Her Delta Force Protector, page 1
Also available from Sandra Owens
and Carina Press
K-9 Defenders Series
In His Protection
Operation K-9 Brothers Series
Operation K-9 Brothers
Keeping Guard
Mountain Rescue
Also by Sandra Owens
Blue Ridge Valley Series
Just Jenny
All Autumn
Still Savannah
Caitlyn’s Christmas Wish
Dark Falls Series
Dark Terror
Dark Memories
Aces & Eights Series
Jack of Hearts
King of Clubs
Ace of Spades
Queen of Diamonds
K2 Team Series
Crazy for Her
Someone Like Her
Falling for Her
Lost in Her
Only Her
Regency Books
The Duke’s Obsession
The Training of a Marquess
The Letter
Her Delta Force Protector
Sandra Owens
This book is dedicated to Jim, who emails me from another room in the house when he knows he’s not supposed to distract me when I’m writing. Love you, Mr. O.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Excerpt from Mountain Rescue by Sandra Owens
Chapter One
“I need help.”
Kade Church’s heart skipped a beat at the voice he never expected to hear again, mainly because she was dead. “Harper?” The only reason he’d answered the call from a number he didn’t recognize was because it could be from Talon Security, the Charlotte-based company he had an interview with in the morning.
“It’s me. They found me, Kade.”
“Harper, I...” Kade shook his head. This couldn’t be Harper. “This isn’t funny. Who is this?” He was all for practical jokes when they were good ones. This one was not good. Whoever this was had her voice down pat, and he felt the loss of his best friend all over again.
“I swear, it’s me.”
“Whose Celebration of Life did I attend?” Had it been only five weeks since he’d sat in the back of the base chapel and listened to her father and her friends give their eulogies for a daughter, a friend, and a woman he felt honored to know? It seemed like yesterday and at the same time, a lifetime of missing her. He stared out the kitchen window as he tried to wrap his head around hearing her very much alive voice.
“Mine.”
“So this is a call from the beyond?” He’d grieved for this woman, still did. And all this time she’d been alive.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Ridiculous was getting a call from the dead. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”
“I can’t, not over the phone. Please, Kade. I need help. I don’t know who else to call.”
“Where are you?”
“Myrtle Beach.”
That was why he was hearing motorcycles in the background. It was the Myrtle Beach Fall Rally Bike Week. “What kind of help?”
“Help staying alive. I have to go. I’ve been on this phone too long.”
“Okay. Hole up in a motel and don’t leave the room. Can you pay cash?”
“Yes, but I doubt there are any vacancies with all these bikers here.”
“If not, lose yourself in the crowd or find a hole-in-the-wall bar that has dark corners. Can I reach you at this number?”
“I’m keeping my phone off, but if I know what time you’ll call, I’ll turn it on.”
He glanced at his watch and did some calculations. Marsville, North Carolina, was about five hours from Myrtle Beach. “Turn your phone on at eight.” He could be there tonight and get her back to his house, where she’d be safe. Although just barely, there would still be time to make it to his interview. That was one thing he didn’t want to mess up. Talon Security had a stellar reputation, and he wanted that job.
“Okay. Kade?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
“See ya tonight.” He stared at the screen after disconnecting as his mind tried to wrap around the fact that Harper was alive. She sounded like she was fighting tears, but he wasn’t ready to forgive her. Even if she had to fake her death, she could have come to him. No matter how grave the situation was, he would have been there for her. She knew that.
Duke, the dog Harper had conned him into fostering while she was in the Peace Corps, sat at his feet, wearing his goofy smile. Kade had brought the dog home for his brothers to take care of until he was back for good. The golden retriever believed humans were put on this earth for his personal pleasure. When Kade headed for his baby brother’s art studio, Duke tripped over his feet in his excitement that they were going somewhere.
“You’re a goofball.”
Duke barked his agreement.
Parker’s studio was a separate building from the house the three brothers shared, and at the door, he told Duke to sit. Duke rolled over. “Were you dropped on your head as a puppy?” He opened the door just enough to slip in and quickly closed it, keeping Duke out.
The dog had gotten into the studio once and had ended up with a coat of many colors. It had taken days to get all the paint out of his fur. Parker hadn’t been happy with the mess Duke had left behind or the canvas Duke had destroyed.
Parker, a famous artist known as Park C, was standing in front of a canvas, giving it the stink eye.
“What’s wrong with it?” The painting—an oil of Parker’s young daughter and her cat staring out a window as it rained—looked great to him.
