This is the home he never expected...
With a terrifying ordeal behind him, former navy SEAL Jubal Pierce was supposed to stay in Covenant Falls, Colorado, for only a day or two. That’s it. He’s not prepared to put down roots here—no matter how intriguing the town’s new doctor happens to be. Not to mention Dr. Lisa Redding’s teen brother is on a troubled path that’s all too familiar. Suddenly Jubal finds himself entangled in the community and with deep, unfamiliar feelings for Lisa. But maybe a little detour is just what a warrior needs to find his true purpose...and true love.
“Do you always go around saving dogs and kids?”
Jubal looked directly into Lisa’s eyes. “Emotions get you killed.” It was said in that same matter-of-fact voice, but the tightening of his jaw emphasized the words.
“Are you staying in the army?”
“Navy, Doc,” he corrected, making it plain there was a huge difference. “No, I’ve been separated, but I don’t intend to stay in a rocking chair.”
The room seemed to shrink. The air between them was suddenly charged... Lisa could almost smell the ozone. Her face flamed, and heat surged through her, fueling a raw hunger.
She was only too aware he was almost naked, that his body was too near to hers, his breath too close...
Dear Reader,
It is so good to be writing you again. I appreciate each and every one of you more than I can express.
I thought this time I would say something about the writing process, or at least my writing process, because it was so important to this book.
When I start a book, I know who my two main characters are. I know everything that happened to them through childhood, adolescence and adulthood. I live in their heads.
Then I let them run free on the pages. My original premise changes. The plot changes. The end changes. Events happen that I never expected.
Never has characters’ drive been as strong as in this book. I had no idea how the story would end when I started it. What possibly could satisfy an eighteen-year navy SEAL who lost his very identity after a mission gone bad and two years held as a hostage? I could only hope that Jubal would find his own way.
And then one day he was running as he did every morning, and his life—and Lisa’s—changed. It surprised me as much as it did Jubal. I hope you love the iconic loner as much as I do.
And Lisa? Could she give up the goal she’d had since a child, one that had ruled her life for the past ten years? I wasn’t sure myself.
I hope you love both as much as I do.
Patricia Potter
USA TODAY Bestselling Author
PATRICIA
POTTER
The SEAL’s Return
USA TODAY bestselling author Patricia Potter has been telling stories since the second grade when she wrote a short story about wild horses, although she knew nothing at all about them. She has since received numerous writing awards, including RT Book Reviews’ Storyteller of the Year, its Career Achievement Award for Western Historical Romance and Best Hero of the Year. She is a seven-time RITA® Award finalist for RWA and a three-time Maggie Award winner, as well as a past president of Romance Writers of America. Character motivation is what intrigues her most in creating a book, and she sits back and allows those characters to write their own stories.
Books by Patricia Potter
HARLEQUIN SUPERROMANCE
Home to Covenant Falls
The Soldier’s Promise
Tempted by the Soldier
A Soldier’s Journey
HARLEQUIN BLAZE
The Lawman
HARLEQUIN HISTORICAL
Swampfire
Between the Thunder
Samara
Seize the Fire
Chase the Thunder
Dragonfire
The Silver Link
The Abduction
Other titles by this author available in ebook format.
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Dedicated to all the nonprofit organizations—large and small—that help veterans heal through interaction with dogs, horses and other animals.
Contents
PROLOGUE
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 EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
EXCERPT FROM A PERFECT STRATEGY BY ANNA SUGDEN
PROLOGUE
Nigeria
JUBAL PIERCE KNEW he probably wouldn’t live to see the next dawn. It wasn’t that he had seen many dawns in...what was it? One year, two years? Maybe longer since he’d been taken prisoner by a band of terrorist rebels?
He knew his time was limited because his most frequent guard had brought him something more than a small dish of insect-filled rice.
“Gift,” the tall, thin figure said in the limited English he’d picked up while guarding Jubal.
Jubal grabbed the bowl with his chained hands. The usual rice, but this time there was also some kind of meat. There was no spoon. He was expected to eat with his fingers. He was allowed nothing that could be turned into a weapon. His sole possessions were the filthy pants and remnants of a shirt he was captured in.
“Why a gift?” he asked, using his hands to help the guard understand.
The man simply shrugged.
Jubal bowed his head in thanks. The guard left, closing the door to the tiny windowless hut that was home. There were enough cracks that he could hear activity outside. Excited chatter. A lot of movement.
Jubal ate the food, licked the sides of the tin bowl, then struggled to get to his feet and walked the length of the chain attached to the wall. He was so damn weak from lack of food. He figured he had lost nearly half of his two hundred and thirty pounds. With pure strength of will, he finally stood and peered through a crack.
