Outside the shed a sweat-shirt-clad guy dragged himself toward a nine-millimeter Glock. Jordan Paris.
Two struggling figures on the ground blocked the doorway. Vinson and Juliana.
It should have been a very lopsided fight, but it wasn’t. On his back, Vinson levered himself against the door frame in an effort to reach the pistol. Juliana strangled his legs with one arm. She was whacking him in the nuts with her backpack. Against her weight, the son of a bitch couldn’t move forward or make it to his feet.
Juliana’s tenacity was incredible. Rick dashed forward and scooped up the Glock.
Wescott and Donovan pulled Jordan Paris out of the way.
Snarling in frustration, Vinson heaved back a fist. “Bitch.”
Rick blocked his arm, jammed the SIG under his jaw. “Don’t even think about it, dirtbag. I don’t fucking need an excuse.”
Other agents moved in and hauled the marina owner away.
Rick lifted Juliana into his arms and carried her from the volatile fumes.
“My brother, he’s in shock. They . . . they broke his leg.” A sob burst from her, and tears flooded his collar.
He hugged her closer and called to Wescott to send for an ambulance. “I’ll get you both blankets.”
“You sh-should put me down. I’m soaked. You’ll get gasoline all over you.”
She was safe. She was okay, really okay if the little fool was worried about his clothes.
The coppery taste of terror subsided with the slowing of his heartbeat. He sank his nose into her hair, seeking the peach scent beneath the gasoline. “Hush, mi brava, and let me hold you.”
*****
Agents read Miranda rights to all the scumbags, five counting Jordan, who was the only one not handcuffed. He’d keep until he was treated, but the Mexicans and Vinson were ready to be processed. Vinson stalked to the DEA van muttering complaints about the unfairness of it all and his inability to make a damned profit when the fishing was so lousy and government regulations stymied him at every turn.
“Ninety percent of these assholes find a way for their crimes to be someone else’s fault,” Rick said.
“And the world fucking owes them a living,” Jake Wescott agreed.
“Not just a living, a profit, to hear that bastard spout off,” Holt Donovan added.
Rick had little time to see to Juliana other than wrapping a blanket around her. He had evidence to bag and label and other agents to direct. On autopilot, he did his job, but kept one anxious eye on the small wool-wrapped figure hovering near her brother.
The EMTs declared she probably needed stitches. In spite of Rick’s urging, she refused treatment. “I need to go home and have a bath. I’ll be all right.”
He telephoned later, but Venice said she’d patched up Juliana and she was sleeping.
The next day when he made it back to the Boston Division office, he discovered his transfer had arrived.
“Great, just great.” He slumped at his desk. Everything was coming together—Portland case solved, Olívas and his gang off the streets, his transfer.
Everything but Juliana.
Chapter 16
Juliana emerged from the wooded slopes of the Otter Mountain West Face Trail.
The view always soothed and thrilled her. This April afternoon was no exception. Fir and pine-spiked hills undulated like a rumpled blanket down, down to the choppy Atlantic. Over the Cranberry Isles, cerulean skies arched to the indigo horizon. Lobster boats churned to their bright buoy-marked traps.
She’d hiked up slowly, drinking in the forest’s calm, its sweet scent of new growth, and enjoying the small signs of spring—leaf buds on the birches and tiny green leaves on the forest floor, dogtooth violets and bunchberry. Before knowing Rick, she’d never taken the time to enjoy their beauty.
Today she was noticing it alone.
Three days after the drug gang’s capture and Jordan’s arrest, matters calmed enough for her to escape for a few days. Jordan was out of the hospital and out on bail, charged with drug trafficking. She’d heard the task force still had nothing on the weapons. But for the drugs, Jordan could tell them where all the drops were, who all the buyers were. He’d identified the other body, another young mule duped by Sudsy Pettit.
Her brother was home, in her apartment, being pampered by Molly, who had arrived and suddenly developed maternal instincts. Timely, if ironic. Clucking about infection, Molly dragged her to the hospital for stitches on her hand. Now her wounds were healing. She had to get away, to come here to sort out her feelings and her future.
And begin to heal her heart.
Easing off her pack, she sat on a sun-drenched rock. She slipped off her windbreaker and tied it at her waist. Her heart ached for all she’d found and lost. She pressed her palms to the butterfly decal on her tee-shirt.
Rick had called her his mariposa, his butterfly, and in his arms she had flown high, she had dared, she had broken out of her staid little mold to see with new perspective. The security and stability she longed for were in the love and trust between a man and woman. Like a wooden boat against this rocky coast, her dissembling had shattered hope of that for her and Rick.
