Lynn quickly moved to the next shipping container.

It took her only a few seconds to pick the lock, then she eased open the door and stepped inside.

The container was packed with crates from floor to ceiling on either side of a narrow aisle. The packing invoices described the contents as pottery and glassware.

As she ran her scanner across one of the crates in the very back of the container, it lit up like a Christmas tree. She froze. No doubt about it, the reading was clear.

Breathing shallowly, she moved closer and saw there was some sort of timer on one side of the crate.

Bomb!

She’d found it.

“Nick, container 16002. The bomb’s in here.”

Out! She wanted out. She had to get out of here; her job was done.

She turned to exit just in time to hear the sharp bark of a dog. The door of the container crashed down. For a long moment, she stared at it in horror.

She was trapped.

Inside the container.

With the bomb.

MILLS & BOON

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Dear Reader,

There has often been a book I’ve read that I wished when I put it down I could revisit the characters a year later and see how they were doing. Did their dreams come true? Did their love last? For years I fantasized that Scarlett won back Rhett long after Gone with the Wind ended.

When I was asked to write Pawn with the same characters that had been in Deceived, I was thrilled to get the opportunity to see how Lynn and Nick were doing. As a writer it was both a challenge and a delight to work with these two characters again, and what a surprise to discover they didn’t get their happily-ever-after that was hinted at in the end of Deceived!

I hope you enjoy their story and, as always, happy reading!

Carla Cassidy

Carla Cassidy
Pawn

Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to

Carla Cassidy for her contribution to the

ATHENA FORCE series.

CARLA CASSIDY

isn’t a secret agent or martial arts expert, but she does consider herself a Bombshell kind of woman. She lives a life of love and adventure in the Midwest with her husband, Frank, and has written more than fifty books for Silhouette.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 1

Phoenix, Arizona

The police car had been following her for at least ten minutes before the cherry lights came on, flashing brilliant red glares across the stretch of desert on either side of the two-lane highway.

“Damn,” Lynnette White muttered as she slowed her car and came to a halt just off the shoulder of the road.

She watched in her rearview mirror as the police car pulled up behind her and stopped. She didn’t think she’d been speeding. She’d made no illegal turns and hadn’t been driving erratically. So, why was she being stopped?

A burly officer stepped out of the driver’s side of the car and walked with purpose toward her window. Maybe she had been speeding, she thought. She’d been known to have a bit of a heavy foot.

She rolled down her window and gazed up at the unsmiling man. His sunglasses gave away nothing, the mirrored surfaces reflecting the deepening shadows of the barren, brown landscape that surrounded them.

“License and registration,” he demanded.

“Good evening, Officer. What’s the problem?” she asked pleasantly.

“Ma’am, I need to see your license and registration.” His stern features and curt tone radiated a no-nonsense attitude.

Lynn was tired and eager to get home to her apartment on the outskirts of Phoenix. She’d stayed at Athena Academy, the private girl’s school, longer than she intended and now just wanted to get home. The last thing she wanted was to instigate any kind of hassle with the policeman that might hold her up.

She pulled her driver’s license from her purse, then grabbed her car registration from the glove box and handed both to the man who was keeping her from her dinner and what little was left of the evening.

If she’d been speeding, she’d accept a ticket, pay the fee and that would be the end of it. Unfortunately it wouldn’t be the first time she’d paid a speeding ticket.

She watched as he stared at her paperwork, then at her as if making certain the bad photo on her driver’s license matched her face. She hadn’t changed much since the photo had been taken. Her chestnut hair was a bit longer, but her eyes were still an unusual green-gold blend and her weight was the same, give or take a few pounds.

He looked back toward his patrol car and gave a nod, then opened her car door. “Ma’am, you want to step out of the car?”

Lynn frowned as her heartbeat increased. “No, I don’t. Not until you tell me what’s going on.” She was aware of another policeman approaching them. “If I was speeding, just write me the ticket.”

“This isn’t about a speeding ticket, Ms. White,” he replied.

What was happening? Her paperwork was all in order. “Then what is it about?” She was positive she’d done nothing wrong.

“Ms. White, we’re under orders to take you into custody. Now, you can either make this difficult or you can make it easy, but one way or another, you’re coming with us.” As if to punctuate his sentence his right hand crept to the butt of the gun in the holster at his hip.

Lynn quickly considered her options and was smart enough to recognize she had none. She was still in the process of learning exactly what she was capable of, but she knew that despite her incredible genetic gifts, she couldn’t outrun a bullet.

Unease whipped through her. “What about my car?” she asked as she stepped out into the hot, late-August air.

“Officer Birch will follow us with your vehicle,” he replied and gestured to the second man who had joined them.

Lynn looked from one to the other, but their rigid countenances gave nothing away.

Heart pounding with anxiety, she grabbed her purse, handed Officer Birch her car keys, then headed toward the waiting patrol car.

Minutes later, as she was driven to an unknown destination, she wondered if it was possible that the sins of her past had finally caught up with her.

It had been over a year since she’d stopped breaking a hundred laws all in the name of love for her godfather, the man she’d called uncle, Jonas White. Of course, at the time she hadn’t realized she was breaking laws and she’d been naïve enough to believe his lies.

For several years Lynn had been an expert cat burglar, breaking into museums and private residences to retrieve precious artifacts and jewels. Her Uncle Jonas had told her that they were working for the government, taking items that had been stolen so they could be returned to their rightful owners. But, in truth, she’d been stealing on Jonas’s behalf for his personal gain.

When she’d agreed to work with the FBI to catch her godfather and put him behind bars they had promised that all pending charges against her would be dropped.

Had something gotten screwed up? Was there still something on her record that had alerted the Arizona cops to the crimes she had committed in Miami?

She worried a strand of her shoulder-length hair between two fingers. She hadn’t felt this level of anxiety since discovering that the godfather who had raised her, the man she’d loved like a father, had been nothing more than a criminal using her skills for his own advantage.

A year ago the fates had taken away her support system, ripped apart her security, but in return she’d discovered that she had two sisters. Thoughts of Dawn and Faith and all the special women who had become her friends in the past year brought with them a surge of strength. Whatever was happening, Lynn would get through it.

Her stomach knotted as they pulled into a parking lot in front of a large warehouse. She sat up straighter. What was this? She’d expected a police station. This place was in the middle of nowhere. Something wasn’t right here. Something definitely wasn’t right at all.

There was also no way out of the backseat of the patrol car, which was apparently used frequently to transport criminals. There were no door handles on the inside.

She leaned forward to speak to the officer through the wire mesh that separated the backseat from the front. “Where are we? Why are you bringing me here?” Her anxiety toyed with becoming full-blown panic.

The officer’s continued silence only increased the frantic flutter of her heart. He’d spoken only once during the ride, and that was to radio in to somebody that they were in transit.

A handful of cars were parked in the lot and as their vehicle came to a halt, the officer shut off the engine and turned in his seat to look at her. “Don’t worry, Ms. White. You aren’t in any danger.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re in the front seat with a gun,” she replied with more than a touch of nervous irritation.

As he got out of the car and opened her door to allow her to exit, she once again assessed her options. There was no doubt in her mind that she could outrun him. Lynn had never met anyone she couldn’t outrun. But, there was the little problem of his gun.

She had no idea if he’d use it if she took off, but she wasn’t willing to take the gamble. Besides, even though she was anxious about the whole situation, she had to admit she was also more than a little bit curious.

Curiosity killed the cat, she reminded herself as she stared at the cavernous building.

As the officer led her toward the front door, she was aware of Officer Birch arriving with her car. He parked it next to the patrol car.

