Some Kind of Hero

by Brenda Harlen

  “You want me to trust you? You’ve lied to me since the day we met.”

  Client privilege be damned, Joel decided. He couldn’t let Riane continue to believe the worst. “I came to West Virginia to see your mother because I thought she might be able to help with a case I’m working on. I have a client who’s trying to find someone.”

  “A missing person?”

  “Not missing, exactly,” Joel hedged. “The woman I’m looking for was adopted twenty-two years ago.”

  “Why do you think my mother can help?”

  He hesitated, reluctant to state the conclusion that would crumble all Riane’s conceptions about her life. But the fierce determination in her eyes forced his hand. She wouldn’t let him continue to evade. More compelling than that, however, was the realization that he owed her the truth.

  “I think you’re the woman I’m looking for.”

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to another fabulous month of the most exciting romance reading around. And what better way to begin than with a new TALL, DARK & DANGEROUS novel from New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann? Night Watch has it all: an irresistible U.S. Navy SEAL hero, intrigue and danger, and—of course—passionate romance. Grab this one fast, because it’s going to fly off the shelves.

  Don’t stop at just one, however. Not when you’ve got choices like Fathers and Other Strangers, reader favorite Karen Templeton’s newest of THE MEN OF MAYES COUNTY. Or how about Dead Calm, the long-awaited new novel from multiple-award-winner Lindsay Longford? Not enough good news for you? Then check out new star Brenda Harlen’s Some Kind of Hero, or Night Talk, from the always-popular Rebecca Daniels. Finally, try Trust No One, the debut novel from our newest find, Barbara Phinney.

  And, of course, we’ll be back next month with more pulse-pounding romances, so be sure to join us then. Meanwhile…enjoy!

  Leslie J. Wainger

  Executive Editor

  Some Kind of Hero

  BRENDA HARLEN

  Books by Brenda Harlen

  Silhouette Intimate Moments

  McIver’s Mission #1224

  Some Kind of Hero #1246

  BRENDA HARLEN

  grew up in a small town surrounded by books and imaginary friends. Although she always dreamed of being a writer, she chose to follow a more traditional career path first. After two years of practicing as an attorney (including an appearance in front of the Supreme Court of Canada), she gave up her “real” job to be a mom and to try her hand at writing books. Three years, five manuscripts and another baby later, she sold her first book—an RWA Golden Heart Winner—to Silhouette.

  Brenda lives in Southern Ontario with her real-life husband/hero, two heroes-in-training and two neurotic dogs. She is still surrounded by books (“too many books,” according to her children) and imaginary friends, but she also enjoys communicating with “real” people. Readers can contact Brenda by e-mail at brendaharlen@yahoo.com or by snail mail c/o Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, Suite 1001 New York, NY 10279.

  A lot of this book is about family,

  and I’d like to dedicate this story to mine.

  To my parents—

  Diane & John and Dan & Marj—

  for giving me such a wonderful example of family.

  To Shelly and Jim,

  whom I am privileged not just to call

  my sister and brother but also my friends.

  To Robin & Hazel—

  for always accepting me as part of their family.

  And, of course, to Neill and Connor and Ryan.

  I love you all.

  P.S. This book is also dedicated to Ken, who didn’t even blink when his wife said three unknown women were coming to invade his cottage for a weeklong writers’ retreat. (During which time this story took form in spite of Kate and Sharon and Sheryl. Thanks anyway, ladies.)

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 1

  I t took Riane Quinlan half a minute to peg the tall, dark-haired man across the room as an out-of-towner, another thirty seconds to figure him for a cop.

  She’d spotted him the minute he stepped through the ornately carved double doors of the hotel ballroom where the Fourth Annual Quinlan Camp Charity Ball was in progress. Part of the reason was that his was an unfamiliar face at this type of event. Another part of the reason was much more basic. Whoever he was, he was an incredible specimen of masculinity: broad shoulders, hard muscles, thick dark hair that was just a little too long for the conservative tastes of the social elite.

  Not a departmental regulation crew cut, but some guys took pride in breaking the rules. This man, with the chiseled jaw, strong nose and slashing brows, looked like one of them.

  From a distance, Riane couldn’t determine what color his eyes were, just that they were dark and intense.

  He took a slow survey of the room. Deliberately casual. Too casual.

  Definitely a cop.

  As the daughter of a U.S. senator, Riane had been shadowed often enough to recognize the inherent attributes of those in law enforcement. The sculpted physique, the guarded stance, the constant attentiveness. There were security personnel hovering in the background this evening, but she knew this man wasn’t one of them. He wasn’t hired muscle—just a cop.

  Her lips curved in a small smile. Just a cop was hardly an accurate description. He was almost larger than life—a real man’s man, the type of man she didn’t often have opportunity to cross paths with in her social circles.

  As he continued his perusal of the room, his gaze collided with hers. The force of the impact literally took her breath away. His eyes narrowed, skimmed over her in a blatantly masculine assessment. She felt her skin heat, an unavoidably feminine reaction.

