Someone To Protect Her

451—AFTER THE DARK

483—NEVER CRY WOLF* (#litres_trial_promo)

499—A LOVER AWAITS

530—COWBOY JUSTICE

559—HEART OF A LAWMAN† (#litres_trial_promo)

563—THE LONE WOLF’S CHILD† (#litres_trial_promo)

567—A RANCHER’S VOW† (#litres_trial_promo)

629—SOMEONE TO PROTECT HER

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Frank Connolly—The former military pilot vows to protect his charge with his life.

C. J. Birch—The brilliant scientist is knowledgeable about everything but men.

Gilad—The mercenary’s mission is to convert or kill C.J. His reputation is on the line, and he has never failed yet.

Jewel McMurty—The adolescent experiences the pangs of first love for Frank.

Daniel Austin—The Montana Confidential team leader is faced with stopping danger from several directions at once.

Knowing nothing about planes, flying or transporting horses by air when I started this book, I must give credit to those who gave me the information I needed to select the correct plane that could both transport horses and land in the mountains and to write a realistic controlled crash.

Thanks to writers Vickie Spears, Cassandra Blizzard, Mary Adamski and Harriet Robbins Ackert. To pilot Clifford Wells and his wife, D.J. And to horse transporter Carl Webster.

Contents

Prologue (#u1a4c04be-43ed-5e50-8710-4a3ee416f860)

Chapter One (#ubd9cd4b2-495a-502a-a368-aed4729a380c)

Chapter Two (#ue51828e6-a038-5404-99d1-0b8d7d91d493)

Chapter Three (#uc9e9a7be-0a9b-508a-84ee-2df34af7a6fd)

Chapter Four (#uc7c10da9-522b-5d53-afaf-60f27ecdb39f)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Prologue

The photograph didn’t do her justice.

He studied the woman hiding behind the too-big lab coat and glasses. Innocent and unsuspecting, she was standing before the building nestled into the Rocky Mountain foothills, shading her eyes against the brilliant Colorado sun as if she were looking for someone.

Him?

He imagined her letting go of her too-obvious inhibitions, letting down her hair and begging him to thread his fingers through the honey-blond strands. He could almost see her throwing back her head and arching her long, elegant throat in invitation.

He chuckled…merely a way to amuse himself while waiting. Nothing got in the way of business—neither the job he was being paid for or his own agenda.

He ran a forefinger over the photograph. “The subject is in view.”

“She doesn’t see you watching her, does she?” came the hollow voice through his headset.

Keeping himself from turning off the cell phone clipped to his belt in irritated response, he clenched his jaw and said, “I’m invisible.”

“Invisible” being one of his specialties, the reason he had been hired.

At the moment, he was camouflaged behind the handicapped card dangling from his rearview mirror. Physically fit people avoided looking at those with disabilities, as if the condition were contagious. And the card was his invitation to a parking spot right near the entrance of the National Center for Aquatic Research, where British scientist C. J. Birch worked.

For the moment, anyway.

“What is she doing?”

Other than taking a candy bar from her pocket and breaking off a chunk of chocolate?

“Leaving the premises, I assume.”

“Well, don’t let her get away!”