Buch lesen: «Sudden Recall»

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

Dear Reader

Extract

Copyright

ONE

The beat-up, rusty truck was parked askew on the side of the highway. In the beam of his vehicle’s headlights, US Marshal Jackson Parker saw the lone blonde woman kick the flat tire with her black cowgirl boot. He chuckled to himself in the dark of his cab. Sienna did not deal well with feeling incapable, and those lug nuts had probably been tightened by machine.

What was she doing on this lone stretch of highway so late at night, anyway? Her hands were fisted by her sides, halfway covered by the sleeves of a chambray shirt that made her look ordinary when she was anything but. Like she didn’t want to be seen. But then why come to his small Oregon town? As far as Parker was concerned, there were limited reasons a CIA agent, or former CIA agent—whichever she was—would want to hide in plain view.

Sienna was either working a job or running away from some kind of trouble.

Parker debated for a second, then pulled over behind her. He left his lights on, since there weren’t any streetlamps this far out of town. He was at the tail end of a long night that capped a long day, still in his sweaty clothes and bulletproof vest. The scratch he’d gotten on his face from the fugitive they’d taken down today hurt, but it wasn’t bleeding.

Being a marshal was better than climbing through hot jungles and eating sand with every bite, or parachuting into hot zones and barely getting back out alive. Life wasn’t exactly boring now that he wasn’t a navy SEAL, but at least the job was faster, safer and he could stop for a cheeseburger and large fries on his twenty-minute drive home.

He pulled his tired body from the front seat before he trudged over to her.

“You look like you could use some help.” He doubted a person with CIA training was accustomed to needing anything. And yet she’d been bested by a flat tire. He gave her a wry grin.

Her brown eyes were wary. Her blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail, which only served to give him full view of her features.

How was she going to play things this time? Would she continue with the ruse that they didn’t know each other, or was she finally going to admit she’d seriously wronged him? Why persist in giving him no information whatsoever after what they’d shared?

Parker scrubbed his hands down his face. Did he even want to know the answer? He winced when he caught the scratch on his left cheek. “Ma’am?”

“Um...yes. I need help.”

“You have a spare?”

She shook her head, a jerky motion. Seriously, now she was scared of him?

Parker folded his arms. “There’s no one out here. We’re all alone.” Her eyes flashed, and she took a step back. Parker gave her a second, but her facial expression didn’t change. “Sienna. You can give it up.”

“How do you know my name?”

Parker sighed. “You’re really going to do this. You don’t show up, you don’t call, I don’t hear from you. Nothing. Then you move to my town and for a year I have to deal with you pretending like we don’t even know each other. I want to know what’s going on, Sienna. None of this makes any sense to me.”

“That makes two of us.”

He stepped closer. Her eyes widened, and she took a half step back. She was going to have to get over this being-afraid-of-him thing pretty quick. He wasn’t the bad guy. Parker leaned down a little and softened his voice. “What’s going on? You can tell me.”

Maybe this whole thing—being here—was a cover, and he had to go along with it. But it didn’t completely ring true. There was definitely something going on. This woman was not your average country girl who lived on a ranch. Not by any stretch.

The last time they’d met, it had been as a CIA agent and a navy SEAL. They’d spent days with each other at one of the forward operating bases in the Middle East, where she’d laid out all the details of his team’s mission so they could plan their attack. She’d still been there after it was completed successfully, and they’d been able to tell her that everything she’d informed them about had been spot-on.

It hadn’t been a typical set of circumstances. CIA agents generally filed reports, and the intelligence would come down the wires to their SEAL team. But she’d been there herself, recovering from an injury and itching for payback. Parker and his team had been enamored with the lady spy, so tiny but so tough. No one had ever beaten them so badly at pool before, and they’d have let her do it. But she’d whipped them, anyway.

Those few days, before and after, had felt like a vacation to his men. A chance to ease off the stress of consecutive wartime missions. The single guys had tripped over themselves trying to impress Sienna Cartwright, but she’d made it clear Parker was the one who had her attention.

They’d taken things slow. Talked for hours, shared stories of their lives. He’d never told anyone the whole story about his father’s illness and what his life had been like. But he’d shared it with her.

And now she acted like she didn’t even remember.

Trees drifted in the night breeze. They whooshed against one another like ocean waves. “Someone’s coming,” she whispered.

They were alone as far as he could tell. If she was in danger or there was some kind of threat, then she of all people knew he was capable of taking care of her.

She hadn’t seemed to mind that fact before. She’d actually told him it was one of the things she liked best about him. Despite the fact she was a clearly capable woman, CIA agents had active threats against them. She’d appreciated his ability to defend both of them if need be.

They hadn’t said the word love, not when it’d been only a matter of days before they were separated. But they’d had plans to meet up later. He’d foolishly thought she meant everything she’d said about caring for him. About wanting to see what the future might hold for them. He’d also unwisely thought she might be different.

But apparently not.

Time had taught him the hard way that women couldn’t be trusted. Now his heart wanted an explanation—a seriously good one if she thought she was going to make amends—but that didn’t appear to be her plan.

