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Commando
Lindsay McKenna
MILLS & BOON
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To my brothers and their families:
Gary, Debby, Brian and Kimberly Gent,
and Brent, Jeanne, Erin and Lauren Gent.
A sister couldn’t get luckier, believe me.
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
Prologue
“Mr. Trayhern, I want my daughter out of the Amazon jungle. Now. No questions asked.”
Morgan Trayhern eyed the man who stood tensely in front of his large desk. Ken Travers, a millionaire real estate developer, wore a Saville Row suit; his black hair was peppered with a few white strands. Right now, he looked angry. Morgan rested his finger against his chin and allowed his instincts to take over. Travers might be rich and influential, but Morgan didn’t like his attitude.
“Mr. Travers—”
“Call me Ken.”
Morgan allowed a brief, perfunctory smile to cross his mouth as he eased forward in his leather chair. He clasped his hands in front of him and rested them on top of his cherrywood desk.
“All right. Ken. Perseus doesn’t do anything without asking a lot of questions first. You come bursting into my office without an appointment, and—”
“Yes, yes, and I apologize.” Travers raked his hand through his short hair, his blue eyes narrowing. “It’s just that my daughter, Shah, has no business being down in the Amazon! She’s headstrong and opinionated.” Travers paced for a moment, halted and pinned Morgan with a glare. “On top of that, she’s half Sioux, and wears it like a damned badge of honor. She calls herself a warrior for Mother Earth. What rubbish! She’s a hellion who goes off half-cocked on ridiculous, fanatical quests.”
“Please, Ken, sit down and let’s discuss this matter intelligently.” Morgan wondered which of his Perseus employees might be available for the assignment. Marie Parker, his intrepid assistant, kept him supplied with a complete, updated list of who was open. Quickly perusing the list, Morgan noted the “not available” status of Wolf Harding, who had recently quit. At least he was happy with his ranger’s job in Montana—and he would be marrying Sarah Thatcher shortly. Marie had penned a date in the margin near Wolf’s name to remind Morgan that he and Laura would be attending that wedding.
Hiding a smile, Morgan’s gaze moved down the list. Killian had requested only American assignments, and low-risk ones at that. Judging from Ken Travers’s agitated state, this potential assignment was probably not low-risk. Besides, Killian was still on his requested three-month leave, working to get his life back together, and Morgan respected that request. With Morgan’s own sister-in-law, Susannah Anderson at his side, and his recent move to Glen, Kentucky, to be with her, Killian’s focus was on the personal right now, anyway.
Morgan was nearly to the end of the list when he noticed that one of his men, Jake Randolph, was due to come in off an assignment today. That meant he’d be checking in with Marie tomorrow morning as a matter of course. Every employee, after coming off an assignment, wrote up a detailed report at the main office to be submitted to Morgan. Then the employee was given two weeks—or more, if he or she requested it—time off to rest and regroup.
Frowning, Morgan sat back in his chair, rubbing his jaw. Jake had been on a brutal assignment in Peru. He’d been responsible for getting all the parties together regarding the contract on Susannah Anderson by José Santiago’s drug cartel. If it hadn’t been for Jake’s brazen approach to Santiago’s estate, demanding that those now in command talk with the Peruvian government, as well as with U.S. officials, the contract would never have been lifted from Susannah’s head. Yes, Jake had clearly been a key to saving Susannah’s life.
Jake would be tired, Morgan knew. He’d risked his life time and again, carrying messages to the drug cartel on behalf of the U.S. government when the cartel officials refused to talk directly. Quickly glancing to the end of the list, Morgan realized that Jake was the only operative potentially free to take this assignment for Travers.
But would he? Morgan looked up at Travers. “I’ve got one of my operatives coming off an assignment tomorrow morning. Why don’t we discuss some of the details of what you want done, and we’ll have a meeting with him tomorrow?”
