Maggie K. Black - Tactical Rescue

REUNITED BY DANGER

Zack Keats broke Rebecca Miles’s heart when they were teens, but now he’s her only hope to stay alive. Trapped in the Canadian wilderness, Rebecca is a target from all angles: a dangerous gang, her treasonous stepbrother and the government who thinks she’s also a traitor. The last person she expected to race to her rescue was the one who abandoned her years ago. Zack’s changed from the shy boy she knew into a strong Special Forces soldier who would do anything to keep her safe. But with threats coming from every direction, can she trust him to stay by her side until the end?

She felt useless. Like he thought she was nothing but some frightened waste of space.

A liability.

“I never should’ve put you in this position,” Zack said. “You’re hardly trained for any of this. Just swim back to shore, and I’ll figure out what we’re going to do from here.”

Rebecca took a deep breath and felt the comfort of air filling her lungs. Then she dived down again.

She could hear the distorted sound of Zack shouting echo above the water. She didn’t stop. She didn’t need to hear what he was saying. The look on his face had been clear. Zack thought she was some awkward klutz who’d flailed around foolishly, made the truck sink and cost him their only chance at recovering the stolen material.

Zack and Seth might be fighting on different sides of a battle, but their opinion of her seemed to be the same. She was going to prove them both wrong.

MAGGIE K. BLACKis an award-winning journalist and romantic suspense author with an insatiable love of traveling the world. She has lived in the American South, Europe and the Middle East. She now makes her home in Canada with her history teacher husband, their two beautiful girls and a small but mighty dog. Maggie enjoys connecting with her readers at maggiekblack.com.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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If we are thrown into the blazing furnace,

the God we serve is able to deliver us from it,

and He will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.

— Daniel 3:17

To Michael. Thanks for having my back.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text REUNITED BY DANGER Zack Keats broke Rebecca Miles’s heart when they were teens, but now he’s her only hope to stay alive. Trapped in the Canadian wilderness, Rebecca is a target from all angles: a dangerous gang, her treasonous stepbrother and the government who thinks she’s also a traitor. The last person she expected to race to her rescue was the one who abandoned her years ago. Zack’s changed from the shy boy she knew into a strong Special Forces soldier who would do anything to keep her safe. But with threats coming from every direction, can she trust him to stay by her side until the end?

Introduction She felt useless. Like he thought she was nothing but some frightened waste of space. A liability. “I never should’ve put you in this position,” Zack said. “You’re hardly trained for any of this. Just swim back to shore, and I’ll figure out what we’re going to do from here.” Rebecca took a deep breath and felt the comfort of air filling her lungs. Then she dived down again. She could hear the distorted sound of Zack shouting echo above the water. She didn’t stop. She didn’t need to hear what he was saying. The look on his face had been clear. Zack thought she was some awkward klutz who’d flailed around foolishly, made the truck sink and cost him their only chance at recovering the stolen material. Zack and Seth might be fighting on different sides of a battle, but their opinion of her seemed to be the same. She was going to prove them both wrong.

About the Author MAGGIE K. BLACK is an award-winning journalist and romantic suspense author with an insatiable love of traveling the world. She has lived in the American South, Europe and the Middle East. She now makes her home in Canada with her history teacher husband, their two beautiful girls and a small but mighty dog. Maggie enjoys connecting with her readers at maggiekblack.com .

Title Page Tactical Rescue Maggie K. Black www.millsandboon.co.uk

Bible Verse If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. — Daniel 3:17

Dedication To Michael. Thanks for having my back.

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

EPILOGUE

Dear Reader

Extract

Copyright

ONE

Rebecca Miles dug her toes into the narrow crags of the Northern Ontario rock face, braced her legs against the granite and raised the lens of her video camera up to where jagged rock brushed against sky. Wind tugged her dark, shoulder-length hair free from its ponytail and sent it flying around her face. Something rustled in the trees far below her, but the quiver on the back of her neck told her not to look down. It was probably just the wind. Maybe an animal. But she couldn’t imagine there’d be another person around for miles. She grabbed hold of a stubborn pine growing out of the rock to her right and focused on searching for the falcon’s nest.

The climb up the embankment had turned out to be a whole lot steeper than she’d expected when she’d been standing safely on the ground, watching a pair of peregrines soar above. The narrow road got so little traffic, she could come and go for days without seeing another vehicle. It cut straight through a hill not far from the tiny patch of land she’d inherited from her mother. She’d left her camper and truck there, and hiked over. Now about fifty feet of steeply slanted rock and trees lay between her and the road below.

Something rumbled in the distance. It sounded like approaching thunder, but judging by the endless blue above, it was more likely a vehicle of some sort. Hopefully it wouldn’t frighten off the birds. Falcons mated for life and at this time of year a circling pair often meant a nest. Good clear footage of fluffy white babies would cover both gas for her truck and basic groceries for a month or more. If she actually managed to catch a falcon family portrait, she’d have a solid chunk to put toward her next overseas trip.

Lord, You know I have a list a mile long of charity projects I’m hoping to film. But until then, help me just be thankful for everything I’ve got.

Freedom. Independence.

The ability to go where she wanted, film what interested her and have adventures on her own terms.

As a teenager, her happiest moments had been when she’d managed to slip away from her claustrophobic home life, to wander aimlessly around the now decommissioned military base at Remi Lake, a few hours north from where she now stood. Her mother had spent the first several years of Rebecca’s life anxiously waiting for word from Rebecca’s father—an absent man whom Rebecca had never met and wasn’t supposed to ask about. Then, at thirteen, her mother had suddenly married General Arthur Miles—a decorated and larger-than-life hero in Canada’s small, tight-knit military community, who’d encouraged Rebecca to call him “the General” and never “Dad.” They’d moved onto the base, where she’d found herself with a twelve-year-old stepbrother named Seth, who’d never missed an opportunity to tell his gangly, awkward stepsister just how little he thought of her. She’d moved out at eighteen and hadn’t seen the General since her mother’s funeral, two years later, from a prescription meds overdose. But distancing herself from Seth had been more challenging.