Kitabı oku: «Marching Orders»
“I want answers and I want them now,” she said, her voice barely a whisper
“Answers?” he calmly repeated. He inched closer, but stopped when Anna lifted the gun and aimed it right at his heart. “What do you mean?” She’d obviously figured out he wasn’t the man she’d thought he was.
“Rafe and I were lovers,” she whispered, a tear racing down her cheek.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” she snapped. “It’s a little too late for that, don’t you think? Two months too late. I’m pregnant.”
Oh, man. That knocked the breath right out of him. He couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. All he could do was stand there and stare at her.
With her eyes brimming with tears, she levered the gun slightly higher. “And now I want to know what you’ve done with my baby’s father.”
Marching Orders
Delores Fossen
MILLS & BOON
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Imagine a family tree that includes Texas cowboys, Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, a Louisiana pirate and a Scottish rebel who battled side by side with William Wallace. With ancestors like that, it’s easy to understand why Texas author and former air force captain Delores Fossen feels as if she was genetically predisposed to writing romances. Along the way to fulfilling her DNA destiny, Delores married an air force Top Gun who just happens to be of Viking descent. With all those romantic bases covered, she doesn’t have to look too far for inspiration.
Air Force Personnel Record
Classified
Name: Rafael "Rafe" M. McQuade
Rank: Captain (Officer-3 scale)
Career Field: Combat Rescue Officer
Security Clearance: Top Secret
Physical Description: Thick brown hair. Green eyes. Muscular 6’ 1” body. No distinguishing marks.
Specialty Skills: Weapons expert, hand-to-hand combat specialist, proficient in three languages.
Duty Description: Commands combat rescue operations as a direct combatant, including survival, evasion, resistance and escape.
Current Assignment: Alpha Team Task Force
Availability Status: On medical leave, but called back for ultrasecret mission.
Diagnosis: Anterograde amnesia—may or may not recover previous memories.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Captain Rafe McQuade—An air force Combat Rescue Officer who’s kidnapped while on a special ops mission. His captors accidentally destroy key pieces of Rafe’s memory—pieces that hold a deadly secret that puts Rafe, his bride and his unborn child in grave danger.
Anna Caldwell—She prays that Rafe can piece together the secrets buried in his memory in time to save them.
Colonel Ethan Shaw—Commander of the Alpha Team Task Force and Rafe’s boss. Is he willing to let Anna and Rafe die to cover up a botched classified mission that could cost him his career?
Nicholas Sheldon—A security specialist who has a personal grudge against Colonel Shaw and Rafe. But has that grudge caused him to seek revenge?
Janine Billings—Anna’s best friend who has ties to the very assassins who are trying to kill Rafe and Anna.
Special Agent Luke Buchanan—A Justice Department official assigned to the Alpha Team. The financial problems in his personal life might have caused him to betray Anna and Rafe.
To my editor, Priscilla Berthiaume.
Thanks so much for your guidance and support.
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
Epilogue
Prologue
Monte de Leon, present
A bullet slammed into the crumbling chimney just inches from Captain Rafe McQuade’s head. He mumbled some vicious profanity and flattened his body against the battered roof of the abandoned hacienda.
“I’ve got an admirer,” he snarled into the thumbnail-size communicator on the collar of his camouflage uniform. “Do me a favor, Rico, and take him out, will you?”
“I’m trying” was the reply he got from Captain Cal Rico.
All hell was breaking loose on the ground twenty feet below him. Artillery shells. Frantic shouts. The smell of battle, smoke and gunfire.
None of which was supposed to be happening.
Talk about Murphy’s Law. Anything that could go wrong, had. And now his Alpha Team members—and Anna—were neck-deep in cross fire between two warring rebel factions that had chosen this godforsaken place for a showdown.
Rafe inched forward, leaving the meager cover of the overhanging tree that he’d used to climb onto the building. His equipment belt and assault rifle scraped along the bleached roof tiles.
Come hell or high water, he would get Anna out. Failure was not an option.
“Infrared shows no one else inside the building. For now,” Rico informed him through the receiver in Rafe’s ear. “But Anna just moved into the cellar. You can access it through a door beneath the stairs.”
“Atta girl,” Rafe mumbled. With gunfire riddling the papery walls, the cellar was her best bet. Now, hopefully, she’d stay put until he got to her.
“I’m going in,” he informed Rico.
Rafe scrambled to the lip of the roof, gripped onto the eaves and launched himself over the side. His feet crashed through the second-story window just below, and with his weapon ready to fire, he hit the floor running.