Travers nodded brusquely. “Fine with me. I just want this thing settled. I want my daughter the hell out of Brazil.”
Chapter One
“Welcome home, Jake,” Marie said with a smile.
Wiping his eyes, Jake Randolph smiled tiredly as he got off the elevator that led directly to the main office of Perseus. “Hi, Marie.” He moved slowly across the thick rose-colored carpeting toward her desk. “Got something you’ve been wanting.”
With a smile, she took his report. “Handwritten, no doubt?”
“Yeah. You know me—I can’t type to save my soul.” He stretched and yawned. “I’m taking that two weeks off. I’m beat.”
“Not so fast,” Marie murmured apologetically. “Morgan left word for you to come directly to him when you came back.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. I’m afraid he’s got another assignment, and you’re the only person available to take it.”
Jake frowned. “Listen, I’m wiped out from that Peruvian fiasco.”
“I know you are. Just go in and talk to Morgan, will you? There’s a gentleman in there with him. They’ve both been waiting for you to show up.”
Groaning, Jake rubbed his face, which needed a shave. “Okay, but I’m turning it down.”
Marie smiled understandingly and pressed the button on the intercom that sat on her desk.
“Jake is here, Mr. Trayhern. Shall I send him in?”
Jake opened the door to Morgan’s spacious office and entered. Morgan looked up and nodded to him.
“Come in, Jake. Meet Ken Travers. Ken, this is Jake Randolph. Jake’s our Brazilian specialist. He knows Portuguese, the language of the country, and he’s been there on assignment a number of times in the past few years.”
Travers leaped from the couch like an overwound spring and held his hand out.
“Mr. Randolph.”
Jake sized up the lean, restless-looking businessman, taking an immediate dislike to him. It was an intuitive thing, Jake thought as he extended his hand to shake Travers’s manicured one. Intuition had saved his life on a number of occasions, and he wasn’t about to dismiss a gut feeling.
“Mr. Travers.”
Jake turned to Morgan, whose face showed no expression. Not unusual, Jake thought—Morgan knew how to keep his feelings hidden until the proper time. Jake noted Travers’s expensive suit, his perfect haircut, the gold watch on his wrist—and his arrogance. Hiding a wry smile at the thought, Jake realized that he must look like a country bumpkin by comparison. He wore jeans, rough-out boots and an off-white fisherman-knit sweater. November in Washington, D.C., was cold, and there was a threat of snow today.
“Have a seat.” Morgan gestured to a wing chair positioned to one side of his desk.
Jake nodded, his attention still on Travers. There was a feeling of electricity in the air, and it was coming from him. Jake had learned a long time ago to say little and observe a lot. Travers was pacing like a caged animal, his hands behind his back and his brow furrowed. His full mouth was set in a line of decided aversion. But aversion to whom? Morgan? Him? Probably both of them, he surmised.
Marie, dressed in her tasteful and conservative navy suit with white piping, came in moments later bearing a silver tray that contained coffee and a plate of cookies for the three men. She set it on the coffee table in front of the couch.
“Please call my wife,” Morgan told her, “and tell her I have to cancel my luncheon date with her.”
“Yes, sir. Shall I order in the usual lunch from the restaurant?” Marie asked.
Morgan glanced over at Jake. “Would you like something to eat?”
“No, thanks. My stomach’s still on Peruvian time.”
Morgan grinned. “How about you, Ken? Hungry?”
“No!”
“Just bring me the usual,” he told his assistant.
“Yes, sir.” Marie gave Travers a deadly look, turned and left.
Jake was fascinated by Travers’s snappish mood. He was like a pit bull waiting to eat someone alive. Fighting jet lag, Jake got up and ambled over to the coffee table, where Morgan was already helping himself to a cup of coffee. He needed help keeping himself awake. Originally he’d planned to drop his report off at Morgan’s office and then make his way home to his condo in Alexandria, Virginia, not far from the office that he used only when necessary. Jake’s real home was located in Oregon.