Dusk had disappeared, replaced by night and a darkness that made it difficult for her to discern exactly where they were. Heat radiated from the pavement as she was escorted between both officers across the parking lot. Her heart pounded.

A tall, silver-haired gentleman in a dark suit met them at the door. “Thank you, Officer Cook, that will be all.” The officer who had initially stopped her turned on his heels and headed back toward his patrol car.

The dark suit said nothing more until Officer Birch handed him her car keys. Once that policeman had left them alone, the man looked at her. “Ms. White, thank you for your presence.”

“I didn’t exactly have a choice, did I?”

He smiled, a smooth, practiced gesture she instantly didn’t trust. “I’m Special Agent Samuel Cahill with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We’d like to talk to you.” He gestured her through the door.

FBI. She should have known. Her heart hardened. They’d used her once before and there was no way she intended for them to ever use her again.

“I’m not interested in anything you’d like to talk about,” she said and remained standing at the doorway.

A flash of annoyance crossed his features, there only a moment then gone beneath a pleasant facade. “Please, Ms. White. It’s a matter of great importance. If you’ll just give us a few minutes of your time you can get back on the road again.”

I don’t want to do this, Lynn thought even as she nodded her reluctant assent. There is no way they’re going to suck me into doing anything for them.

She stepped through the doorway, surprised to see that the building appeared to be a temporary headquarters of sorts.

Bright lights illuminated desks where several men sat either talking on the phone or working on computers. Electrifying energy filled the air despite the evening hour of the day.

It was obvious something was amiss, but no matter what it might be she couldn’t think what any of it would have to do with her.

“If you’ll just follow me,” Samuel said and led her past the desks and toward an inner office where blinds were pulled down and the door was closed.

A terrible dread filled her as she approached the office.

For the last year she’d rebuilt her life, a life that had been shattered beneath deception and lies. She’d moved from her godfather’s luxurious mansion on the beach in Miami to a small apartment in Phoenix. She’d made a nice life for herself here and she wasn’t about to let the FBI ruin things for her.

Whatever they were selling, she wasn’t buying.

Samuel opened the door and motioned for her to precede him. She stepped in to find a man seated behind a large desk.

He was an odd-looking man with an unusually wide forehead and a small nose. His buzz-cut hair looked unnaturally black and his eyes were that pale blue color that never managed to look warm. He stood, his gaze sweeping over her with intense assessment.

Every sense that Lynn possessed went on high alert. She knew instinctively that this was not a man to screw with. An aura of power clung to him, nothing subtle about it.

“That will be all, Agent Cahill,” he said.

Cahill dropped Lynn’s car keys on the desk, then nodded, left the room and closed the door behind him.

“Ms. White, I’m Special Agent Richard Blake. Please, have a seat.” He gestured to the chair in front of the desk. When she was seated, he eased back down behind the desk and eyed her with open speculation.

Once again an overwhelming sense of disquiet fluttered through Lynn. Who was this man and what did he want from her? Although she had a million questions, she refused to give voice to a single one. She’d wait until he was ready to tell her what the hell this was all about.

She didn’t have long to wait. He leaned forward in his chair, those pale eyes of his holding her gaze intently and radiating with keen intelligence. “Ms. White. We need your help.”

“Why not just give me a call and arrange an appointment instead of having me dragged here off the street by some of Arizona’s finest?” She didn’t try to hide her irritation.

One of his dark eyebrows drew upward and a disbelieving smile curved his thin lips. “And had I called you to arrange an appointment, you would have come?”

“Probably not,” she answered truthfully. The less polite answer was not in a million years. “Look, I don’t want to waste any of your time or mine. I can tell you right now that whatever you want from me, I’m not interested.”

“But you haven’t heard what I have to say.”

“It doesn’t matter what you have to say,” she replied. “I did my time with the FBI last year when I helped gather evidence against my godfather. It’s not my fault he escaped arrest, and he’s dead now anyway. I have no interest in disrupting my life to work with the FBI again.”

“This is bigger than the capture of one criminal.”

“It doesn’t matter how big it is, I’m simply not interested.” She stood.

She’d been curious when the cops had pulled her over and they had acted out of character. She wasn’t curious any longer. She was just tired and wanted to go home.

“I paid my dues, Mr. Blake. A year ago I did what I could to help the FBI. Now I deserve to be left alone.” She didn’t want to hear what he had to say, what he might want from her. She was terrified of getting sucked into a drama she didn’t need or want in her life. It was better to walk away knowing nothing.

“Sometimes we don’t get what we deserve,” he countered.

Lynn had enough. “Am I under arrest?”

“Of course not.”

“Then give me my car keys. I’m out of here.”

There was a split second when she thought he wasn’t going to comply. She saw something dark and angry flash in the depths of his cold blue eyes, but after a moment of hesitation he held out her keys.

She snatched them from his hand, overwhelmed with the need to get out of here, to escape this man, this place. “Thanks, and I hope we never meet again.”

She couldn’t get out of the office fast enough. She looked neither right nor left as she walked back down the hallway toward the exit.

As she left the building the night air embraced her, but she was unsure if the heat was from the outside temperature or the edge of anger that stirred inside her.

She strode to where her car had been parked and didn’t feel quite safe until she was behind the wheel with the doors locked. She couldn’t quite believe how easily he’d let her go.

It took her only minutes to orient herself as to where they had taken her and get back on the highway that would take her home. Home to her apartment on the south side of Phoenix.

The small apartment was a far cry from the mansion where she’d been raised in the lap of luxury. Her Uncle Jonas had kept her isolated from friends but had made sure she had the best of everything that money could buy. She’d also been raised to believe she was the heir of wealthy parents who had died in a tragic boating accident.

Lies. All lies. She clenched her fingers around the steering wheel as she thought of the lies that had filled her life.

When the FBI had gone after Jonas and frozen his accounts, Lynn had discovered she had no trust fund. She had nothing. She hadn’t cared, because she thought she had Nick. As always, thoughts of FBI Special Agent Nick Barnes brought with them a deep regret, an ache of love lost.

Nick Barnes had worked for her uncle. Of course, neither her uncle nor she had known that he was an undercover FBI agent determined to bring Jonas down. In the course of his investigation he and Lynn had fallen in love, but the timing for that love had been all wrong.

Lynn had just discovered the beginnings of the truth of her birth and the surprising existence of two sisters. One, Faith, lived in Louisiana where she worked in the evidence department for the New Orleans police. The other, Dawn, traveled the world on all kinds of hair-raising missions as some sort of mercenary soldier, fighting for justice. Lynn, left Miami and Nick behind to come to Phoenix to find out more about herself and the special school, Athena Academy, that their biological mother had attended. She’d known then that she couldn’t go forward in her relationship with Nick until she had the answers she so desperately needed.

As she drove she began to relax. Driving had always been the way she unwound when she’d been younger. The only difference was when she’d been living with Jonas she’d driven a new model red convertible with all the bells and whistles.

She now drove a five-year-old sports car with a dented front fender, but she’d paid for it with money she’d earned and nobody and nothing could take it away from her.

She breathed a sweet sigh of relief as she parked in front of her apartment building. She’d half expected to be followed home, but had seen no suspicious cars behind her.

Familiar scents greeted her as she walked into her apartment. A trace of her perfume lingered in the air, mingling with the orange-scented furniture oil and the fragrant candles she loved to burn in the evening. The decor was simple, but suited her. She’d chosen earth tones in keeping with this desert place, much different from the lush tropical colors of the Miami mansion she’d shared with Jonas.

She dropped her keys on the desk in the corner of the living room, then headed for the kitchen and leftover pizza from the night before.

