Harlequin Intrigue June 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: To Honor and To ProtectCorneredUntraceable

by Debra

  Minutes or hours later, Addison woke with a start. It was tricky, listening past the blood thudding in her ears, to figure out what had startled her. The refrigerator was quiet and she heard the creak of wind in the trees.

  Not the wind, she realized, as the curtains over the sink were still. She strained for another clue, telling herself it was just another overreaction to new surroundings.

  This time the quiet splash of water under the house was followed immediately by the soft rasp of a boat being pulled onto the grasses that lined the shore. Damn it all to hell. Someone had found her.

  Immediate worry for Nico flashed through her. Guilt pricked her conscience. Had they hurt him to get a lead on her direction? Since Leonie’s death, there had been no reason to head into this part of the swamp. Many of the locals believed she haunted the place, and they preferred to avoid even benevolent ghosts.

  Addison gripped the shotgun and sat up without making a sound. It might very well be someone familiar with the shack and in need of shelter. If they’d noticed the generator was going, it made sense to stop and ask for help, but Addison prepared to shoot first and ask questions later.

  For several long moments nothing more than typical night swamp sounds reached her. Maybe whoever had been in the boat just needed to sleep off a wrong turn. It happened, and hospitality was part of the odd society out here. If they stayed down there with the boat, they wouldn’t have any trouble from her.

  She’d just relaxed her hold on the gun when she caught the unmistakable creaking tread of the third step in the string leading to the porch. Addison tried to breathe, telling herself Craig wouldn’t come by night and sure as hell wouldn’t come to a place so rural without vocalizing his discomfort in the process.

  But that had been the Craig she’d known—thought she’d known—not the greedy bastard who’d brokered terrible deals that ended with dead US citizens.

  She listened, her palms going damp as whoever was outside climbed closer to the porch. Part of her wanted to run, to grab Andy and bolt through the back, but she’d only heard one person. She could take one person.

  “Addison?”

  The inquiry, delivered in a low whisper, only revealed that the speaker was male. Nico would’ve announced himself already, knowing she was armed and prepared to defend herself.

  So who else out here could possibly know her name?

  The intruder made no secret of his approach now. He leaned close to the window. “Addison? Are you in there?”

  Without a porch light, the intruder’s identity was impossible to make out, but he was nearly at the door.

  “Hello?” The voice, a little stronger, sounded familiar. “Addi?”

  Addison’s heart clutched. She knew that voice, and only one man had ever called her by that nickname. Drew Bryant, her long-dead fiancé.

  She shook her head. Clearly she’d let the stress and worry get to her. Drew wasn’t here, wasn’t even alive. This was probably just a vivid dream induced by Andy’s talk of zombies. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, urging her brain to wake up.

  The screen-door hinges squealed and the handle of the main door turned. A dream, she thought, it has to be a dream. No one but Nico knew she was here. As the door eased open, Addison leveled the shotgun at the man casting shadows across the weak moonlight spilling through the door.

  “Addi, it’s me, Drew. I’m here to help.”

  Wake up!

  Addison fired. The loud report deafened her to the splintering wood as the buckshot pelted the front door. The reactions of the stranger in front of her were like a bad mime, first ducking behind the door, then rushing forward and taking the gun before she could fire again.

  “It’s me,” he said, his voice lost in the ringing in her ears.

  The single lightbulb came on and she covered her mouth, barely smothering the scream lodged in her chest. “No. No.” This wasn’t possible. It was a cruel twist of her overwrought imagination. She pushed to her feet, away from the man with Drew’s face. Any second now she’d wake up from this horrible nightmare.

  “Mommy?” It was her son’s tiny voice that ripped through her confusion and brought her back to her senses. She had to protect Andy at all costs.

  “I’m here, Andy.” She couldn’t decide. Comfort her son or confront the man in front of her.

  “Take care of him.” The man carefully leaned the gun against the wall closest to her. “Then I’ll explain and you can shoot me if you want to.”

  It was such a Drew thing to say that she followed her instincts and tended to Andy.

  “Why did the gun go off? Are we in trouble?”

  “Someone startled me, that’s all.” She ushered her boy back into bed and pulled the covers up tight. “It’s late. Go back to sleep.”

  “Who is that?” He rubbed his eyes.

  “An unexpected friend.” It was a simpler answer than explaining her possible hallucinations. “He doesn’t want to hurt us.” Apparitions and hallucinations didn’t have enough substance to hurt anyone. She hoped. Whoever—whatever—was out there, he’d taken the gun from her all too easily. “He startled me and I fired the gun, that’s all.”

  “I’m scared.”

  “That’s understandable,” she said with more calm than she felt with her heart pounding. “But I won’t let anything bad happen. In the morning I’ll tell you the whole story.” Assuming she’d know the story by then. At least it gave her a bit of time to think of something logical.

  They both gave the doorway a look when they heard the scrape of a chair across the wood floor.

  “Promise?”

  She pressed a kiss to his brow and wrapped him in a big hug. “I promise.” Holding her son in her arms and smelling the sweet scent of his hair, she knew this wasn’t a bizarre, unbelievable nightmare. The man in the kitchen might really be Drew. She tensed. If so, he owed her a detailed explanation.

