Marching Orders Read online

  Marching Orders

  Delores Fossen

  Harlequin (2002)

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  Tags: Romance, Erotica, Fiction, Suspense, General

  Romancettt Eroticattt Fictionttt Suspensettt Generalttt

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  Anna Caldwell had'nt planned on spending her honeymoon dodging bullets in the Texas chaparral.

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  Marching Orders

  Delores Fossen

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  Toronto • New York • London • Amsterdam • Paris • Sydney • Hamburg • Stockholm • Athens • Tokyo • Milan • Madrid • Prague • Warsaw • Budapest • Auckland

  To my editor, Priscilla Berthiaume.

  Thanks so much for your guidance and support.

  “I want answers and I want them now,” she said, her voice barely a whisper

  “Answers?” he calmly repeated. He inched closer, but stopped when Anna lifted the gun and aimed it right at his heart. “What do you mean?” She’d obviously figured out he wasn’t the man she’d thought he was.

  “Rafe and I were lovers,” she whispered, a tear racing down her cheek.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry?” she snapped. “It’s a little too late for that, don’t you think? Two months too late. I’m pregnant.”

  Oh, man. That knocked the breath right out of him. He couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. All he could do was stand there and stare at her.

  With her eyes brimming with tears, she levered the gun slightly higher. “And now I want to know what you’ve done with my baby’s father.”

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Imagine a family tree that includes Texas cowboys, Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, a Louisiana pirate and a Scottish rebel who battled side by side with William Wallace. With ancestors like that, it’s easy to understand why Texas author and former air force captain Delores Fossen feels as if she was genetically predisposed to writing romances. Along the way to fulfilling her DNA destiny, Delores married an air force Top Gun who just happens to be of Viking descent. With all those romantic bases covered, she doesn’t have to look too far for inspiration.

  Books by Delores Fossen

  HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE

  648—HIS CHILD

  679—A

  MAN WORTH REMEMBERING

  704—MARCHING ORDERS

  Air Force Personnel Record

  Classified

  Name: Rafael “Rafe” M. McQuade

  Rank: Captain (Officer-3 scale)

  Career Field: Combat Rescue Officer

  Security Clearance: Top Secret

  Physical Description: Thick brown hair. Green eyes. Muscular 6’ 1” body. No distinguishing marks.

  Specialty Skills: Weapons expert, hand-to-hand combat specialist, proficient in three languages.

  Duty Description: Commands combat rescue operations as a direct combatant, including survival, evasion, resistance and escape.

  Current Assignment: Alpha Team Task Force

  Availability Status: On medical leave, but called back for ultrasecret mission.

  Diagnosis: Anterograde amnesia—may or may not recover previous memories.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Captain Rafe McQuade—An air force Combat Rescue Officer who’s kidnapped while on a special ops mission. His captors accidentally destroy key pieces of Rafe’s memory—pieces that hold a deadly secret that puts Rafe, his bride and his unborn child in grave danger.

  Anna Caldwell—She prays that Rafe can piece together the secrets buried in his memory in time to save them.

  Colonel Ethan Shaw—Commander of the Alpha Team Task Force and Rafe’s boss. Is he willing to let Anna and Rafe die to cover up a botched classified mission that could cost him his career?

  Nicholas Sheldon—A security specialist who has a personal grudge against Colonel Shaw and Rafe. But has that grudge caused him to seek revenge?

  Janine Billings—Anna’s best friend who has ties to the very assassins who are trying to kill Rafe and Anna.

  Special Agent Luke Buchanan—A Justice Department official assigned to the Alpha Team. The financial problems in his personal life might have caused him to betray Anna and Rafe.

  Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Monte de Leon, present

  A bullet slammed into the crumbling chimney just inches from Captain Rafe McQuade’s head. He mumbled some vicious profanity and flattened his body against the battered roof of the abandoned hacienda.

  “I’ve got an admirer,” he snarled into the thumbnail-size communicator on the collar of his camouflage uniform. “Do me a favor, Rico, and take him out, will you?”

  “I’m trying” was the reply he got from Captain Cal Rico.

  All hell was breaking loose on the ground twenty feet below him. Artillery shells. Frantic shouts. The smell of battle, smoke and gunfire.

  None of which was supposed to be happening.

  Talk about Murphy’s Law. Anything that could go wrong, had. And now his Alpha Team members—and Anna—were neck-deep in cross fire between two warring rebel factions that had chosen this godforsaken place for a showdown.

  Rafe inched forward, leaving the meager cover of the overhanging tree that he’d used to climb onto the building. His equipment belt and assault rifle scraped along the bleached roof tiles.

  Come hell or high water, he would get Anna out. Failure was not an option.

  “Infrared shows no one else inside the building. For now,” Rico informed him through the receiver in Rafe’s ear. “But Anna just moved into the cellar. You can access it through a door beneath the stairs.”

  “Atta girl,” Rafe mumbled. With gunfire riddling the papery walls, the cellar was her best bet. Now, hopefully, she’d stay put until he got to her.

