Never Surrender (Task Force Eagle) (17 page)

Other agents moved in and hauled the marina owner
away.

Rick lifted Juliana into his arms and carried her from
the volatile fumes.

“My brother, he’s in shock. They . . . they broke his
leg.” A sob burst from her, and tears flooded his collar.

He hugged her closer and called to Wescott to send for
an ambulance. “I’ll get you both blankets.”

“You sh-should put me down. I’m soaked. You’ll get
gasoline all over you.”

She was safe. She was okay, really okay if the little
fool was worried about his clothes.

The coppery taste of terror subsided with the slowing
of his heartbeat. He sank his nose into her hair, seeking the peach scent
beneath the gasoline. “Hush,
mi brava
, and let me hold you.”

*****

Agents read Miranda rights to all the scumbags, five
counting Jordan, who was the only one not handcuffed. He’d keep until he was
treated, but the Mexicans and Vinson were ready to be processed. Vinson stalked
to the DEA van muttering complaints about the unfairness of it all and his
inability to make a damned profit when the fishing was so lousy and government
regulations stymied him at every turn.

“Ninety percent of these assholes find a way for their
crimes to be someone else’s fault,” Rick said.

“And the world fucking owes them a living,” Jake
Wescott agreed.

“Not just a living, a profit, to hear that bastard
spout off,” Holt Donovan added.

Rick had little time to see to Juliana other than wrapping
a blanket around her. He had evidence to bag and label and other agents to
direct. On autopilot, he did his job, but kept one anxious eye on the small
wool-wrapped figure hovering near her brother.

The EMTs declared she probably needed stitches. In spite
of Rick’s urging, she refused treatment. “I need to go home and have a bath. I’ll
be all right.”

He telephoned later, but Venice said she’d patched up
Juliana and she was sleeping.

The next day when he made it back to the Boston
Division office, he discovered his transfer had arrived.

“Great, just great.” He slumped at his desk.
Everything was coming together—Portland case solved, Olívas and his gang off
the streets, his transfer.

Everything but Juliana.

Chapter 16

Juliana emerged from the wooded slopes of the Otter
Mountain West Face Trail.

The view always soothed and thrilled her. This April
afternoon was no exception. Fir and pine-spiked hills undulated like a rumpled
blanket down, down to the choppy Atlantic. Over the Cranberry Isles, cerulean
skies arched to the indigo horizon. Lobster boats churned to their bright
buoy-marked traps.

She’d hiked up slowly, drinking in the forest’s calm,
its sweet scent of new growth, and enjoying the small signs of spring—leaf buds
on the birches and tiny green leaves on the forest floor, dogtooth violets and
bunchberry. Before knowing Rick, she’d never taken the time to enjoy their
beauty.

Today she was noticing it alone.

Three days after the drug gang’s capture and Jordan’s
arrest, matters calmed enough for her to escape for a few days. Jordan was out
of the hospital and out on bail, charged with drug trafficking. She’d heard the
task force still had nothing on the weapons. But for the drugs, Jordan could
tell them where all the drops were, who all the buyers were. He’d identified
the other body, another young mule duped by Sudsy Pettit.

Her brother was home, in her apartment, being pampered
by Molly, who had arrived and suddenly developed maternal instincts. Timely, if
ironic. Clucking about infection, Molly dragged her to the hospital for
stitches on her hand. Now her wounds were healing. She had to get away, to come
here to sort out her feelings and her future.

And begin to heal her heart.

Easing off her pack, she sat on a sun-drenched rock.
She slipped off her windbreaker and tied it at her waist. Her heart ached for
all she’d found and lost. She pressed her palms to the butterfly decal on her
tee-shirt.

Rick had called her his
mariposa
, his
butterfly, and in his arms she had flown high, she had dared, she had broken
out of her staid little mold to see with new perspective. The security and
stability she longed for were in the love and trust between a man and woman.
Like a wooden boat against this rocky coast, her dissembling had shattered hope
of that for her and Rick.

She wanted to sit here where she’d climbed with Rick.
Today she wanted to remember. Memories were all she had. She opened herself to
the mountain’s peace.