  “You’ll tell me if I need to find Nico, right?” he whispered into her ear.

  Her heart slammed against her ribs. She couldn’t imagine sending her little boy into the swamp, even if they had talked about that very scenario as a safety precaution. “That’s not necessary this time, especially not in the dark,” she said. “For now I need you to stay right here in this bed.” She leaned back, held his shoulders as she looked him in the eye. “Promise me.”

  Andy promised, gave her another fierce hug and released her to deal with the man in the kitchen.

  Chapter Five

  Drew heard the low voices in the other room and felt like an ass for his clumsy entrance. His hands shook and not from dodging the shotgun blast. He trembled for her. If there’d ever been any doubt, he knew for sure that he’d lost everything in that POW camp. Years of his life, sure, but so much more.

  Addison seemed to grow more beautiful every time he saw her. Remembering her radiance the day before their wedding had carried him through those dark days in unthinkable conditions. Seeing her playing with her new family in the park had filled him with jealousy and later—much later—with a weird sense of peace. She’d found her place, the happy life she’d dreamed of, even if it was without him. And just now, despite the messy hair, her face pale with shock, the shorts and oversize T-shirt concealing the sweet curves of her body, he looked at her and saw the prettiest woman on the planet.

  Not that he could tell her, even if he hadn’t mishandled this completely. She wasn’t his. He’d let her go, let her keep believing he was dead. He should’ve stayed in the boat under the house and waited until morning to talk to her. But he’d needed to see her.

  He told himself the confirmation was required for the job. Waiting until morning and protecting people who might not need it was a waste of time and resources. He pulled a chair away from the kitchen table, sat down and tried to believe the lie.

  No sale. Director Casey might’ve pulled him out of Detroit, but the official case had nothing to do with why he’d come out here in the dark. He hadn’t come here for Casey. He’d c
limbed those steps and disrupted Addison’s night simply to satisfy his curiosity.

  Behind him the door opened and he felt her staring at him.

  She crossed the room, keeping as much distance as the small space allowed. “This is impossible. You’re real.” She cleared her throat. “Alive, I mean.”

  “I am.”

  “Part of me expected you to vaporize while I talked with...” She tilted her head back toward the door. “With my son.”

  So the boy he’d seen in the park was hers, not Everett’s. He wasn’t sure why that made him feel worse about all this. “Leaving you on our wedding day wasn’t my idea.”

  “And still you weren’t there.” She held up her hands as if she could wave away the accusation. “Forget it. We can’t change whatever took you away. I was grateful you left the note.”

  He’d broken protocol with that, but he’d had to do something. It was their wedding day, for crying out loud. The note wouldn’t have been nearly enough to earn her understanding, but it had been the only option.

  “Come on, Drew. Start explaining.”

  Start where? Words failed him. His life had been a thousand times easier staying away from her. Lonely as hell, but easier. She’d moved on, had a kid, and the best way to honor her independence was to move on with his. He focused on his purpose here: to get her into Casey’s protection.

  “Speaking of vaporizing,” he began, pointing at her. He realized the error of the phrase when her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Some important people are worried about you and your son.” Casey couldn’t have warned him about that detail? Where was the kid’s father? “They asked me if I could track you down.”

  “What kind of important people?”

  “People who want to keep you safe.”

  She pursed those full, rosy lips, then shook her head. “Congratulations. You of all people should know I came here because I didn’t want to be found. Tell them you were wrong. Tell them you couldn’t find me.”

  “Not a chance. I can’t go back empty-handed.”

  “Of course you can. You will, since I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  “Be reasonable, Addison.”

  “You first,” she snapped, carefully pitching her voice so she wouldn’t wake her son. “Tell me who sent you.”

  “You need help. You’re in over your head.”

  “Give me a name, Drew.”

  He hesitated. “You’ve got the authorities running in circles looking for you all over the country,” he hedged. Based on her mutinous expression, she wouldn’t budge on this. The only name he could give wouldn’t mean anything to her anyway. He weighed the mission goal with the usual security requirements. “Thomas Casey sent me.”

  “Alone?”

  Drew nodded, wondering why she was so insistent about this.

  “Who is he to you?”

  “No one.” He jerked a shoulder. “A man who gets what he wants. He sent an escort to pick me up in Detroit—”

  “Detroit, Michigan?”

  Inside his head, Drew swore. Was there anything he could do right here? “Yes.”

  “You’ve been living in the States?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re not dead. You’re living back in your hometown.”

  “Yes,” he whispered, feeling miserable for causing the pain in her soft icy-blue eyes.

  “For how long?”

  He might as well lay out all the cards. “I’ve been in Detroit almost a year.”

  She turned her back on him. “Get out.”

  “I can’t do that.” How could he make her understand? Without her trust, he wasn’t sure he could get her to cooperate, and he didn’t want to resort to brute force.

  She whirled around, her blue gaze full of fury and fire. “Sure you can. You’ve been in Detroit, letting me believe you were dead. You seem to have mastered staying out of my life. Feel free to continue.”