The hacienda had obviously been abandoned for months. Rafe fought his way through the litter of bashed furniture and debris to get to the stairs. He stopped at the landing and glanced down at the glass-strewn foyer. No sign of gunmen, but someone had shot out the windows and ripped off the double doors. The muggy breeze stirred what was left of a pair of ghostly white curtains. Just curtains.
Maybe.
Just outside the doorway, he saw a shadow of motion that had him holding his tongue.
Silently repositioning his weapon, Rafe waited. A second. Then two. Before he saw the man step into the foyer. A rebel fighter with an angry-looking machete and a semiautomatic. And he had his attention focused on the door that led to the cellar. Maybe the guy had actually seen Anna run in there. It didn’t matter. There was no way Rafe would let him get to her.
No way.
The man looked up. A split-second glance as he tried to take aim. It was the last glance or aim he’d ever attempt. Rafe took him out with two shots to the head. The rebel fell into a heap on the floor.
“I just lost an admirer,” Rafe reported to Rico.
Rafe barreled down the wide spiraling steps and made his way to the arch-shaped door beneath. “It’s me—Rafe,” he called out. “Open up, Anna!”
Almost immediately he heard her footsteps on the cellar stairs. With each one, his heart was right in his throat. There was a shuffle of movement before she opened the scarred door a fraction.
Rafe came face-to-face with a handgun.
Anna peered out at him, her gaze combing the foyer. Relief raced through him. And a whole host of other emotions that he didn’t want to take the time to analyze.
“You came,” she whispered, her voice shattering. She lowered her weapon. “I can’t believe you came.”
He pushed her back into the cellar and kicked the door shut, barricading it with the two-by-four and equipment bag already on the stairs. “Of course, I came. I’m an Air Force Combat Rescue Officer, darling. A highly trained CRO. Saving beautiful photographers is what I do best.”
She made a soft sound of frightened laughter, slipped her firearm into her pocket and caught on to him.
Rafe was about to tell her how ticked off he was that she hadn’t evacuated with the other journalists, but Anna stopped him. She latched her arms around him, and her mouth came to his. One kiss, and he forgot all about chewing her out.
Hell, he forgot how to breathe.
All Rafe knew was that he’d never, never wanted a kiss as much as he wanted that one.
Anna broke the mouth-to-mouth contact but held on tight. Rafe pushed the damp strands of honey-colored hair from her face and looked down at her. Her dark eyes shimmered with tears. Outside, the sounds of the fight began to fade, a clear indication that the Alpha Team was closing in.
“Anna’s alive and well?” Rico asked into Rafe’s earpiece.
Before he could answer, Rafe had to clear away the lump that’d settled in his throat. “Affirmative. Are we secure yet?”
“Only the area immediately surrounding the hacienda. Colonel Shaw’s arranging transport for Anna, but you’re looking at two hours, maybe three. I’ll give you a rendezvous point and time when I have it. Hold your positions until further orders.”
“Copy.” Rafe clicked off the audio portion of his communicator. Two hours, maybe three. He could have waited weeks now that he knew Anna was all right.
“How did you find out I was here?” she asked, lifting her head from his shoulder.
“The Alpha Team’s doing some jungle maneuvers so I’ve been keeping track of you since you arrived in Bogotá on assignment three days ago.”
Anna gave him a considering look. “And with all the jungles in South America, you just happened to choose the remote village of Monte de Leon for those maneuvers?”
Rafe decided it was best to avoid answering that truthfully. “In a way.”
A troubled sigh left her mouth, but she didn’t ask for an explanation. Which was a good thing. He couldn’t tell her about the classified mission that involved the Alpha Team, or the fact that he’d made sure he was close by in case something went wrong.
Rafe led her down the narrow steps and into the heart of the cellar. It was clammy, and the only light came from a bread-loaf size ventilation window at the back. He moved them as far away from that as he could, and with her snuggled in his arms, he sank onto a crumpled blanket in the corner.
“Soon we’ll both be on our way back to Texas. Promise. Everything will be all right,” he assured her.
Rafe leaned in and brushed his mouth over hers. It might have been just a brief kiss if she hadn’t made a sound of relief, and pleasure. A throaty, feminine sound that sent a trickle of fire through his blood.
So, he kissed her, really kissed her, and deepened it when she responded.
Their bodies moved together, completing the intimate embrace. She wound her arms around him. Rafe did the same. Until they were plastered against each other.
