by Gail Barrett
The man her father had wanted her to marry. “That’s convenient.”
Caldwell made a face. “I’m sure he did it to avoid prosecution. You know, taking advantage of his diplomatic immunity.”
“What about the other partners in the holding group?”
Rasheed shifted forward, drawing her gaze. “They’ve all slunk off like rats abandoning ship. But we’ll get them. We hit the jackpot in your father’s study. He had all sorts of records on his computer about his hawala transactions, going back more than thirty years. We’re still combing through it all, but we’re making a real dent in the Rising Light network. We should be able to bring down the key players and implicate several banks before long.”
“Your brother was involved in it, too,” Caldwell said. “He used his real estate company to help transfer funds. Even without the bomb charges, we’ve got enough to lock him away for several lifetimes. He’s not going to be carrying out any more attacks.”
“Good. He deserves to rot after what he did to his wife.”
“How is she?” Rasheed asked.
Nadine met his eyes, the usual sizzle buzzing through her veins. She marveled at that, wondering if she would ever get used to his effect on her. “They’re releasing her from the hospital tomorrow. They finally got the infection under control. She’ll need more surgery later to repair the nerve damage and do some reconstructive work, but not for several more months.”
“What is she going to do?”
Nadine leaned back against her seat, careful to protect her injured arm. “I’m not sure exactly. She’s going to stay at a shelter for battered women to begin with. The director is Iranian. I think she’ll do well there. She’ll fit in with the other women. And she has a great lawyer who’ll take care of all the legal issues.”
Her recovery still wouldn’t be easy. Knowing her husband had tried to kill her had forced her to take a long, hard look at her life. But something told her that Leila was stronger than she’d once believed, and would end up pulling through.
Hesitating, she met Caldwell’s eyes. “I’ve been wondering, though, if you found out how my father found me.”
Caldwell shook his head. “Not really. Our best guess is that the old gang leader, the one who led the City of the Dead when you saw that murder, figured out who you were, probably through your friends.”
“It couldn’t have been easy to find me in Peru, though.”
“No, but once they knew who you were, if they knew you volunteered with Medical Help International, they could have looked up your itinerary. We might never know for sure, though. Not unless we get lucky and some of the people in prison talk.”
She gave him a nod. “The main point is that they aren’t after us anymore.”
“No, you’re all safe.” Caldwell rose, then reached down and shook her hand. “Listen, I’ve got to go. But you’ve got my number if you need me, and I’ll be in touch. We’ll probably have questions as we work through the evidence. I’d like to set up another interagency meeting soon. And we’ll need your help with your brother down the line when we go to trial.”
“Anytime,” she said. She’d definitely do her part to lock Sultan away for good.
The CIA boss walked away. Nadine swung her gaze back to Rasheed, her heart beating faster now. People chatted in the booth beside them. A car started up in the parking lot, then backfired as it drove away. She dragged in a breath, but instead of the nerves that had gripped her earlier, a sudden feeling of calmness overtook her, the conviction that this was right.
“I asked Caldwell to bring you here today,” she told Rasheed.
His dark brows rose. “Yeah?”
“I figured he owed me a favor. And I wanted to talk to you.”
“That’s interesting.” The corners of his eyes crinkled up. “Because I did the same thing. He was going to mail the invitations to us, but I asked him to deliver them in person so I could see you.”
Her breath hitched. Hope pounded inside her, echoing the quick, heavy beats of her heart. “Then why didn’t you come to the hospital?”
“You’re right. I should have gone back.”
“What do you mean by back? You were there?”
“That first night. I hung around until the nurses finally took pity on me and let me go in your room. You were asleep.”
She stared at him, surprised. “I didn’t know.”
“I thought it was better for you if I left.” He reached out and took her hand. His thumb stroked her wrist, sending quivers racing through her nerves while she waited for him to speak.
His eyes met hers again. His Adam’s apple dipped, revealing a hint of nerves. “The truth is that I love you. But I was worried about your safety. I couldn’t stand the thought of putting you in danger again.”
The blood thundered in her skull. It took her a moment to find her voice. “You love me?”
He held her gaze. “You must know that. I’ve been nuts about you from the start.” His big hand tightened on hers. “But I can’t ignore the danger. We’re dismantling the Rising Light organization, and most of the key players will probably end up behind bars before too long, but there’s always a chance someone could come after me. And I didn’t want to expose you to that.”
“I’m probably in as much danger as you are now. I helped bring them down, too. And we’re probably stronger together than we are alone.”
“That’s what I finally figured. And I was miserable without you. I missed you so damned much. But I wanted to be sure you’re okay with that.”
“I’m sure. I’m not going to let them ruin my happiness, Rasheed. I waited too long to find you. I don’t want to lose you again.”
