness around him grew, humming louder and louder until he felt himself losing this world. Not yet, he thought desperately.
He forced himself back to consciousness, driven by the need to rescue the two people inside what had once been a small red Ford. As he tried to push himself to his feet, pain ripped through his left leg. A quick glance confirmed the injury. Blood seeped from a tear in his trousers, and his knee bent at an awkward angle. Broken.
Around him, people stirred to life. He heard faint cries and louder screams. The uninjured scurried for cover in case the blast came again. Jeff knew they hid in vain. There was no need for another blast.
He gathered the little strength he had left and crawled along the littered sidewalk. Glass cut his hands. His broken leg dragged behind him. His shoulder was dislocated, but he couldn’t worry about any of that now. He had to get to the flaming, twisted heap that had once been his car.
Toward the inferno that housed his wife and child.
Fury drove him. Sorrow and guilt fueled his need. He was less than five feet from the car when he heard the sounds of the sirens.
They were too damn late, he thought looking at the flames licking skyward as if they could consume the heavens. No one inside could have survived. Even as he tried to comfort himself with the thought that they would have died instantly, he imagined he heard their screams.
Each high-pitched shriek of terror pierced him deeper and deeper until his soul started to bleed. He stared at the wreckage as black smoke began to obscure it from sight.
Then the siren stopped next to him and the medical team jumped out. Strong hands pulled him away from the fire, away from his wife and son. He fought the medics, but he had no strength. All too soon he was in the medical van and on his way to the hospital.
Jeff closed his ears against the clanging of the siren, and closed his eyes against the medic’s penlight. He would get the report tonight, but he already knew what they would find.
A car bomb. Nothing odd about that in a city that claimed hundreds of lives each year. Yet he’d been arrogant enough to assume that the statistics would never touch him. That he could pursue his enemy with all the fervor of a saint chasing the devil and that it would never get personal. Jeff had known Kray had marked him for death, but he hadn’t thought his family would have to pay because he loved his job.
“J.J. needs to be near his father,” Jeanne had insisted when her plane had landed in Lebanon. “And I need to be near my husband.”
Jeff had tried explaining the situation to her, and when that hadn’t worked, he’d resorted to anger. Jeanne had listened quietly, then continued unpacking. As far as she was concerned, it didn’t matter to her that she was in the middle of something ugly, something she would never understand. The rules in her life were simple. A wife’s place was at her husband’s side.
So he’d let her stay. Because a part of him had enjoyed the moments of normalcy in an otherwise chaotic life. Because he loved his wife and son almost as much as he loved his job, and because he believed he could keep them safe. Kray had warned Jeff he would pay. Until this moment he hadn’t known how much.
Jeff let go of his thoughts and concentrated on the pain because the alternative was too horrible. Kray had ordered one of his men to place the bomb in Jeff’s car. The car Jeanne had borrowed that morning so she and J.J. could run errands. Jeff had grown complacent and overly confident. He’d killed his wife and child as surely as if he had set the bomb himself.
Then the buzzing in his ears grew louder and his thoughts more erratic. He couldn’t focus on Jeanne’s face or the sound of J.J.’s laughter. They were getting lost in the pain. Suddenly not finding his way back didn’t sound so bad.
“We’re losing him,” a disembodied voice called. “Pressure’s dropping. He’s lost too much blood.”
Jeff let himself sink further into the blackness. He didn’t care if he died. Jeanne was gone already, and with her, Jeff Jr. Dying might solve his problem. He would simply wait for Kray to join him in hell.
Chapter 1
Five years later
Jeff Markum lay on his belly in the sand. Waving sea grass, bougainvillea and wild fig trees hid him from view. His powerful binoculars allowed him to see into the open windows of the exclusive villa situated at the far end of the hotel grounds.
Three men gathered around a table, as was their morning custom. They’d finished breakfast and were talking. A soft, tropical breeze carried with it the faint sound of laughter. Jeff couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he watched their lips moving and deciphered most of the words.
They were going fishing.
Jeff turned his head slightly to the right and saw the dock jutting out into the deep blue of the Caribbean sea. A well-equipped powerboat sat bobbing in the water. The crew was preparing for their day of fishing. Jeff looked back at the villa. The path from the front door to the boat was about fifty feet long. Nothing obstructed Jeff’s view of the area, so nothing would get in the way of his shot.
Kray would walk those fifty feet. He was a head taller than both his bodyguards. It would be easy to take him out.