Not good.
She latched on to his shoulders when he started to move away. “Is there any chance those rebels can get into this place?”
“Don’t worry. We’re safe.”
Something he couldn’t quite distinguish went through her eyes, and before he could figure out what, her mouth came to his again. Rafe felt the difference in her kiss. Not fear. Not this. This was all fire and need.
“Anna,” he warned when she lay back onto the blanket. If he wanted to keep things in check, this probably shouldn’t continue.
But it did.
Anna caught on to the front of his uniform and pulled him down with her. The logical part of his brain yelled that this would be hellish torture, but the rest of him didn’t seem to care. While still holding on to his weapon, he buried his other hand in her hair and took her mouth as if it were his for the taking.
Rafe kissed her chin. Her neck. And the tender flesh that he found in the vee opening of her shirt. Anna arched against him, whispering his name.
When her leg brushed against the front of his pants, she stiffened slightly, obviously noticing that he was a dozen steps past basic foreplay. She didn’t pull away, though. Not that he gave her much of a chance. Rafe knew this couldn’t go where his body wanted it to go, but he wasn’t ready to stop just yet.
While he kept up the assault on her neck, he opened the buttons on her shirt. One at a time. Slowly. As he bared her skin, he dropped kisses along the way until he reached her bra. It wasn’t much of a barrier, a little swatch of pale-colored lace. He eased it down and took a moment to admire the view.
Thankfully, there was just enough light that he could see her. She was beautiful. And he didn’t mean just her breasts and her body. Rafe stared down at her face and wondered what the hell he’d ever done to deserve her.
He lowered his head and brushed his tongue against one of her tightened nipples. She clamped on to her bottom lip, but not before she moaned with pleasure. He hadn’t especially needed that kind of encouragement, but it sped up his plans a little. He drew her nipple into his mouth.
Anna’s grip tightened around him. She arched her back and forced him closer. Rafe feasted. First one breast and then the other.
She stirred restlessly. Seeking. She pressed her lower body to his and had him seeing double when she moved against him in the most intimate kind of way that a woman could move against a man.
“I’ve been in this building for what seemed like an eternity,” she whispered. “Thinking about you. About us. About how fragile life is. I want to be with you, Rafe, and I don’t want to wait any longer.”
He watched the words shape her lips. He’d already geared himself up to resist the need raging in his body. That’s what he’d done for the past four and a half months since Anna had told him that she was a virgin and wouldn’t give herself to a man she didn’t love.
But those words changed everything.
He was about to remind her that it was the adrenaline talking, but Anna stopped him. She pressed her fingers to his mouth. “I love you, Rafe, and I don’t want you to say anything. I just want you to do something about it.”
His heart slammed against his chest. He had two simultaneous thoughts. Thank goodness and oh, hell.
Her timing couldn’t have been worse. Ditto for the location. In fact, everything about the moment was wrong, wrong, wrong except for one major thing: somehow or another, it was right.
Totally, completely right.
Rafe let that sink in for a couple of moments. It sank in and went straight to his heart.
Maybe Anna didn’t want the words now, but he sure as heck would say them to her later. Words to let her know that he didn’t want to be just her first, or even her last, but her only lover.
He reached out, pulled her to him and took everything she offered.
Chapter One
San Antonio, Two Months Later
The moment Rafe slid his arm around her waist, Anna felt the jolt. Definitely not passion. Something else. Something she’d felt stirring just beneath the surface since his return three days earlier.
“No turning back now, darling,” Rafe drawled, his voice low and intimate. The corner of his mouth hitched, causing a dimple to flash. “We’ve officially been joined at the hip.”
“Yes,” Anna managed to say.
She swallowed hard.
Rafe gently cupped her chin and leaned closer for the kiss that would seal the vows they had just taken. His hand trembled a little, and he closed the already narrow distance between them.
Their bodies came together. His crisp uniform whispered over the delicate layers of her silk-and-lace gown. Beneath her own trembling hand, Anna felt the strip of cool medals on his jacket and heard them jangle softly. All things considered, it was as perfect as it could be.
Except for that jolt.
Rafe kept the kiss brief, not much more than a touch. Breath met breath. His was warm and mint-scented. It mingled with the sweet fragrance of the pale peach roses in her bouquet.
“Don’t worry,” he murmured. The trace of Texas in his voice danced right off his words. “We’ll make up for lost time. Promise.”
It was the right thing to say. Ditto for the grin that curved his beautifully shaped mouth. But neither of those things made the jolt go away.