  He held her gaze a moment longer, then turned his head, dismissing her.

  Except that Riane wouldn’t be dismissed.

  She made her way through the sea of rustling silk and black ties, stopping now and again to speak with someone she hadn’t caught up with earlier. She smiled at the secretary of state and tried to ignore the fact that her toes were starting to cramp.

  It had been a mistake to wear new shoes when she was going to be on her feet for the better part of the evening, but the sling-back sandals were such a perfect match for the silk crepe dress, she hadn’t been able to resist. She’d spent the better part of her twenty-four years in the public eye and knew that image was more important than comfort.

  She glanced toward the back of the room again, and her eyes locked with his.

  Blue, she realized. His eyes were a startling, stunning shade of blue. And just a little wary.

  Her curiosity further piqued, she breached the last few feet that separated them and offered her most winning smile. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

  He hesitated a beat before he shifted his untouched champagne glass and offered his hand. “Joel Logan.”

  His voice was deep and incredibly sensuous, causing her blood to heat in her veins. She disregarded the sensation. She was more than likely overheated from the multitude of lights in the enormous chandeliers, not from hearing this man speak two words to her.

  Reassured, she put her hand in his, felt it engulfed by his warm strength. His handshake was firm, his palm wide and slightly callused. There was nothing improper or inappropriate about the con
tact, and yet she felt a sudden burst of heat arrow straight to her core. She withdrew her hand quickly from his grasp.

  “Riane Quinlan,” she told him.

  “I know.”

  He said nothing else, offered none of the usual pleasantries.

  Riane was intrigued. Her family’s wealth and political connections had accustomed her to more deferential treatment. People went out of their way to impress her, never knowing when they might need a personal favor or political ally. But she’d bet every last dollar of the trust fund her grandmother had left her that Joel Logan didn’t bow and scrape for anyone, and she couldn’t help but admire him for it.

  She tried another smile. “What brings you here tonight, Mr. Logan?”

  “A desire to support the Quinlan Camp for Underprivileged Children?”

  It was more of a question than an answer, and she couldn’t decide if he was just unsociable or deliberately trying to annoy her. She should thank him for his support and leave it at that, but there was something about him that made it impossible for her to walk away.

  “It must help that your shoulders are so broad,” she commented.

  He frowned at her. “Excuse me?”

  “Your shoulders,” she said again. “They must be the reason you can walk upright with the size of that chip you’re carrying.”

  He shifted his champagne glass into his other hand again, his scowl deepening.

  Dark, moody, and no sense of humor, Riane decided. She signaled to a nearby waiter, turned to speak with him briefly. When the server disappeared, she plucked the crystal flute from Joel’s hand and brought it to her own lips, sipping the cool, bubbly liquid.

  “I wasn’t finished with that,” he said testily.

  “I know.” Her response was unapologetic.

  His mouth opened, then closed again when the waiter returned with a tall pilsner glass filled with amber-colored liquid, a thick foam head skimming the frosty rim.

  “Thanks, Jeffrey.” Riane took the glass and offered it to Joel. “I thought this might be more to your liking.”

  For half a second she thought he might refuse the drink, but thirst must have triumphed over obstinacy as he reached for the glass. His fingers brushed against hers and she felt that zing again.

  “What makes you think you know what I like?” Joel challenged.

  She took another sip of his champagne before responding. “It’s something of a hobby of mine—studying people.”

  “Have you been studying me?”

  “I study everyone.”

  “And what do you think you’ve learned?”

  “You don’t like champagne,” she said, “and you won’t pretend to enjoy it, even though everyone else guzzles it like water at this kind of event.”

  He tipped the glass of beer to his lips and drank, his eyes still on hers.

  “I imagine you suffered through dinner,” she continued.

  “The food and the conversation. You would probably have preferred a nice thick steak, rare, and a discussion about the Yankees’ chances at the pennant.”

  She saw the corners of his mouth twitch, wondered if he might actually smile. He didn’t.

  “Medium well,” was all he said.

  “Sorry?”

  “My steak,” he clarified. “Medium well. I like to be sure it’s dead.”

  “And the Yankees?” she prompted.

  Now he did smile, and it completely transformed him. With his dark and somber expression, he was dangerously handsome. With those sensual lips curved, he was devastating.

  “Absolutely.”

  She nodded, but couldn’t for the life of her even remember what the question had been. The man had just smiled, and her mind had blanked.

  “Is that the end of your analysis?” he prompted.

  “Not quite,” she said, wondering whether she should pursue the issue or make a tactical retreat. He intrigued her—maybe too much. She was a woman used to being in control of her life and her emotions. But after less than ten minutes in Joel Logan’s company, she felt her comfortable world tilting crazily on its axis. It thrilled her. And terrified her.

  “What else do you think you know?”

  “You’re looking for someone. Someone you expected to be here. Whether he is or not, I couldn’t say, because I don’t know who it is, but I know you haven’t found him. Or her,” she amended quickly.

