Hot Combat

Can a sexy SEAL discover the truth before terror explodes?

Loaned to the task force taking on the most dangerous Homeland Security challenges, injured SEAL Jon “Ghost” Caspar is assigned to protect a former lover and her daughter...and prevent an imminent terrorist attack on his Wyoming hometown.

Single mom Charlie McClain hoped she’d never again see the gorgeous cowboy who broke her heart, but with her safety compromised, she needs Ghost. Can she still resist his rugged charms...and keep a bombshell secret about their affair?

With a terrorist on the loose, Ghost struggles to remain professional. But the elite bodyguard can’t guard his heart against beautiful Charlie and her adorable daughter...

Ballistic Cowboys

His heart stood still and his breath lodged in his lungs. Everything around him seemed to freeze. No. It couldn’t be. “How old is Lolly?”

“Does it matter?” Charlie spun and walked toward the door. “If you want to see the threats, follow me.”

He caught her arm and pulled her around to face him, his fingers digging into her skin. “How old is she?” he demanded, his lips tight, a thousand thoughts spinning in his head, zeroing in on one.

For a long moment, she met his gaze, refusing to back down. Finally, she tilted her chin upward a fraction and answered, “Six.”

“Just six?” His gut clenched.

“Six and a few months.”

Her words hit him like a punch in the gut. Ghost fought to remain upright when he wanted to double over with the impact. Instead, he dropped his hands to his sides and balled his fists. “Is she—”

“Yours?” She shrugged. “Does it matter? Will it change anything?”

Hot Combat

Elle James

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ELLE JAMES, a New York Times bestselling author, started writing when her sister challenged her to write a romance novel. She has managed a full-time job and raised three wonderful children, and she and her husband even tried ranching exotic birds (ostriches, emus and rheas). Ask her, and she’ll tell you what it’s like to go toe-to-toe with an angry three-hundred-andfifty-pound bird! Elle loves to hear from fans at ellejames@earthlink.net or www.ellejames.com.

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CAST OF CHARACTERS

Jon “Ghost” Caspar—US Navy SEAL on loan to the Department of Homeland Security for Task Force Safe Haven, a special group of military men.

Charlie McClain—Telecommuting software engineer and part-time social-media analyst for Homeland Security. Lives with her daughter in Grizzly Pass, Wyoming.

Kevin Garner—Agent with the Department of Homeland Security in charge of Task Force Safe Haven.

Max “Caveman” Decker—US Army Delta Force soldier on loan to the Department of Homeland Security for Task Force Safe Haven.

“Hawkeye” Trace Walsh—US Army airborne ranger and expert sniper on loan to the Department of Homeland Security for Task Force Safe Haven.

Rex “T-Rex” Trainor—US Marine on loan to the Department of Homeland Security for Task Force Safe Haven.

Leroy Vanders—Rancher whose cattle herd was confiscated by the Bureau of Land Management because he refused to pay his fees for grazing his cattle on government property.

Tim Cramer—Pipeline inspector who lost his job when work dried up. With his marriage on the rocks and his wife threatening to take his child and move, he has nothing more to lose.

Bryson Rausch—Formerly the wealthiest resident of Grizzly Pass, who lost everything in the stock market.

Lolly McClain—Charlie McClain’s six-year-old daughter.

This book is dedicated to my three lovely writing friends who encouraged me to write like my fingers were on fire during our annual writing retreat. If not for them and the timing of the retreat, this book might not have been written! Thank you, Cynthia D’Alba, Parker Kincade and Mandy Harbin.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Extract

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Charlie McClain pinched the bridge of her nose and rubbed her eyes. Fifteen more minutes, and she’d call it a night. The computer screen was the only light shining in her house at eleven o’clock. She’d kissed her six-year-old daughter good-night nearly three hours ago, and made it a rule not to work past midnight. She was closing in on breaking that rule and knew she would pay for it in the morning.

She looked forward to the day when her student loans were paid off and a little money was socked away in the bank. Until then, she telecommuted developing software during the day and at night she moonlighted, earning additional money surfing the internet for the Department of Homeland Security.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to use her own internet provider to do the DHS surfing. She lived on the edge of town, beside Grizzly Pass’s small library with free Wi-Fi service.

Since she lived so close, she was able to tap in without any great difficulty. It had been one of the reasons she’d agreed to take on the task. As long as a hacker couldn’t trace her searches back to her home address, she could surf with relative anonymity. She didn’t know how sophisticated her targets were, but she didn’t want to take any more chances than she had to. She refused to put her daughter at risk, should some terrorist she might root out decide to come after her.

