Product Details

• Read a Sample Chapter

Read a Sample Chapter

Hijacked Honeymoon

Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.

Chapter One

Usually Logan Kincaid, the Shey Group's boss, had merely to name an objective and the team clamored for mission assignments. Not this time. No one had volunteered. So a computer program had spit out Web Garfield's number, and he'd drawn the short straw.

As an ex-CIA agent and hand-to-hand martial arts specialist, Web was prepared emotionally, mentally and physically to take on dangerous missions. He didn't mind risking his life. He didn't mind breaking the law. He didn't mind working in Alabama. But targeting a woman didn't sit right with him - especially a bride on her wedding day.

Taking his gaze off the Gulf of Mexico coastline, Web scowled at Donovan, then ignored the smirk on the other man's face. Although the pilot hadn't taunted him outright, Web didn't have to hear him say the words to know what the other man was thinking. The mission sucked. But after abducting the bride, the pilot could go home to his very pregnant wife, while Web had to baby-sit his abductee - not exactly a manly challenge. Web barely refrained from gnashing his teeth.

However, Web's self-disgust wouldn't prevent him from completing his mission or from doing it to the best of his ability. Since the boss didn't take on a mission without checking theparticulars, and Web's trust in Kincaid was absolute, Web accepted that Kincaid believed the job was necessary, vital and for the common good.

Still, although success might be critical to the future of the United States economy, Web didn't merely dislike his orders, he detested them. Preying on an innocent woman wasn't his thing. He liked his women soft, cuddly and willing, and he always treated the other sex with respect - or he had ... until now.

With a sigh of frustration, Web resigned himself to carrying out his objective and moving on. Speaking through a headset, Web Garfield didn't have to raise his voice for the chopper pilot to hear him over the beat of the rotors, the roar of the engine or the whistle of the wind. "What's our ETA?"

"Five minutes." Jack Donovan didn't bother to check his watch. Not only was he the Shey Group's best pilot, the man had a clock inside his head that always ticked on schedule. "Relax. I'll drop you in on time."

The aircraft's engine purred like a well-fed cat, but between the updraft from the cool water of the Gulf of Mexico and the August storm front approaching, air pockets made the chopper pitch, sway and dip. Donovan rode his seat with the ease of a jockey on a galloping racehorse. Jack might have been the best damn pilot in the entire air force, but to him a smooth flight and landing meant that no one died.

Resigned, Web slouched in his seat and swallowed hard. He wasn't uncomfortable in the air, but he preferred to keep his feet on terra firma, where a man relied on his brain and muscles - not a tin can wrapped around a motor to keep him alive.

Automatically, Web gave Donovan a hard time, but his heart wasn't in it. "Yeah, well I'd like to set down with my lunch still inside my stomach."

"Hey, don't blame me for a little air turbulence." Donovan checked his instruments. "We don't have time to fly around the storm." Web couldn't help noting the glee in Donovan's voice. The man was born to fly. The storm was simply a challenge he enjoyed as much as Web did a good karate match in the dojo or a demanding mission.

Web shrugged the tension out of his shoulders and peered through the windshield into the storm. Waiting, the time before the action was always the hard part, the time where doubts crept in and could bite a man if he wasn't careful. Once they landed, he'd click into fighting mode and the mental preparation would kick in. He'd no longer question the mission, but simply focus on getting the job done in the minimum amount of time with the least hassle.

Lightning flashed, zigzagging in a spectacular display of nature's fury. Dark clouds closed down on the earth like a hulking army, and the slashing rain lowered visibility to less than five feet. As the lightning bolts electrified the air around them, beside Web, Donovan didn't flinch and relied on his instruments. Web remained as stoic and tried not to think about his target as a woman - impossible, of course.

She would be furious, no doubt. What woman wouldn't be angry, scared and upset over being abducted by strangers less than an hour before her I dos? What woman would believe a stranger was kidnapping her to protect her? Web expected a flood of tears, heart-wrenching sobs, begging. And he damned the program that had spit out his name. However, the thought of refusing hadn't crossed his mind but for a second. It wasn't simply that the Shey Group paid him so well, or that Web had more respect for Logan Kincaid than almost anyone else he knew. Men like Web didn't complain when they drew point. They didn't complain when the risk of success approached absolute zero. The Shey Group didn't complain period. Complaining was for wimps.

To avoid eyewitnesses, the timing with the local law enforcement - who had no idea why the Shey Group had requested the interstate be shut down for ten minutes - had to go off like clockwork. Not an easy feat, considering the mission had been planned only last night. A temporary roadblock would isolate the bride's limousine. Kincaid had expertly inserted one of the Shey Group into the limo as a replacement driver, so the extraction could take place without witnesses.

The target would be alone. Vulnerable. Scared.

If Web had been in charge of planning, he would have knocked on her door, made an explanation and asked her to cooperate, but Kincaid said they simply couldn't take the risk that she wouldn't be alone or that she might refuse to help them. After all, her loyalty would belong to the man she was about to marry. The man waiting at the altar for his bride - a bride whom Web had to ensure wouldn't show for her nuptials.

About to spoil what she likely expected to be the happiest day of her life, Web cracked his knuckles, glaring as wind knocked the aircraft into a sideways slide. Landing would be like threading a needle while riding a bucking bronco, yet he had confidence in Donovan. Last year the man had successfully landed in the middle of a blizzard in the Rockies. If anyone could get them in and out fast, he could. Web had no doubts about his partner's skill or his own to do what must be done. But he didn't have to like it.

"Locked on target." Donovan pointed to the sleek white limousine, already pulled onto the high- way's shoulder, right next to a large patch of grass.

"Perfect. No phone wires. No trees. No eyewitnesses."

(Continues...)

---

Excerpted from Hijacked Honeymoon by Susan Kearney Copyright © 2004 by Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd.. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---