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Baby Battalion
Cassie Miles
Dying had been his best chance at protecting her. Coming home was the only way to keep her alive.Nolan Law is a dead man. Five years ago, his pregnant wife buried him–a soldier cut down in a desert war, a man who would do anything to protect those he loved. Even fake his death. His beloved Tess was safe as long as he was gone. Now a new assignment thrusts him back into her life–and puts her at risk once more. When Tess looks at him, Nolan knows she sees a ghost. Tess deserves to know why this stranger stirs her passion so intensely, why her husband's eyes stare back at her from his unfamiliar, scarred face. Yet discovering the truth will only resurrect the danger Nolan "died" to protect her from.…
Tess kept her eyes closed. She had no idea how or why this miracle had occurred, but she didn’t want it to end.
His voice was a whisper. “Tess, I need to—”
“Don’t talk.”
For five long and desperate years, she’d been alone. She was a widow, a single mom. Those years were a famine. And now, she was hungry. She wanted to touch every part of him—on the inside and on the surface. He was back. Joe had come back to her.
Am I losing my mind? Logically, this could not be. She reached higher until she was holding his face in her hands. Eyes still closed, she kissed him again. Oh my God, it was him. She knew. Without the slightest doubt, she knew. He was the love of her life, her soul mate, the father of her son.
Baby Battalion
Cassie Miles
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Though born in Chicago and raised in L.A., Cassie Miles has lived in Colorado long enough to be considered a semi-native. The first home she owned was a log cabin in the mountains overlooking Elk Creek, with a thirty-mile commute to her work at the Denver Post.
After raising two daughters and cooking tons of macaroni and cheese for her family, Cassie is trying to be more adventurous in her culinary efforts. Ceviche, anyone? She’s discovered that almost anything tastes better with wine. When she’s not plotting Harlequin Intrigue books, Cassie likes to hang out at the Denver Botanical Gardens near her high-rise home.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Tess Donovan —A single mom and successful events planner in Washington, D.C., she was widowed five years ago.
Nolan Law —Scarred by battle injuries, he was the first man hired for CSaI and usually takes charge.
Joe Donovan —Tess’s deceased husband and the love of her life.
Joey Donovan —The 4-year-old son of Tess and Joe, he was born after his father died.
Trudy Bensen —The office manager and assistant for Tess’s business.
Bart Bellows —The 75-year-old founder of CSaI, who has been kidnapped.
Victor Bellows —Bart’s son is supposedly MIA.
Wes Bradley —The alias used by Victor Bellows.
Lila Lockhart —The Governor of Texas hired Tess to plan her event at the Smithsonian.
Stacy Giordano —The governor’s aide keeps everything running smoothly.
Zachary Giordano —Stacy’s son.
Omar Harris —Nolan’s CIA contact.
The Zamir family —Clients who use Tess to plan events.
Pierre LeBrun —The haughty chef is nothing but trouble for Tess in her event planning.
Greenaway —A powerful drug and weapons dealer who has sworn to take violent revenge on Bart Bellows and Joe Donovan.
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 One
Five years after her husband’s death, Tess Donovan still sometimes imagined that she heard the sound of his laughter in a crowd. Whenever she saw a marine in dress blues, she remembered Joe standing at attention—so handsome with his perfect profile and fine features. If he hadn’t been involved in so many secret operations, they could have used his gorgeous face for recruitment posters.
Her cab drove along Constitution Avenue, and she peered through the rear window, trying to see the National Christmas Tree in the Ellipse outside the White House. During the holiday season, she missed Joe like crazy. They had always attended the ceremonial lighting of the tree. They’d shopped together for presents, danced together at dozens of holiday galas. Their Christmases had been all about silver bells and snowball fights and hot buttered rum in front of the fireplace.
That was then. This was now.
She sank back in the seat. Starting with the New Year, she vowed to get on with her life. Not that she’d been standing still for five years. As the single mother of a four-and-a-half-year-old son, she seldom got the chance to sit down, and her small catering business had grown into a successful event-planning enterprise. When it came to mothering and working, she was holding her own. It was her personal life that sucked. In five years, she’d only been on a handful of dates, none of which had turned out well. None of those men were Joe.
This year would be different. She’d give herself the chance to meet a special man. It shouldn’t be that hard; she was only thirty-two and not bad looking, with black hair and blue eyes. She deserved a mate. And her son deserved a father.
Exiting her cab outside the National Museum of American History, she heard a group of strolling carolers. The tenor sounded just like Joe; he had loved to belt out a rock-and-roll version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”
Dusk came early in December. She glanced over her shoulder toward the towering Washington Monument, already lit and gleaming. Then she saw something that made her look twice. Her eyes were lying. This couldn’t be. She looked again.
There he was. Joe was walking toward her. She recognized his square shoulders and long stride. In spite of the chill, his trench coat was unbuttoned. He had never minded the cold.
The rational part of her mind told her that she was wrong. Joe was dead, buried at Arlington. But she couldn’t control her imagination. Her heart skipped. Her fingers lost their grip on her briefcase.
She wanted to run to him and throw herself into his arms. He’d lift her off the sidewalk and twirl her in a circle. And they’d be happy again.
As he came closer, she stared—knowing that he wasn’t Joe but hoping for a miracle. He was less than ten feet from her. Their gazes locked, and she saw him clearly. His was the face of a stranger—a young man in his early twenties. Joe would have been thirty-eight by now. Clearly, she was losing her mind.
The stranger smiled politely, picked up her briefcase and placed it in her hands. “Merry Christmas,” he said.
“Same to you.”
