Cinderella and the Spy

by Sally Tyler Hayes

  He just held her tightly. He didn’t want to let her go, even though they had to get out of here. “Hey?” He took her face in his hands, and he forced himself to smile. “It’s all over. Time for us to take a little ride.”

  She looked up at the helicopter. “In that?”

  Josh nodded. “You’ll love it. They’re so fast.”

  She didn’t look convinced. “How are we going to get on the helicopter?”

  “That’s the really fun part,” he insisted, as the helicopter lowered a harness. “You want off the boat. This is the quickest way.”

  She threw her arms around him and groaned.

  “You first,” Josh said to her. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  Which was how he ended up standing on the rocking bow of a boat watching her dangling from the end of the cable. He literally held his breath until she was swallowed up by the aircraft. Josh stood there, his face tilted up into the sky, waiting for that knot in the pit of his stomach to dissolve away. That was it as far as she was concerned. She was done with this operation. He didn’t have to be afraid for her anymore.

  He also had to let her go.

  He closed his eyes, refusing to think about that, about what he’d let himself do and how amazing it had felt. But it had been wrong. There were damned few things in his life he regretted, but he had no right to touch her that way.

  Josh closed his eyes a moment later as he hung in midair. Blown this way and that by the wind, he felt like a man at war with himself. No matter what she said to the contrary, she would get ideas. All sorts of ideas about the two of them being together forever, and he had nothing to offer her. His life was crazy. He was seldom in the same place for any length of time, and he put his neck on the line regularly. It was no life for a woman like her.

  He would forget her, he told himself. Eventually his life would get back to normal, and he would forget all about her.

  So it wasn’t panic surging up inside of him from the minute she’d disappeared from his sight. It wasn’t desperation that, once he was aboard, had him brushing aside any attempts anyone made to communicate with him, except to ask where she was. It couldn’t have been jealousy that had him, when he found her surrounded by two very solicitous Navy SEALs, shoving them aside—not something he’d recommend to any man who wasn’t looking for a serious fight—in order to get to her.

  But the next thing—he couldn’t lie to himself about the next thing—it was definitely fear. A desperate, cloying, paralyzing fear, that grabbed him by the throat when he saw her, wrapped in a thick blanket, looking pale and a bit lost as she lay on a stretcher, blood on the sleeve of her blouse, which had been cut away to reveal blood on her arm, as well.

  It was fear that nearly sent him to his knees whispering, “Amanda?”

  Her eyes focused clearly on his face. She gave him a faint, weak smile. “Hi.”

  “What happened?” he growled.

  “She got nicked,” the medic said calmly.

  “Nicked?”

  The aircraft started spinning. The whole world did. He could swear the chopper was going to spin into the sea at any moment, and he wondered why he was the only one who realized it. Because no one else was moving. No one reacted in any way except to stare at him.

  “Sir?” the medic said. “You okay? Are you hit? Do you need to sit down?”

  Josh gaped at him. Hell, he was already on his knees. Sitting wouldn’t help, he realized, just as he realized the chopper was just fine. The world wasn’t spinning out of control. It was just Amanda. Suddenly everything in his whole life was Amanda, and she was bleeding.

  “I’m all right,” he claimed. “How is she?”

  “Nicked,” the man repeated. “Probably not even by the bullet. She said she was behind a piece of furniture when a bullet came zipping by. I think the wood must have splintered and a few slivers ended up in her arm.”

  “I didn’t even feel it,” she added. “I didn’t know anything was wrong until we saw the blood.”

  They both looked at him. He thought all eyes in the helicopter were on him, that he’d made a fool of himself over a few slivers of wood and a bit of blood.

  But it was her blood.

  “You’re sure she’s okay?” he said again, needing to hear that.

  The medic smiled patiently. “There’s no entry wound. No exit wound. No bullet. She just has some slivers of wood in her arm. I promise, I can handle that. But if you like, I can have a doctor tell you that, once we get her on the ground.”

  Which was when Josh knew without a doubt that he’d made a fool of himself. He still didn’t care. He thanked the medic and turned back to Amanda.

  She reached out and touched his forehead. “You bumped your head.”

  He caught her hand and kissed it, oblivious to the audience they had. “I’m fine,” he said, thinking this was the kind of conversation they should have with her in his arms, with her face tucked into that spot against his chest she liked so much.

  “Mr. Carter?” He heard an annoyingly insistent voice coming from behind him, one he thought he must not have acknowledged the first two or three times the man said his name. Josh didn’t take his eyes off her, maybe because he knew what was coming. “Skipper’d like to see you up front, sir. And we have an urgent communication coming in for you on a secure channel.”

  Oh, yeah, he thought. He had to go. “Would you tell your skipper I’ll be there in just a moment?”

  “Turn around. You can tell him yourself,” a man’s voice said.

  Josh turned, because he recognized the voice. Relieved, he had a genuine smile for the man standing in front of him. “I didn’t think they let you out from behind your desk much anymore. Little rusty, aren’t you?”

  “Hey, show some respect. I was flying this thing.”

  “You?” Josh asked, surprised.

