The Sniper

A passionate reunion romance is under fire in this tale of treachery by Kimberly Van Meter

When Nathan Isaacs walks suddenly back into Jaci Williams’s life, she wonders if she ever knew her ex at all. Because it turns out he was a government-trained killer…and the only thing standing between her and death.

Nathan gave everything to his country—his life, his family, even the one chance he had for happiness with the woman he loved. Then the agency he worked for betrays him, and they’re targeting Jaci, too. Now their only chance of survival lies in finding out why someone wants them dead.

“I love you, Nathan. I don’t want to lose you.”

His expression softened, and he caressed her cheek. “I’ll do my best to come back to you. But if I don’t, don’t wait. Take your passport and go live your life the way that you were meant to. Protecting you has been my primary mission, and if I fail at that, I might as well take a bullet to the head, because life wouldn’t be worth living.”

“Don’t you say your goodbyes. Not yet.” Jaci wiped her eyes, her gaze narrowing as she pulled herself together. “I’m going to chase the bad guys with you. I’d rather die with you than live a lifetime alone without you.”

“Jaci, you don’t know what you’re saying.…”

“Like hell I don’t. I know what I want, and if you’re telling me this is what you need to do in order to start a new life with me, then let’s get it over with. Hopefully, when it’s all over, we both end up on the other side—alive.”

Dear Reader,

I love alpha heroes—there, I said it! Why? That’s easy. I love the way they scream for redemption all the while pushing away every single person who could possibly redeem them. My toes curl as they turn all that pain and raw emotion inward so that no one can possibly see how much they truly hurt inside. And I sigh with delight when that one special woman manages to transform her alpha guy into someone she could actually bring home to family.

Nathan Isaacs is my favorite kind of alpha—emotionally broken, fiercely protective and desperately trying not to love the heroine. To me, that’s just plain delicious!

I hope you enjoy my hard-hearted alpha hero and his perfect woman as they fight the enemy from all sides, as well as fight off their attraction to one another.

Hearing from readers is a special joy. Please feel free to drop me a line via email through my website at www.kimberlyvanmeter.com or through snail mail at Kimberly Van Meter, P.O. Box 2210, Oakdale, CA 95361.

Happy reading!

Kimberly

The Sniper

Kimberly Van Meter

www.millsandboon.co.uk

KIMBERLY VAN METER

wrote her first book at sixteen and finally achieved publication in December 2006. She writes for the Harlequin Superromance and Harlequin Romantic Suspense lines. She and her husband of seventeen years have three children, three cats and always a houseful of friends, family and fun.

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Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Epilogue

Excerpt

Chapter 1

Jaci Williams hadn’t always been a party girl, but after a night of body shots and now puking her guts out in the alley behind Ricochet, who would believe her?

The truth was, sometimes a girl would do anything to blot out a memory—including killing multiple brain cells with tequila and lime.

“Hold on, there, chica,” her best friend and partner in crime slurred as she tried to keep Jaci from falling into the muddy muck that reeked of bad decisions and too many free drinks from guys hoping to get lucky. “If you go face-first in that garbage, you’re on your own,” Sonia warned, trying to keep Jaci steady. “You done? Or do you need to go another round?”

Jaci wiped her mouth and offered a sloppy grin. “I’m good. Where’s the cab? I’m ready to go to bed.”

“Not down this creepy alley, that’s for sure,” Sonia managed to quip as they helped each other down the uneven pavement, stumbling a few times. “We should’ve left through the front door. They have cabs lined up, ready to go. But no, you wanted to go out the back door so no one saw you throw up. Jaci, I swear to God, if I get jumped or raped, I’m going to kick your ass.”

Jaci smiled, feeling somewhat better, if not totally steady on her feet after unloading an excess of liquor onto the dirty ground. Ricochet was their favorite club and Fridays it was always hopping. Both Jaci and Sonia loved to dance and drink, two activities that Ricochet honored with plenty of loud music and even more alcohol.

