Authors: Sandra Brown
Ted nodded. “Thank you so much.”
Sean grabbed Lucy and held her close. Her skin was ice-cold.
“Lucy—”
“You didn’t have a choice.”
“When she turned her gun toward you…”
“I’m okay.”
He helped her back to his boat, wrapped her in a blanket and in his arms, holding her. His heart still raced from the single minute he’d thought she’d been shot.
“I love you, Luce.” He didn’t have anything else to say.
She kissed him, then burrowed against his body heat. “I love you, Sean. But I’m ready for a hot bath.”
“If I’m in that bath with you, you’re reading my mind.”
She smiled. “You are.”
I HEARD A ROMANTIC STORY
Lee Child
One paragraph, one voice, one story by Lee Child. Enough
said. ~SB
I heard a romantic story. It was while I was waiting to
kill a guy. And not just a guy, by the way. They were calling this guy a prince,
and I guess he was. A lot of those guys over there are princes. Not just one or
two a country. Families have princes. All kinds of families. They have princes
of their own. There are hundreds of them. They have so many that some of them
are twenty-five-year-old assholes. That kind of prince. And he was the target.
This young asshole. He was going to show up in a large Mercedes sedan. He was
going to get out of the backseat and walk about ten steps to the porch of the
house. The porch was supposed to be like they have at a Marriott hotel, but
smaller. Where you get out of the shuttle bus. Only they made it too small for
cars. I guess it was supposed to keep the sun off people. Maybe animals.
Because, by the way, this was India. It was the middle of the day and everything
was scorching hot and too bright to look at. But this guy was going to walk to
this porch. And the porch was kind of walled in partly. And as soon as I was
sure he was moving at a consistent pace, I had to time it right so that I
actually pushed the button first, and then he got to the walled part of the
porch second, and of course the wall was where the bomb was. So it was just a
button job. Easy enough for one guy to do. Except of course, they sent two guys.
But then, they always do. No guy is ever alone. You go to the movies and you see
the guy all on his own? Obviously he’s not all on his own, because there’s a
cameraman right in his face. Otherwise you wouldn’t be seeing him. There would
be no movie. That’s a minimum of two guys right there. And that’s how it was for
us. Two guys. If I was a sniper, you’d have to call this other guy the spotter.
Except I wasn’t a sniper. This was a button job. I didn’t need a spotter. But he
was there. Probably a CIA guy. He was talking to me. It was like he had to
validate the hit and give his permission. Maybe they didn’t want any radio
snafus. So they put the guy right next to me. Right in my ear. And presumably he
knows this Mercedes sedan is some distance away, and therefore some time away,
and therefore his validation was not going to be required until some future
period. And we could see the road, anyway. Certainly we could see the last
hundred yards of it. After the turn. And we’d have seen dust clouds miles away.
And we weren’t seeing any, which gave this guy time to talk. And he talked about
how we’d gotten as far as we had, with this prince. He laid the whole thing out.
He told me how it was done, basically. Which was not complicated, by the way. It
was just a number of fairly simple things. They all had to work together, and
we’d get a positive result. And obviously one of the strands was the old thing
with the girl, and that part was working fine. Which is what this other guy was
telling me. Because he seemed to be in charge of the whole girl part of the
program. He was the chief. He sent the girl. Which was obviously a matter of
selection. It’s about judging the task and sending the right girl. Which this
guy did. I don’t think there was a lack of self-confidence in his choice. The
problem was the best girl for the job in his professional judgment was also the
same girl he was in love with, which obviously placed him in a predicament. He
had to send the girl he loved into battle. And not battle with guns and bombs.
The weapons his girlfriend was going to use were considerably more personal. It
was that sort of game. And the guy knew it, obviously. He was the chief. I’m not
saying he invented it, by the way. I’m saying he was currently the world’s
leading exponent. He was the big dog. It’s not a question of second-guessing the
guy. He did the right thing. He was a professional. He put his country first.