She zapped the pizza in the microwave, snagged a cold beer from the fridge, then sat at the table to enjoy her meal. But any peace the day had brought to her earlier had been destroyed by the unexpected events at the end.

What had they wanted from her? It was important enough that they’d hunted her down, pulled her over and brought her in. They apparently knew her mindset well enough to understand that she wouldn’t have come in to see them on her own.

Dammit, she had earned the right to be left alone. Even though she had known Jonas was a criminal, even though she had known he needed to be put behind bars, one of the most difficult things she’d ever done was agree to help the FBI put him there.

Pizza half-eaten, she got up from the table and carried her beer out to the back patio where the night sky was filled with a million stars.

When she’d first come to Phoenix over a year ago, she’d been on a quest to learn the truth about who she was and where she’d come from. What she’d discovered about her beginnings was like something out of a science fiction movie.

Her past included a murdered mother, a secret lab with human experimentation taking place and enough conspiracies to make her head spin.

But, in addition to the horrors she’d learned of, she’d also been united with two sisters who, like her, were part of an experiment, all three genetically enhanced with special gifts.

She upended her bottle of beer and took a deep swallow. Damn the FBI and damn Mr. Richard Blake for making her think about things she didn’t want to think about.

Her computer mentally called to her, reminding her that she’d promised to have the Chastain Pharmaceutical Company Web site done in a month and it was a huge job. It was easy to lose herself in work, and that’s just what she needed to banish all thoughts of the FBI.

She carried her beer back into the house and went into the spare bedroom, which she used as an office. In the past year she’d gained a reputation as a top quality Web site designer and had managed to earn a living by using her computer skills. It was a job she enjoyed and that allowed her to pick and choose the hours she worked.

As she waited for her computer to boot up she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, willing away the headache that niggled at the base of her skull.

The day had begun so well. She’d had lunch with Kayla, a friend of her late mother’s, who served as police lieutenant of the small town of Athens, Arizona. Then Lynn had driven out to Athena Academy and had walked the grounds of the school where the mother she never knew had once walked.

Visiting the state-of-the-art college prep school nestled at the base of the White Tank Mountains brought a comforting peace to Lynn. It was a place of connection for her, a piece of her mother’s history that Lynn cherished. She loved seeing the new science wing, which has been completed over the summer. Another friend of her mother’s, TV news reporter Tory Patton, had given the dedication speech at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in July. Lynn had visited with more of her mother’s dear friends afterward.

She’d never meant to make her home here in Phoenix, it had just happened. She’d always intended to return to Miami and Nick. When she’d first left him to seek the pieces of her life that had been missing, they’d managed to call and e-mail each other frequently. But, time had a way of slipping by and long-distance relationships rarely had a chance of working.

There had been no bitter blowup and destruction of her relationship with Nick, only the interference of different lives and different paths.

She frowned, blaming the unexpected appearance of the FBI for the whisper of regret that now filled her heart.

With her computer up and running she decided to check her e-mail before she got to work on the drug company’s Web site. She pulled up her e-mail program and typed in her password.

Her mailbox showed about two dozen new e-mails. Several she knew were work related, a couple were from cyberfriends, some spam that had managed to get past her filters, but there was one sender she didn’t recognize.

The return address read, Delphi@orcl.org.

Lynn frowned, trying to decide if she should open it or not. She had filters and blocks on the system that shouldn’t allow in any viruses or bugs, but she also knew she couldn’t be too careful.

Deciding to take a chance, she opened the message.

Athena sister Lynette,

You have come to our attention. Your special, genetic skills are needed in our battle. As friends of Rainy we need your help. The Oracle Network awaits you. We will be in touch.

Lynn stared at the note, her mind whirling. Delphi…Oracle…sounded like something from Greek mythology. It would be easy to dismiss the note as nothing but some sort of crazy ad campaign or spam except that it mentioned Athena, her special, genetic skills and the mother Lynn had never known.

There were only a handful of people who knew that she had been created by a human experiment, that the experiment had been a success in that she had been born with superhuman speed and hearing and other strengths.

Even Nick hadn’t known the entire truth about the circumstances of her birth and her full capabilities, although he had suspected she was physically gifted.

So, who had written the note and what was Oracle? She hit Reply. What is Oracle, she typed in, then hit Send. It took only a moment for her to get a message that the e-mail address of Delphi@orcl.org was not a working address.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” she muttered. She spent the next half an hour trying to trace the e-mail address but came up with nothing. Definitely intriguing, but also rather suspicious.

Was it possible the note was from the FBI? She narrowed her eyes and stared at the message. It was pretty coincidental that she’d been detained by them earlier then came home to find this cryptic e-mail.

She closed the message, but was unable to still the new edge of agitation that rose up inside her. She didn’t like things she didn’t understand, things that didn’t make sense.

And she got the definite feeling that somehow the peaceful, quiet life she’d built here was about to explode.

Raymore, Florida

The ring of the telephone pulled Nick Barnes from the sofa, where he’d been cat napping for the past thirty minutes. He gazed at his watch and frowned. Who in the hell would be calling at midnight?

He grabbed the receiver. “Hello?”

“Is Haley there?”

Nick’s gut twisted at the sound of the deep male voice. “Sorry, you’ve got a wrong number.”

“I was just looking for Haley.”

“Nobody here by that name.” He hung up the phone, his heart pounding with apprehension. Something was wrong. Otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten that phone call.

He got up from the sofa and grabbed his car keys from the kitchen table, then walked down the hallway and paused in the master bedroom doorway. Good, the phone hadn’t awakened her.

As he walked back down the hall toward the front door, he wondered what in the hell had happened. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.

They had agreed, when he’d gone deep undercover three months ago, that there would be no contact unless it was a dire emergency. The fact that the code had been used meant something terrible had occurred and that couldn’t be good news for him.

He left a note on the table that said he’d gone to get a pack of smokes, just in case she woke up and wondered where he was.

As he left the house, as always, his gaze shot up and down the street, looking for anything suspicious, anything or anyone that didn’t belong.

Although Raymore, Florida, was only an hour’s drive from Miami, it was light-years away in culture and flavor. Struggling economically the small town was populated by people on their way down rather than on their way up.

It was also the place where an FBI undercover operation had been ongoing for the past year to break up a huge methamphetamine ring.

Nick started the engine of his ten-year-old sedan, then pushed against a panel in the door that opened to reveal a secret compartment. Inside the secret compartment was a cell phone.

As he headed away from the small bungalow he’d called home for the past three months, he punched in the number that would connect him with his contact.

“Are you safe?” a deep, male voice asked.

“I don’t know. You tell me.” Nick didn’t know the name of his contact, had only spoken to him by phone once before, on the day he’d gone undercover. He knew the man only by his contact name of Haley, a name that would have nothing to do with his real one.

There were only three people who knew where Nick was and what he was doing in Raymore. Buzz Cantrell, an agent who coordinated much of the undercover work within the agency; Frank Jessup, Nick’s boss; and Haley, a faceless voice over the phone.

“I’m alone in my car, on my way to a convenience store for a pack of cigarettes. What’s up?” Nick’s stomach remained knotted as he waited to hear what could only be bad news. As he listened to what Haley had to say, the knot twisted tighter. By the time Haley had finished telling him why he’d called, Nick had arrived at the convenience store.

Nick disconnected the call and sat for a minute, trying to digest what he’d just heard. He didn’t want to do it, but knew the men in charge would find a way of forcing his hand no matter how much he protested.

He got out of the car and went into the store. As he paid for a pack of cigarettes, he continued to think about what he’d just been told. They were asking him to play a dangerous game. They couldn’t pull him off the case he was working—too much time and effort had gone into setting him up in his current position.