“Did you see that guy totally checking you out?” Sonia said as they walked arm in arm down the dark path. The lights from the street glittered in the pale moonlight as the nightlife dwindled to nothing in the early-morning hours. The Los Angeles heat was still oppressive, causing Jaci’s skin to prickle with sweat. She pushed her hair from her eyes and tried to remember who Sonia was talking about. She simply shrugged when she couldn’t recall.

Sonia nudged her in the arm. “Come on, you can’t tell me you didn’t notice him. Tall, dark and a little dangerous-looking, actually,” Sonia said with a happy shiver. “The kind who’ll at least buy you dinner before having his way with you.”

Jaci kept her thoughts to herself on that score. She’d known a man like that and while the sex had been incredible, he’d snapped her heart in two and left it a bloody mess without once looking back. Sonia exhaled, adding, “Well, I thought for sure he was going to buy you a drink but he left about an hour ago. Sorry, kid. He might’ve been The One.”

Doubtful, Jaci thought, but smiled anyway. “Stop trying to find my Mr. Right,” she murmured on a hiccup. “There are no Mr. Rights, only Mr. Right Nows and Mr. You’ll Do For the Nights. Remember?”

“Right,” Sonia said with mock seriousness. “Whatever you say.”

They giggled, their laughter echoing in the still, closed-in heat, with Jaci’s thoughts happily soaked in tequila, drowning anything that resembled regret or sadness. This was the way to get over a broken heart, she thought giddily. Who needed therapy when you had good friends and even better liquor?

They were nearly to the curb when a form stepped out from the shadow. Jaci and Sonia startled at the hulking man’s sudden appearance. The alcohol in Jaci’s stomach curdled with apprehension, something setting off her internal sensors to be wary. Sonia, however, suffered from no similar sense of caution and before Jaci could shoot her a warning look, Sonia reacted with irritation.

“Hey, you’re blocking the way,” Sonia said, motioning for him to let them pass. When he didn’t budge, she yelled, “Hey, stupido, get out of the way. Are you deaf or something?”

“Let’s just go around,” Jaci muttered, pulling on Sonia’s arm. “This feels weird.”

“Weird is right,” Sonia agreed with a glower as she pulled her pepper spray free. “You see this? It’s called pepper spray and you’re about to get an eyeful if you don’t get the hell out of our way.”

“Jaci Williams...” The man’s voice was rough and sounded as if he gargled with gravel. Then he grinned, and Jaci’s blood chilled. Who the hell was he? Why did he know her name? Nothing good could come of this little tableau in the making.

Sonia sucked in a sharp gasp and her hand tightened around Jaci’s as he pulled a 9 mm gun with a silencer screwed onto the top. Oh, God. Adrenaline chased away the remnants of her intoxication and she struggled to breathe.

“You can have our money, our credit cards, whatever you want. Just let us go,” Jaci pleaded, swallowing a bubble of fear burning her throat and tasting like tequila shooters. “Please...” Seconds later a tight popping sound ripped through the air and Sonia’s grip on Jaci’s hand loosened as she toppled to the filthy alley floor without a sound, a single bullet wound still sizzling around the torn flesh of her forehead. Her sightless eyes gazed up at the stars as blood dribbled from the wound, and it took a full second for Jaci to realize her best friend had just been shot and killed right beside her.

Jaci opened her mouth to scream as the man switched his aim and pointed the gun directly at her own head. I’m going to die in this dirty alley. The cops would find two corpses in the morning, stiff and gray, and that would be the end of things. Tears welled in Jaci’s eyes right before she squeezed them shut. She didn’t want to see the bullet coming at her. She hoped it didn’t hurt too much...

Her eyes snapped open when, instead of a bullet burying itself in her brain, she heard a grunt and the distinct sound of bodies hitting the ground. Two men—the man who’d shot Sonia and another man—grappled for the gun. The other stranger landed a clean uppercut, smashing the man’s jaw and shattering teeth as they clattered against each other. It was all he needed to gain the upper hand. With a quick and deadly motion, he pistol-whipped the man unconscious, and then wasted little time in splattering his brains all over the pavement.

Jaci jumped, torn between her desire to run and her need to stay with Sonia’s body at least until the authorities arrived, but her savior didn’t give her the choice. “Come with me,” he ordered tersely and she could only stare.

