Private Maneuvers: Hot Zone Book 3

by Denise A. Agnew

  In a flash of revelation, she guessed the woman’s identity. Annie Stratiev, the accountant Uncle Dexter had fired several weeks back. Her mental state gave evidence that any wrong movement, anything could create a bad reaction in her already unstable mindset.

  Marisa drew in a deep breath and tried to control her racing heart as she sat in the chair. “Don’t you want me to help you find the necklace?”

  “You’ll just lie to me like everyone does. My family. The doctors. Everyone. Maybe you should just die and get out of my way.”

  Though the woman’s icy statement filled Marisa with dread, she said, “Annie, have you called here and threatened to kill Dexter and me?”

  “Yeah. Because you’re keeping my necklace.”

  Marisa thought quickly. “In the necklace is your heart? Is it a locket?”

  “Yes.”

  Annie’s face crumpled, and great sobs wracked her body. She lowered her weapon, and Marisa’s heart slowed to a more regular pace. Maybe, just maybe, she’d make it out of this situation in one piece if she remained calm.

  “I’m so sorry, Annie, that you’re sad. Tell me more, about the necklace and your heart.”

  Annie grimaced and the tears came harder, her face screwed up in a mental anguish that pierced Marisa’s soul in a way she wouldn’t have expected.

  “I started taking those damned pills five years ago when my baby died,” Annie said. “After that the truth was fogged and I couldn’t see straight any longer. Don’t you see those doctors stole my heart too?”

  Marisa’s soul clenched in sympathetic pain. “You lost a baby?”

  “Yes.”

  “How…” Marisa swallowed, aching for the woman. “Boy or girl?”

  “I don’t know. It wasn’t…we didn’t know yet. And then my husband left me and everything came crashing down.”

  Marisa couldn’t have felt the pain any deeper than if it had been her own. Right then she understood what she needed to say to Annie…what she wanted to say. “I lost a baby too. I was only a few weeks pregnant. I never knew the sex of my baby.”

  Annie stared at Marisa and Marisa saw humanity within the woman’s gaze, a pain that had torn her apart. “When? When did your baby die?”

  “Three years ago. My fiancé died in Iraq and then I lost the baby when I found out.” Tears welled in Marisa’s eyes, and she drew a shuddering breath. “So you see, I understand how your heart was lost.”

  “Oh, God.” Annie’s tears came harder.

  Marisa’s fingers tightened on the arms of the chair, still uncertain what Annie might do.

  Annie nodded. “Those fucking doctors gave me those pills because they said I was nuts. I’m not nuts.” Annie’s tone went louder. “I’m not nuts. I’m just confused.”

  Frustration ate away at Marisa, but she calmed her impatience. She’d talk her way out of this situation one way or the other and get this woman professional help. More anguish poured from Annie’s eyes and Marisa allowed her own tears to wend a watery path down her cheeks. Let Annie see what she felt, and maybe, in some weird way, it would wash them both clean of pain.

  “My necklace is shaped like a heart.” Annie clenched her fist and shook it at Marisa. “The day Dexter fired me was the anniversary of my husband leaving me and my baby’s death. I lost the necklace somehow.”

  “Oh, God,” Marisa said, the ache inside her accumulating power. “God, I’m so sorry. Uncle Dexter didn’t know that, I swear it.”

  Annie nodded, and Marisa hoped the woman would calm enough that she could get the gun away from her.

  “I want that necklace. I want it now.”

  “Annie, I swear I haven’t seen it, but I’ll do my best to help you locate it. The gun is scaring me, though. Can we get rid of it?”

  To Marisa’s utter amazement, the woman laid the gun on the desk.

  Another deep breath managed to make its way into Marisa’s lungs, then she said calmly. “If I’m going to help you find it, I have to leave the chair, right?”

  “Yes. Stand up.”

  Marisa obeyed.

  Annie’s eyes seemed to clear, as if her sanity glimmered fresh in her gaze, opening her mind. “Can you help me?

  “Of course. May I come closer?”

  Annie nodded.

  “May I have the gun?” Marisa asked.