“The colors are all wrong.”
“If you say so. Listen, I have to head over to Myrtle Beach.”
Parker glanced at him. “You going to bike week?”
“Only for the day.” He didn’t bother explaining his reason for the trip. When Parker was painting, he tended not to retain anything said to him. Parker’s attention returned to the canvas, Kade’s presence already forgotten.
As he headed to his rooms to exchange his running shoes for biker boots, he called his older brother. Tristan was the Marsville police chief, while Parker, along with being a famous artist, was the town’s fire chief.
As a Delta Force operator for ten years, Kade’s life had been one of high-stress, life-and-death situations, and never knowing where he’d be tomorrow, or if he’d even live to see tomorrow. He was using his thirty days of leave time due him while he waited for his separation from the Army to become official.
His plan all along on getting out had been to chill for a month. Well, he’d had two weeks of chilling, and he was bored. Not that he’d choose for Harper to be afraid for her life, but he couldn’t deny that he was amped to be on a mission.
“Hey, I’ve got to go to Myrtle Beach,” he said when Tristan answered. “Wanted to give you a heads-up that Parker’s closed up in his studio, so Duke’s all yours until I get back.”
“Oh, joy. Why the sudden trip?”
Poor Duke. Everyone liked him, but no one wanted to deal with his craziness. Kade told his brother about Harper’s phone call.
“Do you know what has her afraid enough to fake her death?”
“Not yet. I’m going to bring her back here. Figure this is the safest place for her while I get to the bottom of it.”
“You taking your bike or the Ram?”
“The bike. With bike week going on, I’ll blend in better.”
“Okay. Be safe. And call if you need help wi th anything. I’ll head over now to get the goofball.”
“Great. Thanks. He’ll be in his crate.”
After changing his shoes, Kade slipped on his leather jacket and put his gun in one of the pockets. His wallet went in his back pocket, then he grabbed his motorcycle key. Duke wasn’t happy about being left in his crate, but he’d forget that as soon as Tristan showed up to get him.
Kade headed for the garage. Now that he was opting out of the Army, he’d treated himself to two things: a Harley-Davidson Road King and a Ram 1500 TRX pickup, both black and badass. He had his brothers to thank for being able to do that. They had refused to take money from him for household expenses while he was in the military. They said it was enough that he was risking his life for his country.
Because of his art, Parker was a wealthy boy, and he paid most of the bills. He’d also covered the cost of remodeling their house after their aunt had died. Now that Kade was getting out of the military, it was time to contribute his fair share.
He emptied his saddlebags, making room for whatever Harper might have with her. What wouldn’t fit in them would have to be left behind. It still hadn’t sunk in that she was alive. He took a few minutes to muddy the bike, including the license plate, obscuring all but two of the plate numbers. It killed him to dirty his bike up, but the less attention it got, the better.
As he rode toward Myrtle Beach, his thoughts drifted to the first time he’d seen Harper. She’d been running down the street, chasing a dog. The dog would run, then stop and let the woman almost catch up, then he’d run again. The dog was having a blast, the woman not so much.
Kade and a teammate were doing a ten-mile run, and the dog veered their way, coming to a stop at their feet and giving them his goofy grin. He wore a collar, so Kade grabbed it and held the dog until the woman reached them.
“Lose something?” he said.
She stopped next to the dog. “Yeah. Thanks.”
“No problem.” He tapped the dog’s nose. “And who are you?”
“This is Duke, better known as the military dog school flunky. He thinks everything’s a game, even bombs.”
“My kind of guy.”
She laughed as she stood. “Figures.”
Kade’s teammate jogged backward. “I’m going to keep going.”
“Catch you later, man.” Kade took the leash dangling over the woman’s shoulder and hooked it to the dog’s collar, then held out his hand. “Kade Church.”
“Lieutenant Harper Jansen.”
“Nice to meet you, LT.”
He walked with her back to her house, one she shared with another woman, a civilian. After that, they’d crossed paths several times, and one day he’d invited her to a party he and his roommate were throwing.
Over time, he and the lieutenant became friends. When he learned that she loved horror and action movies, they’d started a movie night. For the next year after meeting her, they’d been best friends. Nothing more.
They were both planning to leave the Army around the same time, her a few months before him. She’d promised to come get her dog as soon as she returned home from her Peace Corps stint.
Then she’d died.