“Who are you?” she asked, scared out of her mind. “What’s going on? Did you know this man? Are you a cop? He just stood in our way and then he shot Sonia,” she babbled, her gaze dropping to her friend’s lifeless body. She cried out in shocked agony at the sheer senselessness of the crime and lowered herself to Sonia’s side, clinging to the only protocol that seemed appropriate for such a horrifying situation. “We have to call 911,” she said, crying openly. “We have to make a statement...we—”

“There’s nothing we can do for your friend. We have to leave now,” he cut in, jerking her to her feet. “That man was hired to kill you. Your friend was collateral damage. They will send another as soon as they discover this one failed. We have to take cover. Now.”

“What are you talking about?” Jaci asked, wiping at her tears and staring at the man shrouded in the shadows. “Who are you? And what people are trying to kill me? I’m no one. I swear it. This is a terrible mistake. I’ve never even had a parking ticket.”

The man stepped out of the shadow and the street lamp revealed the angled, achingly familiar and devastatingly handsome face of the man who’d ruined her for all other men and had set her on the path of destruction without a care. “Jaci...come with me, now.”

“Nathan?” The name slipped from her lips like the lyrics of a song she’d never forgotten, from shock at coming face-to-face with the man who’d broken her heart so callously two months ago. “What are you doing here?”

“There’s no time to explain,” he answered brusquely, motioning her with a curt movement. “Let’s move.”

New tears burned her eyes, but these weren’t tears of grief and horror. Those would come again later. The tears beginning to course down her cheeks were of pain and anger, hatred and humiliation. She’d rather die than accept a finger’s worth of help from him.

“Screw you, Nathan.” She didn’t want him to save her. Anyone but him. “I’ll take my chances.”

His mouth firmed in a tight line, plainly displeased with her answer. “Not an option,” he said, shocking her. Quick as a snake, he twisted her into his arms and plunged something sharp into her neck.

Then there was nothing.

* * *

Nathan Isaacs never wasted time weighing the means against the ends. The situation was simple: he wasn’t leaving without Jaci, no matter if she agreed or not.

Which is why he’d come prepared with a syringe filled with a heavy sedative.

He hefted Jaci’s limp body and ignored the way her tight skirt rode her thighs and exposed entirely too much leg. His grip tightened on her body, but otherwise, he kept his gaze sharp and wary. His only intent was getting her to safety. Besides, he didn’t need to see what he could plainly remember.

Nathan had no trouble recalling those long legs or those full breasts. Hell, they were imprinted on his brain, likely seared into his soul. He remembered with painful clarity the way her green eyes lit up with laughter and how she had a tendency to chew her lip when worried. He’d memorized every line of her body, every frown line in her forehead.

He flashed back to the taste of her flesh in his mouth, the sound of her breathy cries when she’d reached her climax.

Oh, yes, Nathan’s recollection was crystal clear in that regard.

The memories of their time together fueled his nightmares and teased his dreams.

He hadn’t left her behind because he’d lost interest; he’d left her behind to save her.

And yet trouble had gone looking for her just the same.

Someone wanted her dead.

Because of him.

“I’m sorry, Jase,” he muttered, laying her gently in the backseat of his car. “I never wanted my life to come after you. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

Fat lot of good his apologies and grand gestures did them both now. An innocent woman was dead and Nathan was going to have to convince Jaci to let him protect her until he could find other means.

Well, by the time the sedative wore off, they’d be long gone, deep into the Los Padres high country.

And there wasn’t much she’d be able to do about that by then.

She was going to be pissed—but alive.

That’s all that mattered.

Chapter 2

Jaci’s head throbbed in time with the beat of her heart and her mouth tasted as if someone had stuffed it with an oily rag. She dragged her hand across her lips, still a bit sluggish in the brain, and tried to get her bearings.

Birds.

She could hear the shrill chatter of birds somewhere. She struggled to open her eyes and when she managed to peer blearily about at her surroundings, she realized with a frightening start that she had absolutely no idea where the hell she was.

Bright morning sunlight streamed in through a dusty window and the air in the room smelled musty, as if the place had been closed up for a while and only recently reopened.

