Harlequin Intrigue June 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: To Honor and To Protect\Cornered\Untraceable (38 page)
Authors: Debra & Regan Webb & Black
Tags: #Harlequin Intrigue
She returned to the parsley plants. Digging up the specimen calmed her further. She cradled the uprooted plant in her fingers and slid it into the plastic collection bag, then labeled the bag with the date, time and GPS coordinates where she'd found it, and stowed it in her pack. Then she stood and stretched. Her muscles ached from tension. Time to head back to camp. She'd clean up, then stop by the ranger station and report the men and the shootingâbut not Mariposa. She had no desire to betray the woman's secrets, whatever they were.
She checked her GPS to orient herself, then turned southwest, in the direction of her car and the road. She had no trail to follow, only paths made by animals and the red line on the GPS unit that marked her route into this area. On patrol in Kandahar she'd used similar GPS units, but just as often she'd relied on the memory of landmarks or even the positioning of stars. Nothing over there had ever felt familiar to her, but she'd learned to accept the unfamiliarity, until the day that roadside bomb had almost taken everything away.
She picked her way carefully through the rough landscape, around clumps of prickly pear cactus and desert willows, past sagebrush and Mormon tea and dozens of other plants she identified out of long habit. She kept her eyes focused down, hoping to spot one of the other coveted species on her list. All the plants were considered rare in the area, and all held promise of medical uses. The research she was doing now might one day lead to cultivation of these species to treat cancer or Parkinson's or some other crippling disease.
So focused was she on cataloging the plants around her that she didn't see the fallen branch until she'd stumbled over it. Cursing her own clumsiness, she straightened and looked back at the offending obstacle. It stuck out from beneath a clump of rabbitbrush, dark brown and as big around as a man's arm. What kind of a tree would that be, the bark such a dark colorâand out here in an area where large trees were rare?
She bent to look closer and cold horror swept over her. She hadn't fallen over a branch at all. The thing that had tripped her was a man. He lay sprawled on the ground, arms outstretched, lifeless eyes staring up at her, long past seeing anything.
Copyright © 2015 by Cynthia Myers
ISBN-13: 9781460383018
Cornered
Copyright © 2015 by HelenKay Dimon
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Posing as a married couple to save the world was easy compared to the very real feelings between themâ¦
As Bob and Lisa Sinclair, Omega Sector agents Evan Karcz and Juliet Branson were a formidable coupleâuntil a brutal attack left Juliet traumatized. But with a powerful crime boss selling military secrets, the safety of millions depends on the undercover operatives. It's up to Evan to rehabilitate Julietâ¦and not fail her as he did on the mission that still haunts him.
Evan's strategy is to be near Juliet night and day to practice posing as a loving couple. But soon he realizes there's a sizzling passion between them. And it's being threatened by forces stronger than they ever realized. With a killer stalking Lisa Sinclair, her “husband” knows he'd risk his coverâand his lifeâto protect her.
How had Juliet never really noticed how ripped Evan was?
His black T-shirt didn't do much to hide the muscles of his biceps, pecs or abs. Thank God.
Evan turned to the fridge for a couple of water bottles.
“You want?” Evan held up a bottle, his dimple showing with his smile.
Looking at him, Juliet realized she did indeed want.
Evan. Right now. Tonight.
She knew he wanted her, too. This wasn't just an undercover op for Evan.
She
wasn't just an undercover op for Evan.
This time she didn't plan to take no for an answer. She had let the attack steal too many months of her life. She didn't plan to let it have even one more day. She wanted Evan and she knew he wanted her.
What was that saying? Leap and the net will appear.
Juliet leaped.
She slid her own jacket off and walked over to him. “Yeah, I want.”
UNTRACEABLE
By Janie Crouch
Janie Crouch
has loved to read romance her whole life. She cut her teeth on Harlequin Romance novels as a preteen, then moved on to a passion for romantic suspense as an adult. Janie lives with her husband and four children overseas. Janie enjoys traveling, long-distance running, movie-watching, knitting and adventure/obstacle racing. You can find out more about her at
janiecrouch.com
.
Books by Janie Crouch
Omega Sector series
Untraceable
Harlequin Intrigue
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Juliet Bransonâ
Once an active undercover agent for Omega Sector before she was attacked and left for dead. Now, unable to get past that event, she works as a handler/analyst for Omega.
