Dangerous Pursuit (The Protectors)

by Margaret Daley

  One corner of Brock’s mouth lifted in a smile. “Is that any way to greet your knight after he’s traveled thousands of miles to see you?”

  A broad smile spread across Samantha’s features as she rounded the counter and was across the store so quickly that Mrs. Carson was probably left wondering what had gotten into the sensible Samantha Prince.

  Samantha threw her arms around Brock’s neck, and he lifted her off the floor, swinging her around and around.

  “Oh, how I’ve missed you,” she exclaimed.

  He settled her back down on the floor, held her head in his hands, and kissed her soundly on the mouth. “And I’ve missed you, Samantha.”

  Mrs. Carson discreetly coughed, and Samantha blushed. She turned to her longtime customer and said, “Mrs. Carson, this is Brock Slader. I met him in Brazil.”

  “I’m glad to meet you. Thanks, Samantha, for the recommendation. I’ll see you when I get back from my trip.” As Mrs. Carson left the store, she gave Samantha a look that said she understood why Samantha had hardly left her accommodations.

  Another customer came into the store only seconds after Mrs. Carson left. Brock whispered, “Do you have an office? Someplace we can go for privacy.”

  “The back room.”

  The second the door to the back room closed behind them. Brock drew her into his arms and kissed her over and over, as if he couldn’t get enough.

  “I’ve come to several conclusions in the last six weeks, Samantha. The first is that I love you and can’t live without you. Will you marry me?”

  “I never could accuse you of subtlety. Yes, I’ll marry you. I came to the same conclusion. Do you think that’s something we have in common?”

  “I do know one thing we have in common.”

  “Oh, and what’s that?”

  “This.” He pulled her close as his lips took hers in a kiss full of longing and love.

  When Samantha could think and breathe again, she asked, “What is the other conclusion you came to?”

  “I opened a Roth IRA account with some of the money from the gold deposit.”

  Samantha’s eyes widened. “You? A Roth?”

  He nodded.

  One part of her was disappointed. It obviously meant he intended to stay in the States and try her lifestyle. She had just spent the last six weeks convincing herself that she wanted, even yearned, for his way of life. She would go anywhere, do anything, for Brock as long as they could be together.

  “I realize there was a certain thrill to the danger we experienced in the Amazon, but I think I can settle down to a sedate life as a suburban housewife if that’s what you really want.”

  Brock tossed back his head and laughed. “Who said your life will be sedate? I may have opened a retirement plan to satisfy your need for security, but I’m leaving for Africa next month and I’m taking you with me.”

  The End

  Excerpt from Dangerous Interlude (Book 2 in The Protectors Series):

  Silence finally reigned in the room, the noise and energy level swept out with the ten children who raced to catch their bus. Anna Stanfield walked slowly about the class, straightening some desks, picking up a piece of wadded paper, and savoring the quiet that came at the end of a school day.

  At the window she paused, took several deep breaths, and gazed at the mountains west of Denver. A cold front was pushing the unusually warm October weather further south, the wind catching multicolored leaves and hurling them through the air like bright tennis balls. People pulled their coat fronts tighter as they bent their heads into the norther.

  Anna smiled. She loved winter with its snow and crisp, chilled air, and had already gotten down her skis the weekend before. Along with her other skiing equipment, they were in her spare bedroom, just waiting for the first opportunity to use them.

  Turning away from the window, she gathered up her purse and briefcase and headed for the teachers’ lounge. She was giving her friend Molly a ride home and was to meet her there.

  Even before Anna opened the lounge door, she heard Molly’s booming laugh. Her best friend looked at life with a gleeful appreciation of everything. She knew she was lucky and never said otherwise. Anna had to admit that Molly was lucky, too. Her friend had a wonderful, loving husband and three adorable children. At one time Anna had thought of herself in that light.

