Untraceable (Omega Sector, 3, Band 1573) - Softcover

Crouch, Janie

 
9780373698400: Untraceable (Omega Sector, 3, Band 1573)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0373698402 ISBN 13: 9780373698400
Verlag: Harlequin Intrigue, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

Posing as a married couple to save the world was easy compared to the very real feelings between them… 

As Bob and Lisa Sinclair, Omega Sector agents Evan Karcz and Juliet Branson were a formidable couple—until a brutal attack left Juliet traumatized. But with a powerful crime boss selling military secrets, the safety of millions depends on the undercover operatives. It's up to Evan to rehabilitate Juliet…and not fail her as he did on the mission that still haunts him. 

Evan's strategy is to be near Juliet night and day to practice posing as a loving couple. But soon he realizes there's a sizzling passion between them. And it's being threatened by forces stronger than they ever realized. With a killer stalking Lisa Sinclair, her "husband" knows he'd risk his cover—and his life—to protect her.

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

USA TODAY and award-winning author Janie Crouch has loved to read romance her whole life. She cut her teeth on Harlequin Romances as a teen, then moved on to a passion for romantic suspense as an adult.

Janie lives with her husband and four children in Germany, in support of her husband's U.S. Department of Defense job. Janie enjoys traveling, long-distance running, movies of all kinds, and coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.For more: www.janiecrouch.com

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Evan Karcz woke up the same way he had almost every day for the past year and a half: with Juliet Branson's terrified sobs echoing through his dreams.

Evan didn't jump out of bed and grab his Glock as he had in the early days. Nor did he have to rush to the bathroom before he lost the contents of his stomach.

Now he just breathed in and out slowly, calming his pounding heart, staring up at the ceiling. He threw the covers off his body in an effort to chill down, even though it was early spring and the temperatures were still cool here in southern Maryland, near Washington, DC. Evan wiped with his arm the small amount of sweat that beaded on his forehead.

He didn't lie there long. It was early, not even close to 5:00 a.m., but the possibility of going back to sleep was pretty much nonexistent. He might as well get up and start moving. He slipped on shorts and sweats and packed a gym bag with clothes for the rest of his day.

He'd head in to Omega Sector Headquarters and get in a workout before work officially started. Exercise in order to exorcise, Evan thought, and smiled grimly. Anything would be better than staying in that big bed by himself with nothing surrounding him but his own guilt.

Given the day ahead and all it had in store, he shouldn't be surprised that the dream had resurfaced with such vividness. Today he'd be unable to avoid seeing the subject of his troubled dreams—his ex-partner, Juliet Branson. Although avoid wasn't really accurate. Evan never tried to avoid seeing Juliet; the opposite, in fact. He'd been trying to talk to her for eighteen months, with no real success. Today, Juliet would be unable to avoid seeing him.

Evan drove to Omega Headquarters, thankful that the early hour at least helped shorten the notoriously ugly commute. He pulled into the secure parking garage of the nondescript building that housed Omega Sector—a covert interagency task force made up of the best personnel the country had to offer. Evan had worked here for eight years, ever since his recruitment out of the FBI when he was twenty-seven.

The heaviness from this morning's dream lingered as he walked through the doors of Omega's main building. Strange how these halls had once thrilled him, how he had loved everything about his job as an undercover agent. But since Juliet's…incident he couldn't seem to find the same passion he'd once had for the work.

Passionate or not, he was going back under. And he wasn't looking forward to the team meeting that would take place later today, when Juliet would learn the details of the assignment. Evan rubbed a hand over his face. He knew Bob Sinclair, his undercover persona, was a name Juliet would never want to hear again. Nobody blamed her for that.

Omega Headquarters stood largely empty at this hour except for the security personnel. Evan passed through the extensive checks to confirm his identity, then jogged down the stairs into the large gym area. State-of-the-art workout equipment stood side by side with old-school metal weights, a fitting metaphor for Omega: the best blend of new and old techniques, working in unison. There were also rooms for sparring, for yoga, and a full-size track for running. Evan left his gym bag in the locker room and walked into the main workout area.

