Seducing the Colonel's Daughter: Seducing the Colonel's DaughterThe Secret Soldier

by Jennifer Morey

  Where had Lowe taken her? Cullen could only guess. He’d been so besotted with her, so caught up with the way she made him feel that he’d forgotten the danger.

  Pulling his gun from his boot, his hands trembled as he flipped off the safety. This was like no other mission he’d experienced. He was scared. Really scared. Sabine...

  What if she was already dead? He felt sick with the possibility. Lowe had no reason to wait to kill her.

  “I can’t lose her.” His mind became a kaleidoscope of dread. If she died, it would kill him. Never before had he felt closer to knowing the agony that had destroyed his father.

  Think.

  The money. Maybe Lowe wouldn’t kill her until he got Aden’s share of the money. He clung to that thought as he ran to The Curtis. A car screeched around the corner behind him. When it passed, he spotted the driver. Blond hair.

  Cullen started looking for a car to use.

  * * *

  Sabine drifted out of unconsciousness and opened her eyes to darkness. The sound of tires over a dirt road told her she was in a car. In the trunk of a car, suffocating and eerily familiar. Instantly she was back in Afghanistan. In her dark cell. Alone. Waiting to die.

  Her heart pounded so hard she felt her pulse in her ears. Her frightened breaths surrounded her. Fear overwhelmed her, an otherworldly vapor that threatened to choke the strength out of her.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. Stop, she ordered herself. Stop it! Fear would be her only adversary if she allowed it. She had a choice whether to give in to fear or not.

  Opening her eyes, she tried to see around her. It was too dark. She felt with her hands for some kind of weapon. There was nothing in the trunk.

  The car came to a halt. Her heart raced faster. It was okay if it raced. She needed it to race. It was the fear she had to control.

  Sabine adjusted her legs and mentally prepared herself to attack as soon as the trunk opened. The engine turned off and she listened to the car door open and close. Footsteps grew closer. A key slid into the lock. Turned. The trunk began to open.

  Sabine pushed upward with her back, sending the trunk springing the rest of the way open. Lowe raised the gun. She registered his blond hair and glacial-blue eyes before she rammed her palm against his big nose. She recognized him from Samuel’s picture.

  Lowe stumbled back, holding his nose. Sabine jumped out of the trunk and ran. In the distance, cars moved along a busy street. Between that and her, an old farmhouse with dark windows stood perched on the bed of a truck, ready to be moved.

  Lowe’s gun exploded. He missed. She heard the bullet strike the ground far off its mark. She made it around to the other side of the truck before more bullets pinged against metal and wood. Peering around the back of the truck, she watched Lowe tread toward her. Looking up at the farmhouse on top of the truck, she spotted an open window. Climbing up onto the flatbed, seeing Lowe raise his gun and take aim, she hurried to pull herself over the windowsill.

  She jerked as a bullet splintered the trim to her left, but she fell inside the house unharmed. Scrambling to her feet, she ran through a badly run-down bedroom, down a hall and into the front of the house. The front door was open a crack, but Lowe hadn’t come inside yet. She heard something in the rear of the house. Her heart beat as fast as bird wings. She tried to quiet her breathing and looked for something to use as a weapon.

  * * *

  Cullen drove the Sebring he’d stolen onto a deserted road that connected to a busier one that led to Tower Road and Denver International Airport. By some miracle he’d managed to keep Lowe’s car in sight. He’d gotten lucky, catching up to him after stealing the car.

  Lowe had parked his car near an old farmhouse supported on the back of a truck. The trunk of the car was open, but there was no sign of Lowe. No sign of Sabine, either.

  Cullen had to fight the dread electrifying his senses, force himself to remember he was trained for this.

  Getting out of the Sebring, he ran toward Lowe’s car. He searched his surroundings. Bare, flat ground. The house on a truck. Nothing moved. Lowe must have taken her into the farmhouse.