Travers paced while the two men got their respective cups of coffee and sat down again. Jake saw amusement in Morgan’s eyes, and he realized the look was for him alone. With a slight nod, Jake spread out his long legs in front of him. Holding the dainty gold-edged white china cup in one of his large, scarred hands, a cookie in the other, he leaned back and relaxed.
“Ken, why don’t you start from the beginning?” Morgan suggested, sipping the black, fragrant Brazilian coffee.
Agitated, Travers came to a halt, his hands planted imperiously upon his hips. “I just don’t like having Mr. Randolph here. This is strictly private.”
“Mr. Travers,” Morgan told him, his voice a deep rumble, “if you want Perseus to help you, we need to know the facts. Furthermore, I’m not sure we can help you. You’re in luck that Jake is here, because, if we decide to take your case, Jake will be the man sent on the mission. So why don’t you sit down and start from the beginning?”
Jake watched as Travers vacillated. The man acted as if he were going to explode.
“Very well.” Travers strode to the couch and sat down, his spine as rigid as the rest of him.
“My daughter, Shah Sungilo Travers, is down in Brazil. She’s thirty years old, and a damned fanatic!”
Morgan tipped his head. “Fanatic? In what sense of the word?”
Grinding his closed fist into the palm of his hand, Travers snapped, “She’s a damned ecology fanatic. She’s down there in the midst of all the hell breaking loose about the Amazon Basin trees being cut down. Global warming, and all that scientific garbage. Shah could be killed!”
“How long has she been down there?” Morgan asked.
“Three months.”
Jake raised his eyebrows. “And you’re just getting around to asking for help?”
Travers scowled, and his gaze dropped to his expensive-looking black leather shoes. “I didn’t know. I—Oh, hell, I’m divorced from Shah’s mother. I happened to be in Rapid City, South Dakota, on business, and I decided to drive out to the Rosebud Sioux reservation to visit Shah, who lives with her mother. But she wasn’t there. That’s when I found out she’d galloped off on another damned windmill-tilting adventure. Only this time it’s to Brazil, and it could get her killed.”
Travers stood up, his voice tight. “I want her out of there. She’s in danger. It’s that Sioux blood of hers. She loves a fight. She sees herself as a protector. A steward, she says.”
Jake sat up, his interest piqued. A woman with Sioux blood and an unusual name like Shah interested him. But the picture Travers was painting didn’t sound quite accurate. He gave Morgan a searching look.
“You can ask him anything you want,” Morgan said, reading the question in Jake’s eyes before he could voice his request.
“Mr. Travers, if your daughter is thirty years old, she’s old enough to realize if she’s in danger or not,” Jake pointed out.
Travers gave him a withering look of pure disgust. “You don’t know my headstrong daughter, Mr. Randolph. This isn’t the first time Shah has been in the thick of things. Her mother named her Shah Sungilo, which means Red Fox in the Sioux language. She’s got a temper to match any fox’s red coat, and she’s as clever as the damned animal she’s named after.” And then, with a snort, Travers added, “You’d think she would pick some worthwhile cause, and not put her life on the line for some lousy trees in Brazil!”
“What’s her educational background?” Jake asked, realizing he wasn’t going to get many facts from Travers under the circumstances. The man was clearly fit to be tied. But who was he angry at? Shah? Jake could understand a father being concerned about his daughter possibly being in danger, but where was this anger coming from? His gut told him there was a hidden agenda here, but could he get it out of Travers?
“Although she was born on the Sioux reservation, my daughter has had the finest education my money could buy. She has a master’s degree in biology from Stanford University in California. I tried to persuade her to go after her Ph.D., but she said there was no time left, that Mother Earth was dying. Hell!” Travers raked his fingers through his hair again. “She’s got her mother’s firebrand temper and stubbornness. She’s bullheaded and won’t listen to anyone!”
