Christmas Kidnapping

by Cindi Myers

  When her son is kidnapped at Christmastime, a therapist must turn to an FBI agent for help—before it’s too late…

  Something is stopping Special Agent Jack Prescott from being his best. He’s run countless missions, but when one hits too close to home, he needs help that most men wouldn’t ask for. Andrea McNeil has counseled plenty of FBI professionals before, but no one has been harder to reach than Jack. She’s never been involved with one of her patients up close and personal, but when her son is abducted, she turns to Jack for help. Now they have to help each other to bring her son home and stay a step ahead of his kidnappers. Both of them need a breakthrough—and a miracle—if they’re going to bring Ian home for Christmas.

  “They left a note.”

  She handed him a piece of paper, the message on it typed in block letters: YOUR BOY WILL BE SAFE AS LONG AS YOU COOPERATE. YOU AND YOUR BOYFRIEND BRING TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS TO THE ADDRESS WE’LL GIVE YOU TOMORROW AND WE WILL TALK THEN. DO NOT GO TO THE POLICE OR TELL ANYONE ELSE. WE HAVE PEOPLE WATCHING YOU AND WE WILL KNOW. MAKE ONE WRONG MOVE AND YOUR BOY WILL DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH.

  Andrea sank into a chair, her hand over her mouth, stifling a sob.

  Jack read the note again. “Who is this boyfriend they’re talking about?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I’m not dating anyone. I haven’t, since before my marriage. I think they mean you.”

  CHRISTMAS

  KIDNAPPING

  Cindi Myers

  Cindi Myers is the author of more than fifty novels. When she’s not crafting new romance plots, she enjoys skiing, gardening, cooking, crafting and daydreaming. A lover of small-town life, she lives with her husband and two spoiled dogs in the Colorado mountains.

  Books by Cindi Myers

  Harlequin Intrigue

  The Men of Search Team Seven

  Colorado Crime Scene

  Lawman on the Hunt

  Christmas Kidnapping

  The Ranger Brigade

  The Guardian

  Lawman Protection

  Colorado Bodyguard

  Black Canyon Conspiracy

  Rocky Mountain Revenge

  Rocky Mountain Rescue

  Harlequin Heartwarming

  Her Cowboy Soldier

  What She’d Do for Love

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  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Special Agent Jack Prescott—The FBI agent is tortured by the fact that, while he remembers the faces of almost everyone he meets, he can’t recall the man who murdered his best friend. His attraction to the therapist he sought help from is complicating his life and distracting him from his duties.

  Andrea McNeil—The widow of a cop who was killed in the line of duty, Andrea uses her training as a therapist to help other officers and their families. When terrorists kidnap her son, she turns to one of her patients for help. But the intense and troubled Jack Prescott may be more dangerous to her peaceful, ordered life than she could have imagined.

  Ian McNeil—Andrea’s son survives a kidnapping and looks up to Jack, but Andrea worries this adoration will only lead to hurt.

  Gus Mathers—The fellow FBI agent was Jack’s best friend. He was murdered before Jack’s eyes, and Jack struggles with guilt and an inability to remember his friend’s killer.

  Duane Braeswood—The terrorist leader survived a horrific accident and has vowed revenge on the agents who have hounded him. Will Jack be his next victim?

  Anderson—The terrorist wants to make a name for himself in the organization. Killing an FBI agent is one way to do so.

  Eddie Roland—Braeswood’s second in command has taken on more of the lead since his boss’s accident, but now agents suspect Roland has a new agenda of his own.

  For Jim and Jim

  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

  Excerpt from Landon by Delores Fossen

  Chapter One

  Experience had taught Andrea McNeil to trust her first impressions of a man. She had learned to read temperament and tendencies in the set of his shoulders and the shadows in his eyes. Whether they were heroes or the perpetrators of heinous crimes, they all revealed themselves to her as much by their silences as by what they said.

  The man who stood before her now radiated both strength and anxiety in the stubborn set of his broad shoulders and the tight line of his square jaw. He wore his blond hair short and neat, his face clean shaven, his posture military straight, though he was dressed in jeans, hiking boots and a button-down shirt and not a uniform. He moved with the raw sensuality of a hunter, muscular shoulders sliding beneath the soft cotton of his shirt, and when his hazel eyes met hers, she saw pride and courage and deep grief.

  “All I want you to do is help me remember the face of the man who killed my friend,” he said, before she had even invited him to sit on the sofa across from her chair in her small office just off the main street of Durango, Colorado.

  She didn’t allow her face to betray alarm at his statement. This certainly wasn’t the worst thing she had heard from the people who came to her for help. “Please sit down, Agent Prescott, and I’ll tell you a little more about how I work.”

  FBI special agent Jack Prescott lowered himself gingerly onto the sofa. He grimaced as he shifted his weight. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

  “I’m fine.”

  She kept her gaze steady on him, letting him know she wasn’t buying this statement.