  Holding his gun ready, he peered into the trunk. It was empty. Closing his eyes briefly, breathing through the light-headedness of relief that he hadn’t found Sabine’s body there, he moved toward the house.

  Stay focused. Find Sabine. Kill Lowe.

  At the front of the truck, behind the cab, he climbed onto the house’s covered porch. The door was open a crack, and he could hear the sound of a struggle. He pushed the door open, aiming his weapon inside, wishing he had night-

  vision gear. Stepping inside, he moved to the end of the entry wall and carefully peered around it. In a badly maintained kitchen, Sabine swung a piece of floorboard trim at Lowe. Lowe blocked it and knocked it from her hands. It fell to the floor with a clatter. Cullen stepped into the open the same instant Lowe saw him. Instantly Lowe hooked his arm around Sabine’s neck, hauling her against him and putting a pistol to her head. Sabine clawed at the arm that held her, her eyes seeing Cullen and staying on him with a silent plea.

  Cullen’s breath stopped and his heart felt near to doing the same. Stay focused.

  He aimed for Lowe’s head.

  “Drop the gun or she’s dead,” Lowe said.

  “Let her go.”

  Lowe shook his head, his eyes filling with anger. “I’ve about had it with you. Drop it now or I’ll kill her.”

  Don’t hesitate, Cullen told himself. Shoot. He wouldn’t miss. He never missed. Not at this range.

  “He wanted you to follow us here, Cullen,” Sabine said.

  Lowe gave her a jerk and tightened his hold. “Quiet!” To Cullen he repeated, “Drop the gun.”

  Sabine’s warning dropped inside him. Lowe planned to lure him here to kill them both. Perhaps he thought he could eliminate everyone who could expose him to Isma’il’s friend. He met Sabine’s eyes. She nodded once, a subtle reassurance. Even frightened, her eyes beamed her will. She trusted him.

  He returned his attention to his aim. It hadn’t moved. Sabine closed her eyes and dropped her weight. Lowe started to adjust his hold on her. Cullen fired three times in rapid succession.

  Lowe’s body crumpled to the floor, his head hitting a dirty white cabinet door, lolling until it went still, a stream of blood trailing from three holes in his forehead. The gun thudded to rest a few feet from his hand.

  Sabine crawled backward until she came against Cullen’s calves. Flipping the safety on his gun, he stuffed it in his boot and bent to slip his arms under hers, pulling her to her feet. She turned and threw her arms around him. He held her, burying his face in her hair, smelling her, feeling her tremble despite her bravery. He closed his eyes to the sensation of her alive in his arms. Safe. Once and for all.

  “You’re safe now,” he said, swallowing because his heart was still pounding from the fear that had ripped through him.

  He felt her relax against him. Her breathing slowed.

  “I thought I lost you,” he confessed, because it was so overwhelmingly true.

  She leaned back, eyes red and face moist from tears. He watched his meaning take hold in her eyes. “You didn’t.”

  “Yeah, but I thought I did, I was so...so...” Afraid. It appalled him to know what losing her could do to him. Shred his soul. Incapacitate him. Reduce him to a shaking mess of a man.

  “You didn’t lose me,” she insisted.

  He never wanted to feel like this again.

  Chapter 13

  Watching the landscape pass by the window of Cullen’s rental car, Sabine’s head pounded and it felt as if there was a heavy fog in her head. She had a slight concussion from being struck on the head by Lowe. But that was easy to ignore with Cullen’s silence on the ride home from Denver.

  They’d had to
stay and talk to the police. They were probably only free to go because of Cullen’s connections. It had still taken a few hours. She was tired...but mostly because of Cullen.

  Did he think she hadn’t noticed how his fear had driven him to withdraw? He had a glimpse of what it would feel like to lose her, so now he’d remove himself from the possibility of it ever happening again. Maybe he didn’t want her to know how his fear had weakened him. Maybe it made him feel like less of a man to know he was capable of feeling so much for another person. Part of her took heart that he did, in fact, feel that much for her, but mostly she was disappointed. And mad.