  “I have to check out the boys every now and then. See if they haven’t gotten too lax since I left,” the man said. “I was in the area. When I heard you’d gotten yourself into another mess, I thought I’d straighten it out for you. And these guys—” he looked around the chopper with an obvious mixture of pride and regret “—are my old SEAL team. I talked them into letting me tag along, for old time’s sake.”

  Josh wondered again exactly what the man standing in front of him did these days. Because nobody sat in on a mission with a SEAL team. Even an ex-SEAL, turned Pentagon desk jockey. What the hell kind of pull did that take?

  The SEALs must have caught some invisible signal from their former leader, because they scattered, leaving the three of them in relative privacy. Josh turned to Amanda and said, “This is Jamie’s brother, Sean.”

  “Leave it to Josh,” Sean said. “He never goes anywhere without a good-looking woman.”

  “Not if he can help it,” Amanda said.

  “Sean Patrick Douglass.” He moved in to shake her hand. “Glad to have you aboard, Miss Wainwright.”

  She shook his hand and looked puzzled. “Have we met?”

  “At Jamie’s wedding?” Josh suggested.

  “No,” she said. “I wasn’t there.”

  Oh, hell. Josh knew where they’d met. He thought to spare her, but Sean jumped in first.

  “I work at the Pentagon. They keep me chained to a desk most of the time. But I was at your house,” he said softly, matter-of-factly. “The day Rob Jansen died. I was…one of the men questioning you afterward.”

  Amanda stiffened, a look of surprise frozen on her pretty face. “Oh.”

  “I’m sorry. I know that was a difficult time for you.”

  “Yes.” She managed a smile nonetheless. A delicate, soft, Amanda smile.

  “Oh, hell, I forgot for a minute,” Sean said to Josh. “I just got word. Congratulate me. I’m an uncle.”

  Josh grinned. “Jamie’s all right?”

  “Just fine.”

  “And the baby?” Amanda asked.

  “Great. It’s a boy.” He turned to Josh. “And no, they didn’t name h
im after you.”

  “The next one,” he suggested, having a hard time thinking of Jamie with a baby, of Amanda and the incredible risk they’d taken. She might be carrying his child.

  “They named the baby after Rich,” Sean said. “Richard Douglass Reese. Soon as I clear up the worst of this mess you made, I’m flying home to see him.”

  “Rich? I can’t argue with that.” Sean and Jamie had a brother named Rich who died in the Gulf War. “Give Jamie my love.”

  “Mine, too,” Amanda said.

  And then there was no time left for anything but work.

  “Somebody from your office is dying to talk to you,” Sean said. “They’re ready to patch you through down front.”

  Josh didn’t want to leave Amanda. But the moment was fast approaching when he had to send her home, send her off to that life he was so certain was so much better for her than anything he could offer her. And he would hate it.

  “I’ll be right back,” Josh told her.

  “And your father wants to talk to you,” Sean called out. “He was in Nice. I figured we could use all the diplomatic help we could get to smooth this thing over. He’s going to meet us when we land.”

  Josh swore. He would rather stick a needle in his eye than see his father.

  “Sorry,” Sean said. “We need the help.”

  Amanda sat there watching as Josh waved it off, as if it were nothing, and disappeared into the front of the aircraft, leaving her with Sean Douglass.

  “He and his father aren’t exactly best buddies,” Sean offered.

  Amanda warily brought her gaze up to the big, broad-shouldered ex-Navy SEAL. She remembered him now, remembered a quiet, serious, intense, intimidating-looking man.

  “I’m really sorry about everything that happened last year,” Sean said. “I know it must have been rough for you.”

  She nodded.

  “You should know, Josh fought us all the way, on everything we wanted to do concerning you. He never believed you had anything to do with it.”

  Amanda smiled faintly, that ache in her heart intensifying, thinking about the faith he had had in her even then. He really was the most amazing man.

  “And don’t worry. There’s no way off the helicopter, at least not at this altitude. It’s too low to parachute out, and we’re too high for him to jump without one. Now, my guys could do it. But not Josh. He’s not nearly as tough as they are.”

  “What?” Amanda said.

  “You looked a little nervous.” Sean laughed. “I just wanted to reassure you that Josh is coming back. Not that I think he’d ever leave voluntarily. He looked as if he was about to spit nails when he found my guys huddled around you, even working on your arm.”

  He thought Josh was jealous, she realized. Which was silly. Silly, too, to think he’d stay. “You must know him very well,” she said. “He leaves everybody eventually, and someday soon, he’ll leave me.”

  Even saying it out loud, even knowing it was true, Amanda never expected it to happen so fast. In minutes it seemed, they were on the ground. She was standing on the tarmac, still wrapped in a woolen blanket, her knees threatening to buckle. There was a limousine waiting. A tall, distinguished man in his late fifties, maybe his sixties, stepped out, his bearing positively regal, and waited imperiously by the car. Josh’s father, she realized.

  Josh swore. “I have to talk to him, okay?”

  Amanda watched the tense, stilted exchange, seeing no signs of affection whatsoever. Then Josh turned and walked back to her. Something in his eyes gave her a clue about the seriousness of what was coming, giving her a split second to prepare. Still, it was a shock when he said, “I have to go buy some uranium.”