Evan Karczâ
Juliet's ex-partner and current Omega agent. Overwhelmed with guilt for being unable to protect Juliet when she was an agent, he will do anything to protect her now.
Dennis Burgamyâ
Juliet and Evan's boss at Omega Sector. Seems to care more about his own reputation than the safety of his agents.
Vince Cadyâ
Crime boss with his fingers into almost every piece of ugliness imaginable: weapons, technology, blackmail, just to name a few.
Christopher Cadyâ
Vince Cady's son. Being groomed to take on the family business, but has a sinister agenda of his own.
Heath Morelâ
Known associate of both Vince Cady and the attackers from Juliet's past. Seems to have information about Juliet that couldn't possibly be available to anyone else.
Cameron Bransonâ
Juliet's brother and Omega operative, currently on active recovery due to wounds from a mission gone wrong.
Dylan Bransonâ
Juliet's oldest brother. Former Omega operative and current pilot.
Sawyer Bransonâ
Juliet's youngest and most laid-back brother. Omega operative, also on active recovery because of wounds received during an Omega mission.
Megan Fullerâ
Sawyer's fiancée and a computer genius.
To my Stephanie: it never ceases to amaze me that you call me your friend. You are a tireless source of support, inspiration and encouragement not just to me but to so many others. Here's some #nofilter for you: you are a treasure, a beauty, and someone who radiates God's love and kindness in everything you do. I adore you.
Contents
Chapter One
Evan Karcz woke up the same way he had almost every day for the past year and a half: with Juliet Branson's terrified sobs echoing through his dreams.
Evan didn't jump out of bed and grab his Glock as he had in the early days. Nor did he have to rush to the bathroom before he lost the contents of his stomach.
Now he just breathed in and out slowly, calming his pounding heart, staring up at the ceiling. He threw the covers off his body in an effort to chill down, even though it was early spring and the temperatures were still cool here in southern Maryland, near Washington, DC. Evan wiped with his arm the small amount of sweat that beaded on his forehead.
He didn't lie there long. It was early, not even close to 5:00 a.m., but the possibility of going back to sleep was pretty much nonexistent. He might as well get up and start moving. He slipped on shorts and sweats and packed a gym bag with clothes for the rest of his day.
He'd head in to Omega Sector Headquarters and get in a workout before work officially started.
Exercise in order to exorcise
, Evan thought, and smiled grimly. Anything would be better than staying in that big bed by himself with nothing surrounding him but his own guilt.
Given the day ahead and all it had in store, he shouldn't be surprised that the dream had resurfaced with such vividness. Today he'd be unable to avoid seeing the subject of his troubled dreamsâhis ex-partner, Juliet Branson. Although
avoid
wasn't really accurate. Evan never tried to avoid seeing Juliet; the opposite, in fact. He'd been trying to talk to her for eighteen months, with no real success. Today, Juliet would be unable to avoid seeing
him
.
Evan drove to Omega Headquarters, thankful that the early hour at least helped shorten the notoriously ugly commute. He pulled into the secure parking garage of the nondescript building that housed Omega Sectorâa covert interagency task force made up of the best personnel the country had to offer. Evan had worked here for eight years, ever since his recruitment out of the FBI when he was twenty-seven.
The heaviness from this morning's dream lingered as he walked through the doors of Omega's main building. Strange how these halls had once thrilled him, how he had loved everything about his job as an undercover agent. But since Juliet's...incident he couldn't seem to find the same passion he'd once had for the work.
Passionate or not, he was going back under. And he wasn't looking forward to the team meeting that would take place later today, when Juliet would learn the details of the assignment. Evan rubbed a hand over his face. He knew Bob Sinclair, his undercover persona, was a name Juliet would never want to hear again. Nobody blamed her for that.
Omega Headquarters stood largely empty at this hour except for the security personnel. Evan passed through the extensive checks to confirm his identity, then jogged down the stairs into the large gym area. State-of-the-art workout equipment stood side by side with old-school metal weights, a fitting metaphor for Omega: the best blend of new and old techniques, working in unison. There were also rooms for sparring, for yoga, and a full-size track for running. Evan left his gym bag in the locker room and walked into the main workout area.