And a woman like Sienna always had a plan.

“Are you in some kind of trouble?”

She peered up at him from beneath her lashes. Her full lips moved like she desperately wanted to say something. Parker’s heart was tied in knots, an uncomfortable feeling that resembled the state he’d been in after his wife of four years ran off with his SEAL teammate while the guy was home on leave recovering from an injury. But that was years ago.

Sienna was different than his ex. And not just because she was a spy. So why was she proving, yet again, that he couldn’t trust his heart? Maybe all women were like that. But when he looked at her, despite the overwhelming evidence, he just didn’t want to believe it.

“Someone is coming,” she said again.

Parker glanced around. A vehicle had crested the hill behind him, headed toward them. “It’s just another truck.”

Sienna flinched. “They’re coming.”

“Who?” Parker touched her elbow. “Is someone after you?”

* * *

The year of memories Sienna had made since she’d woken up with no knowledge of who she was didn’t help her current situation. She had no idea what to do about the giant sweaty guy in front of her who looked like the epitome of the all-American hero. It also didn’t help her understand why she was so anxious just because a vehicle was coming down the street toward them.

It was like being inside a tornado while the world swirled around her.

She glanced around and tried to assess the threat. It was something she did instinctually, although what it meant for whom she’d been before she lost her memories she had no idea. Her aunt wouldn’t tell her anything, claiming the doctor had instructed her not to for fear she’d cause Sienna to make up memories instead of recalling real things. So instead Sienna had to live with a blank.

And she hated it.

The big guy with the bulletproof vest and the silver-star badge on his belt looked over his shoulder. The van wasn’t slowing down. If anything, it’d sped up. When he looked back at her, his features were shadowed.

Was he going to tell her his name?

He knew hers, though how he could’ve learned it was anyone’s guess. Small town, maybe? The handful of times they’d come across each other at the grocery store or the movies—but not at her church, interestingly enough—he only stared at her. Did he think she was some kind of criminal?

The tires on the van squealed and the air filled with the scent of hot rubber. The man with her moved his body between Sienna and the oncoming vehicle, a protective stance she understood but didn’t appreciate. Did he think she was helpless? Sienna leaned around him in time to see the side door slide open. Men with guns and black masks jumped out while it was still moving.

Immediately, the man in front of her yanked her arm almost out of its socket as he took off at a run, forcing her to match his punishing pace toward his truck. He pulled her down on the passenger’s side and drew his weapon. The fast rat-a-tat of automatic gunfire slammed the metal of his truck, across the hood. He lifted up and returned fire.

More machine-gun fire replied. Air hissed out of the tire on the far side from where Sienna was hunkered down. Glass shattered in a spray across the pavement.

He pulled her up and shoved her toward the trees. “Plan B. Run!”

Sienna tucked her elbows in and ran into the forest. On her weekend runs, to mix up her workout some, she often ran at this pace for thirty-second spurts just to see if she could. After two minutes now her lungs started to burn. Branches slapped her arms and legs as she sped between trees, and the sound of booted feet pounded the dirt behind her. She glanced back for a second to make sure it was him and not one of those masked men.

Her foot hit something and she stumbled. The man grabbed her arm while she righted herself. “Faster.”

Faster? She was almost ready to drop right there and then. Her lungs were about to explode, and he didn’t sound much better. Either he had asthma, or...

Sienna looked up at the darkened sky. “Is that a helicopter?” The words came out with each pant of her breath.

He didn’t slow down. He glanced behind them, not even losing his stride. “Left.” His voice was barely above a whisper.

They angled in that direction toward a tight collection of bushes. When they reached the copse, he pulled her down. Sienna slammed onto her hands and knees hard enough to leave bruises. Did he have to act like this? Sure, those guys in black were trying to kill them...or him...or just her.

She frowned and whispered, “Why do I feel like I shouldn’t be trying to run away from this but should be facing this head-on instead?”

He shook his head and put his finger to his lips.

Was she the kind of person who fought back? She wouldn’t have thought so, given how her stomach was roiling. Sienna peeked out of the bushes. Moonlight gave her enough visibility that she could see two figures in the distance make their way toward them. Careful to keep her voice low, she said, “Did you kill one of them?”

“I aimed high, probably just winged him,” he whispered. “They were trying to kill us, you know. Instead, they killed my truck.” The figures moved closer. “We’re going to have to outrun them. One has a camera that is likely thermal imaging. They’ll be able to see us hiding.”

Thermal imaging? The cover of bushes wouldn’t mean anything to someone able to see heat signatures. Sienna and...whatever his name was would be lit up like two beacons.

“Let’s go.”

She nodded and took his outstretched hand. Going with him was simply the better of the two options. One being death, the other being rescued by a handsome hero. No contest, really. Still, she needed to be careful. She’d been duped by better-looking men than him.

Or at least she thought she might have.

Sienna crept along behind him. How did he make no noise when she seemed to step on every snapping twig in this forest? She should be as good, if not better, than him. Why, she didn’t know, but it seemed like that should be a thing. Like she’d learned this, or done this.