The girl went. And did a fine job obviously. Within two weeks the guy was
heading to this house in his Mercedes. That’s diligence, right there. Two weeks
is a pretty short time. To get a positive result in two weeks is extraordinary.
Positive in the sense that I still had to push the button. I was a strand, too.
I was the final strand. All I had to do was push the button. If the guy showed
up. Which he did, because of this other guy’s girlfriend. She must have done all
sorts of things. The guy knew that. This is what these girls do. But he’s kind
of denying it. That’s what he’s saying to me. He’s making it different for her.
Maybe she didn’t do all these things. Or maybe she did. The guy didn’t make it
entirely clear to me. But if she did, it was because she was doing it for the
mission, of which he was the chief. She knew he knew it was mission critical. So
she did it. She delivered the guy, and I’m waiting to push my button, which is
on a cell phone, by the way. Cell phones are what we use now. They built a whole
network just for us to blow things up. Private capital. Providers who take
complaints. With radios you couldn’t complain. If something went wrong you
shrugged your shoulders and you tried again the next day. But if some guy gets
his call dropped, he complains. He complains real loud. Maybe it was some big
deal he was doing. So the cell companies keep things working. The only drawback
being the time lag. You dial a call, it’s a long time before it rings. There are
all kinds of towers and computers in the way. All kind of technical management.
The delay can be eight whole seconds, which was why it was all about timing. I
had to judge his pace so I could push the button eight whole seconds before he
got where he was going. After he arrived in the car. Which wasn’t happening yet,
which gave the guy time to talk, which he did, mostly about this girl. She was
living with him. Obviously not for the two weeks she was with the prince, which
was the point of the whole conversation, which was actually a monologue on his
part in that he was attempting to convince me he was okay with it. And that she
was okay with him being okay with it. It was a minefield. But allegedly both of
them were okay with it. This is what the guy was trying to persuade me about.
While we waited. Which turned out to be for an hour, by the way. For one hour.
We were in position one hour early. Which proves the guy planned to use the time
talking, because he was the one who drew up the schedule and he was the one who
was doing the talking. About this girl. This girl was an angel. Which I was
prepared to believe. This was a hard guy to tolerate. But he told me all the
stuff they did together and I couldn’t help but believe they had several happy
years behind them. They weren’t doing new-relationship stuff anymore, but they
weren’t doing old-relationship stuff yet, either. They were doing normal things,
happy, maybe still a little experimental, same as some people do for a long
time. I was convinced. It was a convincing description. At the time I was sure
it was true. Which it was, obviously. Eventually a lot of people saw it for
themselves. But it was possible to see it way back. I believed the guy. He sent
the girl to the prince. They’ve both had a great time the weekend before.
They’re cool with it. He’s okay with it, and she’s okay with everything. So they
do it. Monday morning, off she goes. And that should be it. He’s the chief,
she’s a girl in the field, there should be no contact between them. None at all.
Organizationally she’s lost to him now. She’s gone. She might not be coming
back. Because some of them don’t. There have been fatalities. Hence the
protocols. No personal involvement. Which they’ve been faking so far, but now
they’re going to have to do it for real. Except they don’t. They sneak visits.
Which is a huge off-the-charts no-no professionally. It’s going to screw
everything up forever. It’s a double whammy. She’s no longer deniable, and his
cover is blown. But they did it. And not just once. They met five times. In two
weeks. Five out of fourteen. That’s a pretty decent fraction. Not far from one
half. Which is a long time to be away. Her performance was miraculous. She got
the job done in two weeks, half of which was spent back with her original
boyfriend. Who was telling me all about these visits. Which was another breach
of discipline right there. I mean, what was I? He should have asked for ID. But
he didn’t, which means he thought I was just some dumb guy who didn’t matter.