  “Oh, there you are,” Molly said as Anna entered. “I was beginning to worry you wouldn’t make it. You’re just in time to try your luck. It’s your turn this week to make the call.”

  Anna hadn’t forgotten about their weekly ritual on Wednesday afternoons precisely at 4:10. “I’ve never won anything in my entire life, Molly Peterson. You try. You have the Midas touch. Last month you won your car payment.”

  Molly frowned and held up the receiver. “No, you don’t. I tried last week but was caller number nineteen. Caller number twenty got the trip to Hawaii. We all agreed”—she gestured to the group of four teachers—“to take turns calling since there’s only one phone in here.”

  “Besides, it’s kind of neat to see which one of us will be the chosen one,” another teacher chimed in.

  “The chosen one! We all know it’s a million-to-one shot,” Anna replied with a chuckle.

  “But someone has to win, so why not one of us?” Molly’s gaze scanned the group in the lounge.

  “You’re an eternal optimist, Molly.” Anna shook her head as though she couldn’t believe her friend, but laughter laced her voice.

  “And you’re an eternal realist. Dream, Anna,” Molly countered.

  The song on the radio was over and the announcer cut into the conversation, silencing the six women. Anna moved to a chair next to the phone and waited as the disc jockey described the vacation.

  Two weeks in Austria. To Anna, who had dreamed for years of skiing in the Alps, it was an unbelievable vacation. All day she had thought about the cold wind whipping past her as she sped down an alpine slope or the quiet serenity of the snow-blanketed landscape on a cross-country ski trip. Now, that was the way to see Austria.

  The announcer ended his description and was giving out the number to dial. Seconds ticked by and all Anna could do was stare at the phone.

  Anna, you never take chances. You're afraid of life, her ex-husband Richard had told her just before he left her for another woman. I need more than a quiet, dull home life. I need someone who wants excitement.

  “Anna! Call!” Molly exclaimed, pulling Anna away from her painful memories.

  Slowly Anna reached for the receiver. She knew why she was hesitant. Richard had been right about her. She wanted this trip badly and hated facing the disappointment if the line was busy or she got through at the wrong time.

  Anna punched one number, then two. The announcer on the radio answered the seventeenth caller. Anna’s hand froze in midair. Molly shook Anna’s arm, and she snapped out of her daze to quickly punch the last five digits.

  Her heart stopped beating when she heard the phone ringing.

  “Hello, this is KLUV. You’re caller…" there was the slightest, suspenseful pause and Anna’s lungs burned with her bottled breath, “number twenty. Congratulations! You’ve just won yourself a trip to Austria for two.”

  Suddenly the phone began to slip from Anna’s nerveless fingers. Her body was thrown into automatic control and her hand tightened about the receiver.

  Someone was going to wake her from her daydream. Things like this didn’t happen to Anna Stanfield, schoolteacher and single mother.

  “Who am I speaking to?” The man’s question sounded far away, as if he were shouting through a tin can.

  She swallowed several times and tried to say something. Never in her life had she been speechless, but her vocal cords seemed to be paralyzed. Woman loses chance of her dream vacation because she couldn’t say her name, flashed across the screen in her mind.

  “Hello? Anyone there?”

  “This is—Anna Stanfield,” she finally answered in a squeak
y voice.

  Everyone in the lounge clapped and shouted. The disc jockey laughed and said, “I hear your cheering section. Who are they?”

  “My coworkers.” Her voice, thankfully, was stronger. She inhaled deeply to ease the constriction in her lungs.

  “Where do you work?”

  Anna gave him the name of the elementary school she worked at.

  “Are you a teacher?”

  “I teach in a class for students with special needs.”

  “Well, Anna Stanfield, you’re on your way to Austria for two glorious weeks. Have you ever been there or to Europe?”

  “No.” Usually it wasn’t this hard to pull information out of her, but shock still held her in its grip.

  “Have you got someone in mind to go along with you?”

  Austria for two. She hadn’t thought about that. She hadn’t allowed herself to think about any of the details.