But what kind of person knew the best way to run for their life?

* * *

Parker glanced up through the trees as the helicopter shone a searchlight over the forest. He angled them to avoid the beam as it swept north to south. His battered body was heavy with fatigue. Old injuries stretched and woke up to let him know they didn’t approve of how fast he was moving.

What Parker wanted to know was whether the masked men and the helicopter were here for Sienna or for both of them. It was the first time they’d been alone together. Was that the trigger which had brought this attack down on them? It seemed a long time to wait, a whole year of her living in this town, when these guys could have taken Parker and Sienna out separately. The timing had to mean something.

Maybe she knew the answer. But would she tell him?

He signaled her to split up, circle around and meet back at the road. Halfway through his series of hurried hand motions, she shook her head and whispered, “I don’t know what that means.”

He wasn’t going to explain it. “What’s wrong with you?”

The helicopter turned in their direction again. Parker ducked behind a tree and checked the position of the two guys in pursuit. They had dropped back. Were he and Sienna in the clear, or was their retreat a signal things were about to get worse?

She huddled beside him like he was home base. Only this wasn’t a game.

Parker said, “Sienna, enough with the act. It’s going to get us both killed, so quit pretending you don’t know what to do. You’re not some untrained civilian, and you need to be all-in or we won’t get clear of these guys.”

“And I’m supposed to, what, fight them by myself?”

Why was she being so cautious? He wouldn’t have signed to her that they should separate if he hadn’t known she could handle it.

“I’m not about to help when you’re endangering both of our lives by pretending to be helpless.” They were almost nose to nose, his voice a hard whisper that sounded scary even to his own ears. But maybe she would listen. Instead, the moonlight glinted off the tears in her eyes. Seriously, now she was going to act like the terrified victim? “Give it up, Sienna.”

“Tell me why you know my name. Tell me yours. Tell me anything but that you’re going to leave me here to die.”

“You know my name.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know anything. I didn’t even know my name until Aunt Karen told me.”

“You don’t have an aunt Karen. You said you had an uncle Bill, but that was it. Or did you lie about that, too, along with everything else?”

Her lip trembled. “Please just tell me your name.”

Parker couldn’t believe he was actually going to placate her. “Jackson Parker. Most everyone calls me Parker.”

Which she already knew. Only his dad had ever called him Jackson, and he remembered his mom calling him Jack. That was why he only ever told people his name was Parker. He wanted as much separation as possible between who he was now and that scared kid who never thought he’d get away from his lazy, drunk father still pining for a woman who hadn’t wanted either of them.

She looked down at the badge on his belt. “A...US marshal?”

He nodded. “Fugitive apprehension task force.”

“Am I a criminal?”

“No. Why would you think that?”

“Because I don’t know who I am. I have amnesia. I don’t remember anything before a year ago, Parker. And the year before that I was in a coma.”

Amnesia? Parker stared at her, dumbfounded.

She was looking at him like maybe he could help her sort this out.

The reality was, he probably could. He had to get them out of this first before he unraveled the loose threads in her stories. If she was lying—again—he’d find out sooner or later, and he’d know never to trust her or any other woman. Ever.

If she wasn’t lying, Parker wouldn’t stop until he got to the bottom of what had happened to her. Something had turned the strong, capable woman he’d known into the scared and shaking one in front of him. And he was going to find out what.

He took her hand again and started walking. The helicopter was overhead still. Parker cut right, then left, then right again, working his way back to the road. Why had he left his cell phone in the cup holder in his truck?

He needed to call this in, get his whole team here to battle these guys. Making arrests, interrogating suspects and seeing justice done was his life now.

As for Sienna, he didn’t know what her life entailed. None of this made any sense, except her not being able to remember who she was. Amnesia actually fit everything he’d seen so far, but how could that have happened? A year in a coma? Where was the CIA now? Even harmless and unable to go on missions, surely they kept tabs on an asset like her.

Parker had a lot of questions. The first of which was where those two men had gone.

He slowed his pace and listened as Sienna quieted her breaths. Some things were still there. The way she reacted, the way she scanned the vicinity around her. Training had been ingrained in her until it was muscle memory, even as freaked out as she was and with no past.

His Sienna was still in there, and maybe she’d be able to tell him why she had left him standing by himself at the airport in Atlanta. Why she’d promised to be there and then hadn’t shown. He’d been fresh off that last mission and anxious to see her—to see where their relationship might go when they were both stateside with some time off.

The timing of her no-show at the airport didn’t fit the “coma” she’d been in. If it’d lasted a year, it would have begun weeks, or even a month, after she stood him up. There had to be another reason she had never showed. Once Parker knew what it was, he’d be able to walk away without this twisting thing in his chest that wouldn’t let him rest. She’d torn him up inside, but he’d given her the power to do that first. No more. He wasn’t going to give his heart to another woman, ever. He was done with that.

Sienna gasped, and the hot barrel end of a rifle touched Parker’s neck. He had to think quickly. In one maneuver he twisted and went for the rifle.

The shot slammed into his chest.