She wanted to sit here where she’d climbed with Rick. Today she wanted to remember. Memories were all she had. She opened herself to the mountain’s peace.
*****
Rick barreled from the tree cover. When he spotted her seated on their boulder, his heart stuttered an extra beat. He stumbled to a stop. His gaze zeroed in on her. On her soft pink mouth, open in shock at the clattering he’d made on the trail.
Gut churning, he mustered his best piano-key smile. “Hola, Juliana.” He flopped down beside her.
“What are you doing here?” Her teeth fretted her lower lip as she glared at him.
He caressed her skin, especially that extra soft spot beneath the curve of her jaw. “Your uncle said I could find you here.”
Distrust and apprehension rode on her forehead, but he felt a kernel of hope in her shiver at his touch. He leaned back and turned his face to the sun. “What a day!”
She glanced back at the trail. “You ran up the mountain.”
Nodding, he clasped her fluttering hands. “Because you are here.”
“Rick, I—”
“Hush.” He leaned closer to brush a kiss over her lips. “Let me do this right. Another reason I came today was to apologize. I was wrong to push you so hard about your brother. The blinders that focused me on avenging my brother’s death kept me from considering your need to protect your brother. Forgive me for not understanding.”
She shook her head. “There’s nothing to forgive. I should have trusted you.”
“I shouldn’t have expected you to trust me. And I didn’t, couldn’t trust you.”
Her mouth turned up in a shaky half smile. “So it’s a stalemate.”
“Not quite. I know you’re worthy of trust. I hope you can trust me enough to build from there over the next fifty years or so. Together.” He lifted her fingers to his lips.
“This from the man who avoids relationships, who’s allergic to commitment?” Her voice held a skeptical tone.
“I deserve that.” Fearing she might slip away, he kept a grip on her small hands. “You showed me how to care. I fell in love. I love you. I need you. You think I’m a heartbreaker, but I’ve always played fair. I’ve never before told a woman I loved her. Sometimes I can’t breathe not knowing what to do about us. You are my love, my soul, my heart—mi corazón.”
She pushed to her feet and edged a little distance apart. “We’re so different. I have my degree to finish, and you’re being transferred.”
“So you heard about that.” He had to convince her. He wouldn’t live the rest of his life without her. He couldn’t. “I leave in a week.”
“You like your exciting life, haring off in search of adventure. I need security.”
“They don’t transfer Group Supervisors nearly as much as other agents.” Tension had his gut
wound tight as a watch spring. He took a deep breath, tried to stop sounding like a bumbling idiot.
“What?”
“My promotion to GS came in. The SAC—the Special Agent in Charge—pushed for it. Guess he was grateful I cleared out the rotten apple. That carefree life of adventure, as you put it, isn’t all it’s hyped to be, Juliana. It’s lonely. I’m finished with all that. I want love and family.” Desperate to be closer, he tugged her between his legs.
“Well, congratulations then. I’m happy for you.” She stood rigidly, as if a hiking stick propped up her spine, but she didn’t retreat. Dios, would this woman never surrender? “Where are they sending you?”
“Miami. One of the guys there is retiring. I’m going home. Don’t make me go alone.” He grinned, making sure his dimple winked at her. He needed all the ammunition he could muster. “It’s thanks to you I can.”
“Me? What did I do?”
“Your prodding helped me get past my papá’s neglect and understand his fear of losing another son. You understand me. I need your wit and insight. I need you. Marry me.”
She bent her forehead to his. “Oh, Rick, you’ve always been the man I wanted. I think I fell in love with you that day you slammed me to the floor in Jordan’s apartment. I was afraid to trust you, but more afraid to trust myself.”
“See what I mean? You’re good for my ego. They say you can’t go home again, but I can now with confidence. And if you’re with me. Go with me.”
She leaned back, doubt crimping her forehead. “Right away?”
“It’d be hard. Your family, for instance.” He ticked that obstacle off on his fingers.
She gave him a wry smile. “Now who’s making a list?”
“Your family,” he prompted with an unrepentant grin.
“Not a problem. Molly seems to have remembered, at least for the time being, that she’s a mother. She and Jordan are two peas in a pod and can take care of each other.”
“The SAC’s in Jordan’s corner. I doubt your brother will do much jail time. He has too much to trade. I’ll make sure you can come back for the trial. If there is one.”
He held up his fingers again to tick off another obstacle. “College. You’re in the middle of a semester.”