He turned away and stared out the windows at the distant city. “Shortly after I divorced Shah’s mother, I went to court to have my ex-wife pronounced an unfit mother. I didn’t want my daughter raised on a Depression-level Indian reservation. Unfortunately, my ex-wife won. Shah spent the first eighteen years of her life on a damned reservation. What kind of place is that? They’re backward there. Shah’s mother is a medicine woman, and she forced Shah to live the old ways of her people. She was raised a heathen—never baptized. I should have—”
“Your daughter is a biologist down in Brazil,” Jake said impatiently. “Is she on an assignment?”
“Yes. For a television station in Los Angeles that has paid her to investigate the destruction of the tropical rain forest in Brazil. Shah is an environmental activist. She thrives on confrontation.” He shook his head. “She just won’t back down.”
Jake cast a look at Morgan, who was listening intently. “In a businessman, those attributes are often applauded,” he noted mildly.
Travers glared at him. “Believe me, I tried to force my daughter to follow in my footsteps, but she didn’t want anything to do with real estate. I tried to tell her it was about land, which she’s so close to, but she said no Indian would ever sell the land, because it isn’t ours to sell. She asked me one time, ‘How can you sell Mother Earth? We’re her children. All we can do is steward, not greedily buy and sell it.’ Can you imagine? My own daughter calling me greedy because I buy and sell land?”
“Sounds like a cultural difference of opinion,” Morgan murmured.
Jake liked Shah’s attitude. He didn’t particularly care for greedy people, whatever their business. “What makes you think your daughter’s in trouble?” he asked.
Travers snorted and came over to them. He put his hands on his hips. “Shah goes out of her way to get into trouble. This isn’t the first time, you know. She married that no-good half-breed Sioux when I told her not to—that it was a mistake. Well, it turned out to be one hell of a mistake. Shah’s divorced from him now, but she had to be put in the hospital by that alcoholic husband of hers before she came to her senses.” He nailed Jake with a dark look. “My daughter lives for confrontation. Being physically attacked doesn’t bother her. It’s almost as if she expects it. Well, I’ve put too much money into her education to let her waste it, or herself, on some damned trees in the Amazon!”
“Calm down, Ken,” Morgan ordered. “Do you know what her exact assignment in Brazil is?”
“No. As I said, I just found out from my ex-wife that Shah left a month ago for Brazil.”
“And what do you want us to do?” Morgan asked quietly.
“Bring her home! Get her out of there!”
“If she has a valid passport, approved by the Brazilian government, and she wants to stay, there’s nothing we can do,” Jake pointed out.
“Kidnap her, then!”
Morgan grimaced. “Mr. Travers, we’re not in the kidnapping business. We’re in the business of providing protection and help to those who ask for it. But in this case, your daughter isn’t asking us for help, you are.”
“I can’t believe this! I’ll pay you any amount of money to bring her out of Brazil! Shah should be home!”
Ordinarily, so soon after returning from a mission, Jake would be falling asleep in his chair, but this time he wasn’t. He liked what he heard about Shah—a woman who evidently believed deeply and passionately in something beyond herself. It was too bad more Americans didn’t have that kind of commitment.
“Maybe,” Jake said, glancing over at Morgan, “I could go down there and be a bodyguard of sorts.” He turned to Travers. “I won’t bring back your daughter against her will. Kidnapping is against the law in every nation in the world. What I can do is be there to protect her if she gets into trouble.”
Morgan nodded. “Okay, that’s what we can do, Mr. Travers. Jake is ideal for the mission, and I don’t see a problem in him being a bodyguard for your daughter. What I want you to understand is, Jake won’t haul her out of Brazil unless she wants to go.”
Looking defeated, Travers spun on his heel. “I guess it’s better than nothing,” he muttered. He halted and turned his head in Jake’s direction. “But I want you to do your damnedest to convince her to leave Brazil as quickly as possible. Can you do that?”
