On the run and under fire
Providing medical relief in a war-torn region helps Alex Peters forget his past and focus on the jobdelivering babies. Less easy to overlook is his blonde comrade-at-arms, who knows nothing of the trouble hes running from. Katie McCloud makes the assignment bearable, although her perky innocence proves to be an arousing distraction. Then, as combat explodes around them, their only option is flight.
A kindergarten teacher seeking adventure, Katie hoped this humanitarian missionand the mysterious, sexy doctor sharing itwould push her out of her comfort zone. With Alex, she starts taking tantalizing risks and becoming the survivor she knew she could be.
But back on U.S. soil, Alex and Katie face a new threat, and this time theyre the target. Forced into close confines, neither can believe the other isnt the intended mark. With only each other to depend onand suspectAlex and Katie cant avoid the simmering attraction between them. But to stay alive, theyll have to trust more deeply than ever before.
RT Book Reviews raves about Cindy Dees
Night Rescue
Dees exciting, action-packed story speeds along on all cylinders, with a smoking-hot pair at the center of it all. Your fingers will get exercise as they rapidly turn the pages of this compulsively readable tale.
Flash of Death
Dees brings readers into an action-packed world, with superhuman operatives. Add to that a sympathetic heroine and a sizzling romance, and this is a book you cant put down.
Deadly Sight
Dees crafts the perfect blend of romance and suspense with her latest story featuring members of the special ops group Code X. A solid, suspenseful plot, tormented, vulnerable characters and beautiful, compelling writing will keep you turning the pages.
The 9-Month Bodyguard
Theres action and hot attraction galore in this addition to the Love in 60 Seconds series. Dees does a terrific job of advancing the overall series while lending her unique talent to her vibrant individual contribution.
Close Pursuit
Cindy Dees
www.millsandboon.co.uk
This book brings my writing journey to date full circle to where it began with a love story based on a real persons tragedy. It seems fitting, then, that I dedicate this book to those who have been with me since the beginning.
To my family, whove put up with this crazy writers life and kept me laughing.
To my literary agent, Pattie Steele-Perkins, for keeping me sane and talking me down off bridges.
And to my BWFFBest Writing Friend ForeverJade Lee, for sharing everything else.
I couldnt have done it without you guys.
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 ONE
KATIE MCCLOUD STUDIED the barren valley at her feet and shook her head. Mars. It looks like freaking Mars. Whod have guessed anywhere on Earth looked like this? Of course, shed had to go to the foothills of the Himalayas at the intersection of Nowhere and Uninhabitable to find it.
She ducked inside the makeshift shelter tucked between two giant boulders and looked around. It would be a tight squeeze for two people and their gear. But this trip wasnt about having all the comforts of home. She really was trying hard to think of it as a grand adventure, but her personal pep talk wasnt sinking in at the moment. Her brother had promised it would be like primitive camping. Maybe if she was primitive camping in hell.
Come help me, her partner-in-crime, Alex Peters, called low from outside. She slipped out just as a cloud of dust rained down on the opening. Coughing, she batted the local gray grit out of her hair and glared at him on the hillside above her. What are you doing?
Camouflaging our tent.
You didnt have to camouflage me.
A rare smile crossed his face. You do want us to remain hidden, right?
Well, yeah, she groused. If they find us, well be killed.
Which was pretty crazy if she stopped to think about it. And which was why Katie was trying hard not to stop and think about it. Her brothers did this kind of stuff all the time, and everything always turned out fine. How tough could it be? Shed spent most of her adult life insisting to all of them that she could do the same sorts of wild things they did. And getting laughed at for saying it or, worse, patted on the head like some kind of cute puppy. This was her chance to prove she was the real deal once and for all.
Her confidence temporarily bolstered, she joined Alex on the steep slope above their little hideaway. She stumbled on rolling gravel, and his hand shot out to grab her elbow and steady her. As always, her pulse leaped at the contact. Surely he knew how totally hot he was. If he did, he didnt give any hint of it as he let go of her arm and turned his attention back to hiding their tent. She gathered up an armful of scrawny, dead weeds and scattered them across the canvas surface.
Too much, he said critically. The tonal value of the tents green contrasts too much with the dead grass. It draws the eye to the tent. He slid gracefully down to the edge of the tent roof and removed most of the plant material.
And when did you become an expert on the tonal values of tent canvas? she asked tartly. Not that she doubted for a second that he was correct. In the few days shed known him, hed surprised her multiple times with the esoteric tidbits he knew. Her brother had warned her that Alex Peters was brilliant. As in off-the-charts-genius brilliant. But in her experience, intellect and common sense were two entirely separate things.
Alex stared at Katie warily. He did that a lotlook at her as if he thought she was about to leap on him and tear his shirt off or something. Not that it hadnt crossed her mind. He was pretty gorgeous in a dark, tortured kind of way. That combination of dark hair and light eyes was surprisingly sexy.
He answered her question laconically, They made me take an art class my last year as an undergrad at Harvard.
How old were you then? Twelve?
I didnt start college until I was thirteen, he replied absently, obviously already focused on something else entirely.
Her brother had told her Alex graduated from Harvard at sixteen with a degree in mathematics. Masters in statistics and probability from MIT at seventeen, and well into PhD work in cryptography there before the wheels had come off his life. Maddeningly, her brother hadnt said a word about what that meant. Just that the wheels had come off.