A snort was her indelicate reply. “This semester is a wash. I missed too many assignments and classes. You must have a college or two in Miami.” She grinned.
“So you’ll do it? You’ll come with me? And marry me?”
“Yes, mi corazón.” Her tongue tangled around the Spanish endearment. “My life here would be empty without you.”
“Ah, you need me, you need my good humor, my charm, to keep you from being too serious, too—”
“Obsessive? Compulsive? And you need me to help you see the occasional down side of things.”
“If we’re together, down sides will be as rare as Antarctic butterflies.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He swept her up in a kiss of possession. Before he tore off her clothes and made love to her on this cold pile of rocks, he stopped and took her hand. “I’m staying at the Bar Harbor Inn. Come with me. I’ll change, and we’ll go out on that date we never had.”
If she was feeling the way he did, if they went to his room, they wouldn’t make it out on the town this time either.
Hooking her arms in her backpack, she sent him a languid look. “I’ll race you down the trail.”
*****
Click here to read a Bonus Scene: http://susanvaughan.com/nsbonusscene.html
BOOK 2 of Task Force Eagle – ONCE BURNED
Once burned – Twice shy – And into the fire
ATF agent Jake Wescott goes undercover in his Maine hometown of Dragon Harbor to find the local connection to Mexican drug-and-arms cartel El Águila’s New England operation. He becomes the reluctant protector of Lani Cameron, who was scarred in the long-ago fire that killed her twin. She couldn’t save her sister but maybe she can dispel the guilt and nightmares by finding the truth. Their shared past and the search bind them together, and intimacy ignites passion. As they uncover secrets, they face danger more explosive than they’d feared.
*****
BOOK 3 of Task Force Eagle – TWICE A TARGET
He doesn’t want a woman he can’t trust, and she doesn’t want a man who won’t let himself trust her.
Disaster strikes DEA Agent Holt Donovan twice, when his mission to trap Mexican cartel kingpin El Águila ends in a disastrous gunfight and a car crash kills Holt’s younger brother and sister-in-law. Home to run the family’s debt-burdened Colorado ranch and raise his infant nephew, Holt sets out to prove the crash was no accident. Enter Maddy McCoy, who once jilted his brother and is now a nomadic photographer. Grief-stricken and struggling to raise a baby and run the ranch, Holt enlists Maddy as nanny. As they cope with old resentment and new desire, their investigation of the crash leads them into danger and a shocking discovery.
About the Author
SUSAN VAUGHAN is the multi-published author of romantic suspense novels. Her books have won the Golden Leaf and More Than Magic awards and have been an RT Book Reviews Magazine Reviewer’s Choice Nominee and a finalist for the Booksellers’ Best and Daphne du Maurier awards. Her books have been translated into German, French, Spanish, and Icelandic and published in more than eleven countries. She’s a West Virginia native, but she and her husband have lived in Maine for many years. Her Web site is www.susanvaughan.com. She loves to hear from readers: [email protected].
Also by Susan Vaughan
ONCE BURNED (Task Force Eagle, Book 2)
TWICE A TARGET (Task Force Eagle, Book 3)
PRIMAL OBSESSION
DEADLY MEMORIES
BREAKING ALL THE RULES
CODE NAME: FIANCÉE
GUARDING LAURA
DANGEROUS ATTRACTION
What Others Say about Susan Vaughan’s Books
“NEVER SURRENDER is the first book in author Susan Vaughan’s new series and now I can’t wait for the rest of the books to be released. This is a fast-paced romantic suspense with a yummy hero and an independent heroine.” – Reader Sheila S – 5 stars on Amazon.com.
“Susan Vaughan writes an intensely romantic thriller.... This is an excellent tale of people at their best and worst learning to work together through adversity.” - The Romance Studio about PRIMAL OBSESSION
“An action-packed story with a sizzling romance at its center. This is a fast-paced read with a great, hot romance between two people who couldn’t be more mismatched.” – RT Book Reviews Magazine about DEADLY MEMORIES (4.5)
“This is a fast paced romance with plenty of action and adventure, and a wonderful tale of an emotionally hurt woman with a life full of secrets and the one man who can erase it all.” – Coffee Time Romance about BREAKING ALL THE RULES (4)
TO PURCHASE
http://www.amazon.com/Susan-Vaughan/e/B001HPK2LY/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
More buy links at http://www.susanvaughan.com
Table of Contents
Copyright
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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
Bonus
About the Author
Other books by Susan Vaughan
What Others Say about Susan Vaughan’s Books
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Never Surrender (Task Force Eagle) Page 13