Charlie had just about reached her limit when her search sent her to a social media group with some disturbing messages. The particular site was one the DHS had her monitor on a regular basis. Comprised of antigovernment supporters with axes to grind about local and national policy, it was cluttered with chatter tonight. The group called themselves Free America.

Charlie skimmed through the messages sent back and forth between the members of the group, searching for anything the DHS would be concerned about.

She’d just about decided there wasn’t anything of interest when she found a conversation thread that made her page back to read through the entire communication.

Preparations are underway for TO of gov fac.

Citizen soldiers of WY be ready. Our time draws near.

A cold chill slid down Charlie’s spine. TO could mean anything, but her gut told her TO stood for takeover. As a citizen of the US and the great state of Wyoming, she didn’t like the idea of an antigovernment revolt taking place anywhere in the United States, especially in her home state.

Granted, Wyoming stretched across hundreds of miles of prairie, rugged canyons and mountains. But there weren’t that many large cities with government facilities providing prime targets. Cheyenne, the state capital, was on the other side of the state from where Charlie and her daughter lived.

Charlie backed up to earlier posts on the site. She needed to understand what their grievances were and maybe find a clue as to what government facility they were planning to take over. The more information she could provide, the more ammunition DHS would have to stop a full-scale attack. What government facility? What city? Who would be involved in the takeover? Hell, for that matter, what constituted a takeover?

Several of the members of the group complained about the government confiscating their cattle herds when they refused to pay the increase in fees for grazing rights on federal land. Others were angry that the oil pipeline work had been brought to a complete halt. They blamed the tree huggers and the politicians in Washington.

Still others posted links to gun dealer sites and local gun ranges providing training on tactical fire and maneuver techniques used by the military.

The more she dug, the less she liked what she was finding. So far, nothing indicated a specific date or location for the government facility takeover. Without hard facts, she wasn’t sure she had anything to hand over to DHS. But her woman’s intuition was telling her she had something here. She tried to follow the post back to its orgin, but didn’t get very far.

A message popped up in Charlie’s personal message box.

Who is this?

Shocked at being caught, Charlie lifted her hands off the computer keyboard.

I can see you. Come, pretty lady, tell me your name.

Charlie’s breath lodged in her lungs. Could he see her? Her laptop had a built-in webcam. Had he hacked into it? She slammed the laptop shut and stared at the device as if it was a snake poised to bite. Her pulse raced and her hands shook.

Had he really seen her?

Pushing back her office chair, Charlie stood. If he had seen her, so what? She could be anyone who just stumbled onto the site. No harm, no foul. She shoved a hand through her thick hair and walked out of her office and down the hallway to the little bedroom where her six-year-old daughter lay peacefully sleeping.

The message had shaken her and left her rethinking her promise to help DHS monitor for terrorists.

Charlie tucked the blankets up around her daughter’s chin and straightened. She shouldn’t let the message bother her. It wasn’t as if just anyone could trace her efforts at snooping back to her laptop. To track her down would require the skills of a master hacker. And they’d only get as far as the library’s free Wi-Fi.

Too wound up to sleep, Charlie walked around her small cottage, checking the locks on the windows and doors, wishing she had a big bruiser of a dog to protect her if someone was to breach the locks.

Charlie grabbed a piece of masking tape, opened the laptop and covered the lens of the webcam. Feeling a little better, she took a seat at her desk and drafted an email to Kevin Garner, her handler at DHS. She’d typed This might not be anything, but check it out. Then she went back to the social media site and was in the middle of copying the site’s location URL where she’d found the damning call to arms when another message popped up on her screen.

You’re trespassing on a private group. Cease and desist.

Charlie closed the message and went back to pasting the URL into her email.

Another message popped up.

I know what you look like and it won’t take long to trace your location. Pass on any information from this group and we’ll find you.

The next thing to pop up was an image of herself, staring down at her laptop.

A horrible feeling pooled in the pit of Charlie’s belly. Could he find her? Would he really come after her?

Suddenly the dead bolt locks didn’t seem to be enough protection against whoever was at the other end of the computer messaging.

Charlie grabbed her phone and dialed Kevin’s number. Yeah, it was after eleven o’clock, but she needed to hear the sound of someone’s voice.

“I got it,” Kevin’s wife, Misty, answered with a groggy voice. “Hello.”

“Misty, it’s Charlie.”

“Charlie. Good to hear from you. But what time is it? Oh, my, it’s almost midnight. Is anything wrong?”

Charlie hesitated, feeling foolish, but unwilling to end the call now. She squared her shoulders. “I need to talk to Kevin.”

A moment later, Kevin’s voice sounded in her ear. “Charlie, what’s up?”