Jeff lowered the binoculars and rolled onto his back. His hip bumped the gleaming rifle he’d laid out in preparation of what had to be done. Timing. This whole damn thing was about timing. Today it would happen. He could feel it in his bones, especially in his knee, which often ached if the weather was right.
It was early enou
gh that the temperature was still pleasant. A rainstorm had passed through during the night, washing everything clean. He inhaled the thick air of the island, smelling the tropical flowers, the sea and his own sweat. He’d thought he might hesitate or be weighed down by indecision, but he wasn’t. Today. Now. Kray would die.
Jeff brushed his arm across his forehead and tried to relax. He’d killed men before. He wasn’t afraid to watch someone die. He wasn’t even afraid of dying himself. The plan was flawless. He was the ultimate weapon—an assassin willing to sacrifice himself for the target. Kray didn’t have a chance.
Jeff knew what would happen afterward. He hadn’t spent much time planning his escape, mostly because he didn’t expect to get away. Kray practically owned the island. He came here often enough to make the locals pliable to his wishes. While he was on St. Lucas, Kray liked to pretend he wasn’t a dangerous criminal, but instead, a wealthy businessman on holiday. So the villa had no alarm system, no heat sensors, no obvious security. It was perfect for Jeff’s plan. The three bodyguards who went everywhere with Kray wouldn’t even notice the single bullet that flew past them to find its victim. No doubt Jeff would be caught. So be it. He wanted Kray dead—nothing else mattered.
Jeff rolled onto his stomach again. Instead of the villa, he saw the small red car exploding into unrecognizable pieces. He felt the heat and smelled the burning wreckage.
He held himself very still and waited until the vision passed; then he picked up the rifle and stared through the scope. It had been five long years. In all that time Kray had never crossed the line. He’d never tried to kill Jeff again, and he’d never been caught. One of the most powerful crime lords in the world walked free because he was too smart and too lucky. Jeff smiled slowly. Kray’s luck was about to change for the worse. A single bullet to the head. That’s all it would take.
He was cynical enough to know Kray’s death wouldn’t change the world. Someone else would step in his shoes. But Jeff didn’t care about that. Part of the reason he was here—hell, all of the reason he was here was personal. Maybe when Kray was dead, his dreams about Jeanne and J.J. would haunt him less. Maybe then he could finally forget.
The sound of the boat engines cranking over caught his attention. He adjusted the rifle, shifting his arm on the sand, then stared through the scope. He closed his left eye. He could see the crew preparing to cast off.
Slowly he turned the rifle toward the villa’s front door. Within a few seconds, the first of the bodyguards appeared, carrying a canvas bag. The man was talking. Jeff couldn’t decipher his words. A second man stepped out onto the path. Kray’s assistant. Jeff waited.
A third man moved onto the path. Jeff stiffened. Kray. He stared intently through the rifle’s scope. The crime lord looked like what he pretended to be: a successful businessman on holiday. His brown hair was short and brushed straight back. Thick eyebrows arched over light brown eyes. A full mouth curved into a smile at something one of the bodyguards said.
Jeff adjusted the scope until the cross hairs centered on Kray’s head. He touched the trigger. He’d been practicing with this rifle for over a year. He knew exactly how much pressure to apply, knew how heavy the loads were in the bullets and knew precisely what would happen to Kray at the moment of impact. He’d always been a good field agent, even if he’d spent the past five years behind a desk.
He thought about Jeanne and J.J. one last time, then cleared his mind. Nothing existed except the target. Nothing mattered. His breathing slowed, as did his heartbeat. His body stayed perfectly still in anticipation.
The fourth man stepped through the door and onto the path. He, too, carried a canvas bag. The group started moving toward the boat. Now, Jeff told himself. He drew in a breath, held it and started to squeeze.
“Monsieur Kray!” a female voice called.
Jeff froze, then forced himself to relax. There was still time.
Kray and his men turned toward the house. A dark-haired woman in a gray-and-white uniform ran down to the dock. She was holding a piece of paper. Kray waited impatiently as the woman approached him.
They spoke briefly.
The woman, her dark hair pulled away from her face, stepped between Jeff and his target. Jeff waited. Kray read the paper, then handed it back to her and nodded. The woman started toward the villa.
Before he could adjust his sights on Kray again, a flicker of movement from behind the villa caught his attention. He tried to ignore it, but years of training kicked in. Cursing silently, he swung the gun back toward the villa, using the scope as a magnifying lens.