  Who would she take? “Not yet,” she replied, shifting the receiver to her other ear. Her heartbeat was beginning to slow down and her bodily functions were returning to normal—well, as normal as possible considering she had just won the trip of a lifetime. “I can’t believe this is happening to me. Thank you.”

  “Anna Stanfield, it’s definitely happening to you,” the announcer said. “In a short time you’ll be in Austria.”

  As the disc jockey played another song, he took down all the information he needed, then asked Anna to stop by the radio station the following day for the necessary documents.

  When Anna hung up, she looked up to find five pairs of bright eyes on her. A barrage of questions was fired at her until she held up her hand, overwhelmed, shaking her head as though still trying to grasp what had just happened.

  “I’ll know more tomorrow. I’m still trying to recover,” she said to the disappointment of her fellow teachers.

  After the excitement died down, Anna and Molly left. Molly had been unusually quiet in the lounge, but that hadn’t fooled Anna. She knew her best friend was just waiting until they were alone. Molly didn’t disappoint Anna.

  The second they were snugly sheltered in the warmth of Anna’s car Molly asked, “When are you going?”

  “I guess at Christmas. That’s the only time we have a two-week vacation, and if I go to Austria, I’ll go when I can ski.”

  “Who are you going to take?”

  “My boyfriend,” Anna quipped.

  “You don’t have one,” Molly instantly shot back. “You haven’t dated once since Richard left two years ago.”

  “You’re forgetting about that blind date you fixed me up with a few months back.”

  Molly chuckled. “He was definitely forgettable. I was hoping you’d forget about my little mistake.”

  “Little?”

  “Okay, big. I should have checked him out first, but my dear, sweet husband felt sorry for the man since he had just moved to Denver. And Roy’s description was kind, to say the least.”

  “I didn’t know people our age parked anymore. I thought that was for teenagers. I think that man had been frozen in time and was just thawed out this year. He was still living in the late sixties.”

  “Sorry about that one. That will be the first and last time I arrange a blind date. But you haven’t answered my question. Who will you take?”

  “Todd.”

  “Your son has to spend Christmas with his dad this year.”

  “Maybe Richard will let me have him again for the Christmas holidays since this trip is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

  This time, when Molly laughed, there was no humor in the sound. “Richard? Do you a favor? I personally think you’re better off without that two-timing man.” Her disgust was evident in her expression and voice. “Don’t count on Richard doing it. He’ll want to get his hands on Todd to make sure you haven’t filled your son’s head with the truth. Your husband never did take the time to get to know you or he’d know you couldn’t do that.”

  “Richard doesn’t get to see his son very often since he lives in Alabama,” Anna said in defense. Richard might not have been a good husband, but he was a good dad—once he had finally decided to take on his responsibilities as Todd’s father. He did more for his son now than when he was living with them.

  “And whose fault is that? He’s the one who walked out and moved away from his son because his new wife didn’t want to live where it was cold.”

  “Okay. Then, who? You?” Anna gave her friend a hopeful glance. She hated these minor details spoiling her dream vacation.

  “I have a great husband, but I’m not sure he’s that great. Any other time and I think I could go, but it’s Christmas, and with three children that’s the most important time of year. How about your mother?”

  “Mother’s visiting my sister in Florida this Christmas. She wanted me to come along. Besides, Europe never appealed to her. She’s one of those people who thinks she should see the United States first before globetrotting to parts unknown.”

  “Then how about Emily? She’s single.” Emily Mason was a fellow teacher whom Anna had been a friend with ever since she started teaching after her divorce. Emily was easygoing and fun. “I’ll ask her after I find out the details tomorrow.”

  “If I know Emily, she’ll be foaming at the mouth to go. I’m jealous already.”

  “You don’t have to be.”

  When Anna gave Molly another hopeful look, her friend laughed. “No chance. I’d be drummed out of my family.”

