She’s seen too much to survive.
Minutes before her wedding, April Hart learns her fiancé is a drug lord. Now the only person she can trust is a man from her past—border patrol agent Clay Archer. Two years ago April left Clay at the altar to keep him out of the grip of her dangerous family. This time, Clay is determined to guard April—and his heart. But the truth will plunge them into a brutal endgame where safety equals merciless betrayal...
A loud noise reverberated in the truck, and April’s head banged against the window.
Clay jerked the steering wheel. Another crack came out of the night. The back window shattered, raining glass down on April’s head. The truck squealed and the back wheels made it fishtail on the road.
“What happened? What did you hit?” She focused on Clay’s profile.
His jaw tensed. “I didn’t hit a damned thing. Someone’s shooting at us...and he just got my tire.”
Clay wrestled with the steering wheel. It took all the strength he had to keep the truck on the asphalt—and he had to. If he swerved onto the shoulder, the truck could flip or skid out to a stop. They couldn’t stop. Whoever shot at them wanted to disable the vehicle. Wanted them to be stranded in the desert.
“I see headlights. They’re coming after us...”
EVASIVE ACTION
Carol Ericson
Carol Ericson is a bestselling, award-winning author of more than forty books. She has an eerie fascination for true-crime stories, a love of film noir and a weakness for reality TV, all of which fuel her imagination to create her own tales of murder, mayhem and mystery. To find out more about Carol and her current projects, please visit her website at www.carolericson.com, “where romance flirts with danger.”
Books by Carol Ericson
Harlequin Intrigue
Holding the Line
Evasive Action
Red, White and Built: Delta Force Deliverance
Enemy Infiltration
Undercover Accomplice
Code Conspiracy
Red, White and Built: Pumped Up
Delta Force Defender
Delta Force Daddy
Delta Force Die Hard
Red, White and Built
Locked, Loaded and SEALed
Alpha Bravo SEAL
Bullseye: SEAL
Point Blank SEAL
Secured by the SEAL
Bulletproof SEAL
Her Alibi
Harlequin Intrigue Noir
Toxic
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
April Hart—For the second time in two years, April has run out on a wedding—but this time the jilted bridegroom is a dangerous drug dealer on a mission. Now she must return to the first jilted bridegroom for protection.
Clay Archer—This border patrol agent had his heart broken when his fiancée called off their wedding weeks before the event. When she returns to his life, she brings enough danger and baggage to send his protective instincts into overdrive.
Adam Hart—April’s brother has had his share of tragedies, and he uses them to keep his sister on his side for his next wild scheme.
Jimmy Verdugo—A small-time drug dealer playing a big-time game, he’s not going to allow his errant bride to disrupt the biggest deal of his life.
El Gringo Viejo—The nickname of a man reputed to be a drug supplier in Mexico, he’s also reputed to be April’s missing father.
Contents
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
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
Excerpt from What She Saw by Barb Han
Chapter One
The snowy-white tulle of April’s veil rustled as she climbed out the window. Her satin shoes landed in the moist dirt with a squishy sound. She yanked the frothy concoction from her head and stashed it behind a bush.
She took a deep breath and peered around the corner of the house, her curls falling over one shoulder. The stretch limo gleamed in the morning sun of New Mexico, and she shivered. The car looked more like a hearse now—her hearse. Who said New Mexico was the land of enchantment?
Narrowing her eyes, she chewed the strawberry-flavored gloss off her bottom lip. If she fled in the limo, it could be tracked, but at least it would solve her immediate problem of no funds. She considered creeping back through the house to retrieve her purse, but she valued her life too much—at least someone did.
How far could she get barreling down the highway in a stretch limo? Way too conspicuous—sort of like this wedding dress.
She patted the lace bodice of one side of her dress to make sure she still had the strange wooden disc she’d found in Jimmy’s desk, and then drew out her cell phone from the other side. She tapped the icon for the car app loaded on her phone and smiled at the little dots on the map—her saviors.
She called up a car, and then strolled to the front gate, although her feet itched to break into a run. This couldn’t be a clean getaway, not with Jimmy’s security at his beck and call, but nobody suspected a thing at this point. She could play the blushing bride for another ten minutes. Hell, she’d played at being in love with Jimmy for the past six months.
Oscar, the guy working security at the front gate to Jimmy’s estate, jumped to his feet. “Getting cold feet, April?”
“Just jonesing for a smoke. I know how much Jimmy hates cigarettes and I’m trying to squeeze in a few before I quit for good.” She pinched the low neckline of her gown between her fingers and adjusted it. “You have one I can bum?”
Oscar’s gaze followed the movement, his eyes widening for a second. “I—I do.”
“That’s what I’ll be saying in an hour. I’d really appreciate it...and I’ll step outside the grounds so Jimmy won’t know a thing.” She put a finger to her pouting lips. “You know I’m good at keeping secrets, don’t you, Oscar?”
Oscar’s face reddened, obviously remembering the time she caught him rummaging through Jimmy’s desk, and he scrambled for a cigarette in his front pocket. “I know that, April, and I appreciate it.”
He shook a cigarette free from a crumpled pack and held it out toward her.
Sliding it from the pack between her index and middle fingers, she said, “Thanks. Got a light?”
He flicked his lighter, and she leaned in to touch the end of the cigarette to