  His temper bubbled up to match hers. “It wasn’t my idea to change the status quo.” Irrational or not, she had a son. Not a baby or even a toddler—the kid was in grade school. “You didn’t wait too damn long to get on with your life after the wedding,” he said, pointing toward the closed door.

  She reeled back as if he’d hit her and her voice turned brittle. “You can’t stay here.”

  “I have to.” He struggled for any remnant of sanity. His world, barely held together since his release, was breaking apart now that he was in the same room with her. “You need me.”

  “No, I don’t,” she countered. “I’m doing just fine on my own.”

  “Really? Craig Everett escaped federal custody.”

  “Shh.” Panic flashed across her face as she glanced at the door. “He doesn’t know anything yet.”

  “So Everett is the kid’s father?”

  Her gaze turned hard as she glared at him again. “I know he escaped and I guarantee if he’d walked in that door—” she stabbed a finger in that direction “—if it had been anyone else but you, my aim would’ve been right on target.”

  He believed her. He’d seen her in action on a shooting range. Years ago. “So you missed because it was me?”

  “Yes.”

  He accepted the admission as a small positive sign. “We can go our separate ways after I get you safely out of Ev—his reach.”

  “How? Witness protection?”

  “Possibly.” He didn’t know the details, but he trusted Casey with the task.

  “No deal.”

  “Addi, be reasonable.”

  “I am being reasonable. As well as responsible. You don’t have any idea just how connected Craig is. Witness protection won’t be enough and it isn’t fair to my son.”

  “Thomas Casey can keep you both safe.”

  “He’s in some branch of government?”

  “He is.”

  “No deal.”

  Drew bit back another string of foul words. “You’re infuriating.”

  “Same goes for you.” She crossed the room to the refrigerator, opened the door and bent to look inside. He tried to ignore the view as the soft fabric of her shorts hugged her backside.

  “I think this is our first real fight,” he said.

  “Hardly,” she muttered, handing him a bottle of water. “But it can be our last. Take this for the road.”

  “I’m not leaving.” He twisted off the plastic cap and leaned back in his chair. “We never fought before...our wedding day.” He forced the last two words out and then took a long drink of water.

  “We fought plenty in the days and months after. You just weren’t there.”

  “I’m sorry, Addi. If I could change it...”

  “It was our wedding day,” she whispered. “Why did they need you?”

  His heart seized at the pain in her voice. Raw and fresh, she sounded exactly the way he felt every day. When he’d agreed to help Director Casey, he’d known her reaction would be volatile at best. He hadn’t been prepared to deal with how much his appearance would hurt her. As she’d moved on with her life, he hadn’t expected her to feel anything but initial shock at seeing him again.

  But she didn’t look like a woman who’d moved on, despite the evidence he’d seen for himself. Top of her field, gorgeous home in the right neighborhood and a son. That was the piece that slid like a knife between his ribs, straight to his heart. During his time as a prisoner, he’d fantasized about making love with Addi, about the family they would build in years to come.

  She’d done that. With some other man.

  “Why, Drew?”

  He’d often asked the same thing and never found a decent answer. “I had the misfortune of knowing the key players in the area. Command said they needed me.”

  Her eyes went wide. “That’s not what I call an explanation.”

  “It’s the best I can offer.”

  With a derisive snort, she paced the small room, pausing near the front door. She pushed her hands into her hair. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

 
; He wanted to take her in his arms and show her how alive he felt. How alive she made him feel now that he could hear her voice, smell the light citrus of her shampoo. He wrapped one palm around the other fist, massaging the tension in his hands. “For a time that’s what I wanted, too.”

  “I didn’t say I wanted you to be dead.” She pushed loose strands of her golden hair behind her ears. “I heard the news from your dad. His face...” She gazed up at the slanted tin-roof ceiling. “He’s the one who told me you’d died.”

  “You saw my dad?” He swallowed the swell of grief that came with every thought of his father.

  “Sure.” She nodded. “We spoke frequently after the interrupted wedding. He apologized to me that it didn’t go as scheduled.” She leaned back against the big sink and propped one foot on the other.

  The pose transported him back to the days when she’d stand just that way, waiting for the first cup of coffee to kick her into gear in the morning. He’d counted on a lifetime of moments like this one, but fate had dealt him a different hand.

  “And I saw him again about two months after that,” she added.

  Two months. It still bothered him the way the army had handled his capture. “They didn’t waste any time pronouncing me dead.”

  “They being the army, I assume?”

  He nodded.

  “Are you surprised?”

  “Not really.” What surprised him was how much he struggled not to touch her. He wanted a rewind button, a way to go back and say no to that cursed assignment, no matter the consequences. “That kind of risk, the emergency operation, went with the job.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Past tense?”

  “Yes.” He looked away from the softer sympathy in her eyes.

  “But they still tapped you to come find me.”

  “Not in a military capacity. The army decided I wasn’t fit for duty anymore.”

  “What the hell?” Her eyes raked him from head to toe. “Who made that decision?”

  “Addi, the details aren’t relevant right now.”

  “Of course they are,” she insisted. “If you’re not fit for service, why would this Casey person call you?”