With a shrug, Jake finished off the last of the coffee and cookie. “No promises, Mr. Travers. Your daughter is an adult, mature and educated enough to know what she’s doing. All I can do is wage a diplomatic campaign to try to get her to see your side of the issue.”
“Then,” Travers said unhappily, “I guess that’s what I’ll have to settle for.” He took a photo out of his wallet and handed it to Morgan. “That’s my daughter. You’ll need to know what she looks like.”
Morgan got up and came around the desk. “My assistant will have a number of papers for you to fill out and sign. She’ll take you to another office to complete them. When you’re done, we’ll talk some more.”
“Fine.”
Jake watched Travers leave. Marie entered with Morgan’s box lunch and set it on his desk. When she’d left, Jake stood up and placed his coffee cup on the silver tray.
“That guy has problems,” Jake began seriously. He returned to his chair by Morgan’s desk. Curiosity was eating him alive as he leaned forward to look at the small color photo of Shah Sungilo Travers.
Morgan smiled. “I don’t care for his abrasive attitude, that’s for sure. Go on, take a look at her.”
Jake picked up the photo and studied it intently. Shah looked Native American, from her braided black hair to her light brown eyes, high cheekbones, full mouth and oval-shaped face. The photo was a close-up, but Jake could see that she was wearing a deerskin dress that was beaded and fringed. In her hair was a small eagle feather, along with several other decorations that hung to one side of her head. Her braids were wrapped in some kind of fur.
“She looks like she stepped out of the past,” Jake said, more to himself than to Morgan.
“Doesn’t she?”
“If she’s half-white, she doesn’t look it.”
Morgan nodded and continued slowly eating his sandwich. “You looked interested, Jake,” he noted after he swallowed.
“Maybe.”
With a chuckle, Morgan wiped his mouth with a linen napkin. “That’s one of your many traits that I like, Jake—you’re noncommittal.”
Jake had to admit that he was feeling anything but noncommittal as he continued to study the photograph of Shah. She wasn’t smiling; she had a very thoughtful look on her face. Pride radiated from her in the way she stood, shoulders squared, with a glint of defiance in her wide, intelligent eyes. But there was something else, something that Jake sensed and felt but couldn’t put his finger on. What was it? Was that a haunted look he saw in her eyes?
“I wonder how old she was when this photo was taken.”
“Why?”
“Dunno.” Jake laid the photo back on Morgan’s desk. “Travers is hiding something from us,” he said.
“I think so, too.”
“But what?”
“I don’t know.” Morgan offered Jake some potato chips. Jake took a handful and munched methodically, frowning as he considered the question.
“Travers seems more angry than anything else,” Morgan offered.
“Not exactly what I’d call the concerned-parent type,” Jake agreed dryly.
“He’s posturing, that’s for sure,” Morgan said. “It’s obvious he’s a real controller and manipulator.”
Jake chuckled. “Yeah, and it sounds like his daughter rebelled very early on and leads her life the way she sees fit.”
“Travers is also prejudiced against Indians.”
“Noticed that, did you?” Jake rolled his eyes.
“I know you’re a walking encyclopedia of knowledge….” Morgan said.
“I prefer to think of myself as a philosopher,” Jake corrected, “despite being an ex-marine.”
“And a mercenary,” Morgan added. “So how much do you know about Indians?”
“Native Americans is the preferred term,” Jake noted. “A little. Enough to realize that Shah is like some of the younger generation of Native Americans who are trying to reclaim their heritage. Her fierce pride isn’t unusual.”
“Ever been on a reservation?”
“Once, a long time ago. I had a marine friend who was Navajo, and I went home with him for Christmas one year. His folks lived near Gallup, New Mexico, and they had a hogan made out of wood and mud. I stayed with them for nearly two weeks, and learned a hell of a lot.”
“You had a good experience?”
“Yeah.”
“Sounds like Travers didn’t.”
“Travers,” Jake intoned, “would hate anything or anyone who disagreed with him or got in his way.”