*****

Rick barreled from the tree cover. When he spotted her
seated on
their
boulder, his heart stuttered an extra beat. He stumbled
to a stop. His gaze zeroed in on her. On her soft pink mouth, open in shock at
the clattering he’d made on the trail.

Gut churning, he mustered his best piano-key smile. “
Hola
,
Juliana.” He flopped down beside her.

“What are you doing here?” Her teeth fretted her lower
lip as she glared at him.

He caressed her skin, especially that extra soft spot
beneath the curve of her jaw. “Your uncle said I could find you here.”

Distrust and apprehension rode on her forehead, but he
felt a kernel of hope in her shiver at his touch. He leaned back and turned his
face to the sun. “What a day!”

She glanced back at the trail. “You
ran
up the
mountain.”

Nodding, he clasped her fluttering hands. “Because
you
are here.”

“Rick, I—”

“Hush.” He leaned closer to brush a kiss over her
lips. “Let me do this right. Another reason I came today was to apologize. I
was wrong to push you so hard about your brother. The blinders that focused me
on avenging my brother’s death kept me from considering your need to protect
your brother. Forgive me for not understanding.”

She shook her head. “There’s nothing to forgive. I
should have trusted you.”

“I shouldn’t have expected you to trust me. And I didn’t,
couldn’t trust you.”

Her mouth turned up in a shaky half smile. “So it’s a
stalemate.”

“Not quite. I know you’re worthy of trust. I hope you
can trust me enough to build from there over the next fifty years or so.
Together.” He lifted her fingers to his lips.

“This from the man who avoids relationships, who’s
allergic to commitment?” Her voice held a skeptical tone.

“I deserve that.” Fearing she might slip away, he kept
a grip on her small hands. “You showed me how to care. I fell in love. I love
you. I need you. You think I’m a heartbreaker, but I’ve always played fair. I’ve
never before told a woman I loved her. Sometimes I can’t breathe not knowing
what to do about us. You are my love, my soul, my heart—
mi corazón
.”

She pushed to her feet and edged a little distance
apart. “We’re so different. I have my degree to finish, and you’re being
transferred.”

“So you heard about that.” He had to convince her. He
wouldn’t live the rest of his life without her. He couldn’t. “I leave in a
week.”

“You like your exciting life, haring off in search of
adventure. I need security.”

“They don’t transfer Group Supervisors nearly as much
as other agents.” Tension had his gut wound tight as a watch spring. He took a
deep breath, tried to stop sounding like a bumbling idiot.

“What?”

“My promotion to GS came in. The SAC—the Special Agent
in Charge—pushed for it. Guess he was grateful I cleared out the rotten apple.
That carefree life of adventure, as you put it, isn’t all it’s hyped to be,
Juliana. It’s lonely. I’m finished with all that. I want love and family.”
Desperate to be closer, he tugged her between his legs.

“Well, congratulations then. I’m happy for you.” She
stood rigidly, as if a hiking stick propped up her spine, but she didn’t
retreat.
Dios
, would this woman never surrender? “Where are they sending
you?”

“Miami. One of the guys there is retiring. I’m going
home. Don’t make me go alone.” He grinned, making sure his dimple winked at
her. He needed all the ammunition he could muster. “It’s thanks to you I can.”

“Me? What did I do?”

“Your prodding helped me get past my
papá
’s
neglect and understand his fear of losing another son. You understand me. I
need your wit and insight. I need
you
. Marry me.”

She bent her forehead to his. “Oh, Rick, you’ve always
been the man I wanted. I think I fell in love with you that day you slammed me
to the floor in Jordan’s apartment. I was afraid to trust you, but more afraid
to trust myself.”

“See what I mean? You’re good for my ego. They say you
can’t go home again, but I can now with confidence. And if you’re with me. Go
with me.”

She leaned back, doubt crimping her forehead. “Right
away?”

“It’d be hard. Your family, for instance.” He ticked
that obstacle off on his fingers.

She gave him a wry smile. “Now who’s making a list?”

“Your family,” he prompted with an unrepentant grin.