  Annie’s head bobbed again, and with tension crawling up her back, Marisa reached for the gun. When Marisa’s fingers clutched around the gun, she breathed a sigh of relief. She backed a safe distance away from the other woman.

  “Thank you, Annie.”

  Annie gasped, as if startled, her gaze darting toward the doorway. Marisa looked around. Jake stood there, weapon in hand, but pointed down at the ground and resting along his right thigh. His gaze was hard, not the least sympathetic toward the woman’s tears.

  “Jake,” Marisa said, relief filling her in a dizzying wave.

  “Are you are all right?” he asked.

  “I’m fine. Annie was just telling me about her plight. I think we can help her.”

  Jake stepped forward, wariness firm in his eyes. “I heard the whole story.” He tucked his weapon in the back waistband of his jeans. Then he held his hand out to Marisa. “I’ll hold on to the other weapon while you both search for the necklace.”

  Marisa handed him the gun and started searching the office for anywhere the other woman may have misplaced the jewelry. Less than five minutes later, flashing lights danced over the windows, and Marisa glanced at Jake. He shook his head slowly, and she got the message. He didn’t say a word as he left the office. Marisa heard him opening the door and talking with someone. Moments later two police officers, a man and a woman, entered the office.

  Annie glanced up, her face alighting with genuine happiness as she pulled the necklace from a drawer. “Here it is. I found it. I found my heart! It was stuck in this crevice. I’d taken it off and forgotten it.” Annie’s expression fell when she saw the police. “Are they here to take my heart from me?”

  Annie’s tears rained again, and Marisa couldn’t take it. “No. No. They’re here to help you. No one can ever take your heart from you, Annie.” She stepped forward, and then Annie collapsed into Marisa’s arms, sobs wracking her thin body. Marisa held the woman, tears raining down her cheeks as sharp understanding and distress pierced Marisa to the core.

  “It’s all right, Annie. It’s all right,” Marisa whispered as she caressed the woman’s hair and closed her eyes against the sorrow that staggered her from the core of her being.

  “Ma’am,” the male officer whose nametag read Winslow said, “we can take her now. Annie’s visited with us before and knows us well. We’ll take care of her.”

  Annie pulled from Marisa’s arms, but now her smile sparkled, genuine and happy, and tears drying fast on her cheeks. “They’re always good to me. I’ll go with them now. I’m sorry I scared you. So sorry.”

  Marisa’s throat tightened, and she couldn’t speak.

  Annie walked away with Winslow, and Jake handed the female cop the weapon Annie had brought in with her.

  The female officer turned to Marisa and Jake. “You can press charges of course.”

  “No,” Marisa said. “No, I won’t. She’s…I don’t think she ever meant us any real harm.”

  Grant looked skeptical. “She held a weapon on you.”

  Marisa put a hand to her aching throat. “I know. But I don’t think she’ll ever do it again. She found what she came looking for.”

  The cop left shortly after obtaining their full statement. When the cops left with Annie in their car, Jake wandered toward Marisa. He pulled the weapon out of his waistband and laid it on the desk.

  Without a word, he drew her into his arms and hugged her. Silence enveloped her while tears returned and soaked his bare chest.

  “I don’t…I don’t understand why I’m bawling like this,” she said, clasping him about the waist and holding on to him as if he was a lifeline.

  “Fear ma
ybe? She scared you, didn’t she? I saw…” He cleared his throat. “When I woke up and heard voices, I came downstairs. When I reached the doorway and heard the conversation you were having with her, I peeked around the corner and saw her holding the weapon on you.” Jake tilted her head back so he could see her. “It scared the shit out of me, Marisa.”

  “Me, too. And then she told me about her husband and baby.” Marisa quivered, and he placed a tender kiss on her forehead and proceeded to kiss away her tears.

  She gave him a watery smile. “And you didn’t turn all Rambo on the situation.”

  “You had it under control. I didn’t need to.”

  She smoothed her hands upward until she encircled his neck. “I was so scared. I…when she had that gun pointed at me I wondered if earlier tonight was all I would have with you.”