“You won’t. You can’t. I’m not going anywhere. I even resigned from the CIA.”
“What?”
“I took a job as a private consultant.” His mouth slid into a smile. “That’s the other thing I’ve been doing the past few days—taking care of that. Basically it means I’ll be doing the same work for a lot more money. But I’ll mostly do it from here, from D.C. So I’ll be around a lot more. And I can be myself. I don’t have to go undercover again.”
“I like that.” He’d lived that hellish life long enough.
“I needed time to think about Sarah, too.” His gaze met hers dead-on, the stark honesty in his expression causing her to swallow hard. “What happened to her... I can never go back and redo the past. I’ll always feel a little guilty about her death. But I’ve finally come to terms with it, that it wasn’t completely my fault. Bringing down the Rising Light network has helped.”
“I’m glad.” He deserved closure after the burden he’d carried for years.
“By the way, I’m sorry about your father, that it ended the way it did.”
“Don’t be. His death was his own fault. He was so determined to avenge his honor, even at the end. I think he realized I was going to escape, that we were going to defeat the bomb, so he decided to shoot me instead.”
“Still...”
“I’m not grieving, Rasheed. I’m not even angry anymore. He was never really a father to me, just a cruel man who wanted to control my life. If anything, I feel pity for him and disgust. He beat out any love I might have had for him early on.
“That’s one of the things I wanted to tell you,” she continued. “I’ve been thinking about my job, too. And since I don’t have to hide anymore, I’ve decided to start speaking out about honor killings and abuse. I’ll still do my surgical work, but I think there’s a need for women who are willing to speak out. Senator Riggs is helping me set something up.”
“That sounds perfect.”
She smiled. “I’ll relocate to D.C. I want to be near my friends, the people I love...including you.”
His gaze didn’t move from hers. Her heart swelled at the love swarmin
g in his coal-black eyes—the same crazy feeling bursting in her. How could she have had any doubts?
“Nadine, I... Wait a minute.” Without warning, he slid out of the booth. “Come on.” He reached out his hand and pulled her up. Then, keeping a firm grip on her hand, he tugged her toward the door.
“Where are we going?”
“Outside.” He pushed open the door, and pulled her into the parking lot. He angled between two cars, crossing to a tree at the edge of the lot, then stopped.
The cold wind blasted her face. Shivering, she squinted in the bright afternoon sunshine shining through the leafless tree. “What are we doing?”
Careful not to bump her sling, he pulled her close. “I didn’t want to propose in a restaurant.” He glanced around. “Not that the parking lot is much better.”
Her heart went wild. “You’re proposing?”
His eyes turned somber. His cool hands bracketed her face. “I love you, Nadine. I think I loved you from the moment I saw you in the camp. Whatever you want to do, wherever you want to go, I just want to be with you. Will you marry me? Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
Her eyes turned moist. Her lips trembled, emotions swamping her heart. She reached up and stroked his beloved face, tracing the tiny bristles covering his skin, the bruises fading around his eye, the aggressive angles of his jaw. He had the face of a warrior. A man tested by violence. A man who would always protect her. The man she loved.
She’d run the gamut of extremes. She’d suffered through an abusive childhood. She’d witnessed her mother’s painful marriage and the brutality her sister-in-law endured. She’d known vicious men, and gentle, unthreatening men—men she could easily forget.
And then she’d met Rasheed. Her kidnapper. A man who’d tossed her world on end, shaking up her composure and making her feel vibrantly alive. And it turned out that the man she’d thought was so totally wrong for her instead had been perfectly right.
“I’ll marry you,” she whispered. “I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.”
He tugged her even closer. And then his mouth took hers in a kiss so tender that more tears sprang to her eyes. And she realized he’d chosen the perfect place. They were outside in the sunlight, a place where the darkness of their pasts would never touch them again. They had emerged from the shadows for good.
Epilogue
“Hurry. Get the champagne.”
Nadine stood by the window in her friend Brynn’s apartment overlooking Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and checked her watch. It was just a few minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve. In mere moments, the old year would give way to the new one, and the biggest fireworks show on the Eastern seaboard would begin.
“Here we go.” Brynn bustled around the small group, topping off glasses. “Refills, everyone. Last chance.”
“We’ve got it covered here,” Brynn’s fiancé, Baltimore Police Detective Parker McCall said from the kitchen, where he stood with the other men. He uncorked another bottle, the loud pop making her smile.
She never would have believed they’d end up so happy. Brynn and Parker. Haley and her hunky ex-soldier fiancé, Sully Turner.
And now Rasheed and her.