Which was ironic, because I was just the same as him. In fact I was exactly the
same as him. I was a government operator, too. His equal in every way. Except I
didn’t have a girl. He was the one with the girl. And he was visiting her. The
first time she was fine. She’d only just met the prince. They were still in the
formal stages. The second time, not so much. They’d moved beyond the formal
stages. Twenty-four lousy hours, and the prince was already doing stuff. That
was totally clear. But we’re talking national security here. The best kind. You
blow someone up in India, you save a lot of problems later. Maybe you save the
world. Obviously people like this guy and his girl have to believe this stuff.
Or maybe they already believe this stuff before they join. Maybe that’s why they
seek out those jobs. Because they believe certain things. They believe there is
something bigger than themselves. That’s why the girl goes back to the prince,
even after that second visit. We can guess what she’s doing, because she’s in a
bad state when the third visit rolls around. The prince is not hitting her. This
is not a physical problem. The prince might not be doing anything at all. He
could be totally naive and inexperienced. He could be undemanding. There was a
range of possibilities. But she had to supply his needs in a very submissive
manner. Whatever they were. She had to smile and curtsey like she was the
happiest girl in the world. Which is a strain, psychologically. She was not
having a good time. But she went back. She was determined to complete the
mission. That’s the kind of person she was. Which put the chief in a permanent
circular argument, of course. He couldn’t stop the girl he loved because if he
could he wouldn’t have loved her. She would have insisted she go. He would have
insisted she go. National security is a very important thing. These people
believe that. They have to. So she went. And she kept on going back. She seemed
stronger at the fourth visit. Better still at the fifth. She was in control now.
She was doing it. She was like a boxer who just won the belt. Sure he hurts, but
not much. She was like that. She was going to deliver him. She was the
undisputed champion of the world. She was nearly done. She was coming home.
Except maybe that boxer’s hurting worse than he lets on. Maybe she was. Maybe
she’s tired, but she’s close. So she fakes it with you. She’s okay to go back.
So she goes back. But part of faking was exaggerating. She’s going to deliver
him, but it’s not going to be easy. Not like she’s making out. She’s going to
have to offer incentives. Which she hasn’t mentioned to you. Because she’s
exaggerating. She’s telling you it’s better than it is. She’s in control, but
not all the way. And she conceals it, so you don’t know. And then you see the
dust cloud miles away, and you wait, and then the Mercedes comes around the
turn, the last hundred yards; it’s an expensive car, but dusty, and it parks
right where it should and the guy gets out of the backseat. And like a prick he
leaves the door wide open behind him and just walks away, like he’s the king of
the world, and I’m already timing him. He’s doing that kind of fit-guy hustle,
which is actually slower than it looks, but I’m on it and I know exactly when
I’m going to push the button. Then the girl bounds out of the car behind him,
like she had dropped her pocketbook or something and was delayed for a moment,
which is exactly what I think she did, because she’s doing a kind of apologetic
thing with the body language, a kind of I’m-an-idiot look, and then she catches
up to the prince and she takes his arm in a kind of affectionate way. Almost an
excited way, to be truthful, and you realize she got him there by promising him
something special. In one of the rooms, perhaps. Maybe something he’s never done
before. They’re giggling like schoolkids. They’re bounding ahead. They’re right
there at the point where you have to hit the button. And by now the validation
process is seriously screwed up. We’re just babbling to each other. But we know
one thing. National security is very important. It’s bigger than either of us.
We believe that stuff. I have to. So I hit the button. My timing was good. No
reason why it wouldn’t be. I had no lack of self-confidence in my estimate of
speed and direction. Eight seconds. They were perfectly level with the wall when
it went up. Both of them. And that was the end of the romantic story.
* * * * *
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
LORI ARMSTRONG
left the
firearms industry in 2000. The first book in her Julie Collins series,
Blood Ties,
was nominated for a 2006 Shamus Award for
Best First Novel.
Hallowed
Ground
received a 2007 Shamus Award nomination and
won the 2007 WILLA Cather Literary Award.
Shallow
Grave
was nominated for a 2008 High Plains Book Award and finaled for
the 2008 WILLA Cather Literary Award.
