Five past midnight
Thunder rumbled and lightning flickered, closer this time. As he searched each row in the desolate church, electricity danced along Tys skin, seeming ironic in the powerless city.
He glanced at his watch. Where the hell was Liam? Unless he never intended toshow up.
He spun and yelled to Gabby, Its a trap. Get the hell out of here!
She took two steps before thunder clapped and the building shook around them, the emergency lights going out, plunging the church into blackness.
He heard a crash up ahead, a womans scream, and his heart jolted in his chest.
Gabby! he shouted, but there was no response.
A heartbeat later, the lights flickered back to life.
She was gone.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Though shes tried out professions ranging from cleaning sea lion cages to cloning glaucoma genes, from patent law to training horses, Jessica is happiest when shes combining all these interests with her first love: writing romances. These days shes delighted to be writing full-time on a farm in rural Connecticut that she shares with a small menagerie and a hero named Brian. She hopes youll visit her at www.JessicaAndersen.com for info on upcoming books, contests and to say hi!
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Gabriella Solaro The shy computer science teacher protects her privacy and her secret by keeping her online romance strictly online until her curiosity gets the best of her.
Tyler Jones As a Secret Service agent and a member of the clandestine black ops group Eclipse, Ty is used to putting missions ahead of his personal agenda. But when he meets Gabby, work and play clash with potentially disastrous results.
Grant Davis The vice-president of the United States of America.
Liam Shea The electrical expert spent ten years in a military prison for a crime he swears he didnt commit. Now hes out, and hes looking for revenge on the men who ruined his life.
Ethan Matalon, Chase Vickers and ShanePeters The other three members of Eclipse have each fought their own battles in Liams mad plan.
Aidan, Finn and Colin Sullivan Liams sons each play a vital role in their fathers revenge.
Leonore and Tom Wellbrooke The proprietors of a shelter in South Boston seem like good people, but they have good reason to want the vice-president discreditedor worse.
Meet Me at Midnight
JESSICA ANDERSEN
www.millsandboon.co.uk
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To Rebecca York, Rita Herron and
Linda Castillo, thanks for being a ton of fun to
work with on this four-book series!
Chapter One
Dear CyberGabby:
Ive never used a service like Webmatch.com before, so I apologize in advance if I mess up. I saw your picture and read your profile, and I think we have some things in common. My name is Ty, Im thirty-five, divorced and relatively free of baggage. Like you, I enjoy classic cars and driving fast. I work as a bodyguard because I also like traveling and staying on the move. Its not as exciting as it might sound, though. I work for a corporate type, so its mostly standing outside boring meetings. Which, I suppose, is better than actually attending the meetings. Anyway, Im looking forward to getting to know you better. Ive posted my picture and profile (click here). If youre interested, shoot me a note and we can chat.
[Sent by TyJ; March 17, 1:03:13 a.m.]
9:58 p.m., August 27 Hours and 40 Minutes to Dawn
Ty Jones paused in the shadows beyond a small, cobbled courtyard in Bostons North End, breathing past the tension of battle readiness.
The light from a kerosene lantern broke the absolute darkness, casting warm shadows on the woman who waited for him in the hot, humid summer night. The lamplight should have been almost painfully romantic.
Instead, it was a necessity.
Boston had been in the grips of a widespread blackout for twenty-five hours now. Most of the citys inhabitants thought there had been a massive failure at Boston Power & Light, but Ty and his teammates knew the blackout had been no accident. It had been a cover. Under the cloak of darkness, a man theyd once trusted had kidnapped Grant Davis, Vice President of the United States.
Now, twenty-five hours later, with Daviss life hanging in the balance and his captor hinting that a bomb had been planted somewhere in the city, Ty and the others were out of time and options.
Which had brought him here, to a clandestine rendezvous with Internet bombshell Gabriella Solaro.
Tys watch chimed softly. It was ten oclock. Time to meet the one connection he had left, the one woman who could possibly lead them to Liam Shea, the man behind the blackout.
Taking a deep breath, Ty stepped out of concealment and swung open the ornate wrought iron gate that separated the North End courtyard from the narrow street. Pitching his voice low, he called, Gabriella?
The woman was facing away from him. At the sound of her name, she turned and lifted the lantern. Ty?
Her voice was soft and feminine, just as hed imagined it during their online conversations, first in a chat room at Webmatch.com, then one-on-one via e-mail and instant messenger. But oddly, she looked nothing like hed expected.
Her dark eyes complemented full, red-painted lips, and her features were sharp and exotic, but in the lantern light, her hair seemed darker than the fiery chestnut shed mentioned, and her simple sundress made her figure seem more angular than her self-described curvy-bordering-on-plump.
She was lovely, but she wasnt anything like the picture in her profile. Then again, why should that surprise him? It was all too easy to bend the truth and become someone else on the Internet.
He should know.
Stepping forward into the circle of lantern light, Ty hesitated, wondering what shed expect. Should he hug her? Kiss her? Theyd met through an online dating service, which carried a certain expectation, and theyd e-chatted long into many nights, forming the illusion of intimacy. But none of it had been real, had it?
More important, their last few exchanges had been increasingly tense, as hed pressed for a meeting and shed resisted, which had solidified his suspicions even before Liam had made his move.
Now, though, Ty had a part to play. He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. Its nice to finally meet you in person.
If he hadnt been watching her face as he eased back, he wouldve missed the moment her eyes slid beyond him to a deeply shadowed corner where two brick-walled houses converged.
Instinct tightened the back of Tys neck.
Someone was watching.
He forced himself not to react, instead smiling easily. Im surprised you agreed to meet me in the middle of this godawful blackout, especially with the curfew and all. Heck, I wasnt even sure my e-mail would get through, or that youd have enough juice to read it.