His eyes slowly adjusted to daylight. Most of the fifty-some members of this particular group were scurrying around like ants. Tents were being loaded in an ancient truck. Three men, including his keeper, gestured wildly.
They were leaving. Something had happened and it didn’t bode well for him. The terrorists didn’t know who he was. If they did, Jubal knew he would be dead. All they knew—or thought they knew—was that he was a doctor.
His SEAL team had been sent to rescue a medical unit caught between warring tribes in Nigeria. They were too late. The medical civilians and their patients had been killed, and enemy soldiers were waiting for them.
His fellow team members had been killed as well, and Jubal was badly wounded. But so was one of the rebel leaders. When Jubal claimed to be a doctor instead of a soldier, he was tasked with saving the life of the wounded leader. He had enough medic training to stop the bleeding and was taken along to care for the leader.
When the man r
ecovered, Jubal was kept prisoner to provide care for others in the tribe. After several escape attempts, he was kept chained.
Jubal was quite sure that he, like his teammates, was believed dead. There had undoubtedly been a search, but the clinic had been burned with the bodies of his team and medical unit members inside. All identifying objects had been stolen as souvenirs.
He knew that he could die any day, especially after the supplies they had taken from the clinic ran out and his patients started dying. He heard the loud debate outside his hut after one fatality. But the head man, whose life he had saved, prevailed. Jubal knew, though, that time was running out...
Now something—or someone—had alarmed his captors. A rival tribe? A government raid? The question was whether they were taking him with them or planning to kill him. He suspected the latter. He was in no shape to move. That meant they would either kill him directly or leave him locked in the hut to starve to death.
His guard stepped inside, threw him a chunk of bread, then left without a word. Another “gift.”
He heard the truck take off, then the three jeeps followed with armed men hanging onto the sides. No one looked back at the hut...
To them, he was already a dead man.
CHAPTER ONE
Chicago
DR. LISA REDDING woke instantly at the loud ring of the telephone. She glanced at the clock. Three a.m.
Her heart skipped a beat. It couldn’t be the hospital unless there had been a horrible accident. She’d just come off her twenty-four-hour stint as a resident three hours earlier.
“Dr. Redding?” the voice on the other end of the phone said.
“This is Dr. Redding,” she replied.
“I’m Officer Kent Edwards, Chicago Police. I understand you’re the guardian of Gordon Redding.”
“Yes. What happened?” She tried to keep her voice calm as her heart started to race. She had arrived home after midnight and hadn’t bothered to check on her brother and sister. Her aunt, who looked after them, was probably still asleep downstairs.
“He’s been arrested. He’s down at our station.”
Lisa’s heart slowed. Not dead, then. That was her first thought after seeing so many maimed juveniles in the hospital. Then it sped up again. Gordon? Arrested? “What are the charges?” she asked with an audible tremor in her voice.
“Car theft and possession of drugs,” the officer said.
She took a deep breath. She knew Gordon was having a tough time, but this? “Where is he?” she asked in a voice she’d trained to be professional in the worst of situations.
The officer gave the name and location of the precinct, and she was relieved it was one just three miles away. She knew it, in fact. She even knew some of the officers since they often visited the hospital to talk to both victims and offenders. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” she said.
She hurriedly dressed, went downstairs to wake her aunt, who’d been staying with them since Lisa’s mother had died nine months earlier.
Lisa knocked at Aunt Kay’s door and when her half-awake aunt opened it, she explained what had happened. “I’m going down to the precinct now, but I didn’t want you to wake up and find two of us missing.”
“I stayed up until he went to bed at ten,” Aunt Kay said. “He must have left after I fell asleep.” She shook her head. “I just don’t know what happened to that boy,” she said. “But I don’t think I can handle him.”
Lisa’s heart dropped. She was home enough to know how difficult Gordon had become. She had hoped he would snap out of it. But the death of their mother had sent him on a downward spiral. He had become rude and dismissive of both her and Aunt Kay, who’d moved into the Redding home to take care of her youngest niece and nephew while Lisa finished her residency.
Lisa gave her a quick hug. “I understand,” she said. “I don’t know when I’ll be back but we’ll talk then. Try to keep everything normal for Kerry.” Lisa grabbed her purse and car keys and drove toward the precinct. The late summer air was still hot, the sky dark with clouds. She concentrated on the empty road ahead and tried not to think what this would mean for Gordon, or Kerry, or her career.
She reached the precinct and identified herself, and almost instantly a young man in uniform hurried over to her. “Dr. Redding? I’m Kent Edwards. I understand you’re Gordon Redding’s sister.”
Lisa simply nodded.
