Always

'Thankyou, Marna.'

Lisa impulsively leaned forward and kissed Mama's cheek. 'I'll keep it always.'

Clancy lifted her into the helicopter and then jumped in himself. A moment later a turn of the ignition sent the propellers whirring, and the blue-and-white helicopter lifted off with sluggish awkwardness. Then it rose, turning and gaining speed with a certain amount of grace. It made a ninety-degree turn and set course for Marasef. Marna stood watching with a faint smile as thehelicopter sped toward the horizon. The strong sunlight glittered on the slightly unwieldy body of the craft and caused a mirror reflection on the steel fittings of the propeller. It looked terribly vulnerable and alone in the vastness of the harsh blue sky. Vulnerable. Mama's smile vanished. Her pupils dilated as the shock hit home. The airport. Vulnerable. She turned and ran across the courtyard. She had to get to Kira. The airport. It was going to happen at the airport!

Clancy opened the door of the helicopter and lifted Lisa to the tarmac. The shrill scream of a jet taking off on a nearby runway caused her to flinch. It was isolated at this private section of the airport, but still close enough to the main terminal to be subjected to the abrasive noise level. 'This is coming as quite a culture shock. I never realized how quickly I could become accustomed to the desert quiet at the castle.'

'It's only for today. By sunset I'll have you back at the castle a stodgy married lady.' He grinned. 'If I can manage to get you away from Honey and Sabrina and Billie. They can be very persuasive, and they're not going to be satisfied with a few hours' acquaintance. They'll be backed up by Zilah and Pandora, and I think we're going to have our work cut out for us getting away to our quiet retreat.'

She frowned uncertainly. 'Are you sure they'll be that eager to get to know me? You mean a great deal to them, according to Kira.'

'I'm sure. Kira was right, you won't find anything intimidating about any of them.' He touched her lips lightly with his index finger. 'They'll love you, acushla. Trust me.'

She drew a deep, shaky breath. 'I will.' Her sudden smile was rainbow bright. 'Always.'

'Always,' he repeated softly. 'I like the sound of that word. We'll have to go more in depth about that later.' He took her elbow and turned away from the helicopter. 'But right now I think I'd better get you to the palace and into the bonded state of matrimony. There's one of the palace limousines parked beside the hangar.' He gestured toward a long gray Cadillac with the Sedikhan crest on the driver's door. 'That must be for us. Kira will be pleased that her arrangements are going like clockwork.'

'They wouldn't dare do anything else,' Lisa said. 'Kira and Marna are quite a combination. Together they could move mountains.'

Clancy chuckled. 'For God's sake, don't mention that to Marna. She might try it just to test her powers. We wouldn't want to have to reprint all the Sedikhan topographical maps. There's no telling what she's already done to the landscape of Tamrov-' He broke off, his body stiffening as if he'd been hit by a bullet. 'Baldwin!'

Lisa's gaze followed him to the man who had stepped out from behind the Cadillac. He was dressed in a dark blue chaffeur's uniform with a Sedikhan emblem on the jacket pocket, the billed cap pulled down over his eyes. Oh, God, it was Martin! No, not when they were so happy. Not when everything was-

'Don't move, Donahue. Don't even think aboutit.' Martin gestured with his left hand, and she saw it contained a small, lethal-looking pistol. 'We're going to take things very easy and slow. Come over here, Lisa.'

'No!' Clancy took a step forward.

The gun was immediately trained on the center of Clancy's chest. 'Don't think I'm not serious, Donahue,' Martin said silkily. 'I've waited a long time for this. I'd just as soon put a bullet in you right here.'

'Don't move, Clancy. Please.' Lisa pushed past him and ran across the tarmac. 'You don't want to hurt him, Martin. He's a very important man here in Sedikhan. They'd never stop looking for you if you-' She stopped. She'd been about to say 'killed.' But she wouldn't say it. She wouldn't even think it. Nothing must happen to Clancy. 'It's me you want.'

'Lisa, come back here.' Clancy's voice was harsh with strain.

If she could keep between them, Martin wouldn't be able to hurt him. 'Let's leave now, Martin. Before they discover you're here and catch you.'