With Liams three accomplices, his sons Finn, Aidan and Colin, all out of actionone dead, one comatose, one not talkingTy had known Gabby was perhaps their last hope for finding the mastermind. Hed broken into a strangers car, plugged his handheld into the cigarette lighter and stolen enough charge to send the message. Then hed waited in the darkness, listening to the sounds of growing violence nearby as the looting continued and the National Guard moved in to enforce the mayors new curfew. The mob had almost reached him by the time shed e-mailed back, arranging the meet.
As Ty had locked the car and slipped away for a quick radio convo with his boss, part of him had hoped shed agreed to meet him out of curiosity, that the woman hed gotten to know online was the real deal.
Now, as she glanced into the shadows a second time, conflicting emotions stirred within himvicious satisfaction that hed come to the right place and disappointment that she hadnt been the real deal, after all.
I got your message on my Blackberry, she answered. I was surprised you wanted to meet face-to-face, especially after that last e-mail I sent you, but I wascurious, I guess. She glanced at him, eyes dark and a little cool with an emotion that was either nerves or calculation. You didnt have any problems getting here? Nobody stopped you?
I made it okay. His credentials had gotten him through the first two roadblocks, but hed ended up ditching his car near the waterfront, where the Guards bulldozers and tow trucks hadnt yet cleared the roadways. Numerous cars had wrecked right after the blackout, when the traffic lights went down, and even more vehicles had been abandoned later, when rumors of a terrorist attack had sent the citys residents fleeing in panic, only to have them wind up trapped in gridlock, frying in the hot summer sun.
Dull anger kindled in his gut at the thought of so much chaos created by a single ex-con and his sons, but he kept his voice light and friendly when he said, How about you? No problems so far with the lights off?
She shifted from one foot to the other, seeming uncomfortableor was that just part of the act? After a hesitation so brief he wouldnt have noticed it if he hadnt been looking, she tipped her head, fluttered her eyelashes and said, Would you like to sit down and talk for a little bit? Theres a fountain and some benches in the next courtyard over. The neighbors wont mind.
She pointed to a secluded spot where the cobblestone path narrowed between two planted areas, no doubt near where her associate waited.
Keeping his weight evenly balanced on the balls of his feet, ready for a fight, Ty nodded. The courtyard sounds perfect.
She set the lantern on the edge of a nearby stone planter before starting down the short path. Was it a signal? Ty didnt know, but he was tense with battle readiness as he followed in her wake.
Theyd taken just three steps into the shadows when he heard a rustle and the faint indrawn breath that presaged attack.
Freeze! Ty palmed the revolver he wore at his hip and grabbed Gabriella in a single move, spinning her back against his body and clamping an arm across her throat.
She screamed and struggled to escape, her elbows digging into his ribs, her heels drumming against his shins. He could feel her heartbeat jackhammering beneath his forearm, mute evidence that she might be a liar, but she wasnt a trained operative.
Be still. He cocked the revolver, and the click resonated on the humid air, freezing her in place.
He carried a semiautomatic with fifteen in the clip as his primary weapon, tucked into an underarm holster, but hed long ago found that the six-shooter had the edge when it came to intimidation.
The click said he meant business. Right now his business was finding Grant Davis and locating the bomb thatd been planted somewhere in the city, and to do that, he had to get his hands on Liam Shea.
Adrenaline pounded through Tys veins as he leaned close and spoke into his captives delicate ear. Tell him to toss his weapons and come out with his hands up.
If he was damn lucky, it would be Shea himself. If not, he hoped it was an underling he could lean on for the bastards location.
Gabby whimpered in the back of her throat and jerked her head in some semblance of a nod. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she was shaking all over, almost enough to convince him she was for real.
A sliver of compassion twisted through Ty, along with snippets from the hundreds of notes theyd exchanged over the past five-plus months. Shed written about honesty, and about problems with her family, and, damn it, shed seemed real enough that hed responded in kind.
Maybe she really hadnt known what she was getting into, he rationalized. Maybe it had seemed like a game to her, or perhaps she was one of those bleeding hearts who believed in rehabilitation of hardened criminals.
If so, he couldve told her not to bother. Liam had been a traitor eleven years earlier, and he was a traitor now.
One who damn well belonged back in jail.
When there was no motion from the bushes, Ty raised his voice. Come out here. Now! A breath of wind disturbed the hot, humid air, unfurling a nearby flag and making it snap. Youve got until three. Onetwo
The bushes moved and a figure stepped out onto the path, nearly lost in the darkness.
Back up into the courtyard, he ordered, his pulse accelerating as he tried to assess the risks and control the scene.
Go on. Easy now. He marched Gabby along the path in front of him, using her as a shield as the shadowy figure complied, backing into the courtyard with a hitching motion, as though feeling the way. Moments later, the figure stepped into the circle of lantern light, and the illumination chased away the anonymous shadows.
Ty froze.
It wasnt Liam Shea. It was a woman, and she sure as hell didnt look like anyones hired gun.
She wore cutoff shorts over curvy legs, with a pink button-down shirt knotted beneath generous breasts. Glossy hair spilled over her shoulders, gleaming with rich chestnut highlights in the yellow lantern light. Her eyes were strangely luminous, as though backlit, bleaching from brown at the center to pale at the edges, and her full, moist lips came straight from his fantasies.
Surprise flared through him, laced with something hotter and even more unexpected. Suddenly desire existed alongside anger, all of it complicated with the pounding need to shelter the innocent and rescue the man he was sworn to protect with his life.
He tried for a dry tone, but the words came out harsh when he said, Hello, Gabby.
Then he noticed the red-tipped cane in her hand, and saw that she wasnt looking directly at him with those pale, pretty eyes.
A second major shock hammered through him.