Sparring definitely topped the agenda for this morning. Evan decided he might as well take his aggression out on the almost-human plastic dummies and leather punching bags, since the individuals he really wanted to take his aggression out on were well beyond his reach.
He grabbed a pair of gloves meant to save his knuckles from the worst of the damage, and was reaching for the doorknob of the sparring room when he heard noises from someone already in there. Who the hell would be up and going at this hour?
Evan let the door shut and walked around the corner so he could see through the small window of the room. Juliet Branson...
Evidently he hadn't been the only one with nightmares this morning.
Evan couldn't help but watch, enthralled, as she danced among the targets with grace and precision. The black tank and tight workout pants she wore gave her the freedom to move as she wanted, stopping sometimes midair and pivoting in a different direction. Her five-foot-four-inch frame was average in heightâat six-one Evan was a full head taller than herâbut the way she fought belied her smaller stature, the litheness of her muscles evident. Her long blond hair was pulled tightly back in a ponytail, so as not to impede her actions.
The power behind her kicks and punches was impressive. Had these dummies been live people, each would've fallen to the ground, gasping for air. She showed them, and herself, no mercy. Rapid-fire strikes. Over and over, at a punishing speed and rhythm. Sweat dripped and flew with each of her assaults. You'd never be able to tell she'd been out of the field for the past eighteen months.
Evan watched from the shadows of the hallway, where she wouldn't be able to see him. As a trained operative, he recognized and appreciated Juliet's talent in close-quarter fighting like this, although admittedly, fighting dummy targets was completely different than fighting a real opponent.
She attacked the dummies as if she were warding off a demon army from hell. Evan's arms hung at his sides and his shoulders slumped. Fighting demons was probably an apt description for her actions.
He wished he could fight them for her. Or at least with her, but Juliet had no interest in being anywhere near him. Not that he could blame her. A partner was supposed to have your back, to protect you, even in dire circumstances. Evan had failed her in the worst possible way. And Juliet had paid a horrible price for his failure.
He turned and walked the other way, leaving her to her battle. Entering the room would just cause her to tense up and rapidly vacate, anyway. But not before fear and distrust suffused her features when the door first opened. It wasn't just him she distrusted, Evan knew, but he hated the look, anyway.
Plus, he'd be seeing it soon enough, later today in the conference room, when he mentioned Bob Sinclair.
Evan headed up the stairs to the indoor track. It seemed as if he would be trying to outrun his own demons today rather than fighting them. But no matter how fast he ran, he knew they'd still be there when he finished.
* * *
J
ULIET
SWUNG
HER
LEG
around in a powerful round-house kick, hitting the target one last time. She took satisfaction in how hard the dummy fell to the ground before its weighted bottom slowly brought it back to a vertical position.
Yeah, she could take down a target dummy like a champ. Too bad that didn't really do anybody much good. In a fight with a real person these days, she was damn near useless.
Of course, Juliet wasn't an active agent anymore, so it wasn't as if she was going to use her hand-to-hand fighting skills anytime soon. But it would be nice to know she'd have them if she needed them, rather than freezing up or cowering in a corner if a real person came at her.
Juliet backhanded the dummy again for good measure.
She grabbed a towel and mopped up her sweat from the past hour of pounding everything in sight. It was now just before 5:00 a.m., and there'd be other people around soon, if not already. Dedicated Omega workersâagents and otherwiseâwould come in to get a good workout before going upstairs to their jobs.
Juliet would like to think that was what she was doing, too. That she was here at Omega HQ sometimes eighteen or twenty hours a day because of her dedication to an important job and stellar organization. That she worked long hours because she wanted to do her part in keeping her country safe from criminals and terrorists.
Not because of the fear that seemed to pour over her like some sort of suffocating ooze every time she left this place.
It was so much easier to stay here at Omega than to go home alone to her house. Juliet felt safe here, even when she was by herself. There was no chance someone was going to throw a sack over her head and drag her out of a sound sleep in the middle of the night. Of course, there was very little chance that would happen at her home, but Juliet couldn't quite seem to convince her mind of that as she lay awake at night, terrified, remembering. So she stayed here at Omega as much as possible.
It had been eighteen months since her attack. Things should be getting better, not worse. But that wasn't the case.