  He shifted again. “I took a couple of bullets in a firefight a couple of months back,” he said. “The cold bothers me a little.”

  The window behind him showed a gentle snowfall, the remnants from the latest winter storm. A man who had been shot—twice—and was still on medical leave probably ought to be home recuperating, but she might as well have told a man like Jack Prescott that he needed to take up knitting and mah-jongg. She didn’t have to read the information sheet he had filled out to know that much about him. Even sitting still across from her, he looked poised to leap into action. She would have bet next month’s rent that he was armed at the moment and that he had called into his office at least once a day every day of his enforced time off.

  Her husband, Preston, had been the same way. All his devotion to duty and reckless courage had gotten him in the end was killed.

  She focused on Agent Prescott’s paperwork to force the memories back into the locked box where they belonged. Jack Prescott was single, thirty-four years old and a graduate of Columbia with a major in electrical engineering and robotics. Twelve years with the FBI. A letter of commendation. He was in Durango on special assignment and currently on medical leave. He took no medications beyond the antibiotics prescribed for his gunshot wounds, and he had no known allergies. “Tell me about this firefight,” she said. “The one in which you wer
e injured.”

  He sat on the edge of the sofa cushion, gripping his knees. “What happened to me doesn’t matter,” he said. “But my friend Gus Mathers was killed in that fight. I saw it happen. I saw who killed him.”

  “That would be traumatic for anyone,” she said.

  “You don’t understand. I saw the man who killed Gus, but I can’t remember his face.”

  “What you’re talking about is upsetting, but it’s not unusual,” she said. “The mind often blocks out the memory of traumatic events as a means of protection.”

  He leaned forward, his gaze boring into her, his expression fierce. “You don’t understand. I don’t forget faces. It’s what I do, the way some people remember numbers or have perfect pitch.”

  She set aside the clipboard with the paperwork and leaned toward him, letting him know she was focused completely on him. “I’m not sure I understand,” she said.

  “I’m what they call a super-recognizer. If I look at someone for even a few seconds, I remember them. I remember supermarket clerks and bus drivers and people I pass on the street. Yet I can’t remember the man who murdered my best friend.”

  “Your talent for remembering faces doesn’t exempt you from the usual responses to trauma,” she said. “Your memory of the events may come back with time, or it may never return.”

  He set his jaw, the look of a man who was used to forcing the outcome he desired. “The cop who referred me to you said you could hypnotize me—that that might be a way to get the memory to return.”

  “I do sometimes use hypnosis in my therapy, but in your case, I don’t believe it would work.”

  “Why not?”

  Because there are some things even a will as strong as yours can’t make happen, she thought. “Hypnosis requires the subject to relax and surrender to the process,” she said. “In order for me to hypnotize you, you would have to trust me and be willing to surrender control of the situation. You aren’t a man who is used to surrendering, and you haven’t known me long enough to trust me.”

  “You’re saying I’m a control freak.”

  She smiled at his choice of words. “Your job—your survival and the survival of those who work with you—requires you to control as many variables as possible,” she said. “In this case, your need to control is an asset.” Most of the time.

  “I want you to hypnotize me,” he said.

  “Consciously wanting to be hypnotized and your conscious mind being willing to relax enough to allow that to happen are two different things,” she said. “I’m certainly willing to attempt hypnotic therapy at some point, but not on a first visit. It’s too soon. Once we have explored the issues that may be causing you to suppress this memory, we may have more success in retrieving it, through hypnosis or by some other means.”

  He stood and began to pace, a caged tiger—one with a limp that, even agitated, he tried to disguise. “I don’t need to talk about my feelings,” he said, delivering the words with a sneer. “I don’t need therapy. I know the memory of the man who shot Gus is in my head. I just have to find a way to access that information again.”

  “Agent Prescott, please sit down.”

  “No. If you can’t help me, I won’t waste any more of your time.”

  He turned toward the door. “Please, don’t go,” she called. His agitation and real grief touched her. “I’m willing to try things your way. But I don’t want you to be disappointed if it doesn’t work.”

  He sat again, tension still radiating from him, but some of the darkness had gone out of his eyes. “What do I do?”

  “You don’t do anything,” she said. “The whole point is to relax and not try to control the situation. Why don’t you start by taking off your shoes and lying back on the couch? Get comfortable.”

  He hesitated, then removed his hiking boots and lined them up neatly at the end of the sofa. He lay back, hands at his sides. His feet hung over one end and his shoulders stretched the width of the cushion. There probably wasn’t an ounce of fat on the man, but he had plenty of hard muscle. He wasn’t the type you’d want to meet alone in a dark alley, though maybe a dark bedroom...

  The thought surprised her, and she felt a rush of heat to her face, glad Jack had his back to her so he couldn’t wonder what was making her blush. He folded his arms across his chest, a posture of confrontation and protection. “Put your hands down by your sides,” she suggested. “And close your eyes.”

