Into the Crossfire by Lisa Marie Rice Read Free Book Online Page A

valor,
    for bravery under fire.
    She'd swallowed heavily as she perused his website, letting the facts filter
    in, changing perceptions.
    He'd been a very successful soldier and he was now a highly successful
    businessman.
    Not an angry drunk, after all.
    So she had to peel a layer of fear off the strong reactions she'd had to him
    every time their paths crossed in the Morrison Building's hallway, which had been
    often. Sometimes she'd wondered if he had some kind of radar. More often than
    not, when she'd turned around from locking up her office door, there he had been,
    behind her, just closing the door of the company he worked for. His company, she
    now had to remember. He seemed to have been just behind her or just in front of
    her every single time she moved from the building. And every single time, her
    entire body had gone haywire.
    Every cell in her body had stood to attention in his presence. He often
    seemed to be going to the office when everyone else in the building was knocking
    off for the day. She'd been intensely aware of his presence even when he was
    behind her, as if she were made of iron filings and he were the lodestone.
    This morning, it was only paralyzing anxiety that had kept her from sensing
    him behind her. At all other times, she'd had a sixth sense for his presence.
    At the time, she'd thought it was fear. He looked so utterly frightening.
    Terrifying, actually.
    She'd never seen male power like that up close before. His muscles were
    long and lean, not bulging, and looked as if they were used, and used hard instead
    of being for show, as most modern men's muscles were nowadays. It was as if
    Sam Reston belonged to another race of man.
    30
    Tougher, stronger, faster, bigger.
    A bell rang downstairs and Nicole started. Oh my God! It was seven and
    she still wasn't dressed!
    Luckily, Manuela would be there to open the door, since her father couldn't.
    It saved Nicole from having to run down the stairs in bra and panties with no
    makeup on and still-drying fingernails. Wouldn't that be a way to greet Mr. Sam
    Reston, former US Navy SEAL?
    It wasn't like her at all to run late for a date, but she'd been running late all
    day. She'd only made it back home half an hour ago, craving a long, cool shower,
    but her father had waylaid her when she got in. He was agitated about an article on
    the government's response to the latest bombing in Indonesia.
    Her father had spent three years as ambassador to Indonesia and was
    infinitely better informed than the hapless State Department mouthpieces or the
    hacks who covered the press conference on the bombing.
    It was such a pity that his illness prevented him from sharing his experience
    and expertise. Nicole's heart ached for him. He had been planning a rewarding
    retirement of lecturing, writing newspaper articles, starting up a diplomacy blog.
    Finally finishing that book on the diplomacy of the Medici he'd been writing
    forever. The sudden onset of cancer had shot those plans down.
    To Nicole, her father was the very embodiment of light and reason and
    goodness. The very best of humankind. She'd never seen him do or say a
    dishonorable thing. The world desperately needed men like him and yet his light
    would soon be snuffed out by illness. Even desperately ill, often in pain, he
    remained kind and considerate. Never complaining. It was breaking her heart.
    Nicholas Pearce had always been her hero. Tall and handsome and smart
    and affectionate, the very best. A wonderful husband and father. She'd grown up
    feeling her family was blessed. Then they lost her mother in a car crash and now
    he had stage-four brain cancer, diagnosed a year ago.
    That was when Nicole quit her job with the UN in Geneva to take care of
    him. It wasn't easy, taking care of a severely ill man, but there was no question in
    her mind. He'd been a wonderful father to her all her life. Taking care of him in his
    time of need was a privilege.
    However, having a very sick father wreaked havoc