Her neck ached as if someone had pinched her and as she rubbed at the sore flesh, she recalled bits and pieces of the previous night with horrifying detail.

Sonia. Dead.

Her hand flew to her mouth and she sucked back a wild sob. How had the evening taken such a devastating turn? One minute they’d been enjoying a nice buzz from too many drinks sent their way and the next her best friend since junior high was dead. It was all too much to take in without dissolving into a moaning, sobbing mess. She wasn’t the kind of woman to break into hysterics under most circumstances but she was fairly certain she was about to have a grand-level freak-out any moment as the last thread holding her nerves together frayed in spectacular fashion.

Jaci blindly fumbled around her, searching for her cell phone. She had to call the police and report it. What time was it? Likely they’d already found Sonia’s body, left behind in that alley like trash. God forgive her, she’d left her best friend alone. Where the hell was her damn phone?

“If you’re looking for your cell, I tossed it,” came Nathan’s voice from the doorway, his tone matter-of-fact and brooking no argument. He held two steaming coffee mugs in his hands but even as his gesture may have appeared kind given the circumstance, Jaci didn’t know how to accept his offer considering their history.

She stared, unable to process everything at once, as Nathan walked into the room, bare to the waist, wearing faded jeans, offering a short explanation. “Your phone has a GPS and is traceable. Sorry, but I had no choice but to ditch it. Besides, you shouldn’t be contacting anyone until I know it’s safe to do so. In the meantime you are going off the grid.”

“What the hell is going on?” she whispered, scooting away from him, rejecting his offer of coffee, though she sorely needed it. She clutched a pillow to her chest, as if that would protect her from him, and glared through a sheen of tears. “Someone shot my best friend and he was going to shoot me. You show up and k-kill that man and then kidnap me for some reason when two months ago, you couldn’t stand to be near me another second. I don’t understand what is happening,” she couldn’t help but cry with a pathetic mewl that would’ve embarrassed her if she hadn’t been suffering from shock. “I’m in a nightmare and I can’t wake up. God, help me,” she said, sniffing back tears. “She’s dead. Sonia is dead.” Even as she murmured the words and knew it to be true, the reality felt forced.

“I’m sorry about your friend,” Nathan said with genuine remorse that confused her. “I hadn’t realized that the two of you had slipped out the back into the alley or else I would’ve been there sooner.”

She regarded him slowly, recalling a snippet of Sonia’s bawdy comments from that night. Why hadn’t she realized it earlier? The classic jawline, the hard body built with layer upon layer of muscle... “You were the one watching us?”

He offered a curt nod but didn’t deign to explain, which only made her want to throw something at his damnably handsome face.

“Why?” The inscrutable expression etched on the hard planes of his face gave nothing away and she looked elsewhere in disgust. “Right. More secrets. That’s you, isn’t it? Always hiding something. Well, as you so clearly stated when we last met, I mean nothing to you, so please take me home. The police can protect me from whoever is trying to kill me.”

“Jaci, you’re not leaving,” he said, shooting her down without apology. “And don’t even try. We’re deep in the Los Padres Mountains. You’d never make it out alive.”

“How did...” Jaci stopped in confusion, forcing her brain to work when it remained sluggish from the night before. The last she remembered she was in Los Angeles. Now she was in the mountains? She stared at Nathan, demanding answers, but when her hand strayed to the sore spot on her neck she knew the answer and her stare narrowed in indignation. “You drugged me.” Neither a question nor a guess, he didn’t bother denying it. She nearly shook with impotent rage. “You bastard,” she swore softly under her breath. “How dare you. Who do you think you are?”

“Who am I? I’m the man who saved your life. Try to remember that fact when you’re calling me a bastard. You can thank me later. For now we need to lay low. The people who want to kill you won’t stop until they’ve achieved their objective.”

“Why?” she cried, hating all this confusion and subterfuge that had nothing to do with her. “Why is this happening? I’m a graphic designer, for crying out loud. I design advertising and T-shirts and coffee mugs. What did I ever do to deserve this?”