  She knew what was going to happen as soon as they arrived at her bookstore. He was going to leave.

  Ironic, that she’d placed so much significance on his choosing her over his mission when that had never been the thing that would keep them apart. Watching his father ruin his life to alcoholism over a woman had made an irreversible imprint in his subconscious. It seemed they had that in common, although she was closer to resolving things with her father than he with his. The thought caught her unguarded. Was she ready to forgive her father? Maybe not quite, but in time she might. He wasn’t the way she remembered, and in her heart she knew he was sincere in his desire to know her.

  Cullen drove to a stop behind her bookstore, and her nerves turned her stomach. This was it. Time for goodbye. She resigned herself to letting Cullen go. It was all or nothing for her. She wanted all of him or nothing.

  He left the car running and neither of them moved for a while. They’d escaped the media for now. Not even Minivan Man was here yet.

  Finally, Sabine opened the car door and got out, hearing him do the same. At the foot of the stairs leading to her office door, she faced him. He came to a stop before her, and all she could do was look at his face. She couldn’t imagine never seeing him again.

  Those gray eyes found hers and they stared at each other. She felt his struggle, the difficulty he was having saying goodbye. So she put her hands on his chest and rose onto the balls of her feet. She pressed her lips to his. His hands went to her waist.

  “Sabine...”

  She stopped him by moving her hand to place a finger over his mouth. That mouth she loved kissing so much. “Don’t,” she said. Finding his eyes with hers, those gray eyes that were always so full of strength and vitality, she told him silently of her love. “Do what you need to do, Cullen. Don’t worry about me. I’m where I belong.” She forced herself to smile, seeing his wary look. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here right now. I wouldn’t be looking forward to opening my bookstore and living a quiet life in a town I love. I’m safe and I have you to thank for that. I’ve got my bookstore and I’m going to be happy.” Someday, she thought.

  He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m not,” she whispered. And she wasn’t. This wasn’t the same as her parents. Sabine wouldn’t let Cullen keep reappearing in her life if he chose to turn away from his feelings. She also would never regret believing they had a chance, because it was true. They had a chance. Cullen was just blowing it.

  A moment passed. Two. Then he stepped back.

  Sabine willed the sadness that numbed her to a manageable level. He was leaving. Turning his back on her, on what he felt for her, and what she felt for him. The risk to his heart was too great for him.

  This was the way it had to be. He had to go and she had to let him. She didn’t want a man whose heart wasn’t totally hers. He had to be sure of his choices. And she couldn’t help him decide.

  “Goodbye, Cullen,” she said, feeling tears brim her eyes. She turned so he wouldn’t see them and climbed the stairs, opening her back door.

  “Sabine...”

  She closed the door and leaned her forehead against it. This was it. Cullen was out of her life.

  She heard the rental car drive away.

  Oh, God. It tore her from the inside out to hear him leave. Despite her best efforts, more tears filled her eyes and a few spilled free.

  * * *

  Cullen sat at his desk with his fingers in his hair, leaning over a pad of paper full of his scribbles. His attempt at starting over with a new business strategy.

  The phone rang. At least the number still hadn’t gotten out to the press, so he knew it wasn’t a reporter.

  “McQueen.” There was no point in hiding his identity.

  “You have very powerful friends.”

  The shock of surprise rendered him mute for a second. “Commander Birch.”

  “As much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree with Colonel Roth.”

  Hope singed his nerves. Roth had gone to see his commander?

  “I’m not stupid, McQueen. I know there’s more to that company of yours than the press is going on about. I knew you were good, but I never would have guessed you were that good.”

  “I’m sure you didn’t call just to tell me that.” If Birch was trying to pry information out of him, it wasn’t going to work. He was still willing to sacrifice the army reserves to protect those who helped make a company like SCS possible.