Snow Blind
won
the 2009 Shamus Award for Best Paperback Original. The first book in the Mercy
Gunderson series,
No Mercy,
won the 2011 Shamus
Award for Best Hardcover Novel and was a finalist for the WILLA Cather Literary
Award.
Mercy Kill
released in January 2011.
Dark Mercy
will release in 2013. Lori serves on the
Board of Directors of Mystery Writers of America and lives in Rapid City, South
Dakota.
JEFF AYERS
is the author of
the bestselling
Voyages of Imagination: The
Star Trek Fiction Companion.
He reviews for the
Associated Press, Library Journal, Booklist
and
RT Book Reviews
. He has interviewed authors for
such publications as
Writer
Magazine, the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
,
Author
Magazine and
The Big Thrill
. Jeff
lives near Seattle, Washington.
A born romantic,
BEVERLY
BARTON
fell in love with
The Beauty and the
Beast
epic at an early age, when her grandfather bought her an
illustrated copy of the famous fairy tale. Before she learned to read and write,
Beverly’s vivid imagination created magical worlds and fabulous characters
inside her mind.
Movies fascinated Beverly, and by the time she was seven she
was rewriting the movies she saw on television and at the local theater to give
them all happy endings. By the age of nine she’d penned her first novel. She
wrote short stories, TV scripts, poetry and novels throughout high school and
into college.
After her marriage and the births of her children, Beverly
continued to be a voracious reader and a devoted moviegoer, but she put her
writing aspirations on hold until her children were teenagers.
When Beverly rediscovered an old dream of becoming a published
writer, no one was more supportive of her aspirations than her family. After
writing over seventy books, receiving numerous awards and becoming a
New York Times
bestselling author, Beverly’s career
became her dream come true.
WILLIAM BERNHARDT
is the
nationally bestselling author of twenty-five novels, including the
world-renowned Ben Kincaid series of mystery-thrillers—
Primary Justice,
Capitol Betrayal
.
Library
Journal
dubbed him the “master of the courtroom thriller.” Other
Bernhardt novels include
Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot
Ness, Double Jeopardy,
and the critically acclaimed
Dark Eye
. He has received the H. Louise Cobb
Distinguished Author Award (Oklahoma State University) the Royden B. Davis
Distinguished Author Award (University of Pennsylvania), and the Southern
Writer’s Guild’s Gold Medal Award. In addition to his novels, he has edited two
anthologies as fundraisers for charitable causes, written two books for
children, published essays, short stories and poems, constructed crossword
puzzles for the
New York Times,
and written the
book, music and lyrics for a musical. He is also one of the nation’s most
in-demand writing instructors. His renowned small group writing seminars have
produced several bestselling authors over the past decade. His instructional
DVDs,
The Fundamentals of Fiction
, are used by
writing programs across the nation. You can learn more about him at
www.williambernhardt.com
, or you can email him at
[email protected]
.
ALLISON BRENNAN
is the
New York Times
and
USA
TODAY
bestselling and award-winning author of eighteen romantic
thrillers and numerous short stories.
RT Book
Reviews
calls Allison “a master of suspense” and her books
“haunting,” “mesmerizing,” “pulse-pounding” and “emotionally complex.” Lee Child
called the first Lucy Kincaid book “a world-class nail-biter,” and Lisa Gardner
says, “Brennan knows how to deliver.”
Allison lives on two acres outside Sacramento, California, with
her husband Dan, their five children and assorted animals. She’s often said she
has no life outside of writing and kids—though she takes her research seriously
by role-playing in SWAT training exercises, practicing at the gun range, and
hanging out at the morgue. The fourth book in the Lucy Kincaid series,
Silenced,
was released by Minotaur/St. Martin’s Press
on April 24, 2012 and will be followed by
Stalked
in
the fall. Find her online at
www.allisonbrennan.com
.
