“PIPER!”
Neil grabbed her arm as she swayed. Her face had turned ashen.
Piper stared at him. Devastation with a hint of hopeful denial flared in her eyes. “Neil?” She shook her head. “That’s not true, is it?” She glanced from him over to Lyndsey and back to him.
“No. Well, not really,” he answered.
The glimpse of hope died, her expression hardened. “What do you mean, not really?”
“We were married, but—”
“Are married,” Lyndsey interjected. She wore a satisfied smirk as she held up her left hand and wiggled her ring finger with a large diamond on it.
Piper flinched. “You lied to me, Neil?”
“No, I can explain. Let’s go inside. Back to our room.”
Piper wrenched out of his grasp and stumbled to one side. She gaped at him as if he were a plague-carrying rodent. “I told you everybody lies, didn’t I? I just didn’t know how right I was.” She spun and scanned the front lawn. “I’ve got to get out of here.”
Neil reached for her again. “Piper. This can all be explained.”
She slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch me.” She tore down the porch steps. “Jim!”
Jim appeared.
“Get the car,” she called out. “I’m leaving.”
Neil couldn’t let her go like this. As Jim headed down the drive, Neil followed Piper.
“Please listen,” he pleaded. “It’s just a matter of signing the divorce papers, Piper. She won’t be my wife anymore.”
“Do give it up, darling. You’re causing a scene.” Lyndsey had in turn followed them from the porch steps.
Piper clamped a hand over her mouth as if she might be sick. Then, gradually, she underwent a transformation. Her shoulders straightened, her eyes lost their bleakness and she focused a cold stare on Lyndsey. “You can have him back. I’m done with him now.” She strode off down the drive, her hips swishing as she headed to the waiting car.
Done with him? Not by a long shot. He knew she didn’t mean it. Not after what they’d shared. Neil went after her. “Piper! Just listen—”
“Jim, keep him away.” Her tone was flat, unemotional; it left him reeling.
Jim blocked Neil while she slipped into the backseat and slammed the door, staring straight ahead.
Neil clenched his fists to keep from knocking the guard to the ground. But an altercation would only upset Piper more. He’d let her cool off, and then he would explain everything. Besides, Lyndsey was right about one thing. They had caused a scene. He spied a couple sitting on a stone bench situated in a little garden on the grounds. The woman had her phone pointed at Piper.
* * *
WIFE. THE WORD echoed in Piper’s head, but she kept her face a mask of indifference until the car was off the grounds of the B and B. Then her vision blurred, and the lump in her throat began to sting.
Her stomach cramped.
She was going to be sick. But she’d faced worse than this.
The world blurred as tears filled Piper’s eyes. What she wouldn’t give for a shot of vodka. Or the entire bottle. That was the problem with sobriety. One missed the numbness of inebriation. Booze provided the perfect armor against unwanted emotions.
Her therapist had said that every day she had a choice to make. She could use dangerous substances to dull the bad feelings, or she could face them. With a grim expression, she’d told Piper, “See which one kills you first. In your case, it won’t be the bad feelings.”
Piper wasn’t so sure. Her hands shook and her chest felt so tight she could barely take a breath. She clamped her teeth together but she couldn’t stop them chattering. Her lips trembled with the effort to hold it together.
She cursed herself. How could she have been so stupid? But she had no reason to feel betrayed. What had she expected? And why should she care? Why had she thought she could ever trust someone?
Before she got out of the car at Union Station in DC, she wiped her eyes and fixed her makeup.
Since she’d left her purse back at the B and B, Jim paid for her ticket as she made her way down to the train platform. She wished she was back in New York already.
A man stepped into her line of vision.
Neil.
Her face went cold and her heart pounded too fast.
His hair was mussed, as if he’d run his hands through it. His eyes looked sunken and his face drawn. Good. She hoped Lyndsey was giving him hell.
“Can we go somewhere and talk?” he asked.
She set her jaw. “No.”
Neil was clenching his teeth, his eyes spitting fire. But at least he kept his voice low. “Then we’ll talk here. I haven’t lived with my wife in over nine months.”
“You misunderstood. I don’t want to talk to you, full stop. Jim?” At her raised voice Jim stepped closer, giving Neil a sympathetic shrug.
Neil ignored him. “As far as I knew the divorce was final.”
“I don’t care.” That was a lot nicer than what she wanted to say. She headed farther down the platform, but Neil blocked her path. “Get out of my way.”
“Sir, please step back.” Jim was easily two inches taller than Neil, but Neil didn’t budge.
People were beginning to stare.
“She simply hadn’t signed the papers yet, but—”
“I don’t want to hear this.” She clamped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes closed.
Neil grabbed her hands and pulled them away from her ears. “I thought she’d signed the divorce papers.”
She didn’t want him touching her and yanked her hands out of his grasp. “Even if I cared—which I don’t—why should I believe anything you say?”
His eyes narrowed and a muscle in his jaw ticked. “You know what my platoon calls me?” He grimaced. “Straight Arrow Barrow. Like I told you, I don’t lie. Ever.” He shook his head. “Although I think I’ve been lying to myself for a while now.”
