Into the Crossfire (39 page)

down.

Sam was an incredibly loving, though at times annoyingly overprotective,

husband. Wordsmith was growing by the day and she tended it the way a mother

tended her child.

Well, she thought, rubbing a hand over her belly, almost.

The wind suddenly died down and the clouds parted. The grass turned a

bright green in the sunshine, a gentle carpet edging down to the shore.

Her father would have loved it here. He'd spent much of his career in dry,

arid places. Somehow, Sam had chosen the perfect cemetery, and the perfect spot,

on a round knoll with a spectacular view over the ocean.

As the sun broke out, the temperature turned warm, almost balmy. Nicole

lifted a smiling face to the warmth.

A benevolent presence hovered in the air, a whisper of love. Somewhere

her father's spirit lingered and she could almost feel his gentle hand passing over

her hair.

Somewhere, she knew, he was smiling. And holding her mother's hand.

She'd wanted to wait, but now was the perfect moment. It felt like she had her

family's loving blessing from on high.

Nicole jabbed an elbow into Sam's side. "I have a Christmas present for

you."

"Yeah?" He smiled down at her, hugging her closer to him. "Isn't it a little

early? Christmas won't be here for another ten days."

She leaned against him, rubbing her head against his shoulder. "Well, it's a

present that will take nine months to get to you, so I'm starting early."

A cemetery is a sad, bleak place, a place of grief, watered by the tears of

those who have lost loved ones.

But that morning, the cemetery rang with the deep sound of a man's

delighted laughter.

192

Acknowledgments

A published author needs a lot of things, but above all, she needs time and

space to write and the opportunity to be published. So I'd like to thank my beloved

family for the time and space they give me and to thank my great agent, Ethan

Ellenberg, and my wonderful editor, May Chen, for the opportunity.

193

About the Author

LISA MARIE RICE is tall and willowy and beautiful. She has won every

major book prize in the world. She is a black belt with advanced degrees in

archaeology, nuclear physics, and Tibetan literature. She is a concert pianist. In

truth, she is a virtual woman who exists only at the keyboard when writing erotic

romance. She disappears when the monitor winks off.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite

HarperCollins author.

194

By Lisa Marie Rice

Cover photograph (c) Irkeyn/Shutterstock Images

196

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn

from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance

to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

INTO THE CROSSFIRE. Copyright (c) 2010 by Lisa Marie Rice. All rights

reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By

payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of

this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse

engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval

system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now

known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of

HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST AVON PAPERBACK EDITION PUBLISHED 2010.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rice, Lisa Marie.

Into the crossfire / Lisa Marie Rice.--1st ed.

p. cm.

1. Retired military personnel--Fiction. 2. United States. Navy. SEALs--Fiction. 3.

Security consultants--Fiction. 4. Private security services--Fiction.

EPub Edition (c) June 2010

197

About the Publisher

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)

Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au

Canada

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900

Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca

New Zealand

HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited

P.O. Box 1

Auckland, New Zealand

http://www.harpercollins.co.nz

United Kingdom

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

77-85 Fulham Palace Road

London, W6 8JB, UK

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk

United States

HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

10 East 53rd Street

New York, NY 10022

http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com

198