At thirteen, shed been trying to convince her parents to let her wear makeup and her brothers to quit calling her Baby Butt. As she recalled, shed developed an abiding hatred of math that year, too, compliments of pre-algebra. Thankfully, her degree in early elementary education only required basic mathematics.
The sun slid quickly behind the looming mountains, and day became night in minutes. The temperature dropped nearly as precipitously. The two of them retreated into the tent to huddle near the propane heater.
Youre sure theyll come? she asked Alex over a pouch of freeze-dried beef stew reconstituted with water warmed on the top of the heater.
D.U. put the word out, he answered. Theyll come.
Doctors Unlimited was a low-profile international aid organization that sent medical personnel into the most remote and dangerous corners of the planet. Katie still didnt know a whole lot more than that about the group, even after shed gotten the call from her brother that it needed her help. Mike was military intelligence, although he couldnt officially admit it. But everyone in the family knew hed been a SEAL and probably still worked with the teams as an intel analyst.
Shed half suspected this trip was some sort of undercover SEAL op until shed met Alex, who no way, no how was a SEAL. It wasnt just that he ran to the lean and elegant rather than stupidly buff. He was more...cosmopolitan...than she associated with most of the guys on the teams. He was James Bond, not Rambo.
And then, of course, there was the whole bit about his actually delivering babies out here. She didnt doubt SEALs could deliver babiesLord knew, they could do just about everything elsebut she couldnt see one successfully posing as an obstetrician for weeks or months on end. Although, how Alex had gone from mathematician to physician during the black hole of time her brother wouldnt speak of was a mystery to her.
This area looks completely deserted, she announced.
He shrugged. You saw the same maps I did. Karshans a good-sized village, and its less than a mile up the river from us.
How will word spread that were here? And to whom?
Women gossip faster than the internet, he murmured absently.
Shed already lost him again. His gaze was fixed on the heavy boxes of medical equipment theyd carried up there from the Land Rover, which was hidden under a brush pile down by the river at the bottom of the narrow, steep valley. Emphasis on steep. Her legs and back were going to kill her tomorrow.
She bloody well hoped they didnt have to move this camp anytime soon. Their first two camps had been in caves in much more accessible locations than this mountainous crevasse. Twice Alex had woken her up with an urgent warning that the rebels were coming, and it had been relatively easy to throw their gear in the Land Rover and bug out.
At this time of year, Zaghastan, high in a remote region of the Hindu Kush, was as barren and lifeless as the moon with vast stretches of gray granite mountains and wind-scoured valleys. She huddled deeper into her high-tech mountain climbers coat as a burst of frigid air rustled the canvas overhead. Feels like snow, she commented.
Humiditys under ten percent. Any snow will fall as virga.
And what is virga? she asked with the long-suffering patience shed learned working with kindergarteners.
Precipitation that falls from clouds but evaporates prior to reaching the ground. Although technically snow is a solid, so the correct term in this case would be sublimation and not evaporation, of course.
Of course, she echoed drily. Being with this guy was like traveling with an encyclopedia. And he had about as many emotions as one. Either that, or Alex Peters was freakishly, inhumanly self-disciplined. Either way, she felt completely inadequate in his presence. As for her, she let everything she felt and thought hang right out there for everyone to see. It was so much easier that way. No secrets. No surprises. No head games.
Still, there was one thing she knew that he didntthe local language. The natives of this region spoke an ancient tribal tongue not used anywhere else on earthexcept in a small community of Zaghastani expatriates living in Pittsburgh. Shed learned it during her three-year stint there with Teachers Across America, educating their children.
It turned out she had a gift for languages. Absorbed them like a sponge. That, and the rules of hospitality in Zaghastani culture dictated that teachers be invited into parents homes. Shed picked up the dialect like candy. It had helped her teach the kids English.
Storms blowing in, Alex observed.
She huddled closer to the tiny heat source, and her knee accidentally bumped his. He drew his leg away fractionally, and her fantasies about him were dashed yet again. Clearly, he didnt think she was in his league. Either that or he was gay.
I thought you said wed only get virga, she said a tad peevishly.
That doesnt mean it wont get cold and windy. At this altitude, its not uncommon for temperatures to drop well below zero.
She winced at the thought. Give her a nice, cozy fireplace, fuzzy socks and a cup of hot chocolate, and she was a happy camper. Less than one day on this mountainside and she was ready to pack it in and head home. Even a cave would be a step up from a canvas-covered crack in the rocks. At least they had the mountain at their back to block the wind a little.
We should have some business before morning, he announced.
Whys that? she asked curiously. Was he psychic, too?
Female mammals tend to give birth in the worst possible weather. It suppresses the movement of predators and enhances survivability of the gravid female and her offspring during the birth process.
Well, okay, then. This trip was going to be nothing if not educational, apparently. Alex commenced rummaging through his boxes of equipment. He looked frustrated, as though hed misplaced something. Can I help? she asked.
No.
That was Alex. Mr. Monosyllable.
Intense silence fell around them, disturbed only by the flapping of canvas.
Seems like the only predators around here are the husbands of the local female population, she remarked to fill the void. She hated quiet. She hadnt grown up with five older brothers for nothing. Their house had been a zoo. But Alex seemed to prefer the transcendent silence.
He lifted one of the boxes effortlessly and shifted it into the corner. He might run to the lean side compared to her buff brothers, but he was stronger than he looked. He commented, I doubt the husbands are the problem. Its an eighty-five percent probability, plus or minus about three percent, that conservative religious zealots have been the ones killing the midwives.