  His lips, so close to hers, whispered low, “You were damned good with her. Damned good. But if you ever scare me like that again…”

  She made a small, indignant noise. “If I scare you? What did I do?”

  He kissed her lips this time, a tender, sweet touch. “When I saw that damned gun pointed at you…I would face down a hundred insurgents in Iraq and wouldn’t know half the fear I felt right then.” His eyes glimmered with emotion. “There’s something it made me realize.”

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t care if we haven’t known each other long. I just know I’ve never felt this for any other woman. I love you, Marisa. I love you so much.”

  As she sank closer into his arms, hugging him tightly, tears of joy wiped away those of sadness. “I love you, too, Jake.”

  ***

  “You’re staying in Clarksville a little longer, Marisa?” Uncle Dexter grinned at Jake and Marisa, and she enjoyed the delight in her uncle’s voice as he leaned across the tavern table. “That’s the best news I’ve heard in days. Including that you have my accounting records in order.”

  “Well, that and our engagement, I hope,” Marisa said as Jake touched her thigh under the table. She shivered at his intimate touch.

  “Of course, darling,” Uncle Dexter said. “Hell, I always knew something was between you and Jake.”

  She didn’t try and deny it.

  Marisa and Jake had announced their engagement the day after Annie had invaded the tavern. Now, three days later, the whole town knew not only about Annie’s late night raid on the tavern, but about the engagement too. The beautifully engraved Celtic design titanium and yellow gold bands they’d picked out at a local jeweler added to the rumors. They wouldn’t wear the bands until they married, but hell, word exploded within a few hours that Jake and Marisa had purchased them.

  They’d learned from the police department that Annie had kept an extra key to the building, something Uncle Dexter had no idea she’d done. After Dexter had fired her she’d wandered in and out of homeless shelters even though she had a home, unable to work or function when she’d had a psychotic break.

  “When’s the date for the wedding?” Dexter said after he sipped his beer.

  “A December wedding,” Jake said. “Here, in Clarksville.”

  Uncle Dexter pounded Jake on the back. “Excellent idea, boy. I love it.”

  Jake’s grin went ear to ear, and she noticed he’d smiled more in the last few days than she’d ever seen him grin.

  “We’re going over to see Annie’s lawyer in a bit. To make sure she’s being taken care of,” Marisa said.

  Uncle Dexter frowned. “Damn it, girl. I’m so sorry about her and that necklace. When I fired her I knew something was wrong with the woman, but didn’t know exactly what. She’d never told me about her past.”

  “I know,” Marisa said. “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known what would happen.”

  Uncle Dexter soon left them to their drinks and the coziness of their corner table.

  Jake whispered in her ear. “Want to go upstairs, soon-to-be Mrs. Sullivan?”

  She gasped as his fingers played with the hair cascading around her shoulders. “How do you know I’m changing my name?”

  “If you don’t want to change your last name, it’s fine with me. I’ll take you any way I can get you.”

  She feathered a kiss across his mouth. “Thank you, Jake.”

  He smiled into her eyes. “For what?”

  “For being everything I thought you were, and so much more.”

  He smoothed his hand over her shoulder. “Why shucks, ma’am. I’m just a modest farm boy.”

  “Right. You’re only the most delicious, gorgeous, sexiest hunk I’ve ever known.”

  His eyes flared with hunger, and he leaned in to whisper into her ear. “Talk dirty to me like that again, and you might get thrown over my shoulder and hauled off to your bedroom.” His voice purred lower, deeper. “And then I’m going to make love to you.”

  Wild shivers of arousal coasted over her skin and deep into her belly. “Oh, please. Please do.”

  Her heart already pounded with anticipation. It didn’t take long for them to scamper upstairs after the tavern closed for the evening. Clothes came off right inside the door of her apartment. Marisa fell to the bed with Jake alongside. Tongues tangled, hands caressed, and when he sank his cock deep inside her and his hips moved, her body clenched in fast, hard orgasm. A few short, ramming thrusts later and he quaked in climax.

  Panting, they lay in each other’s arms, and Marisa knew she’d never feel anything more amazing than making love with him.