Her impassioned cry elicited a flicker of emotion, regret, possibly, she couldn’t be sure, but he shut it down quickly. “This isn’t about you, Jaci,” he admitted tersely before walking from the room. “It’s about me.”

* * *

Nathan cursed under his breath as he removed himself from Jaci’s accusing stare and teary eyes. He was a bastard all right, but at least she was alive and he meant to keep her that way, even if she hated him.

He shouldn’t have left the bar to do a perimeter check but he’d been sitting on that bar stool for too long, watching every jerk in the seedy club try to sleaze their way into Jaci’s panties with the copious number of drinks sent her way. Not that he blamed the sorry saps—Jaci was hotter than hell on a summer day—but he didn’t have any grace when it came to his former flame. She was a topic of discussion that was off-limits. He was like a wounded bear with something in its paw, and that something was a certain leggy redhead who sang off-key and danced in her underwear when she thought she was alone.

He scrubbed at the stubble on his chin and poured his second cup of coffee, knowing he’d need it to get through the next few hours alone with the one woman who knew him better than anyone on this planet—and who likely wanted to scratch his eyes out.

He didn’t blame her. Not one bit. He probably deserved worse.

Good God, he could still see her stricken expression, could still picture the blood draining from her face as he deliberately broke her heart in the cruelest way he could imagine.

“You suck in bed and I’m bored. I thought I could play house but it’s just not working out and I’m ready to move on. Sorry.”

“You said we were going to get a place together. I’ve already let my apartment go and we’ve put a deposit down on a house! What are you talking about?”

“What can I say.... I’ve changed my mind.”

“What am I supposed to do? Live in my car?”

“That’s not really my problem, babe.”

Nathan squeezed his eyes shut to block out the memory but it was seared into his synapses, punishment for believing that a normal life had been possible for a blackhearted son of a bitch like himself. He’d been deliberately cruel so that she would never want to see his face again.

He was a killer—not a suburban husband who held barbecues and shared beers with the neighbors.

And Nathan had been recklessly foolish to believe otherwise.

When his past had caught up to him, Nathan knew the safest place for Jaci would be far from him and the only way to ensure that she never wanted to see him again was to break her heart into so many pieces, she’d never be able to repair it for him.

So he’d done exactly that.

And it had worked.

Damn. His breath caught in his throat. It had worked.

He peered out the dusty window across the miles and miles of forest and wondered how long they’d have to hole up here before they both went stir-crazy or straight-up killed one another out of boredom.

At least here they were safe, he thought grimly, casting a short look toward the room where Jaci remained, likely in shock from seeing her best friend die a grisly death right in front of her, and wondered how he was going to protect her when he didn’t even know who wanted her dead.

He turned sharply at the soft creak of the floorboard, his hand going to the Glock tucked into his waistband. Jaci jumped at his quick and unerring movement to his gun. Her gaze communicated everything he knew she was feeling—fear, anger, grief, confusion—and he supposed he had to give her some kind of explanation, though the idea ranked really low on his Excited To Do list.

“What’s going on?” she asked, attempting to appear strong. But Nathan caught the subtle shake in her body. He stuffed his impulse to pull her into his arms and shelter her from anything that might harm her. Right. Like she’d let you anywhere near her, a voice mocked, and he grimaced at the truth of it. He watched her enter the room on unsteady feet to sit on the edge of the worn, ’70s-era sofa as if she were a bird perched on a branch. “What’s happening? Who was that man who k-killed Sonia?” she asked in a strained voice.

“I don’t know who the man was,” he admitted. “Just that you were his target.”

“How did you know I was his target?” Jaci asked, her eyes wide. “Why would I be anyone’s target?”

Because of me, he thought bitterly. But how much should he tell her? She might be safer if she knew little. “I intercepted the kill order,” he said, deciding to go with honesty. She stared hard, her eyes widening even more as she shook her head as if in denial. “Jaci, there are things you don’t know about me...”

“I think that was made abundantly clear several months ago,” she murmured, glancing away. Her quiet comment struck him in the heart and he actually winced. Yeah, he deserved that one. She returned her gaze to him, her eyes dry and hard. “Go on.”