She clicked her tongue in disgust. “I’m not your therapist.” Again she tried to move away from him, and again he blocked her path.
“You’re right.” He spoke through gritted teeth. “If you don’t believe me there’s nothing I can do to convince you.” He paced away from her and came back again, and then met her gaze with eyes blazing. “I won’t try to contact you again. But please, don’t do anything crazy, okay? I know the real Piper, and she’s better than her press releases.” Whipping out his mobile phone, he turned and strode for the stairs.
Two long strides. Three. If he thought she was going to call out to him to come back he was delusional.
And what kind of person never lied? That was ridiculous. He couldn’t expect anyone to believe that.
Besides, even if she did believe him, she wasn’t going to call him back anyway.
He was halfway up the stairs. Almost out of her life forever.
Neil!
No. Good riddance. Just because he’d melted her messed-up heart with his talk of honor. Just because he’d understood her like no one else ever had. Just because he was still determined to protect her, even when he thought she hated him.
Then he was gone.
* * *
BEFORE PIPER COULD even get back to New York, Ragi called. Social media was buzzing with stories of bad-girl Piper cheating with a married SEAL. Piper was a pariah once again, and there seemed no limit to the nasty comments and name-calling the online world could sling at her. Ragi had contacted Piper’s publicist, but there was no saving this mess.
Piper texted Ragi to book the next flight to London and meet her at the airport.
As she and Jim exited the New York train station Piper felt the malicious stares of passersby. Head down, she retreated into a cab and directed the driver to take them straight to the airport.<
br />
Ragi was waiting at the terminal with their tickets and a miserable expression.
“Don’t look at me like that, Ragi. I didn’t know!” In all the time they’d spent together he’d never mentioned having a wife. Or even an ex-wife. She’d assumed he’d been in relationships, of course. He was in his thirties. But married? Stomach still cramping, Piper fought the desire to go into the restroom, close the stall door and hole up for say...the next decade.
Ragi followed her into the security line, eyes downcast. “It is my fault. Because he is a member of the special forces, his personal information is not a matter of public record. Still, I should have discovered the lieutenant had a wife. I offer you my resignation.”
“No, Ragi. I can’t lose you now. We’ll...weather this somehow.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Ragi nodded and returned her attention to her phone, thumbs racing.
By the time the plane touched down in London, the British rags sported headlines like Homewrecker Strikes Again! and SEAL’s Wife Catches Bad-Girl Piper in the Act!
As they took a cab to Piper’s flat, Ragi mumbled, “Oh, no.”
Piper glanced over at her friend and assistant. Ragi had clicked on her phone with her thumb, scrolled down once and then looked up with devastation in her eyes. That could only mean one thing.
“Modelle?”
Ragi’s face went slack as she nodded. “They will not be renewing your contract.”
The twisting in Piper’s stomach was relentless, but it wasn’t from pain anymore. She’d done nothing wrong! Nothing intentionally. She wanted to open her mouth and shriek. She wanted to throw something, pound her fists into the back of the seat in front of her. Not getting this contract might only be the beginning. Others could also decide she was too volatile to use. She could lose everything.
As it was, without the extra income from the makeup company, she’d have to give up the flat in London. The posh flat she’d hoped she would one day share with Nandan. To give him the life she’d promised him when she left.
But she could always find a less lavish flat. What she couldn’t do was give up the private investigators or the children’s home in Delhi.
When she stepped out of the cab, paparazzi swarmed her. She summoned her courage. If she’d already been condemned, it wouldn’t matter what she said. Her hands shook. Why had she bothered to change her life? What good had being good done her?
And why should she slink into her flat with her tail between her legs? She smiled and posed while cameras flashed. Jim hovered while Ragi paid the driver and saw to the luggage.
“Piper, is the SEAL going back to his wife?”
She held up her hands and shrugged. “How should I know?”
“So you and the SEAL have broken up?”
She faked a yawn. “I was bored.”
“Piper, what about the baby?”
Baby? Piper blinked, a montage flashing before her of her being pregnant and Neil’s hand feeling the baby kick, lying in a hospital bed holding an infant and Neil smiling down at both of them. Neil helping a toddler walk...
Rubbish! She scrubbed those pictures from her mind and focused on the reporter who’d asked. “There is no baby,” she replied. Then she glanced at Jim and he cleared a path so she could get into her building.
Once inside her flat—Jim stationed outside her door—she strode to her bedroom. Ragi hurried to follow. “Piper, what should we—”
“You can have the next week off, Ragi.”
“But—”
“Ragi!” Piper clamped her mouth shut. Ragi was only trying to help. “I’ll be fine. Take some time off, Ragi, all right?”
After Ragi left, Piper showered and crawled into bed. As if she would sleep. Neil! How could he have lied to her? Was that why he’d been acting so funny when he arrived at the B and B? Maybe he didn’t really have to leave on a mission? Maybe nothing he’d ever told her had been true.