  He rolled her over on her back and looked down at her, his eyes deadly serious. “Marisa, there’s something I have to know.”

  A little alarmed, she asked, “What is it?”

  “You know I’m not anything like your ex, right? That I won’t leave you pregnant and—”

  She pressed her fingers over his mouth. “Hush. I understand that. And the condom broke on Alec and me. That’s how I got pregnant. But I want to have your babies.”

  His eyes sparked. “Ah, Jesus. Now I know you’re serious about me.”

  “Oh, I’m more than serious. I’m in this for a lifetime.”

  As he gathered her close for another soul-searing kiss, Marisa knew she’d learned valuable lessons. Finding true love was not only possible, but the greatest thing life could offer. Healing could emerge from the most unexpected places, as it had with her encounter with Annie. She’d helped Annie and Annie helped her to see what she’d refused to acknowledge about her own grief.

  As she drew back to smile at him, she understood one thing clearer than any other. Jake had rescued her, but no more than she’d rescued him.

  For an eternity, this soldier had her back, and she had his.

  About the Author

  Romantic Times Book Review Magazine calls Denise A. Agnew’s novels “top-notch” and she’s received a TOP PICK. Denise’s record proves that with paranormal, time travel, romantic comedy, contemporary, historical, erotic romance, and romantic suspense novels under her belt, she enjoys writing about a diverse range of subjects. Her experiences with archaeology and archery have crept into her work. Denise lives in Sierra Vista, Arizona with her real life hero, her husband. Check out her website at www.deniseagnew.com for contest opportunities and to sign up for her chat loop and newsletter.

  Look for these titles by Denise A. Agnew

  Now Available:

  Male Call

  Unconditional Surrender

  Coming Soon:

  Close Quarters

  She wants the adventure of a lifetime and isn’t willing to sacrifice it for any man… All he wants is to keep the girl he loved and lost safe, even if she hates him for it…

  Unconditional Surrender

  © 2007 Denise A. Agnew

  Archaeologist Fredricka “Freddie” Bodine returns to her hometown for her twentieth high school reunion, unaware that her old crush, Keith Wallace, has blown back into town. One memory is etched deeply on her brain—the high school prom where she shared a single, emotionally revealing dance with
him. They’d both left town after graduation, feelings unresolved and teen angst firmly in place.

  Keith doesn’t want her to travel to Los Diablos, a lawless area he’s visited during Special Forces ops, and the place where his sister was killed years ago.

  As they grapple with family pressures and the exploding passion between them, their battle of wills may just lead them to the truth living in both their hearts.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Unconditional Surrender:

  Oh, she’d been stupid. She hadn’t thought past the end of her nose. “My God. I understand now. You weren’t in the desert on your last tour, you were in Mexico.”

  “No, I was in Iraq. But you know that intuition I had as a kid? It’s screaming that it isn’t a good idea for you to go to Los Diablos.”

  At first she wanted to take in his caution, a rising anxiety making her vulnerable to fear. “Arnold wouldn’t set up a tour if it was dangerous.”

  “Yeah, I think he would. He told me he’d checked out reports and heard nothing about extraneous danger. I told him to call a guy I know at the embassy down there.” He shifted closer, his eyes serious and dark with emotion. “Do you think I’d lie to you about something like this?”

  “No. No, I don’t think you’re lying about what you feel. But I’m a scientist, Keith. Intuition is all well and good, but when it comes down to it, I need more than a passing gut feeling that Los Diablos might be dangerous.” She sighed. “Are you sure this isn’t because of what happened to your sister?”

  She saw him wince, and then anger flashed through his eyes. “No.”

  For all of a few seconds she considered his plea. Then she realized if she agreed to abandon her dream, she’d never forgive herself. She’d worked too long and hard and paid her dues. Giving up would hurt to the bone. “I’ve worked for this and come a long way. I’m not giving up my dream because something bad might happen. No one’s life ever gets lived thinking like that. If I don’t go, there will always be a part of me that would regret it. Haven’t you ever taken a risk for something you wanted?”