  Anna turned her full concentration on the heavy traffic. When she had married Richard eight years before, she had envisioned them having three or four children. After Todd was born, however, Richard had declared that Todd would be it. A child curtailed his freedom too much.

  She still wanted more children. Well, then start dating, an inner voice chided her.

  Anna realized she should get back into the action, as Molly was always telling her, but never again would she allow herself to be swept off her feet. The next time she would take it slowly and become friends first. She had no intention of losing her heart quickly only to have it broken again.

  * * *

  “Emily, I’m so sorry,” Anna said, sinking down onto her bed next to her suitcase.

  “I think I’m dying.” Emily began to cough and covered her receiver. Moments later she returned to the conversation, her voice hoarser. “After five years of teaching I’ve finally caught a whopper from one of my students. The doctor says it’s a combination strep throat and pneumonia. Oh, Anna, I hate letting you down like this. I hate letting myself down like this.” A half chuckle/half squeak came through the line before Emily began coughing again.

  “Please don’t worry about me. Just take care of yourself.”

  “Have a great time. But don’t send me any postcards. I might cry.”

  After hanging up, Anna stared at the floor, her hand still on the receiver.

  “Anna! Where are you?” Molly called out from the living room.

  Anna blinked, looked up at the door, and shouted, “I’m in my bedroom—packing.” The last word faded into the silence.

  For a few seconds she was transported back in time, as though her struggle for independence had never taken place. Though she knew there had been nothing Emily could do about her illness, Anna felt as she had two years before when Richard had abandoned her. Until her ex-husband had walked out on their marriage, Anna had never had to stand on her own two feet, let alone try to raise a child by herself and be responsible for all the small things that Richard had taken care of. But she had learned over the last two years. She wasn't the same person.

  Molly appeared in her doorway. By the expression on her friend’s face, Anna knew that Emily had called her first.

  “Todd let me in before running out the door to make a snowman with Buddy.” Molly moved into the room and sat on the other side of the suitcase. “I gather that Emily has called you.”

  Anna nodded, tears threatening to escape her eyes.

  “What are you
going to do?”

  Anna shrugged, a knot in her throat.

  “I wish I could go, but I don’t even have a passport.”

  Anna sensed her dream crumbling around her and felt helpless to stop it.

  “How about your mother?”

  “She’s already in Florida. She doesn’t have a passport, either.”

  “And no one can get one in a day. Do you know anyone who has a passport?”

  “Not anyone who’s available. Christmas is a time for family.” Anna swallowed her tears and straightened, snapping her suitcase closed. She couldn’t give up her dream. She had come to a decision. She was no longer the helpless woman she had been two years before. It was time to take chances and prove her was own person. “I’m going to Austria alone.”

  * * *

  Someone was watching him. Mark Prince sensed it in his bones. He was being followed—something that wasn’t unfamiliar to him. He quickened his pace and slipped into a store, pretending to examine a stein while his steely blue eyes were trained on the window. A man passed the store and slowed his step. He looked into the shop and their gazes locked.

  Every muscle in Mark’s body grew taut as the man stepped into the Austrian store. Mark wasn’t fooled by the casual way the stranger browsed about the quaint little shop, also pretending to examine the collection of steins.

  “I need your help. Do you think this stein would be a nice gift for my sister, Sam?” The stranger held up a pewter one.

  Mark’s body tensed. His sister was named Sam. He didn't believe in coincidences. He was sure the stranger’s sister wasn’t called Sam, if he even had one. Instead, this was some kind of a coded message from a man Mark had known in South America.

  “I don’t know. Let me look at it,” Mark replied, taking the stein from the stranger, who also slipped Mark a folded piece of paper. Mark went through the motions of inspecting the mug before handing it back and replying, “Without knowing her, I wouldn’t be able to say.” Mark left the shop, certain the man wouldn’t follow him anymore. The stranger had given him what he had been sent to deliver.