But, they needed him to do another job for them, one that could not be done by any other agent. It was a dangerous request, with dangerous consequences should it be discovered.

He already knew that one false move on the case he was working would see him dead. The meth operation was headed by a handful of ruthless, amoral men who would think nothing of putting a bullet through his head should they entertain even a moment of suspicion. Now he’d been ordered to risk compromising his position.

He got back into the car and restarted the engine at the same time he shook a cigarette from the pack. He hadn’t been a smoker before he’d started this job, and he intended to quit as soon as this assignment was finished, but you couldn’t go out to buy cigarettes and not smoke them.

As he headed back toward the bungalow, he thought again of what he’d just been asked to do. The only positive thing he had to focus on was that if this got him killed, at least he’d have an opportunity to see Lynn again before he died.

Chapter 2

Lynn was having a bad morning. Part of the problem was that she was trying to function on too-little sleep. Despite the fact that she’d tried to forget the unexpected appearance of the FBI in her life once again, she hadn’t been successful.

She’d tossed and turned all night, cursing them even as she wondered exactly what they’d wanted from her. She’d finally fallen asleep as dawn was creeping into the bedroom, then had awakened just before ten and had forced herself out of bed despite a headful of grogginess. After two cups of coffee she’d felt better prepared to face the day.

She’d punched on her computer with the intention of working only to discover that the piece of technological machinery had gone wonky.

It booted up just fine, but before she could touch another button it began indiscriminately opening and closing programs one after another. Her dancing dolphin screen saver, WordPerfect, Free Cell, Excel—every program large and small she had ever loaded into the computer flashed on and off the screen in mind-boggling succession.

She stared at the screen, stunned, wondering what in the hell was going on. She punched keys, trying to gain control of the possessed computer, but it responded to nothing she keyed in.

What was happening? When she’d opened that crazy Delphi e-mail the night before, had it somehow infected her computer with a new kind of virus?

She was still seated in front of the computer screen when a knock fell on her door. She got up to answer, unsurprised to see her next-door-neighbor Leo Tankersly. He often drifted in and out of her apartment as if he belonged.

“Hey, Lynnie.” He walked through the doorway and headed for her kitchen, where she knew he’d help himself to her freshly brewed coffee.

Leo had made it clear from the moment she’d met him seven months ago that he wouldn’t mind if their neighborly relationship moved on to something more intimate.

She stood in the kitchen doorway and watched him pour himself a cup of coffee. There had been times in the past seven months that she’d been tempted to let herself fall into a relationship with Leo, times when loneliness had made his attractiveness look appealing.

And he was attractive. He was a big man, with broad shoulders and a headful of long, blond hair that made him appear lionlike. He had the clear blue eyes of an Arizona summer sky and an easy nature that made him comfortable to be around.

He owned his own construction business, but was the least driven man she’d ever known. He worked when he felt like it, or when his cupboards were empty. For him, work was merely a means to an end, not a way of life.

What had kept her from falling into a physical relationship with him so far was the fact that, as handsome as he was, as sexy as he looked in his jeans and T-shirt, there were no sparks for her, none of the visceral pull that she’d felt only once before in her life for a man.

“You aren’t speaking this morning?” he asked once he had his cup of coffee in his hand. He raised a furry blond eyebrow.

“I’m having a bad morning,” she said, unable to stop the frown she felt tug across her forehead.

“How can it be a bad morning? The sun is shining, the coffee is hot and all is well with the world.” He grinned, exposing slightly crooked front teeth.

Lynn’s frown deepened. Leo was one of those people who never had a bad day. Laid-back to the point of being comatose, he never expected anything and therefore was never disappointed. He was at peace with the universe in a way Lynn often envied.

“Something’s wrong with my computer.”

“Something’s wrong with all computers,” he replied. “Too much, too fast isn’t good for anyone. Technology isn’t always a good thing.”

“I’m serious, Leo,” she said with a touch of impatience. She led him through the living room and to the tiny spare bedroom she used as an office.

Leo took one look at her computer screen’s activity and whistled beneath his breath. “Wow, what kind of evil virus did you manage to pick up?”

“I don’t know. I can’t even key anything in to see if I can find the problem.” Once again Lynn stared at her screen.

It was like nothing she’d ever seen before. It was at that moment a thought struck her. Was it possible her “friends” at the FBI had decided to wreak a little havoc in her life?

It would be relatively easy for one of their computer techs to transmit a virus via the Internet directly to her machine. Even though she had the latest in security features on her computer, she knew no security was fail-safe and the FBI would have viruses that had never been seen before in their little cache of surprises.

She couldn’t imagine what they would hope to gain by doing something like this, other than reminding her of how powerful they were.

“Have you tried shutting it off and rebooting?” Leo asked. “Maybe that will reset it or something.” Lynn shrugged, leaned over and punched the button to shut off the power.

“And while we’re waiting for it to cool down or reset or whatever those things do, maybe we should just take a quick tumble in the bed.” He grinned at her. “You look tense. There’s nothing like a full-body massage to relax you. I’ll use my body to massage yours.”

She laughed in spite of her frustration. “Leo, do you ever think of anything else besides sex?”

“Food,” he replied. “Speaking of which, do you have any of those cinnamon muffin things you had last week? They were awesome.”

“No. I haven’t been back to the bakery since you polished off the last dozen.”

“Then if you aren’t going to offer me muffins, you should offer me sex.” A wicked grin curved his lips.

Again Lynn laughed. “You might as well give it up. It’s never going to happen.”

He held up one of his large hands as if to stop her protests. “Never say never. Who knows what fate has in store, and never might be something very different tomorrow.”

He took a sip of his coffee and eyed her over the rim of the cup. “Are you sure you’re all right? You really do look tense.”

Lynn leaned against the wall and sighed. “I didn’t sleep well and then I got up to this computer problem.” She couldn’t tell him about the FBI. Leo knew nothing about her history and she liked it that way. A clean start, that’s what she’d wanted when she’d decided to move to Phoenix.

“Unfortunately, I can’t help you with the computer and as far as not getting enough sleep, my advice would be take a nap.” He drained his coffee cup and they left the office and returned to the kitchen where he rinsed his cup in the sink and put it in the drainer to dry.

“Guess I’ll head back over to my place. I just wanted to check in and see what’s shaking.”

“Absolutely nothing. If I can get my computer working again I’ve got tons of work to do.”

“All work and no play make Lynn a boring girl.” His blue eyes twinkled.

She flashed him a quick smile. “All play and no work make Lynn homeless and hungry. Now, get out of here so I can figure out what’s wrong with my computer.” She walked with him to her front door.

“Wanna share a pizza tonight?”

She considered it for a moment. She and Leo often ate together on Saturday nights. “I had pizza last night.”

“What about Chinese?”

“I don’t think so, not tonight. I’m really swamped. I’ll probably just nibble on something while I work.” Although she did have a lot to do, that wasn’t the reason for telling him no.

She didn’t feel much like socializing, especially since what she did feel was the presence of an insidious threat hanging over her head.

“If you change your mind, let me know,” Leo said. “I’m going to be in and out all day, but just leave a message on my machine or call my cell.”

“Okay, but don’t count on it.”

She closed the door behind him as he left, then returned to her office and booted up her computer. To her surprise everything came up normal. She had just begun running a diagnostic to see if she could figure out what had caused the earlier anomaly when a knock once again fell on her door.

Probably Leo again. She rarely had any other visitors.

“Leo, I told you I’m not going to bed with you,” she said as she pulled open the door.

She stared at the tall, handsome dark-haired man at her door in stunned shock. “Nick.” His name fell from her lips in a breathless whisper.

“Hi, Lynn.”