“Not a problem. Molly seems to have remembered, at
least for the time being, that she’s a mother. She and Jordan are two peas in a
pod and can take care of each other.”

“The SAC’s in Jordan’s corner. I doubt your brother
will do much jail time. He has too much to trade. I’ll make sure you can come
back for the trial. If there is one.”

He held up his fingers again to tick off another
obstacle. “College. You’re in the middle of a semester.”

A snort was her indelicate reply. “This semester is a
wash. I missed too many assignments and classes. You must have a college or two
in Miami.” She grinned.

“So you’ll do it? You’ll come with me? And marry me?”

“Yes,
mi corazón
.” Her tongue tangled around
the Spanish endearment. “My life here would be empty without you.”

“Ah, you need me, you need my good humor, my charm, to
keep you from being too serious, too—”

“Obsessive? Compulsive? And you need me to help you
see the occasional down side of things.”

“If we’re together, down sides will be as rare as
Antarctic butterflies.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
He swept her up in a kiss of possession. Before he tore off her clothes and
made love to her on this cold pile of rocks, he stopped and took her hand. “I’m
staying at the Bar Harbor Inn. Come with me. I’ll change, and we’ll go out on
that date we never had.”

If she was feeling the way he did, if they went to his
room, they wouldn’t make it out on the town this time either.

Hooking her arms in her backpack, she sent him a
languid look. “I’ll race you down the trail.”

*****

Click here to read a Bonus Scene:
http://susanvaughan.com/nsbonusscene.html

BOOK 2 of Task Force Eagle –
ONCE BURNED

Once burned – Twice shy –
And into the fire

ATF agent Jake Wescott goes undercover in his Maine
hometown of Dragon Harbor to find the local connection to Mexican drug-and-arms
cartel El Águila’s New England operation. He becomes the reluctant protector of
Lani Cameron, who was scarred in the long-ago fire that killed her twin. She
couldn’t save her sister but maybe she can dispel the guilt and nightmares by
finding the truth. Their shared past and the search bind them together, and
intimacy ignites passion. As they uncover secrets, they face danger more
explosive than they’d feared.

*****

BOOK 3 of Task Force Eagle –
TWICE A TARGET

He doesn’t want a woman he
can’t trust, and she doesn’t want a man who won’t let himself trust her.

Disaster strikes DEA Agent Holt Donovan twice, when
his mission to trap Mexican cartel kingpin El Águila ends in a disastrous
gunfight and a car crash kills Holt’s younger brother and sister-in-law. Home
to run the family’s debt-burdened Colorado ranch and raise his infant nephew,
Holt sets out to prove the crash was no accident. Enter Maddy McCoy, who once
jilted his brother and is now a nomadic photographer. Grief-stricken and
struggling to raise a baby and run the ranch, Holt enlists Maddy as nanny. As
they cope with old resentment and new desire, their investigation of the crash
leads them into danger and a shocking discovery.

About the Author

SUSAN VAUGHAN is the multi-published author of
romantic suspense novels. Her books have won the Golden Leaf and More Than
Magic awards and have been an
RT Book Reviews Magazine
Reviewer’s Choice
Nominee and a finalist for the Booksellers’ Best and Daphne du Maurier awards.
Her books have been translated into German, French, Spanish, and Icelandic and
published in more than eleven countries. She’s a West Virginia native, but she
and her husband have lived in Maine for many years. Her Web site is
www.susanvaughan.com. She loves to hear from readers: [email protected].

Also by Susan Vaughan

ONCE BURNED
(Task Force Eagle, Book 2)

TWICE A TARGET
(Task Force Eagle, Book 3)

PRIMAL OBSESSION

DEADLY MEMORIES

BREAKING ALL THE RULES

CODE NAME: FIANCÉE

GUARDING LAURA

DANGEROUS ATTRACTION

What Others Say about Susan Vaughan’s Books

“NEVER SURRENDER is the first book in author Susan
Vaughan’s new series and now I can’t wait for the rest of the books to be
released. This is a fast-paced romantic suspense with a yummy hero and an
independent heroine.” – Reader Sheila S – 5 stars on Amazon.com.