Nathan met her gaze without flinching, yet inside he was grimacing, wishing this conversation never had to happen. “I’m not an FBI agent,” he said. “I never was—it was my cover story.”

“Cover story?” she repeated slowly, her tone betraying her disbelief. “What do you mean cover story?”

“I work for an underground government agency that specializes in neutralizing terrorist targets.”

She digested this information with less shock than he’d envisioned and he was actually impressed when she didn’t immediately fall apart. “When you say neutralize—”

“I’m an assassin,” he cut in sharply, leaving no room for misunderstandings. Might as well just put it out there. Her life was in danger—she’d earned the truth, at the very least. “I’m trained to kill people, Jaci. It’s what I’m good at and what I enjoy.”

She sucked in a tiny inhale at his admission. Maybe he ought to clarify... “Listen, it’s not that I enjoy killing people. But the assignments I get aren’t good people like you and people you know. They’re bad people—people who wouldn’t think twice about mowing down a schoolyard of kids or torturing old folks—so when I take one out, I feel a certain satisfaction that I’ve done a job that needed doing.” He sounded pathetic. Why was he explaining his job to a civilian who would never understand? Jaci was a bleeding-heart type. She believed in innocent until proven guilty, whereas he believed in shooting first and asking questions later. They were polar opposites on the most extreme scale. “I don’t expect you to understand,” he said. “But I do expect you to trust me to do what I need to, to keep you alive.”

“Trust?” she said, laughing as if amused, though in truth the sound put a sick roll in his stomach. He heard her incredulity at his use of the word and he realized he should’ve phrased it differently. She’d never trust him, ever again. Jaci could’ve thrown that in his face but she didn’t. Instead she said, “I think I’ve reconsidered your offer of coffee. Would you mind?”

“Sure,” he said gruffly and went to fill her a fresh mug. He remembered that she liked it sweet with milk and sugar and without wasting time in pretending that he didn’t, he simply fixed it and handed the mug to her. She accepted with a murmured thanks but otherwise remained silent as she sipped her coffee, her eyes closed as if needing a moment to collect herself. He didn’t blame her; it was a lot to accept in a short time frame.

“What about Sonia?” she asked. “I need to call the police and give a statement or something, don’t I?”

“I can’t trust the police with your location. There are leaks everywhere. I already made an anonymous call. Your friend was picked up.”

At the mention of Sonia her eyes filled but she looked away, not wanting him to see her cry. He appreciated that she was trying to stay strong but her pain caused a shaft of agony through his chest that only served to remind him that he was far from over her. “I’m sorry about your friend,” he said, feeling useless in the face of her closed-in grief. Jaci accepted his condolences with a short nod and then returned to her coffee. “And I’m sorry I had to drug you,” he added. “Do you need some aspirin?”

She cast him a cool look, yet nodded. He searched a few cabinets before he found what he was looking for and then shook two tablets into her hand. Her palm curled around the medicine but she didn’t toss them back right away. Instead she looked his way and he was pinned by the same eyes that haunted his dreams and made him wish he’d been a better man.

“I suppose I should thank you,” she began, swallowing as though the words were stuck in her throat. “For saving my life. But as much as I’m grateful...I have to wonder why you care at all. It’s not as if we parted on good terms. I don’t understand how I haven’t spoken two words to you in months yet you happen to show up at some bar that I’m at to save my life and then bring me here—wherever here is—to do what? Hide out? Until when? What now? We can’t stay here forever. I have a life...and it no longer includes you. That’s the way you wanted it, remember? I just don’t understand, Nathan.”

Valid questions. She was a smart woman. But to answer truthfully? That he always knew where she was since the day he’d pretended to kick her to the curb; that he’d never forgotten a moment of their time together and the memories were both painful and treasured? That he’d wished a million times over that they’d met in a different life so that maybe they’d have had a chance? Hell, no. He couldn’t say any of those things.

She peered at him closely, needing answers. “Nathan?”

And he couldn’t give them without making the conscious choice to be straight with her about every facet of their former life together. She would just have to be content with the information he was willing to share. Besides, keeping her alive was his objective—not baring his soul and begging for her forgiveness.