What in the name of heaven was wrong with her? She had it all. A mouth-watering husband that she loved. A life she wanted. This was her own personal version of a fairy tale come true. There was no reason for jolts or doubts.
None.
So, why didn’t that make her feel better?
The chaplain placed a hand on each of their shoulders and turned them toward the guests. “I’d like to present Captain and Mrs. Rafael McQuade.”
Applause rippled through the handful of people. Close friends and Rafe’s co-workers, including his commanding officer, Colonel Ethan Shaw. The wedding had been so hastily thrown together that there hadn’t been time to invite anyone from out of town. As unsteady as she felt, maybe that was a good thing.
When Rafe stepped away to speak to the guests, Anna saw her best friend, Janine, make a beeline right for her. Janine didn’t waste any time. She draped an arm around Anna’s shoulders and pulled her aside. “Okay, is this the part where you tell me what the heck’s going on with you?”
Anna didn’t stand a chance of denying that jolt. Not with Janine. So, she went for what would hopefully be a believable slant on the truth. “I guess my nerves are still a little raw. I just keep thinking that those rebels could have killed Rafe.”
“Uh-huh.” Janine gave her a flat look. “That sounds, uh, good, and it might even fool a few people. Not me, of course. Because you see, I’m not buying this I’m-worried-about-Rafe stuff. I was with you during those two months he was held captive in South America. I’ve seen the look you get when you’re worried about him, and this isn’t it, Anna.”
Maybe not. But this wasn’t the place to try to discuss something that might simply be a figment of her overactive imagination.
“Everything will be fine,” Anna quickly assured her. With any luck, that was true. “By the way, thanks again for helping put this wedding together. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Another flat look. “Does that mean if I keep asking what’s wrong, you’ll continue to make small talk?”
Anna nodded and put some grit in her voice. “That’s exactly what it means.”
“Okay.” Janine shrugged. “Then small talk it is. Mmm, let’s see where we were.”
“I was thanking you for your help with the wedding.”
“Yes. And I was about to accept your thanks along with any future gifts of gratitude.” Janine smiled, caught Anna’s hand and lifted it so the light glimmered off the wedding band. “A one-carat, emerald-cut diamond, nearly flawless. Rafe did good by you, huh?”
Anna stared at the ornate band. Since Janine owned a jewelry store and had perhaps helped Rafe pick it out, she wouldn’t dare say that it wasn’t her style. But it wasn’t. Nowhere close.
Funny that Rafe hadn’t known that.
She kissed Janine’s cheek and got her moving toward the door. “I’ll meet you at the reception after the photographer’s done.”
“More small talk?” Janine questioned.
“Yep. Now, get going.”
Janine looked more than a little skeptical but thankfully didn’t press the issue. She followed the rest of the guests when they began to trickle out to go to the Officers’ Club at the base.
Anna stepped around the photographer, who was making adjustments to his equipment. She knew him and offered a friendly smile. They often did freelance work for the same company.
Rafe sank onto the pew, folded his hands behind his head and stretched his legs out in front of him. There was nothing remotely odd about it. Anna had seen him do that a hundred times. Rafe didn’t sit. He lounged. And it was that familiar pose that had her relaxing. It was normal, and if that was normal, then probably everything else was, too.
Probably.
As if he’d sensed that she was staring at him, Rafe looked up. “What? Having second thoughts already?” he asked, another grin shoving up the corner of his mouth.
She didn’t have time to answer. There was a soft beep. Just one. It came from Colonel Shaw’s pocket, and it was more than enough to get her complete attention.
The colonel pulled out the tiny phone and pressed it to his ear. “Alpha One,” he said to the person on the other end of the line.
It seemed as if time ground to a screeching halt.
But only for a moment.
Something shattered. A loud deafening blast. Anna whirled toward the sound and saw the jagged multicolored pieces fly through the church. They’d come from the stained glass window behind the altar. Or rather, what was left of it. God, someone was shooting at them.
Just like that, Rafe sprang into action. He whipped out a sleek matte black gun from his shoulder harness and yelled for her to get down. Colonel Shaw did the same and hurried to turn off the lights.
The place was suddenly pitch-black, the darkness closing around her, and Anna found herself standing alone in the middle of a deadly silent room. She dropped to the floor, made her way to the organ and ducked behind it.
Lots of thoughts crossed her mind. None good. This was the culmination of all her nightmares. The rebels had come for Rafe, again, and this time he might not get so lucky.