She drew in a deep breath and let it out, willing her voice to quit shaking as she relayed the information. “I was surfing the Free America social media site and found something. I’m not sure it’s anything, but it set off alarm bells in my head.”

“Shoot.”

She told him about the message and waited for his response.

“Doesn’t sound good. Got anything else?”

“I looked, but couldn’t find anything detailing a specific location or government facility.”

“I don’t like it, but I can’t get a search warrant if I don’t have a name or location.”

“That’s what I figured, but that isn’t all.”

“What else have you got for me?”

“While I was searching through the social media site, a message popped up.”

“A message?” he asked.

Charlie read the messages verbatim from her laptop. “He has my picture.”

“Hmm. That he was able to determine you were looking at the site and then able to take command of your laptop long enough to snap a picture has me concerned.”

“You’re not the only one.” She scrubbed a hand down her face, tired, but too agitated to go to sleep. “I was using the library’s Wi-Fi. He won’t be able to trace back to my computer.”

“That’s good. More than likely he’s near the state capital.”

“Are you willing to bet your life on that?” she asked.

“My life, yes.”

“What about the life of your son or daughter?” Charlie asked. She knew he had two kids, both under the age of four. “Would you be able to sleep knowing someone is threatening you? And by threatening you, they threaten your family.”

“Look, can you make it through the night?” Kevin asked. “It’ll be tomorrow before I can do anything.”

“I’ll manage.”

“Do you want me to come over?”

She shook her head, then remembered she was on the phone. “No. I have a gun. I know how to use it. And I really don’t think he’ll trace me to my home address so quickly. We don’t even know if he has that ability.”

“He snapped a picture of you,” Kevin reminded her. “I’d say he’s internet savvy and probably pretty good at hacking.”

“Great.” Charlie sighed. “I’ll do okay tonight with my H&K .40 caliber pistol. But tomorrow, I might want some help protecting my daughter.”

“On it. I’m expecting reinforcements this week. As soon as they arrive, I’ll send someone over to assess the situation.”

“Thanks.” Charlie gripped the phone, not in a hurry to hang up. As if by so doing, she’d sever her contact permanently with the outside world and be exposed to the potential terrorist on the other end of the computer network.

“Look, Charlie, I can be there in fifteen minutes.”

“No, really. I’ll be fine.” And she would be, as soon as she pulled herself together. “Sorry to bother you so late.”

“Call me in the morning. Or call me anytime you need to,” Kevin urged.

She ended the call and continued to hold the phone so tightly her fingers hurt.

What was supposed to have been an easy way to make a little extra cash had just become a problem. Or she was overreacting.

Just to be safe, she entered her bedroom and opened her nightstand where she kept the pistol her father had purchased for her when she’d graduated college. She could call her parents, but they were on a river cruise in Europe. Why bother them if this turned out to be nothing?

She found her pistol beneath a bottle of hand lotion and a romance novel. The safety lock was in place from the last time she’d taken it to Deputy Frazier’s ranch for target practice six months ago. She removed the lock, dropped the magazine full of bullets and slid back the bolt. Everything appeared to be in working order. She released the bolt, slammed the magazine into the handle and left the lock on. She’d sleep in the lounge chair in the living room so that she would be ready for anything. She settled in the chair, her gun in her hand, hoping she didn’t fall asleep, have a bad dream and shoot a hole in her leg.

She positioned herself in the chair, her gaze on the front door, her ears tuned in to the slightest sound. Not that she expected anyone to find her that night, but, if they did, she’d be ready.

* * *

JON “GHOST” CASPAR woke to the sun glaring through his windshield on its early morning rise from the horizon. He’d arrived in Grizzly Pass sometime around two o’clock. The town had so little to offer in the way of amenities, he didn’t bother looking for a hotel, instead parking his truck in the empty parking lot of a small grocery store.

Not ten minutes after he’d reclined his seat and closed his eyes, a sheriff’s deputy had rolled up beside him and shone a flashlight through his window.

Ghost had sat up, rolled down his window and explained to the deputy he’d arrived later than he’d expected and would find a hotel the next day. He just needed a few hours of sleep.

The deputy had nodded, warned him not to do any monkey business and left him alone. To make certain Ghost didn’t perform any unsavory acts, the deputy made it his sole mission to circle the parking lot every half hour like clockwork until shift change around six in the morning.

Ghost was too tired to care. He opened his eyes briefly for every pass, but dropped back into the troubled sleep of the recently reassigned.

He resented being shuffled off to Wyoming when he’d rather be back with his SEAL team. But if he had to spend his convalescence as a loaner to the Department of Homeland Security, it might as well be in his home state of Wyoming, and the hometown he hadn’t visited in a long time.