  “Colonel Roth explained to me how valuable you were to the Special Forces community. He also explained he wasn’t going to allow a discharge. The only kind of action I can take...is no action at all.”

  Cullen leaned back in his chair, exultation and relief and gratitude so great it thrilled him for a few seconds.

  “So you’re still a part of this group,” Birch continued. “Your reserve status remains what it was. However, I do recommend you work in intelligence from now on, rather than Ops. But as Colonel Roth put it in no uncertain terms, the choice is yours.”

  “Done. I’ll move over to intelligence.”

  Birch’s silence told him he’d gained back a little ground with his commander.

  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I had to go behind your back.”

  “I don’t ever want to hear you mention this again, McQueen. If you have to run a private company, make sure it stays private from now on. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, sir.” In his head he roared another yes! And ended the call.

  He hadn’t lost his position with the army. And from the looks of it, he had backing for a new company.

  Sabine’s face pushed his elation down. Reporters still hung around the building, hoping to get him to talk about her. But his answer was always the same.

  Sorry, no comment.

  Did you go somewhere to be alone with her?

  Sorry, no comment.

  Why was someone trying to kill her? Are Aden Archer’s and Casey Lowe’s deaths related to her kidnapping?

  Sorry, no comment.

  Are you two still having an affair? Did she call things off or did you?

  No comment, no comment.

  Are you going to marry her?

  That one always tripped him up.

  All he had to do was recall how he’d felt after discovering Sabine missing, and it drove away any doubt he harbored over leaving her. He truly, absolutely, never wanted to feel like that again. He’d self-destruct.

  It should be so clear to him. Get his company back on its feet. Move on. He could regroup. Start over. All he needed was a new plan.

  “You look like hell.”

  Cullen slid his hand from his hair and looked up at Odie. She looked smart in her oval, black-rimmed glasses and dull gray suit with her long, thick black hair piled in a sexy mess on top of her head—deceptive cover for the strength that lay beneath the shell of a powerful woman.

  “Thanks. Glad to see you, too.”

  She humphed and moved into the office. “When are you going to admit defeat and get on with your life?”

  “Right now. I’m going to sell the building and start another company somewh
ere else. Hire a few more operatives.”

  “In Roaring Creek?” Her dark eyes slanted at him skeptically.

  Odie wasn’t stupid and he resented her audacity. “I don’t know where.”

  With a roll of her hips, she planted her rear on his desk, right on top of the documents he’d been studying. “Look at yourself, Cullen.” She used her forefinger to flick his uncombed hair. “When’s the last time you showered?”

  “This morning,” he said, meeting her indomitable gaze.

  “You didn’t go home last night.”

  “Oh, yeah.” He nodded, caught in the lie. “Yesterday morning, then.”

  Every time he went home, he was suffocated by the emptiness that surrounded him. He couldn’t believe he’d lived like that for so long. So alone and in such a sterile environment. He didn’t even have any pictures of his family anywhere. Not that he wanted any of his dad.

  “You’re pathetic. You know that, don’t you?”

  “Just say what’s on your mind, Odie.” He leaned back in his chair and waited.

  She didn’t waste a beat. “It’s painfully obvious you love her.”

  “No, I don’t.” He refused to believe it.

  He didn’t want to love a woman that much. It was precisely what he’d struggled to avoid all these years. That kind of love. The kind his father felt for his mother. The deepest kind. The kind a man could never walk away from. Even if death forced it upon him.

  Odie’s eyes narrowed in a shrewd study of him, then relaxed as she came to a conclusion. “You’re running scared.”

  He felt his brow shoot low. “Now wait just a minute—”

  “You’re afraid to love her.”

  “I am not.”

  “You’re scared to death, McQueen.” She laughed with her realization. “That is so priceless. You. Afraid of a little ole thing like love.”

  Lifting her weight off the desk, she stood. “You know what? I’m going to do you a favor.” She walked toward his office door with all the brass of a woman who could bring politicians to their knees.