A woman crept up to the rear of the villa, toward the French doors by the breakfast room. She wore jeans, a white T-shirt and running shoes. Despite her casual attire, she was as out of place as a mouse in a cage full of cats. Tourists didn’t go creeping around behind the crime lord’s villa, and operatives didn’t sneak around in the middle of the day. Who the hell was she? Her long blond hair and pale skin told of her Anglo heritage; she wasn’t a native. But she was trying to get in to Kray’s villa. Jeff knew enough about his enemy to know she wasn’t part of his entourage.
Jeff glanced at the maid. The dark-haired woman had paused at the front of the building to light a cigarette. He looked at the blonde and saw she was fitting a key into the French doors and cautiously pushing them open. If the maid smoked one cigarette, that gave the blonde less than two minutes before the maid interrupted her. Damn it all to hell.
He turned his attention back to the men at the end of the dock. In about ten seconds, when the bodyguard climbed into the bobbing boat, he would have a clear shot at Kray. If he killed his old enemy now, the woman would be trapped inside the villa and caught at whatever she was trying to do. He told himself she wasn’t his responsibility. He was here to take out Kray, civilians be damned.
Except that wasn’t his policy. He trained his men to protect civilians. He couldn’t expect any less from himself.
Jeff closed his left eye and gently moved the rifle until the cross hairs centered on Kray’s ear. He touched the trigger.
“Bang, you’re dead,” he said softly, then lowered the rifle to the ground.
Kray spent at least six weeks every spring on the island. He met with his managers, talked money with the various banks that laundered his funds, gave expensive parties. Jeff was also going to be here for six weeks. This was only day five. He had plenty of time to deal with Kray.
He glanced at the maid. She’d finished about half of her cigarette and was watching the men on the boat cast off. One of the bodyguards called out to her. She smiled and waved.
Jeff quickly broke down the rifle and slipped the weapon into his backpack. As he put on his cap and picked up the binoculars, he heard the boat engines roar as they powered the vehicle out toward the open ocean. Blue skies and bluer water beckoned. They wouldn’t be back until late afternoon. He thought about the bags the bodyguards had carried. They might even stay away overnight.
He turned his attention back to the villa. The woman hadn’t reappeared. The maid was down to the last third of her cigarette.
“Come on,” Jeff said quietly. “You’ve got less than thirty seconds until she goes back inside.”
He didn’t know why he was rooting for the mysterious woman, except if she was Kray’s enemy, then she was hisally. He waited, counting out the seconds. The maid finished her cigarette and stubbed out the butt in the decorative sand-filled jar beside the door. She opened the front door and stepped inside.
Damn. Jeff picked up his backpack and rose to his knees. With a last glance at the departing boat, he crawled through the low-lying bushes around the beach and toward the back of the villa. The blonde hadn’t come back out yet. If the maid caught her, she would have a lot of explaining to do. If she did manage to escape, he would follow her and try to find out what she was doing here. Ally or not, he wasn’t going to let anyone get in the way of what had to be done.
Andie Cochran promised herself that when she was safely out of d
anger, she was going to find a quiet place out in the bushes somewhere and throw up. She hadn’t known it was possible to be this scared and still function.
Her muscles quivered and twitched. Her hands shook, her knees trembled. Even her breathing was ragged. Her stomach lurched threateningly and her heart raced. Nerves had kept her going for the past three weeks and she was hanging on by sheer force of will.
She glanced at her watch. She had no time left. She’d seen the nanny run down the dock toward Kray and his men. It had given her only a moment to act, but she’d taken it. There might not be another chance. Kray and his goons were gone on an overnight fishing trip. The villa was at the far end of the resort and the hotel housekeeping staff wasn’t due for a half hour. No one else was around. The building was empty except for the nanny and Bobby. She had the perfect opportunity to rescue her son.
Andie moved quickly through the silent house. It had changed some since she’d been here last. Of course, that had been over six years ago. She’d been young and innocent. A fool. As she passed by the elegantly appointed living room, she noticed that the cushions and draperies had been replaced, but the heavy carved mahogany furniture was the same. She and Bobby could live for three years on what Kray had paid for the sofa and love seat alone. But then he’d always wanted the best, the most beautiful, the rare. She must have been such a disappointment to him.
It didn’t matter, she reminded herself. None of it mattered. She turned toward the long hallway and ran quietly toward the back bedrooms. Kray would take the master suite for himself, with his bodyguards on either side and across the hall. That left only the last three bedrooms empty for her son.
The Only Way Out Page 1