  “I’m going in,” he informed Rico.

  Rafe scrambled to the lip of the roof, gripped onto the eaves and launched himself over the side. His feet crashed through the second-story window just below, and with his weapon ready to fire, he hit the floor running.

  The hacienda had obviously been abandoned for months. Rafe fought his way through the litter of bashed furniture and debris to get to the stairs. He stopped at the landing and glanced down at the glass-strewn foyer. No sign of gunmen, but someone had shot out the windows and ripped off the double doors. The muggy breeze stirred what was left of a pair of ghostly white curtains. Just curtains.

  Maybe.

  Just outside the doorway, he saw a shadow of motion that had him holding his tongue.

  Silently repositioning his weapon, Rafe waited. A second. Then two. Before he saw the man step into the foyer. A rebel fighter with an angry-looking machete and a semiautomatic. And he had his attention focused on the door that led to the cellar. Maybe the guy had actually seen Anna run in there. It didn’t matter. There was no way Rafe would let him get to her.

  No way.

  The man looked up. A split-second glance as he tried to take aim. It was the last glance or aim he’d ever attempt. Rafe took him out with two shots to the head. The rebel fell into a heap on the floor.

  “I just lost an admirer,” Rafe reported to Rico.

  Rafe barreled down the wide spiraling steps and made his way to the arch-shaped door beneath. “It’s me—Rafe,” he called out. “Open up, Anna!”

  Almost immediately he heard her footsteps on the cellar stairs. With each one, his heart was right in his throat. There was a shuffle of movement before she opened the scarred door a fraction.

  Rafe came face-to-face with a handgun.

  Anna peered out at him, her gaze combing the foyer. Relief raced through him. And a whole host of other emotions that he didn’t want to take the time to analyze.

  “You came,” she whispered, her voice shattering. She lowered her weapon. “I can’t believe you came.”

  He pushed her back into the cellar and kicked the door shut, barricading it with the two-by-four and equipment bag already on the stairs. “Of course, I came. I’m an Air Force Combat Rescue Officer, darling. A highly trained CRO. Saving beautiful photographers is what I do best.”

  She made a soft sound of frightened laughter, slipped her firearm into her pocket and caught on to him.

  Rafe was about to tell her how ticked off he was that she hadn’t evacuated with the other journalists, but Anna stopped him. She latched her arms around him, and her mouth came to his. One kiss, and he forgot all about chewing her out.

  Hell, he forgot how to breathe.

  All Rafe knew was that he’d never, never wanted a kiss as much as he wanted that one.

  Anna broke the mouth-to-mouth contact but held on tight. Rafe pushed the damp strands of honey-colored hair from her face and looked down at her. Her dark eyes shimmered with tears. Outside, the sounds of the fight began to fade, a clear indication that the Alpha Team was closing in.

  “Anna’s alive and well?” Rico asked into Rafe’s earpiece.

  Before he could answer, Rafe had to
clear away the lump that’d settled in his throat. “Affirmative. Are we secure yet?”

  “Only the area immediately surrounding the hacienda. Colonel Shaw’s arranging transport for Anna, but you’re looking at two hours, maybe three. I’ll give you a rendezvous point and time when I have it. Hold your positions until further orders.”

  “Copy.” Rafe clicked off the audio portion of his communicator. Two hours, maybe three. He could have waited weeks now that he knew Anna was all right.

  “How did you find out I was here?” she asked, lifting her head from his shoulder.

  “The Alpha Team’s doing some jungle maneuvers so I’ve been keeping track of you since you arrived in Bogotá on assignment three days ago.”

  Anna gave him a considering look. “And with all the jungles in South America, you just happened to choose the remote village of Monte de Leon for those maneuvers?”

  Rafe decided it was best to avoid answering that truthfully. “In a way.”

  A troubled sigh left her mouth, but she didn’t ask for an explanation. Which was a good thing. He couldn’t tell her about the classified mission that involved the Alpha Team, or the fact that he’d made sure he was close by in case something went wrong.

  Rafe led her down the narrow steps and into the heart of the cellar. It was clammy, and the only light came from a bread-loaf size ventilation window at the back. He moved them as far away from that as he could, and with her snuggled in his arms, he sank onto a crumpled blanket in the corner.

  “Soon we’ll both be on our way back to Texas. Promise. Everything will be all right,” he assured her.

  Rafe leaned in and brushed his mouth over hers. It might have been just a brief kiss if she hadn’t made a sound of relief, and pleasure. A throaty, feminine sound that sent a trickle of fire through his blood.

  So, he kissed her, really kissed her, and deepened it when she responded.

  Their bodies moved together, completing the intimate embrace. She wound her arms around him. Rafe did the same. Until they were plastered against each other.

  Not good.

  She latched on to his shoulders when he started to move away. “Is there any chance those rebels can get into this place?”

  “Don’t worry. We’re safe.”