The familiar deep voice washed over her. “Nick,” she repeated and with utter abandon threw herself into his arms. Oh God, he smelled the same, a rich blend of minty soap and earthy cologne and his body against hers felt wonderfully magical.

It had been so long, so terribly long since she’d seen him and it wasn’t until this moment that she realized just how much she had missed him.

His arms wound around her for one sweet moment, then he disentangled himself and took a step backward. “Can I come in?”

“Yes, of course. Please, come in. My God, I can’t believe you’re here.” Her head reeled with his presence. Nick. It had been a year since she’d last seen him and the sight of him filled places inside her that had been hollow for so long.

She led him into the living room, wishing she’d dusted, regretting the fact that she hadn’t put on any makeup that morning. She couldn’t believe he was here in Phoenix, here in her living room.

As he sat on her beige sofa, she drank in the vision of him. There were subtle changes in him from the last time she’d seen him. His dark hair was longer and his face was thinner, giving his appearance a dangerous edge that hadn’t been there before.

But, some things remained the same. His white dress shirt tugged across broad shoulders and his dark slacks fit nicely across his slim hips and muscular legs. His eyes were just as dark and gorgeous as she remembered, but at the moment they held no real emotion.

She sat on a chair opposite the sofa and continued to stare at him as if he were some apparition. She’d dreamed of him often in the past year and what she wanted more than anything at this moment was to be in his arms.

Did he feel it, too? The sparks that had ignited between them a year ago now simmered once again in the pit of her stomach, on the verge of a full-blown inferno.

“How have you been? What are you doing here? Are you working here in the Phoenix area? You look wonderful.” Giddy happiness swelled inside her and for a moment she felt like the young, innocent woman she had once been.

“I’ve been all right.” His deep voice resonated inside her. His gaze swept the length of her. “And you look great.”

She ran a hand through her hair, once again wishing she’d put on makeup, taken a little more time with her appearance that morning. “Thanks,” she replied.

“I understand you’ve been doing well, using your computer skills to make a living.”

“I’m doing okay. Creative Communications is the name of my business and it’s been growing by leaps and bounds in the last couple of months.” Some of the giddiness she’d experienced only moments before dissipated somewhat as she sensed a distance in him.

“I’m glad you’re doing well, Lynn.”

The last of her giddiness fell away as he didn’t quite meet her gaze. Just because she had held thoughts of him close to her heart since their separation didn’t mean he’d done the same with memories of her.

He’d been her first lover and she’d always heard that women remembered their first. She certainly hadn’t been his first, so maybe their relationship had never meant as much to him as it had her.

“Nice place,” he said as he looked around the room.

“Thanks. The rent is reasonable and I like the general area.” She leaned forward. “So, you didn’t tell me. Are you working in the area?”

He looked at her then, and in his dark eyes she saw something that caused a faint cold wind to blow through her. “It’s a little more complicated than that.”

“What do you mean?” The beat of her heart, which had gone wild at the first sight of him now slowed to a dull thud of wariness.

For a long moment he didn’t answer as he once again broke eye contact with her. Whatever he had to say, it was obvious he was reluctant. He finally looked at her and any happiness she might have managed to hang on to fell away as she saw the unemotional, businesslike look in his eyes.

“They sent me here, Lynn,” he said. “They sent me here from Miami to try to convince you to work for them.”

“Then I guess that makes you a bastard,” she exclaimed.

The very first sight of her had been like a punch in the gut. She was as beautiful—no, more beautiful—than she had been a year before.

There was a new maturity in her unusual gold-green eyes, a confidence in her carriage that spoke of an inner strength that had been undeveloped when he’d known her before.

She’d been an innocent, very young twenty-two a year ago. Now she looked like a woman who had taken control of her life and was comfortable with the direction she intended to go.

He’d seen the happiness that had lit her eyes when she’d first opened the door and looked at him and had fought against a responding burst of joy in himself. She had been a thing of magic for him for all-too brief a time and in the first second of seeing her he’d once again felt that stir.

He couldn’t get caught up in the memories, in her. Things had changed and there were now powerful people playing significant roles in both their lives. Of course, she wasn’t aware of that yet, but within minutes she would understand that it was useless to fight the inevitable, that she could either go along with the program or be destroyed.

“I guess that does make me a bastard,” he agreed. “A bastard who is following orders.”

What little happiness remained in her eyes instantly doused at his words. Her gaze narrowed and her expression went from warm to arctic cool. “So, you’re here as a tool for the Feds to use against me.”

She stood and walked over to the living room window, her slender back presented to him like a wall. Her tight jeans hugged the length of her slender legs and cupped the curve of her shapely butt. The blue top she wore had spaghetti straps, making him realize there was no bra beneath. He definitely couldn’t allow his thoughts to go there.

“Go away, Nick. I already gave them my answer.” The flatness of her voice cut through him like a knife.

The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, but he was in a box, and whether she knew it or not, she was in one, too. It was a box where somebody else had drawn the boundaries and there was no escape.

“It’s not that simple, Lynn,” he replied.

She whirled around to face him, her eyes more green than gold and radiating with an anger, a strength he’d not have thought possible in her. “What’s not simple? I told them no, and I’m telling you no. I’m not working for them and that’s that.”

“That’s not true,” he countered. He wondered what life had taught her in the past year. When they’d first become involved she’d been unusually naive, without the kind of experiences that taught character and strength and purpose. That had started to change when she’d learned of his true purpose in working for her godfather. Now he saw disillusionment shining from her unusual eyes.

He tamped down his regret. He was here to do a job and he couldn’t allow emotion or memories to cloud the issue.

He stood. “They aren’t going to let you go, Lynn. They need you, and what they need you for is in the interest of national security.”

“I don’t care why they need me. They can’t make me go back to work for them.” She swiped a strand of her shiny, reddish-brown hair behind an ear, a gesture he remembered that indicated stress.

“That’s where you’re wrong. They can make you. These people who contacted you, they aren’t your ordinary Feds. They’re hybrids, working for a splinter agency but under the guise of FBI. Trust me, these aren’t people to screw around with.”

He took a step toward her, unsurprised when she took a step back, wary suspicion playing in her eyes. He hated them for making him do this, for using him to get to her.

“How did your computer work this morning?” he asked. “Have any problems?” She stared at him, a pulse beating rapidly in the hollow of her throat. “This morning they gave you just a little taste of what they’re capable of. Maybe nothing else will happen today, but maybe tomorrow or the day after, your Web sites will begin to experience difficulties. Mistakes will appear on sites you’ve already built, errors that make you look careless, that make you look incompetent. And, that’s not all they’ll do to you.”

Her gaze narrowed and the pulse in her throat beat faster. “You might as well tell me all of it,” she finally said.

“They’ll destroy what you’ve built with your business, screw around with your finances to ruin your credit. And if none of that works, they have enough charges pending against you that they can put you in prison and throw away the key.”

She moved back to the chair opposite the sofa and sat down hard. For a moment she stared at some indefinable point just to the left of where he stood. When she finally met his gaze, her eyes once again blazed with an anger that stunned him.

“You promised,” she said, her voice low and barely audible. “You promised me that if I helped bring down Jonas, then all those charges would be dropped. That was the deal, that my record would be clean. So, you lied to me.” Bitterness hardened her voice.

“No, they lied to me,” he said. “At the time I told you that, that’s what I was being told. We were both lied to.”

She leaned back in the chair and released a weary sigh. “Why me? Why can’t they get somebody else to do whatever it is that needs to be done?”

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “They didn’t tell me what they want you to do or why they needed you specifically to do it. They only told me it involved national security. My job was to come here and see that you understand that you have no alternative other than to cooperate with them.”