  “Aren’t you going to swing a pendulum or a watch or something in front of my eyes?” he asked.

  “That’s not the approach I use. I prefer something called progressive relaxation.”

  “Is that the same as hypnosis?”

  “It’s a way of readying your body for hypnotic suggestion. Now, close your eyes and focus on your toes.”

  “My toes?”

  “Agent Prescott, if you’re going to question every instruction I give, this isn’t going to work.”

  “Sorry. I’ll focus on my toes.”

  “Relax your toes. Now focus on your ankles.” She made her voice as low and soothing as possible. “Imagine a warm wave of relaxation moving up your legs, from your toes and feet to your ankles and then your calves and knees. Your body feels very comfortable and heavy, the muscles completely relaxed. The sensation moves up your thighs to your torso. Every bit of tension is leaving your body. Each vertebra of your spine relaxes, one by one. You’re feeling very heavy and languid.”

  She continued the journey up his body, instructing him to relax his shoulders and arms and hands. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

  “Fine.” His voice was clear and alert, his posture still as stiff as if he were standing for inspection.

  “Think of someplace pleasant and relaxing,” she said. “A mountain meadow with a waterfall or a beautiful beach with ocean waves rolling in. Choose whatever place you like to go to relax.”

  “Okay.”

  “What are you thinking of?” she asked.

  “The gym.”

  She blinked. “The gym?”

  “Working out relaxes me.”

  That explained those impressive shoulders and biceps. “That kind of relaxation is a little too active. What about vacations? Do you like to go to the beach? Or to a lake in the mountains.”

  “The last vacation I took, Gus and I and some other guys went hiking. We climbed a mountain.”

  She could imagine—all macho competitiveness: heavy packs, miles logged, not bathing or shaving for days, eating food out of cans. She shuddered. “I don’t think this is going to work,” she said.

  He sat up. “Let’s try again. Do the thing with the pendulum. I think I would do better if I had something to focus on.”

  She hesitated, but if he left here, she would feel she had failed him. She reached up and unclasped the necklace she wore—a gold chain with a gold heart-shaped locket. An anniversary gift from Preston a few months before he died. “Sit back and relax as much as you can,” she said.

  Jack settled back against the sofa, his gaze fixed on the necklace. “Focus on the heart,” she said, and began to gently swing the locket from side to side. “As you focus, count back slowly, from ninety-nine.”

  “Ninety-nine,” he said. “Ninety-eight. Ninety-seven.”

  She shifted her own gaze from the locket to Jack and found herself staring directly into his gold-green eyes. The naked pain and vulnerability revealed in his gaze startled her so much she almost dropped the necklace. He took her hand. “Please. You have to help me.”

  His grip was strong and warm but not painful. Far from it. His touch sent warmth coursing through her, as if someone had injected heated platelets into her bloodstream. The heat settled in her lower abdomen, reminding her in a way she hadn’t been reminded in many months that she was a woman with a very attractive, virile man
touching her. She carefully extricated her hand, which still tingled from the contact. “I want to help you, Agent Prescott,” she said. “But the mind is the most complicated machine imaginable. There isn’t a formula or solution to solve every problem.”

  The clock on her desk chimed and she glanced at it. “I’m afraid our session today is over, but I hope you will make an appointment to see me again.”

  He looked away, frustration clear in the tension along his jaw and the defensive set of his shoulders. “Do you really think it would help me remember Gus’s killer?”

  “I can’t promise you will ever remember what you saw the day your friend was killed,” she said. “But I can help you come to terms with what happened.”

  “Maybe I’ll come back,” he said.

  “I really do think it would help you to talk to someone,” she said. “Not only about Gus, but about your own injuries. Being forced into medical leave must be difficult for you.”

  He looked startled, his eyes locked to hers once more. “The other team members kidded me, said I should enjoy the paid vacation. But it’s driving me crazy knowing Gus’s killer is out there and I’m not doing anything to help stop him.”

  “That’s something we can talk about the next time you’re in.” She stood, and he rose also and followed her to the door.

  “Do you have another client now?” he asked.

  “No, it’s time for my lunch break.”

  He checked his watch, a heavy stainless model she recognized as designed for mountaineers and other outdoorsmen. “Let me take you to lunch. I want to make up for wasting your time this morning.”

  Her heart sped up at the prospect of being alone with him in a nonclinical setting. “Agent Prescott, I don’t think—”

  “Call me Jack. And I just want to talk. Not therapy talk, just, you know, conversation. I’m bored out of my skull not working, and I don’t know many people in Durango. Not outside of work, anyway. You seem like you’d be good company, that’s all.”

  She should say no. Professional ethics aside—and really, there was nothing unethical about having lunch with a client—spending more time with Jack was dangerous to her equilibrium. He was exactly the type of man who attracted her most—powerful, dedicated, intelligent and virile. And all those traits made him the worst sort of man for her to be with.