Sparring definitely topped the agenda for this morning. Evan decided he might as well take his aggression out on the almost-human plastic dummies and leather punching bags, since the individuals he really wanted to take his aggression out on were well beyond his reach.

He grabbed a pair of gloves meant to save his knuckles from the worst of the damage, and was reaching for the doorknob of the sparring room when he heard noises from someone already in there. Who the hell would be up and going at this hour?

Evan let the door shut and walked around the corner so he could see through the small window of the room. Juliet Branson…

Evidently he hadn't been the only one with nightmares this morning.

Evan couldn't help but watch, enthralled, as she danced among the targets with grace and precision. The black tank and tight workout pants she wore gave her the freedom to move as she wanted, stopping sometimes midair and pivoting in a different direction. Her five-foot-four-inch frame was average in height—at six-one Evan was a full head taller than her—but the way she fought belied her smaller stature, the litheness of her muscles evident. Her long blond hair was pulled tightly back in a ponytail, so as not to impede her actions.

The power behind her kicks and punches was impressive. Had these dummies been live people, each would've fallen to the ground, gasping for air. She showed them, and herself, no mercy. Rapid-fire strikes. Over and over, at a punishing speed and rhythm. Sweat dripped and flew with each of her assaults. You'd never be able to tell she'd been out of the field for the past eighteen months.

Evan watched from the shadows of the hallway, where she wouldn't be able to see him. As a trained operative, he recognized and appreciated Juliet's talent in close-quarter fighting like this, although admittedly, fighting dummy targets was completely different than fighting a real opponent.

She attacked the dummies as if she were warding off a demon army from hell. Evan's arms hung at his sides and his shoulders slumped. Fighting demons was probably an apt description for her actions.

He wished he could fight them for her. Or at least with her, but Juliet had no interest in being anywhere near him. Not that he could blame her. A partner was supposed to have your back, to protect you, even in dire circumstances. Evan had failed her in the worst possible way. And Juliet had paid a horrible price for his failure.

He turned and walked the other way, leaving her to her battle. Entering the room would just cause her to tense up and rapidly vacate, anyway. But not before fear and distrust suffused her features when the door first opened. It wasn't just him she distrusted, Evan knew, but he hated the look, anyway.

Plus, he'd be seeing it soon enough, later today in the conference room, when he mentioned Bob Sinclair.

Evan headed up the stairs to the indoor track. It seemed as if he would be trying to outrun his own demons today rather than fighting them. But no matter how fast he ran, he knew they'd still be there when he finished.

Juliet swung her leg around in a powerful round-house kick, hitting the target one last time. She took satisfaction in how hard the dummy fell to the ground before its weighted bottom slowly brought it back to a vertical position.

Yeah, she could take down a target dummy like a champ. Too bad that didn't really do anybody much good. In a fight with a real person these days, she was damn near useless.

Of course, Juliet wasn't an active agent anymore, so it wasn't as if she was going to use her hand-to-hand fighting skills anytime soon. But it would be nice to know she'd have them if she needed them, rather than freezing up or cowering in a corner if a real person came at her.

Juliet backhanded the dummy again for good measure.

She grabbed a towel and mopped up her sweat from the past hour of pounding everything in sight. It was now just before 5:00 a.m., and there'd be other people around soon, if not already. Dedicated Omega workers—agents and otherwise—would come in to get a good workout before going upstairs to their jobs.

Juliet would like to think that was what she was doing, too. That she was here at Omega HQ sometimes eighteen or twenty hours a day because of her dedication to an important job and stellar organization. That she worked long hours because...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
Harlequin Intrigue
Erscheinungsdatum
2015
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0373698402
ISBN 13 
9780373698400
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
224
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
HarperCollins Publishers Ireland
enquiries@harpercollins.ie

Mayor Street Upper 39/40
Dublin
D01 C9W8
Irland

Weitere beliebte Ausgaben desselben Titels

9780373748945: Untraceable (Omega Sector, 3, Band 1573)

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  0373748949 ISBN 13:  9780373748945
Verlag: Harlequin Intrigue Larger Print, 2015
Softcover