'I'm touched by your concern.' There was an ugly twist to Martin's lips. 'I might even believe you, if I didn't remember how you tried to hand me over to your lover on Paradise Cay.'

'Lisa had no part in that. The entire trap was solely my responsibility,' Clancy said.

Martin's eyes wandered down Lisa's body to the slight swell of her abdomen. 'I guess the kid she's carrying is solely your responsibility, too. I heard she was pregnant. We've been keeping a very closewatch on both of you since you arrived in Sedikhan. I'd say both the betrayal and the kid were joint projects, Donahue.'

'Martin, Clancy was only doing his job.' Lisa moistened her dry lips.

But Martin wasn't listening. His eyes were narrowed with malice on Clancy's taut face. 'No, I've changed my mind. The betrayal may have been a dual effort, but not the pregnancy. She used you, Donahue. Lisa is one of these women who can never love a man as much as she does a child. I found that out. She doesn't want you. She doesn't love you. She only wants that child you've put in her body.'

Clancy's lips flattened to a thin line of pain. 'I know that. I've accepted it. It doesn't matter.'

Lisa felt a tearing agony within her. Oh, God, he really believed that! She could see it in his face. 'Clancy, I-',

'Get in the car, Lisa,' Martin ordered. 'You drive. I'll sit beside you with this clever little toy pressed against your side and your lover will sit in the back in isolated splendor. That will give him time to think of all the very unpleasant things I'm going to do to you once we get across the border.'

'Please, Martin, leave Clancy here. It will be much safer for you.'

'The hell it will,' Clancy said with icy menace. 'If he took you and left me here, I'd cross into Said Ababa with a task force, and to hell with the border. Let's go, Baldwin.'

'I had no intention of leaving you, Donahue.'

Martin gestured with the pistol. 'Move, Lis-What the hell!'

A canary-yellow helicopter had suddenly swooped around the side of the hangar, barely twenty feet above the ground, and was almost on top of them. The tornado stirred by the blades whipped Martin's hat from his head and sent it flying.

Lisa caught a glimpse of a flaming-auburn head in the cockpit. Kira! The helicopter dipped even lower and zeroed in on Martin's frozen figure.

'That pilot is crazy,' he screamed, his eyes on the helicopter. 'He's going to crash right into us!'

'Get down,' Clancy muttered as he brushed by her. Then he'd reached Martin, his hand chopping down on his gun arm with lethal efficiency. Martin gave a cry of agony just as the helicopter pulled up and skimmed over their heads by a scant few feet. Another karate chop to the neck and Martin fell unconscious at Clancy's feet.

'Are you all right?' Clancy turned to her in concern. 'I told you to get down, damn it.'

'Everything happened too fast,' Lisa said dazedly. She looked at Martin's still body sprawled on the tarmac. It had been like a nightmare where nothing was real. Except the terror. That had been very real, she thought with a shiver. 'What will happen to him?'

'I decided a long time ago that when we caught him we'd send him back to the U.S. and let them deal with him.' He smiled grimly. 'Of course, we'll have to give them a little help. Their justice system is too lenient for my taste. I'll send an investigating team into the United States that will turn up and document every illegal act he's ever committed, every damned one of them since he was in the second grade. That will put him away for a long, long time.' He frowned. 'But first we'll have to interrogate him to find out who their man in the palace is, as well as where the other terrorists are located who crossed the border into Sedikhan.'

'Are you all right?' Kira asked breathlessly as she skidded to a stop beside them. She was followed closely by John Galbraith. 'I was terrified when I saw that horrible man with his gun trained on you as we started to land. I didn't know what to do.'

'You improvised beautifully,' Clancy said dryly. 'Though you scared the hell out of me. I wasn't sure you were going to be able to pull up at the last minute, and I have a distinct dislike of decapitation.'

'I wasn't sure she'd be able to do it, either,' Galbraith said, 'And she wouldn't let me at the controls.'

'I didn't need any help,' Kira said with a wink at Lisa. 'When I was at Yale, I watched all those action TV series. The heroes were always flying around in helicopters doing things like that.'

'I told you, those were stuntmen.' Galbraith scowled. 'You had no business-'

'You were lucky I even let you come along,' Kira interrupted. 'Anyone who was too thick-headed to believe