  Something he couldn’t quite distinguish went through her eyes, and before he could figure out what, her mouth came to his again. Rafe felt the difference in her kiss. Not fear. Not this. This was all fire and need.

  “Anna,” he warned when she lay back onto the blanket. If he wanted to keep things in check, this probably shouldn’t continue.

  But it did.

  Anna caught on to the front of his uniform and pulled him down with her. The logical part of his brain yelled that this would be hellish torture, but the rest of him didn’t seem to care. While still holding on to his weapon, he buried his other hand in her hair and took her mouth as if it were his for the taking.

  Rafe kissed her chin. Her neck. And the tender flesh that he found in the vee opening of her shirt. Anna arched against him, whispering his name.

  When her leg brushed against the front of his pants, she stiffened slightly, obviously noticing that he was a dozen steps past basic foreplay. She didn’t pull away, though. Not that he gave her much of a chance. Rafe knew this couldn’t go where his body wanted it to go, but he wasn’t ready to stop just yet.

  While he kept up the assault on her neck, he opened the buttons on her shirt. One at a time. Slowly. As he bared her skin, he dropped kisses along the way until he reached her bra. It wasn’t much of a barrier, a little swatch of pale-colored lace. He eased it down and took a moment to admire the view.

  Thankfully, there was just enough light that he could see her. She was beautiful. And he didn’t mean just her breasts and her body. Rafe stared down at her face and wondered what the hell he’d ever done to deserve her.

  He lowered his head and brushed his tongue against one of her tightened nipples. She clamped on to her bottom lip, but not before she moaned with pleasure. He hadn’t especially needed that kind of encouragement, but it sped up his plans a little. He drew her nipple into his mouth.

  Anna’s grip tightened around him. She arched her back and forced him closer. Rafe feasted. First one breast and then the other.

  She stirred restlessly. Seeking. She pressed her lower body to his and had him seeing double when she moved against him in the most intimate kind of way that a woman could move against a man.

  “I’ve been in this building for what seemed like an eternity,” she whispered. “Thinking about you. About us. About how fragile life is. I want to be with you, Rafe, and I don’t want to wait any longer.”

  He watched the words shape her lips. He’d already geared himself up to resist the need raging in his body. That’s what he’d done for the past four and a half months since Anna had told him that she was a virgin and wouldn’t give herself to a man she didn’t love.

  But those words changed everything.

  He was about to remind her that it was the adrenaline talking, but Anna stopped him. She pressed her fingers to his mouth. “I love you, Rafe, and I don’t want you to say anything. I just want you to do something about it.”

  His heart slammed against his chest. He had two simultaneous thoughts. Thank goodness and oh, hell.

  Her timing couldn’t have been worse. Ditto for the location. In fact, everything about the moment was wrong, wrong, wrong except for one major thing: somehow or another, it was right.

  Totally, completely right.

  Rafe let that sink in for a couple of moments. It sank in and went straight to his heart.

  Maybe Anna didn’t want the words now, but he sure as heck would say them to her later. Words to let her know that he didn’t want to be just her first, or even her last, but her only lover.

  He reached out, pulled her to him and took everything she offered.

  Chapter One

  San Antonio, Two Months Later

  The moment Rafe slid his arm around her waist, Anna felt the jolt. Definitely not passion. Something else. Something she’d felt stirring just beneath the surface since his return three days earlier.

  “No turning back now, darling,” Rafe drawled, his voice low and intimate. The corner of his mouth hitched, causing a dimple to flash. “We’ve officially been joined at the hip.”

  “Yes,” Anna managed to say.

  She swallowed hard.

  Rafe gently cupped her chin and leaned closer for the kiss that would seal the vows they had just taken. His hand trembled a little, and he closed the already narrow distance between them.

  Their bodies came together. His crisp uniform whispered over the delicate layers of her silk-and-lace gown. Beneath her own trembling hand, Anna felt the strip of cool medals on his jacket and heard them jangle softly. All things considered, it was as perfect as it could be.

  Except for that jolt.

  Rafe kept the kiss brief, not much more than a touch. Breath met breath. His was warm and mint-scented. It mingled with the sweet fragrance of the pale peach roses in her bouquet.

  “Don’t worry,” he murmured. The trace of Texas in his voice danced right off his words. “We’ll make up for lost time. Promise.”

  It was the right thing to say. Ditto for the grin that curved his beautifully shaped mouth. But neither of those things made the jolt go away.

  What in the name of heaven was wrong with her? She had it all. A mouth-watering husband that she loved. A life she wanted. This was her own personal version of a fairy tale come true. There was no reason for jolts or doubts.

  None.

  So, why didn’t that make her feel better?

  The chaplain placed a hand on each of their shoulders and turned them toward the guests. “I’d like to present Captain and Mrs. Rafael McQuade.”

  Applause rippled through the handful of people. Close friends and Rafe’s co-workers, including his commanding officer, Colonel Ethan Shaw. The wedding had been so hastily thrown together that there hadn’t been time to invite anyone from out of town. As unsteady as she felt, maybe that was a good thing.