Her hard gaze held his for a long moment. “How nice, that they could use the emotional baggage of my past to try to bend me to their will.”

Nick drew a deep breath and swiped a hand through his dark hair. He didn’t want to remember the passion that had once filled him for her, refused to remember the love he’d once felt for her.

There was no point in going back there. At the moment his life was more complicated than it had ever been. There was no place in it for memories, for emotional weakness, for Lynn.

“I didn’t want to do this to you,” he said. “I didn’t want to be a party to screwing up your life, but I had no choice in this, either.”

One of her chestnut eyebrows rose slightly. “And what are they holding over your head, Nick?”

His chest tightened as he thought of the threats that had been leveled against him, against what was left of his family. “I’m just doing my job.”

“Just like you did a year ago?” Bitterness was once again rife in her voice. “Just like you were doing your job when you seduced the boss’s daughter in order to get closer to the boss?”

Those had been Nick’s orders when he’d been working undercover to bring down Jonas White. He’d gotten a job as head of security at the mansion where Jonas lived, but when it looked as though he was as close to the man as he could get, Nick’s orders had been to get close through Lynn.

What had begun as a job had become much more. He’d found himself enchanted by Lynn’s innocence, charmed by her humor and stimulated by her intelligence.

“You know better than that,” he now said vehemently. “No matter what has happened since, I didn’t pretend anything that I felt for you then. You knew what I felt for you was real, not just some assignment I’d been handed.” He held her gaze intently. “You were the one who left, Lynn. You were the one who walked away.”

She stood once again, her posture stiff and chin lifted in defiance. “And you know there were things I needed to figure out, things I had to find out about myself and where I came from.”

“I know,” he said softly. “And that was then and this is now and one way or another, they’re going to get you. You might as well make it easy on yourself and find out what they want.”

He pulled a business card from his pocket and laid it on the coffee table between them. “There’s a number written on this. It will ring directly to Mr. Blake, who is waiting to fill you in. Call him, Lynn.”

She looked at the card as if it were a Gila monster that had crawled up on her coffee table and taken up unwanted residency. When she gazed at him he once again saw a steely core of strength shining from her eyes.

“Message delivered,” she said, then shot a pointed gaze toward the front door.

There were a million other things he wanted to say to her, a hundred regrets he’d liked to have voiced. He wanted to tell her that thoughts of her had often played in his head, that he’d always hoped he would see her again.

He wanted to ask her if she’d come to terms with the pain of Jonas’s betrayal, if she’d found all the answers she’d been seeking when she’d left him behind. And, he wanted to know who Leo was and had she meant she wouldn’t sleep with him today, or she wouldn’t sleep with him ever?

But, what was the point? He wasn’t inviting himself back into her life. He had a plane to catch and a shadow life filled with bad guys waiting for him.

“Despite the circumstances, it was good to see you again,” he said as he walked toward the front door. She didn’t walk with him, but remained standing by the coffee table.

He opened the front door then turned back to look at her, waiting to see if she was going to say anything more to him.

She didn’t.

As Nick stepped out of her apartment and pulled the door closed behind him, he wondered what the agency wanted with her, wondered if he had just handed her a death warrant. Because he knew more than anyone that the men who wanted her played for keeps.

Chapter 3

She made the call two hours after Nick walked out her front door. It had taken her that long to process everything he’d said and everything she’d felt at seeing him again.

She knew he was right. If they wanted her, somehow, someway, they would get her. They could make her life miserable and still sleep well at night.

At four o’clock that afternoon she got into her car to head to a meeting with the enigmatic Mr. Blake. The last thing she wanted to do was give the FBI another minute of her life. But she wasn’t stupid enough to think that she could fight them.

As she drove to the warehouse where they had taken her the night before, she tightened her hands on the steering wheel as she thought of the threat of imprisonment.

Breaking and entering, theft of artifacts, grand theft—there were a thousand charges they could use to see her in prison until she was a very old woman.

She’d been promised that the charges would be dropped if she helped get Jonas under arrest. She’d upheld her end of the bargain, but apparently she’d been the only one to do so.

Big surprise, a government agency had lied to her. Once again she tightened her fingers around the steering wheel as she thought of their broken promises.

She consciously kept her thoughts away from Nick. What point was there in indulging in what-might-have-beens? He’d been right. She had been the one to walk away and she couldn’t harbor bitterness about the fact that their relationship had died due to lack of nourishment and through long distance.

It pissed her off that he’d been the messenger of doom, that the FBI had guessed that, of all people, Nick would be the only one to convince her to do what they wanted.

It also upset her that seeing him again had sent all kinds of memories crashing through her head, memories she didn’t want to indulge.

It hadn’t been Nick who had convinced her to make the call. It had been the fact that she knew he was telling her the truth, that they would stop at nothing. They would follow through on their threats to destroy her professional life and to take away her personal life. They’d proven that by what they’d managed to do on her computer that morning.

She had no choice in the matter.

What she hoped was that she’d meet with Blake, hear the details of whatever they wanted her to do, then somehow talk her way out of it without any further repercussions.

As she drove through the desert landscape her thoughts momentarily drifted back in time to the lush flowers, bright colors and salt-scented air of Miami.

She’d lived a life of luxury in an oceanside mansion that belonged to her godfather, Jonas, but she’d experienced love in a small beach house that had belonged to Nick.

Two-fifteen Harbor Road. The address popped into her head unbidden. Did he still own that small white bungalow with the cheerful yellow trim? The place where she had fallen so helplessly, so hopelessly in love with him?

She unclenched her hands from the steering wheel. Love. As far as she was concerned it was vastly overrated. Jonas had professed to love her, but he’d thought nothing of lying to her and using her special gifts for his own means.

Nick had said he loved her, but she’d never been sure if that had merely been an illusion they had both shared for a brief period in time.

There had been a time in her life when she’d dreamed of a Prince Charming riding to her rescue, coming to take her away from the isolation and loneliness of her life with her godfather. In the past year Lynn had realized she didn’t need a Prince Charming. She didn’t need anyone riding to her rescue.

Her sisters and the women she now called friends had brought out in her an inner strength she’d never known she possessed. A strength she had a feeling she was going to need now more than ever.

She pulled up in front of the warehouse. Only a couple of cars were parked out front. Last night it had been too dark to notice much about the building, but now she saw an old wooden sign hanging from a large pole that announced the place had once been Carlos’s Cactus Jelly and Candy.

The bright colors of the sign had long faded, blasted by the desert sun, grit and wind. She wondered what had happened to Carlos? Had his life and his business been interrupted by a lack of tourists and poor business sense or had the FBI swooped in on him as they had on her?

Her stomach knotted as she shut off the car engine and stared at the large structure before her. Nobody would ever guess that there was an FBI operation going on inside.

Once again a sharp edge of apprehension stabbed her. She got out of the car, suddenly eager to put an end to the speculation and know the answers as to why they were after her this time.

A new face met her at the door, a tall, slender man with unsmiling eyes who didn’t ask her name or business, but obviously knew she was expected. Without a word he led her back to the office where she’d spoken with Richard Blake before.

Blake greeted her at the office door, his pale blue eyes as cold as she remembered. “Ms. White, it’s nice to see you again,” he said as he ushered her inside and closed the door behind them. “Can I get you something cold to drink?”

“No, and you can cut the pleasantries. We both know I’m not here because I want to be but rather because you boys don’t play fair.” She sat in the chair in front of his desk, filled with a new sense of anger, of outrage.

“We play the cards we have in our hands,” he said smoothly and sank down at the desk. “You could have made this easier by speaking with me yesterday.”