She heard the footsteps. Barely. They were more movement of air than sound, but she didn’t know what direction they were coming from. Not until the hand slid over her mouth.
“It’s me,” Rafe whispered. “Shhh.”
He eased his hand from her mouth and moved her farther behind the organ. Without warning, he pushed her to the floor, a cloud of silk and lace fluffing up around her.
Anna held her breath and tried not to make a sound. Hard to stay quiet though when fear kept trying to grab her by the throat.
The moments crawled by. Slowly, her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and she peered out from behind the thick wooden base of the organ. Colonel Shaw was nowhere in sight. She prayed he hadn’t gone outside, alone.
Of course, there weren’t many alternatives.
Were there gunmen still out there? Maybe members of the rebel faction that had taken Rafe hostage? Or was this some other special ops mission? Maybe it didn’t even matter. After all, a bullet could be deadly no matter what the motivation or cause behind it.
Only threads of moonlight filtered through the thick stained glass windows. It was too dark to see the photographer on the other side of the church, but she could hear him. His breath came out in short, fast spurts.
Unlike Rafe’s.
Even though he loomed over her, only inches away, he was completely silent. If he had any reaction to the situation, he certainly didn’t show it.
Something darted past one of the windows, casting a sinister shadow over the sanctuary. Rafe must have felt her body tense because he pressed his hand on her shoulder.
“Stay put,” he warned in a rough whisper.
Anna latched on to his arm when he moved slightly. “You’re not going out there, are you?”
“No. Colonel Shaw would want me to stay here with you. We have people all around the place. They can take care of the situation.”
Anna hadn’t known about the people who were outside guarding the church. But Rafe had. And so had his commanding officer. They obviously assumed something like this could happen, or they wouldn’t have made such security arrangements.
What else did they know?
Another shadow slashed across the window, and a swish of sound followed. Maybe a gun rigged with a silencer and maybe just the wind rustling through the trees. But Anna didn’t think it was the wind.
“At your six, Rafe,” Colonel Shaw called out.
Rafe pivoted, took aim and fired twice. There was a spray of hot lead and glass. A sharp groan of pain.
And then the silence returned.
Anna counted off the seconds with each thud of her heartbeat. She wanted to ask Rafe if he was hurt, but she didn’t dare risk it.
“The situation’s contained,” she heard a man announce. His voice hadn’t come from inside the church, however, but out there somewhere on the other side of that shattered window.
The lights flared on, and in the same motion, Rafe sprang to his feet. Seemingly as an afterthought, he held out his hand and offered it to her so he could help her up from the floor.
“Are you okay?” he asked. Rafe reholstered his gun as calmly as he’d drawn it.
No. She wasn’t. Along with the incident in Monte de Leon, these had been some of the most terrifying moments of her life. Anna gulped in a huge breath of air and glanced back at a gaping hole in the glass. She caught a glimpse of an Alpha Team member before he darted out of sight.
“What just happened?” she managed to ask.
“We’ll know more when the colonel’s had a chance to meet with the team.” Rafe turned toward the photographer who was cowering near a pew.
“Why don’t you go ahead and pack up? We’ll have pictures done some other time, okay?”
The man eagerly nodded and began to take down the equipment. Anna didn’t intend to be placated quite so easily. “What’s going on here, Rafe?”
He brushed a kiss on her cheek, took her by the hand and led her to a pew at the back of the church. “I’ll go over everything with you after I’ve spoken to Colonel Shaw.”
“In other words, there’s something you don’t want me to know.” And by the time he did tell her, it most certainly wouldn’t be everything. It would have been processed through layers and layers of debriefings until it was sanitized beyond recognition. “Who was out there?”
“Rafe?” Shaw again. “Come over here. I need a word with you.”
Anna grabbed his arm. “I want to know what happened.”
It seemed as if he was about to tell her, but then Shaw repeated the order he’d given just moments earlier. “It won’t take long,” the colonel added. This time, there was some impatience in his voice.
“We’ll talk later,” Rafe assured her. “And don’t worry, everything will be fine.”
“It’ll be fine when you tell me—”
“Not now, Kate,” he snapped. Rafe started to walk away but then came to a complete halt.
Kate.
He’d called her Kate, the name of Colonel Shaw’s latest girlfriend.
Anna stared at him and felt her blood run cold.
Oh, my God. Who was this man she’d just married?
Who?
One thing was for certain, it wasn’t Rafe McQuade. Behind those familiar eyes and face, her husband was a stranger.
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