Not Joe, he wasn’t Joe, of course, he wasn’t. Though she felt like melting into a weepy puddle on the sidewalk, Tess pulled herself together. She straightened the lapels on her burgundy wool winter coat, tucked her shoulder-length hair behind her ears and firmly grasped the handle of her briefcase as she ascended the stairs into the museum. With every stride across the marble floors, the heels of her sensible black pumps clicked, and she gathered herself. She couldn’t afford to act like a delusional, sentimental mess.
This was business.
In less than a week, on Christmas Eve, Tess was responsible for a sit-down dinner for three hundred in the second floor Flag Hall. The sponsor of this event—Governor Lila Lockhart of Texas—was celebrating the donation of several artifacts to the Smithsonian as well as thanking some of the top donors to Texans in Congress. Tess had never handled such a prestigious event, and she wanted to get every detail right.
In the waiting area outside the office of the Special Events Coordinator, she greeted the governor’s aide, Stacy Giordano, with a hug. A curvy brunette with incredibly long legs, Stacy was glowing in her first trimester of pregnancy. Her wedding was scheduled for New Year’s Eve in Texas, and Tess had used her contacts to arrange for a fabulous five-tiered cake.
“How’s your little boy?” Tess asked.
“Doing better than I am. Morning sickness is no fun.”
The last time they’d met, she and Stacy had talked about their kids, who were almost the same age. Stacy’s son was autistic. “Did you bring him along on this trip?”
“He’s here. We’re staying with Lila’s family at the Pierpont House in Arlington.”
Tess’s home and office were in Arlington, and she was familiar with the Pierpont—a Colonial-style mansion used by visiting dignitaries. The house came with its own maids and cooks. “Nice place. Has Governor Lockhart arrived?”
“Not yet. She won’t be here until the day before the event. I came with Harlan.” When she spoke the name of her fiancé, Stacy’s cheeks flushed a bright, happy red. “He’s setting up security at the Pierpont and for the event. His concerns are the reason for this meeting.”
“How so?”
“He wants blueprints for the museum so he can check all entrances and exits, including the basement storage areas.”
This request might be difficult to fulfill. Homeland Security got very nervous when it came to protecting national treasures like those that were housed in the museum. “I’m not sure if we can get clearance.”
“Not even for Corps Security and Investigations?”
“If it was up to me, no problem.”
Tess respected the reputation of CSaI, a private security firm based in Freedom, Texas. All the operatives were highly-trained, former military men. For the past several months while protecting Governor Lockhart, CSaI had dealt with death threats, bombings and snipers. From what Tess had heard, their actions had been competent and skillful.
The real reason she held CSaI in high regard was their founder—Bart Bellows. The 75-year-old Bellows was a Vietnam vet, a former CIA agent, a billionaire and the kindest man she’d ever known.
When Joe first went missing, Bellows had contacted her. Though he couldn’t tell her Joe’s assignment, he’d given her the impression that her husband had been vital in disarming a terrible threat to national security. Joe was a hero. But she’d already known that.
Instead of merely offering sympathy, Bart had stayed close to her for several days. In spite of his wheelchair, he’d helped in her catering kitchen. It was Bart who had notified her of Joe’s death and arranged for him to be buried at Arlington. He’d also sorted through the mountains of paperwork to make sure she received the proper benefits and the payouts from other insurance policies. Bart had been with her in the hospital four months later when Joey was born.
She thought of him as her guardian angel, but he wasn’t all sweetness and light. More than once, he’d dragged her out of depression and forced her to stand on her own two feet.
While acknowledging her grief, he encouraged her potential. Her move from catering into the more lucrative field of event planning came as a result of his contacts. In fact, he was the person who’d recommended her to Governor Lockhart.
For the past several weeks, Bart had been missing. When she thought of what might be happening to him, she shuddered. He was such a good man. Life truly was unfair. “Any news on Bart?”
“The guys have a couple of promising leads. If anyone can rescue him, they can.”
Tess hoped and prayed that Stacy was right.
NOLAN LAW PEERED through his infrared, night vision goggles at an isolated flat-roof metal warehouse located eighteen miles outside Austin. A big, black Cadillac pulled up and parked outside the building. The Caddy cut its lights. Nobody got out.
From his surveillance position on a low ridge under the spreading branches of a live oak, Nolan could see a long way down the two-lane road leading to this warehouse. Another vehicle approached—an SUV. He parked behind the Caddy. Four armed men emerged and dispersed, setting up a perimeter at the four corners of the small warehouse with only one loading dock.
Through his ear bud, Nolan heard the smooth, calm voice of Wade Coltrane. “Is that everybody that’s coming to the party?”
“Don’t know.” Nolan glanced to his left. He knew Coltrane was out there, but the man was invisible. “I didn’t send out the invites.”
The third man in their attack group, Nick Cavanaugh, said, “If we’d gotten here sooner, I could have set up some explosive charges inside.”
“I should think you had enough of bombs,” Nolan said. Last month, Cavanaugh and his lady had nearly been blown to bits by an explosive device in her son’s day care center.
“I’m just saying,” Cavanaugh muttered. “More time would have made this easier.”
“Couldn’t be helped.” Nolan had gotten his intel from their CIA contact less than an hour ago. They’d been short on time, lucky to beat the Caddy and hide their Jeep in a gully behind the ridge.
The doors to the Caddy swung open. Two more bodyguards in dark windbreakers emerged from the front. From the back came a man in a suit with a white shirt that gleamed in the moonlight. On his arm was a blonde woman in a short, tight, red dress. Her presence was unexpected and would require an adjustment in strategy.