“I didn’t know then that you were going to infect my computer with a bug, threaten to trash my professional life and see me in jail for charges that were supposed to have been dropped a year ago. Oh, and I’m just wondering, did you send me a weird e-mail, as well?”

He frowned. “I don’t know anything about an e-mail, but I do know that one of our techs sent a little bug to you this morning to make you understand that we weren’t just going to go away.”

“Okay, you have my attention. Now tell me what you want from me.” Make it something easy, she thought. Maybe whatever they wanted from her, whatever they needed from her would take an hour, maybe a day, and wouldn’t disrupt or destroy her life after all.

He leaned back in his chair, picked up a pencil and began to tap its eraser on the desktop. “As I’m sure you know, since 9-11 the top concern of this country has been national security, particularly securing borders, and the need to prevent another 9-11 from happening.”

His words were punctuated by the faint thunk, thunk, thunk of the eraser hitting the desk. “Our agency works closely with Homeland Security.”

“What does that have to do with me?” she asked impatiently.

“As I’m sure you know, we’ve managed to effectively tighten our airport security. Our borders are more heavily patrolled than ever in the history of our nation and the politicians have finally realized that funding is vital in our quest for national security.” Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. The eraser tapped faster.

Lynn tamped down frustration, wondering when the hell he was going to get to the point? She fought the urge to reach across the desk and snatch the damned pencil from his hand. The tapping of the eraser threatened to make her crazy. And she was already feeling crazy enough without anything else making it worse.

“There’s only one place that our security measures are relatively weak, one place that could be far too easily breached, and that’s our international docks.” To her intense relief he threw the pencil down and leaned forward, his gaze cold and intently focused on her. “And that’s where you come in.”

She stared at him blankly. Was he completely mad? What could she possibly do to ensure safety at the country’s international docks? “I don’t understand.”

He sat back once again and drew a hand across his overly broad forehead, as if he might be suffering a headache. She hoped so. He was certainly giving her the beginnings of a head-banging ache.

“We have received some troubling chatter that indicates an al Qaeda terrorist attack is possibly going to take place around the end of this month or the beginning of next month,” he explained. “The chatter is coming from a reputable source and our intelligence tells us that the attack will come in the form of a dirty bomb in a shipping container. We believe that container is coming ashore at the Stingray Wharf in Miami. Unfortunately, we don’t have specifics on where exactly it will come from.”

Lynn frowned. She knew of Stingray Wharf. It was a small wharf near the bigger port of Miami. She still didn’t understand why she was here, what exactly they wanted from her. “If this is happening in Florida, then what are you doing here in Arizona?” she asked.

“We have other sensitive operations going on,” he replied.

Once again she wanted to demand he get to the point, but knew instinctively that this was a man who was going to do things his way and she needed to be patient.

“Many of the bigger ports of entry have obtained special equipment to scan containers for radioactive materials,” he continued. “Unfortunately the equipment is exorbitantly expensive and Stingray Wharf hasn’t gotten it yet.

“The way the system works there is, shipping containers are removed from incoming ships and placed in a holding area. They are inspected and cleared only as they leave the holding area on trucks. That’s what makes the system ripe for a breach. Many of those containers remain uninspected for months.”

“Certainly unsettling, but I still don’t see what you people want from me?”

Once again his gaze was intent as he stared at her.

“This is what we want from you. We want you to go to Stingray Wharf and get into those containers in the holding area and check the contents.”

Lynn sat back in the chair and stared at him in disbelief. “Is this some kind of a bad joke?”

“Trust me. There is nothing funny about any of this. A dirty bomb would not only affect the immediate area around the wharf, but could have devastating consequences to the entire state.”

“I understand that,” she replied. “What I don’t understand is why you people can’t just go in and check the containers, find the dirty bomb.”

“There are several reasons we can’t do that,” Blake said. “First of all, the security at the dock is provided by a private agency. While the agency and its workers were given initial security clearances, we’d need to do a more thorough security investigation before bringing them in on this. We simply don’t have the time.”

He picked up his pencil and tapped the eraser on the desk. “Secondly, it’s imperative that the public doesn’t get word of the potential devastation that could take place. We can’t control the people who work for that agency. Equally as important is the potential for awkward diplomacy issues. The containers that come into the port come from all over the world. If we just go in and start ripping them open we could create all kinds of diplomatic nightmares.

He threw the pencil down, leaned back in his chair and eyed her intently “Trust me, we have considered all options for maximum success and minimal damage. We believe the best way to proceed for the least amount of collateral and diplomatic damage is for somebody to get in and out of those containers and check them with a handheld radiation detector.”

“Okay, but why me? Why not get somebody from Miami? I’m sure you have agents down there.”

For the first time since she’d arrived he smiled, a cold, bloodless gesture that did nothing to assure her. “We don’t have an agent on our payroll who is as good as you at breaking and entering, picking locks and evading capture. Nobody in our employ has your particular skills, your unnatural speed and agility, your acute sense of hearing and other talents.”

Although it shouldn’t surprise her, it did, that they knew so much about her. “So, the skills I used to commit the crimes that could see me in prison for years you now want to exploit in the name of national security,” she asked incredulously.

His smile broadened. “Exactly.”

“And if I’m still not interested?”

The smile dropped from his face as if it had only been a desert mirage. “Then we’ll pursue other means in order to make sure that you’re cooperative.”

Thoughts flew through her head. She could run. She could pack up and disappear, leave her life behind. She could take a new name and hide, but her life as she knew it would be over.

She’d have to leave her home, her business, leave behind the women who had become so important to her and never again contact the two sisters she had only recently discovered. What kind of a life would that be?

None at all. The only real option she had was to give them what they wanted.

“All we’re asking for is a week, two at the most. Our intelligence has been pretty specific as to the dates. Two weeks out of your life, then we’re out of yours,” he said. “I’ll even see to it that the pending charges against you are dropped and your record is expunged.”

“I’ve heard that before,” she said dryly. She sighed. She’d do it, only because they’d left her no real choice in the matter. “So, what are the details? How is this going to work?”

“You leave here day after tomorrow. If the chatter we’ve picked up on is true, then we think the bomb will come into the country within the next week in order for them to hit by the end of the month or the first of October.

“We’ll spend the next two days briefing you on the specifics and making sure you’re up to speed. An apartment near the docks has been rented for you—you’ll stay there during the day and work at night. You’ll have a contact working as closely with you as possible.”

Her head spun as he went through the details. “I want Special Agent Nick Barnes to be my contact.”

A frown etched across his large forehead. “I’m not sure that’s possible.”

“You make it possible,” she replied with a note of finality. If she had to do this, she wanted somebody she trusted in her corner.

Despite the fact that she’d been bitterly disappointed that Nick hadn’t shown up at her apartment because he’d wanted to see her, but rather because he’d been ordered to gain her cooperation, she trusted him as she trusted nobody else on the face of the earth.

“You’re obviously a man who makes things happen, Mr. Blake. You make this happen for me. If I’m going to do this for you, then I want Nick Barnes as my contact.”

“I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t make any promises.” He reached into the top desk drawer and pulled out a manila folder. “Inside here are aerial maps of the Stingray Wharf area and the holding enclosure. Study them, memorize them. Your life might depend on knowing the information.”

“I’m hunting for a bomb, I’d say the least of my problem is knowing the area,” she said.

“On the contrary, getting into the holding area will be as dangerous as finding the bomb. There will be armed men and trained dogs guarding the area. Neither look kindly on trespassers.”

Dogs. Lynn fought a shiver that threatened to walk up her spine. She was terrified of dogs, a fear that had found its birth when a friend of Jonas’s had come visiting with his poodle. The poodle had bitten Lynn on the ankle. She’d rather face a gun than deal with a dog.

