Carla Cassidy - Pawn

It took her only a few seconds to pick the lock, then she eased open the door and stepped inside.

The container was packed with crates from floor to ceiling on either side of a narrow aisle. The packing invoices described the contents as pottery and glassware.

As she ran her scanner across one of the crates in the very back of the container, it lit up like a Christmas tree. She froze. No doubt about it, the reading was clear.

Breathing shallowly, she moved closer and saw there was some sort of timer on one side of the crate.

Bomb!

She’d found it.

“Nick, container 16002. The bomb’s in here.”

Out! She wanted out. She had to get out of here; her job was done.

She turned to exit just in time to hear the sharp bark of a dog. The door of the container crashed down. For a long moment, she stared at it in horror.

She was trapped.

Inside the container.

With the bomb.

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Dear Reader,

There has often been a book I’ve read that I wished when I put it down I could revisit the characters a year later and see how they were doing. Did their dreams come true? Did their love last? For years I fantasized that Scarlett won back Rhett long after Gone with the Wind ended.

When I was asked to write Pawn with the same characters that had been in Deceived, I was thrilled to get the opportunity to see how Lynn and Nick were doing. As a writer it was both a challenge and a delight to work with these two characters again, and what a surprise to discover they didn’t get their happily-ever-after that was hinted at in the end of Deceived!

I hope you enjoy their story and, as always, happy reading!

Carla Cassidy

Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to

Carla Cassidy for her contribution to the

ATHENA FORCE series.

isn’t a secret agent or martial arts expert, but she does consider herself a Bombshell kind of woman. She lives a life of love and adventure in the Midwest with her husband, Frank, and has written more than fifty books for Silhouette.

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

Phoenix, Arizona

The police car had been following her for at least ten minutes before the cherry lights came on, flashing brilliant red glares across the stretch of desert on either side of the two-lane highway.

“Damn,” Lynnette White muttered as she slowed her car and came to a halt just off the shoulder of the road.

She watched in her rearview mirror as the police car pulled up behind her and stopped. She didn’t think she’d been speeding. She’d made no illegal turns and hadn’t been driving erratically. So, why was she being stopped?

A burly officer stepped out of the driver’s side of the car and walked with purpose toward her window. Maybe she had been speeding, she thought. She’d been known to have a bit of a heavy foot.

She rolled down her window and gazed up at the unsmiling man. His sunglasses gave away nothing, the mirrored surfaces reflecting the deepening shadows of the barren, brown landscape that surrounded them.

“License and registration,” he demanded.

“Good evening, Officer. What’s the problem?” she asked pleasantly.

“Ma’am, I need to see your license and registration.” His stern features and curt tone radiated a no-nonsense attitude.

Lynn was tired and eager to get home to her apartment on the outskirts of Phoenix. She’d stayed at Athena Academy, the private girl’s school, longer than she intended and now just wanted to get home. The last thing she wanted was to instigate any kind of hassle with the policeman that might hold her up.

She pulled her driver’s license from her purse, then grabbed her car registration from the glove box and handed both to the man who was keeping her from her dinner and what little was left of the evening.

If she’d been speeding, she’d accept a ticket, pay the fee and that would be the end of it. Unfortunately it wouldn’t be the first time she’d paid a speeding ticket.

She watched as he stared at her paperwork, then at her as if making certain the bad photo on her driver’s license matched her face. She hadn’t changed much since the photo had been taken. Her chestnut hair was a bit longer, but her eyes were still an unusual green-gold blend and her weight was the same, give or take a few pounds.

He looked back toward his patrol car and gave a nod, then opened her car door. “Ma’am, you want to step out of the car?”

Lynn frowned as her heartbeat increased. “No, I don’t. Not until you tell me what’s going on.” She was aware of another policeman approaching them. “If I was speeding, just write me the ticket.”

“This isn’t about a speeding ticket, Ms. White,” he replied.

What was happening? Her paperwork was all in order. “Then what is it about?” She was positive she’d done nothing wrong.

“Ms. White, we’re under orders to take you into custody. Now, you can either make this difficult or you can make it easy, but one way or another, you’re coming with us.” As if to punctuate his sentence his right hand crept to the butt of the gun in the holster at his hip.

Lynn quickly considered her options and was smart enough to recognize she had none. She was still in the process of learning exactly what she was capable of, but she knew that despite her incredible genetic gifts, she couldn’t outrun a bullet.

Unease whipped through her. “What about my car?” she asked as she stepped out into the hot, late-August air.

“Officer Birch will follow us with your vehicle,” he replied and gestured to the second man who had joined them.

Lynn looked from one to the other, but their rigid countenances gave nothing away.

Heart pounding with anxiety, she grabbed her purse, handed Officer Birch her car keys, then headed toward the waiting patrol car.

Minutes later, as she was driven to an unknown destination, she wondered if it was possible that the sins of her past had finally caught up with her.

It had been over a year since she’d stopped breaking a hundred laws all in the name of love for her godfather, the man she’d called uncle, Jonas White. Of course, at the time she hadn’t realized she was breaking laws and she’d been naïve enough to believe his lies.

For several years Lynn had been an expert cat burglar, breaking into museums and private residences to retrieve precious artifacts and jewels. Her Uncle Jonas had told her that they were working for the government, taking items that had been stolen so they could be returned to their rightful owners. But, in truth, she’d been stealing on Jonas’s behalf for his personal gain.