Haley came over and hugged her, her face flushed from love and champagne. Brynn joined them a moment later, her eyes dancing as she glanced back at the three handsome men leaning against the kitchen counter, discussing sports. “Did you ever think this would happen to us?” she asked, echoing Nadine’s thoughts.
Nadine shook her head. “Never.” She glanced down at the festive harbor, her throat suddenly thick with emotions as the significance of the moment sank in. “You know, the place we met wasn’t far from here.”
“I know.” Moving closer, Brynn pressed her hand to the window, her expression somber now. “It was different back then, before they revitalized the downtown.”
“We were different. We were so young.”
“And scared.” Three terrified teenagers, each running from her own nightmarish home life, determined to survive despite the odds.
They’d suffered even more on the streets.
Those years had been far from easy. They’d lived through hell—hunger, cold, muggings and attacks. They’d stayed on the run, moving around the country, concealing their identities and protecting each other from harm. “But we survived.”
“We did more than that,” Brynn said. “We ended up happier than I would have ever believed.”
Haley glanced back at the three men heading toward them, a smile warming her eyes. “Dreams can come true.”
“Ours certainly did,” Nadine admitted, her gaze going to Rasheed, his dark features sparking the usual flurry of nerves.
They’d come full circle. They were back in the place they’d started, but this time, they weren’t on the run. They’d vanquished their old ghosts for good.
“And this is the perfect night to celebrate.” She held up her glass. “I propose a toast.
“Here’s to the end of our journeys, the end of being on the run, the end of the time of fear. And to beginnings.”
The men came up and joined them. Her heart expanded. Three best friends. Three women in love with three very worthy men. They could now begin their new lives beside the men they loved—lives filled with the happiness and love they deserved.
They clinked their glasses. “To beginnings.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from COVERT ATTRACTION by Linda O. Johnston.
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Chapter 1
Beth Jones slowly pushed a large heavy cart filled with janitorial equipment and supplies through a second-floor hallway at the Corcoris Pharmaceuticals headquarters. Good thing she’d joined a gym and worked out a lot during her last job as an online magazine and newspaper proofreader in Seattle. Otherwise, this part of her new position as a member of the company’s cleaning team would have been a lot harder.
Stopping, she pulled her primary cell phone out of her pocket and glanced at it. She’d put it on silent, so she wasn’t surprised that she’d missed another call. That made four. Plus, there were a couple of text messages that said the same thing: Call me.
She intended to call Judge Treena Avalon back. But not till later—or maybe tomorrow.
She’d delay contacting Her Honor—for now. After their earlier brief conversation, Beth had anticipated the intense response she’d been getting.
But she had work to do. As she’d initially intended when she got out her phone, she moved her gaze toward the time: 8:30 p.m. This floor, filled with labs where they mostly did testing for quality control, should be empty of personnel. So should most of those containing offices, but Beth had no intention of going there, at least not tonight.
Then there was that other building on the company’s grounds, where machinery blended and formed the pills that were transported via an automated assembly line to other machines that stuck them into containers. The job she had taken on here didn’t give her the ability to check it out, at least not yet.
It didn’t matter. She
believed she would be able to find what she needed in this building.
She had been instructed on what her cleaning obligations would be when she started work here five days ago. She’d seen it all before—but from a far different perspective. That was when she had worked here to publicly laud Corcoris, its outstanding pharmaceuticals and its incredibly efficient and marvelous procedures.
Before she knew differently.
She’d been another person then. In many ways. The thought made her smile ironically, but not for long. And she didn’t stop. She had a lot to accomplish tonight.
She inhaled, smelling both the fresh aromas of the antiseptic products in her cart and the subdued scents of the medicinal ingredients in the labs beyond the closed metal doors around her. The floor where she walked was composed of linoleum that had been washed last night and this morning by others who had her same job. It would be her turn in a little while.
First she had to clean portions of the labs on either side of her. They should yield at least part of what she was looking for. She’d start with the one on her right. She opened that door.
The lights were on in what they called the clean room. She looked around but saw no one. Good.
Even so, she hesitated, but only for an instant. She wouldn’t allow nervousness to slow her down. She had a logical reason to be here even if anyone saw her.
Steeling up her determination, she entered, pushed the cart against the wall, then shut the door behind her.
The first room was where everyone who came to this lab had to change into pristine sanitary garb, even the cleaning staff. Especially the cleaning staff.
She went to the shelves along the wall and plucked from a pile the aqua smock and slacks that would fit over her beige jeans and T-shirt with the Corcoris Cleaning Staff logo on it. She put them on, then grabbed a matching vinyl cap to put over her raven-black pixie-cut hair, plus covers she donned over her shoes. Last she pulled a pair of sanitary gloves from a box and put them on. At least for what she did, she didn’t have to wear a mask.