  He pinned her with that deep blue gaze, and she felt as if all the bones in her body had simply melted. When he spoke again, the low, throaty tone was as seductive as a caress. “Maybe I’m just looking for someone to take home for a quick bout of hot, sweaty sex.”

  “I hadn’t completely disregarded that possibility,” she acknowledged, a little breathlessly. “But I think if that was what you wanted, you would have found her by now.”

  “I’m flattered, I think.”

  “Just an observation, Mr. Logan. So why don’t you tell me what it is that brought you to West Virginia?”

  “Why do you assume I’m not a local?”

  “If you were, we’d have met before now.” And she definitely would have remembered. Joel Logan wasn’t the type of man any woman would forget.

  “I’m here on business,” he admitted after a pause.

  “What kind of business?”

  “You haven’t figured that out?”

  “I’m still working on it,” she said. “But I haven’t been able to think of any reason why an out-of-town cop is at my fund-raiser.”

  “I’m not a cop.” He took another sip of his beer.

  “Oh.” She frowned. Then, in an accusatory tone, she said, “You look like a cop. Standing at the far end of the room, your back to the wall, as if you expect armed gunmen to come charging through the door.”

  This time his smile seemed to come more easily. “I used to be a cop,” he conceded.

  “And now?”

  He shrugged. “Now I’m not.”

  Joel tipped his glass to his lips again and drank deeply, wishing for at least the hundredth time since Shaun McIver walked into his office that he’d refused this assignment. It should have been a simple job: to find a child who had been adopted twenty-two years earlier. But four months later Joel had made scant progress.

  The few facts he’d managed to uncover so far led him straight to Senator Ellen Rutherford-Quinlan. If the senator had information that would help find Shaun’s fiancée’s sister, Joel was determined to get it. Which was his reason for coming to West Virginia.

  He hadn’t counted on crossing paths with Riane Quinlan, though. And he’d been completely unprepared for the quick punch of arousal that struck low in his belly when he’d first set eyes on her.

  A smart investigator would turn the situation to his advantage—get whatever information he could from the daughter as the mother was nowhere to be found. But he was having difficulty thinking like an investigator with the subtle scent of Riane’s perfume fogging his brain.

  Which meant that the wisest thing would be to establish and maintain a safe distance from Riane Quinlan. He needed answers, and he wasn’t going to get them if he allowed himself to be distracted. The senator’s daughter was quite a distraction.

  “Riane, darling—”

  Joel exhaled a silent sigh of relief as she was forced to turn her attention to the stocky woman who descended upon them in a cloud of sweet scent and glittering sequins.

  “Margaret,” Riane said, exchanging air kisses with the older woman. “I’m so pleased you could make it.”

  The woman looked vaguely familiar to Joel, but it took a moment to search his memory banks for the reference. When it clicked, he wondered that his jaw didn’t hit the floor. Margaret Cassidy. The attorney general of the United States.

  The upper echelons of political society had turned out for this event—all the way from Washington, even. A reminder of how much political clout the Rutherford-Quinlans wielded. As if he needed any reminders. He’d tangled with them once before, and that encounter had cost Joel
his reputation and his career.

  He was clearly out of his element here, even if no one else seemed to realize it. He didn’t fit in with these people; he didn’t want to. He’d attended this gala event because his client was paying all incidental costs—including the thousand-dollar ticket for dinner and the rental of this damn tux—and because he’d been confident he could remain in the background. Riane had taken that option away from him. And he wasn’t sure if he should be flattered or annoyed that he’d caught her attention.

  While she was preoccupied with the attorney general, Joel scanned the room again, searching for the elusive senator. Ellen Rutherford-Quinlan’s name had been on the top of the guest list. This charity camp was her daughter’s pet project. So where the hell was she?

  His head snapped back to the conversation beside him when the attorney general said, “I’m so sorry I missed your mother.”

  “She didn’t want to miss the ball,” Riane told her. “But Daddy convinced her that it was more important to celebrate their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary.”

  Daddy. Joel fought the urge to roll his eyes. How many grown women referred to their fathers as “daddy”? Then the impact of what she was saying registered and he nearly groaned out loud: the senator wasn’t going to make an appearance here tonight.

  He accepted the fresh glass of beer the waiter brought to him without question and tipped it to his lips, cursing the fact that he’d wasted his time—and his client’s money—in attending this gala event. Hell, his whole trip to West Virginia might turn out to have been a waste of time.

  Riane said goodbye to the older woman, turned back to him and smiled. Joel felt that quick punch of desire again and had to remind himself of all the reasons that the senator’s daughter was off-limits.

  She wasn’t his type, anyway. She was too sophisticated and high class. Too everything. He preferred a woman with more simple tastes, more basic desires. And blond, he reminded himself, even as his fingers itched to pull the pins out of Riane’s dark silky hair to let it tumble freely down her back.

  Joel swallowed, hard. Yeah, he definitely preferred blondes.