She glanced down at her phone, which had begun vibrating in her hand as she walked toward the locker room. Her stomach rolled when she saw the screen.
A new email. Not for Juliet Branson, but for Lisa Sinclair, an undercover role Juliet had played in her last mission as an active operative. The one where she'd lost nearly everything.
Sweetheart, I've been thinking about you all night. Soon we'll be together, just the two of us. Sooner than you think.
As usual, no signature or notification of who'd sent it. Juliet leaned against the wall for support and brought her hand up to her suddenly aching head. This email was benign compared to the graphic nature of some of the others. She closed her eyes briefly, pushing those thoughts away. She couldn't let this overwhelm her, not today.
But she knew she'd be thinking about the message all day. And the fact that the emails were starting to come more frequently and become more personal.
Juliet had given the emails to Omega tech support, of course, but they hadn't been able to provide any insight about where or from whom they were coming. Never the same IP addressâit seemed to bounce around all over the world.
And she couldn't bring herself to tell anyone about how much the emails upset her. She knew there were people here who cared about her. Two of her three brothers worked at Omega, for goodness' sake; she saw them almost every day. But they were the last people she wanted to talk to about this. Being the only daughter in the family, Juliet had always been surrounded by overprotective, alpha-male testosterone.
Talking to her brothers about residual issues from her attack and rape? Um, no. Not in this lifetime.
Nor did she want to talk to them about creepy emails. Her siblings had work to do,
real
cases to worry about.
“Hey, Jules, you okay?”
Juliet pushed herself away from the wall at the sound of Evan Karcz's voice. He, like her brothers, always called her Jules. She mashed the button to delete the email notification and turn her phone screen black. She didn't want to have to explain it to Evan.
“Um, yeah, I'm fine. Just going in to clean up after my workout. You're here early.”
“I was about to run, but I forgot my headphones and was coming back to grab them. You sure you're okay? You look a little pale. And you must have been sparring because you have something in yourâ”
Evan moved toward her, hand upraised, and before Juliet could stop herself she took a step back, flinching. He froze, then dropped his arm to his side, shoulders drooping.
“Evan, I'm sorryâ”
“No, it's okay. Um, you just have some lint or something in your hair.” He backed up another step. “I'll see you.” He turned and walked off, away from the locker room. So much for getting headphones.
Juliet wanted to hit something, even though she'd just spent over an hour doing just that. She hadn't meant to flinch, especially not from Evan; she'd just been in a particularly vulnerable state of mind because of that email. It didn't take a genius to figure out her reaction had hurt him.
She and Evan had worked together for years. She'd known him most of her life. He was her brothers' best friend. Hell, he was one of
her
best friendsâmore, if she was honest. Or had potentially been more. It seemed so long ago that she and Evan used to flirt with each other, secure in the knowledge of
someday
.
But someday never came.
Now whenever she thought of Evan all Juliet could recall was that moment when he'd found her. Of how he'd covered her broken, mostly naked body with his own clothes, actually crying as he had radioed in for an ambulance.
Juliet knew it was unfair to keep Evan frozen in that moment. To keep
herself
frozen there. But she couldn't seem to do anything about it.
So she'd basically avoided him for the past year and a half.
Which hadn't been too difficult, considering her cowardly choice to leave active work and stick herself behind a desk instead. Part handler, part analyst, part strategist. A little too good to be any of them, but not fit to be back out in the field. Juliet couldn't see a time when she would ever be ready for agent work again.
Her job might not be thrilling, but it was safe. And safe was the most important thing to her right now. Although she wished those job changes hadn't hurt Evan.
Juliet made her way to the locker room, showering and changing into her work clothes of black pants and a matching black blazer over a white blouse. The jacket was specially fitted to hold her shoulder holster and firearm. Although Juliet wasn't an agent and wasn't required to be armed at all times, she was rarely without her Glock 9 mm.
Normally she wouldn't be dressed this way. Unlike the FBI, with their daily suits and loafers, Omega tended to be a more casually dressed workforce. But today Juliet had an important operational-specifications meeting. Her boss, Dennis Burgamy, would be there, which made her a little uneasy. Burgamy did not tend to dirty his hands with the day-to-day planning of undercover operations. Thus her more professional suit: armor for battle.
Something was up; she knew it. Juliet was going to need as much armor as she could get.