ROBERT BROWNE
is an
award-winning screenwriter and ITW Thriller Award–nominated author of five
critically acclaimed thrillers. His first novel,
Kiss Her
Goodbye,
was filmed as a pilot for a CBS television series and his
latest,
The Paradise Prophecy,
is in development
with Temple Hill Productions. Rob lives in California with his wife, two cats
and a dog, and is always at work on the next book…
Inspired by a U.S. tissue harvesting case,
PAMELA CALLOW
wrote
Damaged
(June 2010), the first installment of her legal thriller series for MIRA Books.
Pamela drew on her experience working in a blue-chip corporate environment to
create series lead Kate Lange, a struggling thirtysomething lawyer, whom
RT Book Reviews
hailed as, “…a standout character.”
Damaged
was chosen by Levy Home Entertainment as
a June “Need to Read” Pick, with Top Ten Bestseller placement in Target and
Walmart.
Indefensible
(MIRA, January 2011),
the second book of the Kate Lange thriller series, was described by
Omnimystery Reviews
as, “…a superbly plotted and
suspenseful novel with a…riveting, dynamic storyline.”
Tattooed,
the series’ third installment, will be published in
2012.
Prior to making writing a career, Pamela worked as a strategy
consultant for international firm Andersen Consulting. She is a member of the
Nova Scotia Bar, and holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration.
Pamela lives in Nova Scotia, along with her husband, two
children and a pug. She loves to go for walks (unlike her dog), drink coffee,
and is currently working on the next installment of the Kate Lange thriller
series. Visit her at
www.pamelacallow.com or
at
www.facebook.com/PamelaCallowAuthor
.
Previously a television director, union organizer,
theater technician and law student,
LEE CHILD
was
fired and on the dole when he hatched a harebrained scheme to write a
bestselling novel, thus saving his family from ruin.
Killing Floor
went on to win worldwide acclaim. The hero of his
series, Jack Reacher, besides being fictional, is a kindhearted soul who allows
Lee lots of spare time for reading, listening to music, the Yankees and Aston
Villa. Visit him online at
www.leechild.com
.
J. T. ELLISON
is the
international award-winning author of seven critically acclaimed novels,
multiple short stories and has been published in over twenty countries. A former
White House staffer, she has worked extensively with the Metro Nashville Police,
the FBI and various other law enforcement organizations to research her novels.
She lives in Nashville with her husband and a poorly trained cat, and is hard at
work on her next novel. Visit
www.JTEllison.com for
more insight into her wicked imagination, or follow her on
Twitter@Thrillerchick
.
BILL FLOYD
lives in
Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his wife, Amy, and his dog, Max. His first
published novel,
The Killer’s Wife,
won the Mary
Higgins Clark Award for 2009. Floyd can often be found in dark music clubs
listening to a variety of underground bands. His taste in fiction runs the gamut
from literary to genre, with no apologies for either. He is currently working on
a novel about secrets and the costs of keeping them. A sampling of his flash
fiction can be found at
www.billfloydbooks.com.
New York Times, Publishers Weekly
and
USA TODAY
Bestseller
CINDY GERARD
cut her teeth on the works of Iris
Johansan, Tammy Hoag and, of course, Sandra Brown, all of whom wrote romantic
fiction before branching into the world of suspense. Cindy also wrote
award-winning category romance novels for Bantam, Doubleday, Dell and later for
Harlequin Books before coming to the realization that she had bigger, bolder,
grittier stories to tell. Her fast-paced, action-packed Bodyguard and Black
Ops., Inc. (BOI) series featuring covert paramilitary heroes, quickly became
much loved among romantic suspense readers. Cindy’s short story, “Dying to
Score,” showcases BOI fan favorites Johnny Duane Reed and Crystal “Tinkerbelle”
Debrowski.
Cindy is a six-time Romance Writers of America RITA finalist
and is proud to display two RITAs in her office. She considers herself fortunate
to count many military families as both readers and friends. Cindy makes her
home in Iowa with her husband, Tom, their Brittany Spaniel, Margaret, and their
cats, Buddy and Sly. You can find all of Cindy’s books at
www.cindygerard.com
.