“I’ve seen you at the hospital,” the officer said. “I’m sorry this happened, but your brother isn’t helping himself.”
“What happened?”
“At two-thirty this morning, my partner and I stopped a car that was reported stolen. Your brother was a passenger. The driver is also a teenager but is known to us. Drugs were in the car. Prescription pills. Weed.”
“What kind of pills?” Lisa asked sharply.
“A hallucinogen known as Adam on the street.”
She was familiar with it. It was also one of the date-rape pills. “Were they on him?”
“Not on his person but they were in the car under the seat. Your brother won’t say where they got them.”
“So he’s an accomplice who might, or might not, have known there were drugs.”
“It would help if he would talk to us. He’s not saying anything. Look, he’s a first-time offender. If he would tell us who supplied the drugs, we could probably get him probation.”
“I can tell you now he won’t tell you anything. If nothing else he’s loyal to a fault.” She hesitated, then added, “Our father died eight years ago in a plane crash. Our mother died nine months ago of cancer. As a resident at the hospital, I’m gone more than I’m at home. He’s angry and rebellious, but until this year he’s always been a good kid.”
The officer nodded. “You can see him in the interview room. Talk to him.”
“What about the boy with him?”
“He’s eighteen with a previous record. Mostly small-time stuff. Fights. Vandalism. Now he’s graduated to a felony.”
“Can Gordon go home?”
“The sarge wants to hold him for twenty-four hours. He thinks it might do some good if he gets a glimpse of what the future might hold if he doesn’t help himself now. You should probably call a lawyer.”
Her heart sank. The thought of Gordon in jail was like a jagged knife in her heart. She had failed their mother. Failed Gordon by not being there for him. For not understanding how bad things really were. “Will he be in jail?”
“Juvenile detention.”
“Can I see him?” Lisa asked.
He escorted her to a room. Gordon sat in a chair at a table, his wrists in handcuffs.
He looked up at her. His longish blond hair was mussed and his green eyes were red. He visibly swallowed as she entered the room, then his mouth tightened. Gordon was a good-looking boy, tall and lean. He had been on the soccer team until their mother died and he missed too many practices.
“We going home now?” he said while avoiding her gaze.
“I don’t think so. I’ve been advised to get a lawyer we can’t afford.”
For the first time, fear crept into his eyes but his voice was defiant. “That’s horseshit. I didn’t do nothin’. I was just riding...”
“In a stolen car?”
“I didn’t know that. This guy just called and asked me to go to a party. He picked me up. I didn’t know the car was stolen.”
“And you didn’t know about the drugs?”
His gaze wouldn’t meet hers.
“Do you know how much trouble you’re in?” she asked. “That was a date-rape drug in the car.”
“I said I didn’t do anything.”
She just stared at him. “You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, right?”
He nodded.
“
Unfortunately, the police do not buy that. It’s not like school,” she added. “I can’t talk you out of this...situation. They’re going to keep you here for twenty-four hours. I’ll get you a lawyer, but you have to understand that being in a stolen car with drugs means more than a a slap on the wrist. A criminal record can destroy your chances for college, for a career.”
“Whatever,” he said, but she saw a growing awareness behind the word she’d heard too often this year.
She stood. “Think about cooperating with the police. You don’t owe that...guy anything.”
The fragile mask came off his face. Gordon blinked then, and she thought she saw tears gathering in his eyes. Her heart started to melt. He was just a kid who lost his father and then watched his mom die. She softened her voice. “I’ll do everything I can to help you,” she said. “I love you. Aunt Kay loves you. And Kerry...she would be devastated if anything happened to you. I know it’s been a hell of a year but Kerry and I need you. We can’t lose someone else.”
She left then, before she started crying. Once outside the room, she leaned against the wall and let the tears flow.
* * *
THREE DAYS LATER, Lisa reluctantly approached the office of the director of Medical Education at the hospital where she was finishing her third year as a resident. She paused, stiffened her shoulders and knocked.
“Dr. Redding,” Dr. Rainey said as he opened the door. “You wanted to see me?”
The words stuck in her throat. She had to force them out and keep the tears in place behind her eyes. “I have to turn down the pediatric surgical fellowship,” she said. “I hope it’s not too late to find a replacement.”
“May I ask why?” Dr. Rainey asked with a raised eyebrow.
She hesitated. She knew there were a hundred applicants or more for each fellowship at the hospital. It had been an honor to receive it, and now...
He waited for her answer.
She started haltingly. She told him about Gordon and her family situation. “The good news is the other boy admitted he bought the drugs on his own, that Gordon had nothing to do with it. He claimed, though, that Gordon knew the car was stolen. Gordon said he didn’t, but he must have had his suspicions.”
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