Page 1 of Innocent Target

Chapter One

James Valentine loved the time of night when most everyone had gone home, and he was alone in the building with his thoughts. Shane had talked about them maybe getting a chopper in the future, and he was doing some research on that.

As an Airforce pilot, he could fly anything—from planes to Chinooks and everything in between. Being in the air was his happy place, and while he loved his job here at Alliance and what they did, he’d be lying if he said he didn’t miss it. The freedom, the peace, the exhilaration of being free.

His thoughts turned to the other pilot in the agency. Mercy Broussard was his own personal enigma; beautiful, brave, and hiding secrets he wanted to solve. That they were colleagues made his attraction to her tricky. That she didn’t seem to want anything serious had him keeping his distance, even though he wanted to take things further between them.

Her background was a little different from his; she flew planes as an acrobatic pilot, did stunts that turned him green knowing how dangerous they were and how much skill it took to execute them. James didn’t know exactly how she’d gotten into that, but her more recent job had been with the NOPD SWAT Team. She was deadly and beautiful, a combination that was hard to ignore. But he couldn’t throw his career here away for a woman who showed little interest in him except as a friend.

His job was everything to him, and he was reluctant to do anything that would jeopardize the place he’d made for himself here. Leaving the Airforce had been the single biggest regret he had, and only signing on with Shane and Emme and becoming part of Alliance had filled that void in his soul.

The door to the tech room where he was doing his research opened, and it was as if his thoughts had conjured her up. Mercy strolled toward him, her petite frame hiding the lethal weapon that she was. Today she wore her shoulder-length blonde hair in a sensible ponytail, making her face appear younger. Her pale blue eyes roamed over him, giving him the impression she may be attracted to him too, but in a split second the desire he thought he’d glimpsed was gone.

“Deciding which chopper we should get?”

“Yeah, I want to make sure Shane and Emme don’t waste their money.”

“Let’s see what you have.”

Mercy pulled up a chair beside him and sat down, bringing it close so they could share one screen. Her strawberry scent that always made him think of her was strong, and he fought the desire to sniff the air like some horn dog.

Instead, he brought up the choppers he was looking at on the screen. He was about to show her when the security system pinged an alert, telling him someone was outside the door.

Wheeling sideways, he looked at the monitor and frowned, blinked, and looked again. The black and white image made it difficult to see clearly, but if he didn’t know better, he’d swear that his sister was standing at the door and she had something in her arms.

“What the hell?”

“What is it?” Mercy was beside him, her voice holding an edge of concern.

James didn’t answer. Instead, he moved to the door to see for himself. He hadn’t seen Bethany in over a year, hadn’t spoken to her in six months, and now she was here on his office’s doorstep at eleven at night.

“James!”

He turned as he hit the lobby and saw Mercy looking at him, her eyebrow raised in question.

“It’s my sister. She’s outside.” He deactivated the alarm as he saw surprise move across Mercy’s face.

Ignoring it, he pulled open the door and sure enough, there stood Bethany, looking nothing like the sister he’d last seen. Her face was pale and drawn and she looked too thin, her hair long and greasy, lying lank across her face. Then she looked up, and he saw despair and fear, as well as evidence of exhaustion in the circles around her eyes. None of those things were what held him rooted to the spot; no, that was the tiny newborn cradled in her arms.

“Hi, Jamie.”

Her voice broke as she spoke his name, then he was pulling her inside from the cold, wrapping her in his arms. He felt her shudder against him as she burst into tears. James had lots of experience with his sister’s tears.

He’d learned early on that most women just needed to be held and allowed to cry it out. Men without sisters didn’t understand that, and always tried to fix everything, when sometimes all women wanted was another person to be strong for them while they couldn’t.

This time was different. He took her sobs, her shudders of fear into his own body and held on tight, worry a knot in his belly as he looked at Mercy over his sister’s head, silently asking for her help.

“Why don’t we get you somewhere more comfortable.” Mercy laid a gentle hand on Beth’s back, and James was shocked to feel her shudder at the touch.

Mercy lifted her hand and backed away as Beth lifted her head, looking at Mercy with caution and wariness in her once trusting eyes. She looked up at him, and he smiled reassuringly, so many questions running through his head. James wasn’t a fool, though; he knew if he bombarded her, she’d flee. He could see it in her eyes.

“Who is this?” He nodded to the tiny baby who looked no more than a couple of weeks old. A cute button nose was peeking out from the thin blanket, long dark lashes lay against rosy cheeks.

James saw the look of love flitter over his sister’s face, and he knew at that moment he was looking at his niece or nephew. Hiding the shock, he gazed at the innocent child of his blood.

“This is Abbie, your niece.”

It was clear to anyone with a brain the love in her voice was real, and James couldn’t help the rush of instant love he felt for this little bundle. With his arm around Beth, he could feel a shiver run through her body.