A small army of men charged through, faces grim, weapons drawn. Five of them Jack identified instantly. His brother, Michael, led the pack. Ali was right behind him. The chief of security for the estate and one of his men came hard on the prince’s heels. Jack blinked in surprise at seeing his old buddy, Sam Arquette, barrel in, but didn’t have a clue as to the identity of the razor-cheeked Native American or the muscled prizefighter who stood shoulder to shoulder beside Sam.
He intended to find out, though. Particularly since the dark-haired prizefighter went straight to a still-shaking Sabrina and folded her into his arms.
“Jack!”
Michael’s exclamation drew Jack’s attention from the other two. Uncocking his weapon, Michael slipped it into a holster and rushed across the room. The brothers met in a bear hug and pounded each other joyfully on the back.
“I couldn’t believe it when Joseph called us all together and announced that you’d come back,” the younger Wentworth said gruffly. His throat worked for a moment. “I told him you were too damned stubborn to die!”
Jack grinned. “You were right.”
Michael gave his brother a final thump on the back. “I’d just recovered from hearing you’d returned from the dead when the alarms started lighting up the master control panel like a Christmas tree. Everyone at the house just about had a heart attack then.”
“Yeah, well, the adrenaline was pumping here, too.”
“So I see.” Michael’s handsome face hardened as he glanced at the figure sprawled on the floor. “If that’s the bastard who’s been after Sabrina, he’d better not wake up anytime soon or I’ll be tempted to take a shot at him, too.”
“That’s the bastard.”
While Ali spit oaths in several different languages, Sam Arquette walked to the unconscious man. His tall frame moved with the same athletic grace Jack remembered from their long-ago navy days.
“What the heck are you doing here, Sam?”
“I came for your daughter’s christening tomorrow. We all did.”
Hunkering down on one heel, he eyed McGill’s oozing shoulder wound.
“He’ll live,” Sam announced with a definite note of regret. “One of us better get on the radio to the house and tell Amanda we need her.”
“Who’s Amanda?”
“Sam’s wife,” Michael supplied as the chief of security’s radio cackled.
“Wife!”
It took several seconds for Jack to absorb the welcome news that his friend’s grief over the death of his first wife had finally eased enough for him to remarry. While he did, the tough-looking individual with the black eyes and black hair that proclaimed his Native American heritage knelt beside Sam. Rolling the now moaning McGill over, he snapped a pair of cuffs on his wrists with a quick efficiency that said he’d performed that task a few times before.
Leaving McGill in their competent supervision, Jack turned his attention to the man comforting Sabrina and the still fretful baby. Crossing to where they stood, he held out his hand.
“I don’t know who you are, but thanks for coming to the rescue.”
His handshake was returned with a strong, sure grip. “You didn’t need much rescuing, but you’re welcome. The name’s Carter, Max Carter.” A smile softened his tanned, rugged features. “I’m Sabrina’s cousin...and your brother-in-law.”
“You want to run that one by me one more time?” Jack said slowly.
“Josie’s married,” Michael interjected, joining the small group. A lopsided grin tugged at his mouth. “Me, too,” he added.
The oldest of the Wentworth siblings was still reeling from that bit of news when Sabrina looped an arm around the trim, dark-eyed man who’d wielded the handcuffs with such expertise.
“And this is my brother-in-law, Riley Hunter.” Her eyes lit with laughter as she expanded on the introduction. “He arrested my twin, thinking Rachel was me, before she—”
“He didn’t arrest me.”
Everyone turned as a brunette with Sabrina’s striking features and deep green eyes strode through the open front door.
“He only threatened to.”
She was followed in quick order by a brown-haired woman with a medical bag, a petite blond with startlingly turquoise eyes and Josie. Crying, laughing, sobbing out his name, Josie threw herself into Jack’s arms...at which point he discovered his sister was not only married, but pregnant.
His grandfather’s arrival with a man Jack learned was Sabrina’s father and a long, loud wail from the baby turned the scene into one of utter chaos and joyous confusion. In the midst of it all, Josie slipped a small velvet jeweler’s box into Jack’s hand.
“This was in with your...your...” she gulped, blinking back a rush of tears “...your personal effects. I tried to give it to Sabrina when we found her and the baby, but she didn’t want to... She wasn’t sure...”
Jack’s gaze sliced through the noise and confusion to the woman whose image he’d held in his heart for so many months. The expression in her eyes as she met his told him that she was sure now. As sure as he was.
“Thanks, Josie,” he said with a smile for Sabrina alone. “I’ll take it from here.”
Epilogue
It was, according to the Tulsa World News, the social event of the year. What had been planned as a christening, to be attended by only the closest family and friends of the wealthy, influential Wentworth clan, metamorphosed overnight into a christening and a wedding. Both, the society reporter assured her readers, would be talked about for decades to come.
The christening dampened every eye in the church.
The wedding produced a veritable flood of joyous tears.
An exquisite, four-carat emerald-cut diamond sparkled on the bride’s ring finger. She wore white satin and rivers of priceless white lace. The same veil, the reporter hastened to point out, had been worn by Jack Wentworth’s mother at her wedding.
Ms. Sabrina Jensen was given in marriage by her father, Mr. Frank Jensen, and attended by her sister, Mrs. Riley Hunter, of Oklahoma City, and her sisters-in-law, Mrs. Max Carter and Mrs. Michael Wentworth. The Misses Caroline and Sara Arquette, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Arquette, served as flower girls.
The groomsmen included Mr. Michael Wentworth, Mr. Sam Arquette, and Prince Ali Fashor Kaisal, of the Royal House of Qatar.
A reception followed the wedding and christening ceremonies, catered by a Mr. Hank Donovan of the Route 66 Diner. More than five hundred guests feasted on succulent chicken-fried steak smothered in sizzling onions, Oklahoma home fries, and burn-your-mouth stewed okra.
After a nostalgic and oh-so romantic honeymoon spent driving the old Route 66 from Chicago to California, Mr. and Mrs. Wentworth intend to take up residence in Tulsa, where he’ll continue to direct the far-flung Wentworth Oil Works conglomerate and she’ll oversee operations of the diner she recently purchased and enthusiastically predicts will be the first of many.
When the groom toasted his bride, it was no exaggeration to say that there wasn’t a dry eye among the many happy guests. He spoke of a love that transcended loss, fear, even death. A love, he said with a smile that made even this somewhat jaded reporter’s heart skip several beats, that would last forever.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-5865-5
THE MERCENARY AND THE NEW MOM
Copyright © 1999 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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Table of Contents
Letter to Reader
Title Page
Acknowledgments
Books by Merline Lovelace
About the Author
Dedication
Prologue
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
Epilogue
Copyright
The Mercenary and the New Mom Page 18