Seven years had passed since the last time he’d come back. He didn’t have much reason to return. His parents had moved to a Florida retirement community after his father had served as ranch foreman for a major cattle ranch for the better part of forty years. Ranching was a young man’s work, hard on a body and unforgiving when it came to accidents. The man deserved the life of leisure, soaking up the warm winter sunrays and playing golf to his heart’s content.

Ghost adjusted his seat to the upright position and ran a hand through his hair. He needed a shower and a toothbrush. But a cup of coffee would have to do. He was supposed to report in to his contact, Kevin Garner, that morning to receive instructions. He hoped like hell he’d clarify just what would be entailed in the Safe Haven Task Force. To Ghost, it sounded like a quick path to boredom.

Ghost didn’t do boredom well. It nearly got him kicked out of the Navy while in rehab in Bethesda, Maryland, at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He was a SEAL, damn it. They had their own set of rules.

Not according to Joe, his physical therapist. He’d nearly come to blows with the man several times. Now that Ghost was back on his own feet without need of crutches, he regretted the idiot he’d been and had gone back to the therapy center to apologize.

Joe had laughed it off, saying he’d been threatened with far worse.

A smile curled Ghost’s lips at the memory. Then the smile faded. He could get around without crutches or a cane, but the Navy hadn’t seen fit to assign him back to his team at the Naval Special Warfare Group, or DEVGRU, in Virginia. Instead he’d been given Temporary Duty assignment in Wyoming, having been personally requested by a DHS task force leader.

What could possibly be so hot that a DHS task force leader could pull enough strings to get a highly trained Navy SEAL to play in his homeland security game? All Ghost could think was that man had some major strings to pull in DC. As soon as he met with the DHS guy, he hoped to make it clear he wanted off the assignment and back to his unit.

The sooner the better.

He’d left Grizzly Pass as a teen, fresh out of high school. Though his father loved the life of a ranch foreman, Ghost had wanted to get out of Wyoming and see the world. He’d returned several times, the last to help his parents pack up their things to move to Florida. He’d taken a month of leave to guide his parents through the biggest change in their lives and to say goodbye to his childhood home one last time.

With his parents leaving Wyoming, he had no reason to return. Having recently graduated from the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training and having just completed his first deployment in his new role, Ghost was on a path to being exactly what he wanted—the best Navy SEAL he could be. A month on leave in Grizzly Pass reminded him why he couldn’t live there anymore. At the same time, it reminded him of why he’d loved it so much.

He’d been home for two weeks when he’d run into a girl he’d known since grade school, one who’d been his friend through high school, whom he’d lost touch with when he’d joined the Navy. She’d been the tagalong friend he couldn’t quite get rid of, who’d listened to all of his dreams and jokes. She was as quirky and lovable as her name, never asking anything of him but a chance to hang around.

With no intention of starting a lasting relationship, he’d asked her out. He’d told her up front he wasn’t there to stay and he wouldn’t be calling her after he left. She’d been okay with that, stating she had no intention of leaving Wyoming and she wouldn’t be happy with a man who would be gone for eleven months of the year. But she wouldn’t mind having someone to go out with while he was there.

No strings attached. No hearts broken.

Her words.

Looking back, Ghost realized those two weeks had been the best of his life. He’d recaptured the beauty of his home and his love of the mountains and prairies.

Charlie had taken him back to his old haunts in her Jeep, on horseback and on foot. They’d hiked, camped and explored everywhere they’d been as kids, topping it off by skinny-dipping in Bear Paw Creek.

That was when the magic multiplied exponentially. Their fun-loving romp as friends changed in an instant. Gone was the gangly girl with the braid hanging down her back. Naked, with nothing but the sun touching her pale skin, she’d walked into the water and changed his life forever.

He wondered if she still lived in Grizzly Pass. Hell, for the past seven years, he’d wanted to call her and ask her how she was doing and if she still thought about that incredible summer.

He supposed in the past seven years, she’d gone on to marry a local rancher and had two or three kids by now.

Ghost sighed. Since they’d made love in the fresh mountain air, he’d thought of her often. He still carried a picture of the two of them together. A shot his father had taken of them riding double on horseback at the ranch. He remembered that day the most. That was the day they’d gone to the creek. The day they’d first made love. The first day of the last week of his leave.

Having just graduated from college, she’d started work with a small business in town. She worked half days and spent every hour she wasn’t working with Ghost. When he worried about her lack of sleep, she’d laughed and said she could sleep when he was gone. She wanted to enjoy every minute she could with him. Again, no strings attached. No hearts broken.

Now, back in the same town, Ghost glanced around the early morning streets. A couple of trucks rumbled past the grocery parking lot and stopped at the local diner, pulling in between several other weathered ranch trucks.