Bulletproof Marriage

by Karen Whiddon

• ISBN13: 9780373275540
• ISBN10: 0373275544
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-10-01
• Publisher: Harlequin

Summary

Protecting Sean McGregor's widowNatalie had faced trouble before. As a highly trained agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service, she'd known heartache and passion and fear. But never before had she been pushed into a corner with no way out. Until now... The man the Lazlo Group sent to help her, to protect her, was none other than her husband, Sean McGregor. After two years of mourning a man who had never died, would she have the time to forgive him--or would the brutal actions of a madman leave her widowed, once again?

Excerpts

If reinforcements didn't show up soon, Natalie Major thought grimly, she might as well paint a target on her chest and leap into the open. The unknown assassin or assassinswere that close. The decaying concrete warehouse she'd holed up in only had two ways outand one of them had been blown to rubble.She needed help. Corbett Lazlo, her father's oldest friend and owner of one of the top private investigative agencies in the world, had promised to send someone. She'd asked for the best.Now she wished she'd asked for the most prompt. Gallows humor. She'd never been particularly good at it before, though she'd grown more proficient.Her husband wouldn't even recognize her now if he were still alive. Once, he'd been Lazlo's top agent. She'd married a Lazlo Group spook, just like her own father had been. Retired now, and in a wheelchair, her father lived in relative seclusion. Her beloved husband, Sean, hadn't been so lucky. He'd been killed two years ago this week. Lazlo's group seemed to be the ruin of everyone she loved, so in honor of her dead husband and disabled father, and in defiance of the Lazlo legacy she could easily have embraced, she'd worked her way to the top of SIS, the British Secret Intelligence Service. There was no job too difficult, no task too dangerous for Sean McGregor's widow.Until now.She scouted the area. Trapped inside the abandoned warehouse, she was fast running out of options. The concrete walls made a good shield against bullets, but she needed to see her enemies. Right now, she could only hear them. And it was hard to fight when you had no idea who the enemy might be. Or where they were hiding.Plus, cement was cold and hard and reminded her too damn much of a tomb.The shooters fired off another round of shots. AK-47s. Random bullets ricocheted crazily and dangerously off the cement walls and floors. She couldn't even dodge them, having no idea where they'd go.She'd found the abandoned warehouse two days ago. A concrete bunker in a run-down area of Glasgow had seemed relatively safe. Not wanting to endanger others by staying at a B and B or hotel, she'd used the concrete warehouse as her base, returning to sleep and regroup while attempting to gather information on whoever had sold out her team. Since Millafloraa low-down, no-good mole operating as a double agent inside the SIShad already been caught, she had no idea who she was looking for.Officially, she was on administrative leave, supposedly holed up, incognito in an unknown luxury hotel on the French Riviera. No one in her office knew she'd come to Glasgow, not even her supervisor.And though she'd tried to take extraordinary precautions similar to those she used when deep under-cover, her enemy had found her.Whoever "they" were.She supposed the whys and the hows didn't matter. Not now. All that mattered was that if help didn't arrive soon, she was dead.Her ammo nearly gone, no backup, and no alternative planpretty shoddy situation for an undercover agent who'd recently been promoted to team leader.It had to have something to do with the code. Natalie was sure of it. She'd been so close to cracking it. She and her team.Now they all were dead and she was on the run.And she had only herself to rely on. In seven years of service, she'd never had a single casualty. Until now. Now she'd lost her entire team. They'd been eliminated, killed in a way that left no doubt she was next. All the codes they'd been working on had disappeared, at least as far as anyone knew. She'd told no one that she'd made her own private copy.Not knowing who was on her side, she hadn't dared to contact SIS. She'd called her father, knowing he'd contact Corbett, knowing Lazlo would help."Come on, reinforcements," she muttered. Her father'd told her Corbett had promised to send help. The head of the Lazlo Group never went back on his word.A movement across the