It was only then that she realized exactly what they were asking her to do. “Trespassers? Then I’m guessing this search I’ll be conducting isn’t legal?”

Mr. Blake frowned again and leaned back in his chair as a deep furrow tracked across his broad forehead. “These are dangerous times and there are instances when red tape and the rights of the people interfere with what is best for the country. We are circumventing the first two in order to accomplish the last.”

“So, what I’m doing is illegal,” she said flatly. How ironic was that? That the government was asking her to do exactly what they threatened to put her in prison for. She was going to break the law with their blessing. The means justified the end.

His blue eyes were flat, without expression as he looked at her. “Not only that, but if you’re caught, we’ll deny all knowledge of you and your actions. We’ll remind the authorities of the current charges pending against you. We’ll imply that you went back to your old ways, breaking and entering in an effort to steal for personal gain. You’re on your own if you get caught.”

It was at that moment that Lynn recognized why they needed, why they wanted her. Her background made her an easy patsy should she be caught.

In the eyes of the FBI, she was completely expendable should she fail.

It was after six when she headed back to her apartment. Despite the evening hour the heat of the day shot water mirages across the highway.

She felt as if the life she had built for herself was nothing more than a mirage and in the blink of an eye could disappear.

She’d believed what she’d made for herself here in the Phoenix area was strong and safe and wonderfully normal, that it was a place, a life that nothing and nobody could take from her.

She’d been wrong.

In two days she’d be in Miami again, doing work that could get her shot by a guard, eaten by a dog or blown to smithereens by some terrorist bomb. One thing was for certain, during the next couple of weeks life certainly wouldn’t be dull.

Pulling into her apartment complex, she thought about Nick and those crazy moments when she’d first seen him, when her heart had filled so completely with him. The intensity of her reaction had surprised her. She’d thought that the passing of time, the living of life over the past year would have dulled the edges of her feelings for him.

She was disappointed that it hadn’t been desire that had driven him to find her, to see her again, but rather duty and perhaps some threat the bureau held over his head.

Certainly the bureau could find plenty in Nick’s background and family history to use against him. Nick’s father, Joey Barnes, had been a powerful member of an organized crime organization. He and Nick had become estranged when Nick had decided not to follow in his father’s footsteps.

As far as Nick’s family was concerned, he owned a security business that provided the latest technology in home protection systems. The last Lynn knew, none of his family was aware he worked for the FBI. As an operating undercover agent, only his superiors and Lynn had known what he really did for a living.

She shoved thoughts of him away as she got out of her car. She had more important things to think about than a lost love. Grabbing the manila folder Blake had given her, she left her car and hurried to her apartment door.

Monday night she’d be on a plane to Miami. Monday was Labor Day and once she arrived in Miami she’d certainly have her work cut out for her.

She placed the folder on the table, then went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. She’d like a beer, but her head was already spinning and the last thing she needed was alcohol to muddy her brain more.

She had no idea if her request for Nick as a contact would be granted. She’d certainly learned not to believe any promises that were made to her. But, all personal feelings aside, she knew Nick’s capabilities, she trusted his intelligence and would feel much better about everything if he was there.

With a sigh she opened the folder and began to study the aerial shots of Stingray Wharf. A year ago when she’d left Miami there had been rumors that the small port would be closed and ships would be routed through the bigger, more up-to-date port of Miami. Apparently that hadn’t happened.

Although international traffic was sparse at the small wharf, it was still there.

She sat there for over an hour, studying maps and reading the information that had been provided for her.

When she felt she’d had enough and couldn’t think another minute she closed the file and carried it with her to the spare room. She placed it in a locked file cabinet then sat down at her computer and booted it up.

A glance at her wristwatch let her know it was just after eight. She fought against a wave of exhaustion. Her head felt mired in directions and specs. But, it was too early to go to bed. She’d work for a couple of hours then call it a night.

Thankfully her computer booted up without a problem. Now that she’d agreed to work with the FBI she assumed the little bug they’d planted had been removed.

She thought about running some tests, trying to discern how they had gotten in and what kind of virus they’d planted, but quickly dismissed the idea. Whatever they had done, she knew there would be no trace of it now.

The first thing she did was check her e-mail. There had been a time in her life, when she’d been living with Jonas, when e-mail had been her link to the outside world.

Jonas had raised her to be afraid, to believe that because of his wealth and her special gifts, she could easily become a target of a kidnapper. He’d discouraged her having friends, had been overly protective to a fault. During those years Lynn had found her social time with e-mail and chat rooms.

She frowned as she saw the familiar address of Delphi@orcl.org.

What now? She opened it and read the message.

Lynn,

Oracle is waiting for you. The Cassandras need you. For more information contact Kim Valenti at NSA.

There was a phone number included.

The Cassandras. Any trace of sleepiness vanished as she reread the e-mail. Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, king and queen of Troy in Greek poetry. The piece of trivia popped into her head, the result of years of surfing the Internet for entertainment and education.

But, the Cassandras held a more personal meaning to Lynn. Her mother, Rainy Miller Carrington, and the friends she’d made when she’d been a student at Athena Academy years ago had called themselves the Cassandras. Rainy, a senior student then, had mentored the group of new students, as was the practice at Athena Academy. Eventually the motley crew had become best of friends.

Those friends had been responsible for solving the mystery of Rainy’s tragic death in a car accident. They were also the women Lynn now called friends.

She couldn’t leave for Florida without addressing this new kink. If the Cassandras needed her, then she’d do whatever she could to help them. Those same women had gone out of their way to help Lynn find out about her history. They had risked their careers, their lives to find out the truth about the conspiracy and secrets surrounding Lynn’s birth. And they had embraced her as one of their own.

Even though it was Labor Day weekend she picked up her phone and dialed the number listed. It was a Maryland area code.

“Hello?” A woman answered on the first ring.

“I’d like to speak to Kim Valenti,” Lynn said. “This is Lynnette White.”

“Lynn, I’ve been waiting for your call. We need to talk. Can we meet?”

“Just tell me where and when,” Lynn replied.

“You’ll be contacted.”

There was a click and Lynn realized she was listening to the faint hum of an empty line. On impulse, she tried to dial back and it rang twice before she got a recording that the number had been disconnected.

She set the phone back in the receiver. What was this, National Conspiracy Week in the United States? First the FBI and now this. Why the need for such subterfuge?

Apparently there was nothing she could do but wait to find out what that was about. She quickly scanned through the rest of her e-mail then shut off the computer. She was still seated at her computer staring at the blank screen thoughtfully when someone knocked.

She cracked the door open an inch to peer outside. Standing there was a delivery guy, a pleasant smile on his youthful face. “Pizza delivery,” he said and pulled a flat box from its red insulated carrier.

“But, I didn’t…” She bit off her protest that she hadn’t ordered a pizza. “What do I owe you?” She opened the door wider.

“It’s already taken care of, tip and all.” He handed her the warm box. “Enjoy.” He turned and hurried back to the car illegally parked against the curb.

Lynn locked the front door, then took the box into the kitchen where she set it on the table and opened it. A pepperoni and mushroom pizza stared back at her and tucked beneath one edge of the crust was a small envelope that was already drawing grease.

She pulled it free and opened it.

Tomorrow night. Six o’clock at Cactus Grill on Scottsdale Road.

The woman she’d spoken to on the phone had said she’d be contacted.

Contact made.

Lynn sank down at the table and pulled a piece of the cheese-laden pizza free. As she took a bite of the pizza she tried to still the feeling that she was in way over her head and this might be her symbolic last supper before her life exploded into something she no longer recognized.

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