  God, she’d forgotten about that. She couldn’t even breathe at first, thinking about him going back into the midst of this mess that had blown up in their faces.

  “No,” she protested. “They know who you are, Josh. Rudy grabbed us. If he knew, the people he was working with have to know, too.”

  “Not necessarily. Rudy’s more of a middleman.”

  “Even if they’re not the best of friends…”

  “The situation’s under control, Amanda.”

  “And if it’s not? If you’re wrong?”

  “I have to do this. It’s my job. My responsibility.”

  “Send someone else,” she begged. God, she was ready to beg. “Or don’t send anyone. You know where they are. Why can’t someone just grab them? Take the helicopter and blast them away?”

  “I know them, Amanda. They don’t have what we want with them. They have to be willing to lead me to it, and I’ve done business with them before. They’ll take me to it.”

  “It’s too dangerous.”

  “It’s a calculated risk, and I’ll take it.”

  “No.” She grabbed on to him, thinking she just wouldn’t let go. She felt the world speeding up again, leaving her dizzy and feeling as if she truly didn’t know him at all. He was so calm, so determined, and she’d been so wrong when she thought he played at life. This was his life. It was what he did. All the time. She never saw the whole of it, the danger, until now, and it terrified her.

  “Amanda, listen to me. We left two people dead on that boat, two hurt. The French authorities may come looking for an explanation of what happened, and my father can offer you some protection from them. I want you to go with him. He promised me he’d take care of you. I hope this will be over in forty-eight hours or so.” Josh pulled her into his arms and tucked her head against his chest, squeezing the breath out of her. “Try not to worry.”

  She snuggled closer, with mere seconds to imprint the feel and smell of him upon her memory one more time. “Please don’t go.”

  “It’s the last thing in the world I want to do.”

  “I’m afraid you won’t come back,” she cried.

  “Amanda?” He loosened his hold on her, had to take her hands and pull them from his sides, then looked her right in the eye. “Listen to me. If anything happens to me, go to my sister, all right? She uses the name Sunnie Carter. She’s a jewelry designer with a small shop in Paris called the Treasure Chest. I talked to her from the helicopter. I told her, just in case—”

  “No,” she cut in. “Don’t say that. Don’t you dare tell me one minute you’ll be fine and the next—”

  “You could be carrying my child. So you have to listen to me now. If anything happens to me, go to Sunnie. She’ll take good care of you.”

  “Josh.”

  “Babies are expensive. I’m a wealthy man, Amanda, and you’d need the money. And Sunnie…she’s every bit as kind and generous as you are. She would take good care of you. You’d need that, too. Tell me you would go to her. Promise me.”

  Amanda couldn’t speak by then. She was crying too hard, was afraid she was going to collapse into a puddle at his feet. Or wrap her arms around him and make him pry her hands loose in order to get away. But she finally gave in to the insistence in his voice and nodded. She would go to his sister.

  “One more thing… Damn this is awkward. You’re getting the Carter family history in a ten-second blitz. You don’t want to mention Sunnie’s name to my father.”

  “Why?”

  “Who do you think put out the story that she died all those years ago?”

  Stunned, Amanda gaped at him. His own father? Let the world think his sister was dead? “Why?”

  “I suppose he decided it was inconvenient—having a daughter with a thing for razor blades. It was easier to have no daughter at all, which is why he came up with that little story about her drowning.”

  “And you let him?”

  “I don’t give a damn about him, but when I thought about it from Sunnie’s point of view, being dead to a man like that didn’t sound like such a bad thing. It’s kept him out of her life. I happen to think she’s better off without him and without all the pressure that comes with being his daughter.”

  Amanda stared at him, thinking he’d taken on that worn-down expr
ession once again. Thinking she really had no idea what his childhood was like, that there were so many things she didn’t know about him, and now he was going. She was losing him, losing absolutely everything, just as she always knew she would. She knew it could never last with him.

  “Josh?” She just grabbed him and choked out, “What I said before? About loving you a little bit? I do. I love you. Not just a little bit, either. I love every bit of you, with every bit of me. I love you. I just couldn’t help it.”

  He stared at her, that bleak look on his face. She thought she might die, right there. He didn’t love her, and she’d done the one thing she promised herself not to do. She’d fallen for him, totally and completely. She never stood a chance, and he’d known it, right from the start. He’d known it would end just like this.

  “Don’t say anything, okay?” She groaned and leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to his lips, a kiss wet and salty with tears. “It’s all right. I’ll be all right. I just needed to say it to you. We could just pretend I didn’t, okay? We don’t even have to talk about it. Not ever. Just know that I do—I love you. And I’ll always be your friend, too. So if you ever need me, I’ll be here. I want you to have whatever you want, Josh, everything you need. Even if it’s not me.”

  He said nothing, just reached for her. But she was at her limit, past it; she couldn’t take any more. He might as well have ripped out her heart and torn it to shreds, as to stand there and say nothing to her now, except that he had to go.

  She found the strength to back away from him, even to lie, “I’ll be fine. We’ll get through this, and we’ll go home and everything will be fine.”

  “Sure it will,” he said hoarsely.