It hurt to think he’d been lying all this time. All she could picture was his easy smile. His touch. His mouth. His...everything.
It suddenly hit her. Last night when she’d unbuttoned his shirt—his dog tags had been missing.
* * *
TWELVE HOURS LATER, Piper left the flat in her skimpiest dress, her highest stilettos and too much makeup. She exited the lift and entered the lobby hoping there were plenty of paparazzi outside to snap her photo before she got in a cab.
For the next week, she made sure to be seen at all the clubs. She drank. She danced. She did what everyone expected bad-girl Piper to do.
Until she read another tabloid headline that stopped her in her tracks.
Navy SEAL Resigns Amid Rumors of Court Martial Over Extramarital Affair!
15
NEIL COULDN’T FEEL his fingers anymore.
Gluing grass and twigs onto his camouflage ghillie suit had required bare hands. His nose had lost any sense of feeling days ago. His toes would be next. But lying completely still on his stomach in cold, wet grass for over a week had hardened him to most everything.
Except for the look on Piper’s face at the B and B. That he saw day and night, waking, sleeping.
He tried not to think about it, but observing the routines of a labor camp, the guards’ movements and any traffic coming and going still left a lot of free time over the course of a week.
At first, he’d been too busy planning the extraction. Clay had helped. Even offered to go with him. But no way would Neil let Clay ruin his career, much less risk his life when the odds of making this crazy scheme work were so small.
This covert op was strictly off the books. If the Chinese authorities discovered what he was doing there’d be international repercussions. And that would be the least of his troubles.
The government would never have sanctioned an extraction op for someone who wasn’t an American citizen. So Neil had tendered his resignation. He couldn’t explain it to Clay. He barely understood it himself. He just felt in his gut this was something he had to do.
He’d left some letters with Clay in case things went badly. One for his mother. One for Piper.
The only movement he made now was to slowly lift the binoculars to his eyes and watch, then record the camp’s activities into his notebook. Every guard, every shift change, every time the prisoners were allowed outside. Hour after hour...
After landing in Delhi, he’d pored over maps of the area, researched routes and scouted possible points of entry and exit. It turned out the border between China and India had had some trouble recently with the Chinese army encroaching and the Indian army setting up a watchtower in the area. That had made sneaking in a bit more difficult.
In the end he’d gone across on foot on a dark, moonless night, carrying everything he needed on his back over the mountainous terrain. The labor camp lay at the base of the Himalayas. Just getting here had taken five days. And who knew what condition Nandan would be in? Neil had to allow a couple of weeks for the return journey. He could only be grateful it was summer.
And that he’d decided not to tell Piper. She’d have wanted to go with him. And he couldn’t have risked that. Plus, what if he failed? What if he and Nandan were killed during the escape? Neil had risked his own life countless times. But he couldn’t raise her hopes like that only to have them snatched away.
Maybe it was better that she hated him. But hurting her—even unintentionally—had just about torn his heart out. Coward that he was, he’d almost blurted out everything on the metro platform. About the bargain he’d tried to make with his father. About his decision to resign from the navy and try to rescue Nandan. How much he loved her. How he didn’t want to hurt her. Ever. How much he wanted a life with her.
But he couldn’t say any of that. She might’ve tried to talk him out of going after her brother. Or she might not
have. He didn’t want to know which. Better she get on with her life without him. She still had so much living to do. Once she had her brother with her, she’d barely remember her brief affair with a navy SEAL.
And she did hate him. She’d let him walk away without listening to his explanation. He wished he knew what she’d been thinking. Cursing him? Probably.
But he was going to remember her for the rest of his life. The way she’d looked that last night together at the bed-and-breakfast. He’d smelled her soft citrus shampoo, seen her light green eyes sparkling with passion. And when she’d dropped that towel? He’d had to clench his fists to keep from taking her right then.
He dreamed of her like that, night after night.
His stomach turned just thinking about the deal his father had offered. The devil himself couldn’t have come up with a more soul-shredding pact.
Neil had flatly refused. Even the appearance of reconciliation with his ex would be a betrayal of everything he believed in.
He hadn’t spoken with Lyndsey since she’d surprised them at the B and B. That could wait until he got back from this mission.
If he made it back.
Powder-blue jumpsuits drew Neil’s attention to the courtyard of the labor camp. Prisoners were pouring out of the side door of what Neil had determined must be the work building. Right on time, the prisoners were marched outside to sit in rows on the ground and eat their one bowl of rice.
Neil could always spot Nandan without too much trouble. He was at least half a foot taller than most of the other inmates. Tall, like his sister. Apart from being malnourished, the boy looked fairly healthy. And he had youth on his side. He should be able to make the trek to the border.
After exactly thirty minutes, the prisoners filed back to their sleeping quarters on the east side. Neil had been creeping closer and closer in the same direction, inch by inch every hour, every day until he was as near as he dared get in daylight.
There were surveillance towers on each corner, and the guards were mercilessly punctual when it came to shift changes, meal times and radio checks. One guard in particular was young and cocky with a nicotine addiction and a tiny bladder. He was Neil’s best hope.
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