Since her promise to come get the dog ended with her death, Duke had become his. When he’d learned Harper had died, he’d wrapped his arms around her dog and cried against his fur. But she wasn’t dead, as it turned out.
He wanted answers, and he was going to get them.
Chapter Two
Two months earlier
“Why don’t we go out? Dinner and maybe a club after?” Harper had no desire to go out, but she was grasping at straws. Anything to get her roommate not to go meet her mysterious new boyfriend. “Please, Lisa. We haven’t done anything fun for a while.”
“Can’t.”
Harper leaned against the bathroom door while Lisa put on makeup. “Are you meeting...?” She waited for her friend to tell her this new guy’s name. Lisa had been seeing him for a month now, and all she had ever called him was her boyfriend. He never picked her up for their dates, never came around, and the way Lisa had changed set off alarm bells.
“What’s his name, anyway?” she said when Lisa ignored her question.
Lisa slammed the mascara tube down on the counter. “What’s with all the questions?”
“I’m worried about you. You don’t laugh anymore, and you’ve gotten really secretive. Tell me he isn’t married.” That was her biggest worry, along with the bruise on Lisa’s cheek she’d come home with last night. She claimed she’d run into a door, but Harper didn’t buy it.
“He’s not married, okay?”
“Then why doesn’t he ever come by or pick you up for your dates?”
“Stop it. Just stop with the questions.”
“I care about you, and you’re not happy anymore.”
Lisa had grown up in foster care and never landed in a home where she was wanted or loved. Because of that, she looked for love and approval in every man she dated. With her long blond hair, blue eyes, and pretty face, she had no trouble getting dates. She just rarely got asked out a second time. One date and she was ready to have the man’s babies. You’d think by now she would have figured out that was the best way to scare a man off.
“He’s the one, Harper. Why can’t you be happy for me?”
Because the alarm bells were clanging like mad. Something wasn’t right with her friend, and she couldn’t stand by and do nothing. Which was why she planned to follow Lisa tonight. “I’ll be happy when you bring whatshisname over and introduce him.”
“Why? So you can steal him away? You’re just jealous because I have a boyfriend and you don’t.”
“That right there is why I’m worried about you. You know me better than that. The old you would never have thought that.”
More worried than before their conversation, Harper went to her room. She checked her phone for a message from Kade. Still nothing. Yesterday, she’d asked him if he’d do something with her tonight but hadn’t told him she planned to follow Lisa. He’d agreed, but today, he hadn’t responded to any of her texts. That could only mean one thing. He’d been called out.
Even as close as they were, all he’d ever told her was that he was Special Forces. Being in the military herself—and hearing the whispers about Delta Force operators—how badass they were, how secretive, how they were a law unto themselves, all the way down to how many of the Army’s regulations didn’t apply to them—she’d always suspected he was Delta Force. Something none of those guys would admit to.
As a housing specialist, she helped relocated service members and their families find housing on and off the base she was assigned to. Her satisfaction and reward came from seeing a family’s eyes light up when she took them on a tour of a home she thought would be perfect for them. What she was not was a combat soldier like Kade.
Kade was her best friend, and if she had a little bit of a crush on him, that was her secret. She valued his friendship too much to ever act on it. Nor had he given her any indication he thought of her as anything but a friend.
A very dangerous friend, one she wished was here to go spying with her. She briefly considered waiting for him to return, but that could be two or three weeks from now, and Harper was only here for another week since she was moving back to Florida. Tomorrow was her last day in the Army, then she planned to spend a little time wrapping her life up here. Then a few weeks in Apalachicola with her dad before her scheduled pre-training for the Peace Corps.
Another concern... Lisa was changing right in front of her eyes, and how could she leave if Lisa was in trouble?
All she planned to do was follow Lisa, see where she went, see if she could get a glimpse of the boyfriend. Hopefully see something that would ease her mind. She changed into black jeans and a black T-shirt, and not sure how close she could get, she grabbed her binoculars.
Lisa’s bedroom door was closed, and Harper panicked, thinking she’d already left. She knocked on the door.
“What?” Lisa yelled, annoyance in her voice.
Good, she was still here. “Sure you won’t change your mind?”
“I’m sure.”
“Okay. I’m going out. See you tomorrow.”
Lisa didn’t answer, and Harper went to her car. Not wanting to live on base, she’d found a rental in Fayetteville, a city on the east coast of North Carolina. It was a convenient twenty-minute drive to Fort Bragg and the rent in the area was reasonable, so this part of town was popular with soldiers living off base.