With a grin, Morgan finished off his sandwich. “Once Travers fills out the papers, I’m going to have a security check run on him.”
“Good idea. He looks a little too slick to me—one of those greedy eighties business types.”
“Sounds like his daughter is just the opposite of him—clear ethics, strong morals, and decided values.”
“I agree.”
“So, if all of our info comes back in order on Travers, do you want to be a bodyguard for a while?”
Jake shrugged. He tried to appear nonchalant, but his protective feelings had been aroused. He looked down at the photo. “Yeah, I’ll go to Brazil and see what’s going down.”
“She’s a very pretty young woman.”
“The earthy type,” Jake agreed.
Jake sat there for a long time, simply feeling his way through the photo of Shah. There was an ageless quality to her, as if all the generations of the Sioux people were mirrored in her classic Indian features. She didn’t have a common kind of model’s prettiness, but Jake never went for that cookie-cutter type, anyway. He liked women who had their own special and unique features. Character, as far as he was concerned, should be reflected on a person’s face, and Shah’s face intrigued him.
Unconsciously he rubbed his chest where his heart lay.
“Memories?” Morgan asked quietly, breaking the comfortable silence of the office.
“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Jake loved Morgan like a brother. They had both served as marines, and that bound them in an invisible way. Once a marine, always a marine—that was the saying. Even though they hadn’t served together, they’d come from the same proud service. Marines stuck together, and supported each other and their families. Maybe that was why Jake liked working for Morgan so much—he understood Jake’s tragic loss, and, like any marine brother, supported him as much as possible.
He gave Morgan a quick glance. “Bess was always spunky, too,” he whispered, his voice strained. “Shah kinda reminds me of my wife in some ways.”
“You always want me to give you assignments that deal with drugs,” Morgan said. “This one won’t involve drug trafficking.”
“It’s okay.” Jake tried to shake off the old grief that still clung to his heart. “Maybe I need a change of pace. Something different.”
“I feel this assignment may be more than it appears to be on the surface,” Morgan warned him.
“What else do I have to do with my life?” Jake said, pretending sudden joviality. “Go home to an empty log house? Sit and watch a football game and drink a beer? No plants in the house. No animals…” No family. No wife. Not anymore. The grief grew within him, and he got up, rubbing his chest again. He saw Morgan’s face, which was no longer expressionless. Morgan knew about personal loss as few men ever would. Jake stood there, unable to put into words the feelings unraveling within him.
“Well,” Morgan said softly, “maybe it would do you good to have this kind of assignment, then.” He attempted a smile.
“Where you’ll be going, there’ll be plenty of plants and animals.”
Jake nodded and moved to the windows. The November sky was cloudy, and it looked like either rain or the first snowfall of the year for the capital. “Brazil is having their springtime,” he said, as much to himself as to Morgan. “It’ll be the dry season down there, and the jungle will be survivable.”
“Just make sure you survive this mission,” Morgan growled.
Jake rubbed his jaw. “I always survive. You know that.”
Morgan nodded, but said nothing.
Jake turned toward him. “You’ve got a funny look on your face, boss.”
“Do I?”
“Yeah.”
With a slight smile, Morgan said, “Well, maybe I’m hoping that Shah and her situation can lighten the load you’ve been carrying by yourself for so long, that’s all.”
Jake halted at the desk. “Well, time heals all, right?”
Morgan sat back. “Time has been a healing force for me, Jake. I hope it will be for you, too.”
With a grimace, Jake ran his finger along the highly polished surface of Morgan’s desk. “You know what William Carlos Williams said about time? He said, ‘Time is a storm in which we are all lost.’ I agree with him. I’ve never felt so lost since Bess’s and the kids’ deaths.”
“I know.”
Jake forced a smile he didn’t feel. “Well, who knows? Maybe this storm surrounding Shah will be good for me. It can’t get any worse.”
Darmowy fragment się skończył.