HEATHER GRAHAM
is the
New York
Times
and
USA TODAY
bestselling author of
over a hundred novels including suspense, paranormal, historical and mainstream
Christmas fare. She lives in Miami, Florida, her home, and an easy shot down to
the Keys where she can indulge in her passion for diving. Travel, research and
ballroom dancing also help keep her sane; she is the mother of five, and also
resides with two dogs, a cat and an albino skunk. She is CEO of Slush Pile
Productions, a recording company and production house for various charity
events. Look her up at
www.theoriginalheathergraham.com
,
www.writersforneworleans.com
or
www.eheathergraham.com
.
New York Times
bestselling
author
LAURA GRIFFIN
started her career in journalism before venturing into the world of
romantic suspense. Her books have won numerous awards, including a 2010 RITA
(
Whisper of Warning
) and a 2010 Daphne du
Maurier Award (
Untraceable
). Her debut novel,
One Last Breath,
won the Booksellers Best Award for
romantic suspense. Laura currently lives in Austin where she is working on the
next book in her popular Tracers series. Visit her at
www.lauragriffin.com
or
www.facebook.com/LauraGriffinAuthor
.
VICKI HINZE
is an
award-winning author of twenty-five novels, four nonfiction books and hundreds
of articles published in as many as sixty-three countries. She’s recognized by
Who’s Who in America
and in the world as an
author and an educator. Her first published novel, a romantic suspense, was a
bestseller that sold in nearly a dozen foreign countries. Since then, she’s
shifted writing focus several times. After cocreating the first single-title
open-ended continuity series, she turned to military life and has been credited
with a Career Achievement Award for being one of the first to write military
romantic suspense, military romantic intrigue and military romantic thrillers.
Three years ago, she shifted her focus to Christian fiction, blending romantic
thrillers with spiritual elements. Her willingness to take risks and blaze
trails has won her many prestigious nominations and awards, though she does it
because she loves the adventure of stretching boundaries. Learn more about Vicki
at
www.vickihinze.com and
visit her Facebook page
at
www.facebook.com/Vicki.Hinze.Author
.
ANDREA KANE’S
psychological
thriller
The Girl Who Disappeared Twice
became an
instant
New York Times
bestseller, the latest in a
long string of smash hits. It introduced Forensic Instincts, an eclectic team of
maverick investigators, each with different personalities and talents, all with
one common bond: a blatant disregard for authority.
The
Line Between Here and Gone
is the next exhilarating installment in
the Forensic Instincts series. Armed with skills and talents honed by years in
the FBI and Special Forces, and training in behavioral and forensic psychology,
the team solves seemingly impossible cases while walking a fine line between
assisting and enraging law enforcement.
With a worldwide following and novels published in over twenty
languages, Kane is also the author of eight romantic thrillers and fourteen
historical romances. She lives in New Jersey with her family, where she is
plotting new ways for Forensic Instincts to challenge the status quo.
Praised by
Publishers Weekly
as an author with a “flair for dialogue and eccentric characterizations,”
bestselling author
JULIE KENNER’S
books have hit lists as v
aried
as
USA TODAY,
Waldenbooks, Barnes & Noble, and
Locus
Magazine. Julie is also a two-time RITA
finalist, the winner of Romantic Times’ Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best
Contemporary Paranormal of 2001, the winner of the Reviewers International
Organization’s Award for best romantic suspense of 2004 and best paranormal of
2005, and the winner of the National Readers’ Choice Award for best mainstream
book of 2005. She writes a range of stories including urban fantasy, paranormal
romance and paranormal mommy lit, including the popular Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom
series, currently in for development as a feature film with 1492 Pictures. Julie
also writes the Shadow Keepers series of dark, edgy paranormal romantic suspense
as J. K. Beck. Julie lives in central Texas with her husband, two daughters and
several cats.