Debra Webb - Decoded

Two years he had worked to seduce her, drawing her ever closer. At first, it was nothing more than a positioning strategy. Her coffee shop was located directly across the street from the Colby Agency. As time passed, he’d found himself noticing things about her. Like her smile. He missed her when they were apart. That confession rattled him. How had this happened? He’d been taught from birth not to feel any emotion. With Maggie he’d been too human, too weak to resist her, and that had put her in danger.

Now there was only one thing to do.

With one last look at her he walked out the door, the backpack on one shoulder, the automatic in his waistband. He pushed all other thoughts from his mind except the mission.

He would never be safe until the job was done. And neither would Maggie.

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First, I must thank friend and awesome Colby fan Patsy Adkins for helping me

make a big choice for the Colby family in this story. You are awesome, Patsy!

Decoded is dedicated to one woman in particular, Aliya, but also to a group of

wonderful people who give selflessly to NGOs (non-government organizations)

all over the world. Aliya and her team have traveled far and wide to selflessly

help the victims of devastation. Just this year, 2011, they traveled to Japan to help

with the horrific tragedy there.

Thank you, Aliya, for your compassion and for the courage to act.

Debra Webb wrote her first story at age nine and her first romance at thirteen. It wasn’t until she spent three years working for the military behind the Iron Curtain and within the confining political walls of Berlin, Germany, that she realized her true calling. A five-year stint with NASA on the space shuttle program reinforced her love of the endless possibilities within her grasp as a storyteller. A collision course between suspense and romance was set. Debra has been writing romantic suspense and action-packed romantic thrillers since. Visit her at www.DebraWebb.com or write to her at P.O. Box 4889, Huntsville, AL 35815.

Slade Keaton —He is the enigmatic head of the Equalizers, a private investigations firm that ensures justice outside the law as often as inside. Keaton has secrets that even the woman who loves him is afraid to uncover. Those secrets involve the Colby Agency, and now a dangerous enemy has been roused. Keaton must stop the Dragon before she destroys the people he has come to care about. Can he hope to survive?

Maggie James —She has suspected for a while that Slade Keaton is not who and what he seems, but she is desperately in love with him. Still, Maggie is no fool. She has to do the right thing…but what about the baby she is carrying?

Lucas Camp —Lucas fears that Slade Keaton represents a serious threat to his wife, Victoria, and to him. But is Lucas ready for the truth Keaton’s real story will reveal? Whether he is ready or not, the past has crashed into the present and Lucas must face his most vicious enemy to date.

Victoria Colby-Camp —Victoria will fight for those she loves. Her compassion for Slade Keaton may very well save his life.

Alayna —Alayna has been a loyal subject to the Dragon. But can she look the other way when her brother’s life is threatened? Or will she finally stand up to the monster who is her mother?

Dragon —Pure evil. She might be nothing more than a legend or myth in the Intelligence world. But Lucas Camp and Slade Keaton know just how real and dangerous she is. She has awakened and is poised to devour anyone who gets in the way of her destroying Slade Keaton.

Jim Colby —He is the son of Victoria Colby-Camp, head of the Colby Agency. He has had his reservations about Slade Keaton, however no one understands secrets better than Jim. First and foremost, Jim will protect his mother. But part of him needs to reach out to Keaton, a man who is in the middle of a horrendous nightmare that is all too familiar to Jim Colby.

Ian Michaels and Simon Ruhl —Victoria’s most trusted colleagues. These two men serve as seconds-in-command at the Colby Agency.

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

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chicago, October 14, 1:05 a.m.

Maggie James parked her car two blocks beyond the brownstone where he would be. She shut off the lights and engine and sat in the darkness. He hadn’t stopped by the coffee shop tonight the way he always did. The way he had done for two years.

Emotion burned Maggie’s eyes. Two years. How had she allowed this to happen? It wasn’t enough that she had been a fool. She had known their relationship was make-believe. That he was a fantasy. Not a single thing he had told her would be the truth. Not his name, not the vague past he’d tossed to her like a bone for a starving dog.

Nothing.

Everything about him was a carefully planned deception. Every fiber of her being sensed the duplicity and yet she couldn’t point to one instance where he had contradicted himself. There hadn’t been a single trip up, but she knew. She just knew.

If she’d had a lick of gumption she should have walked away long ago. Her instincts had warned her time and time again. He’s dangerous. This isn’t real. But she hadn’t listened. Maggie Sue James, thirty-two years old, had pretended it didn’t matter. Each time she had worked up the nerve to tell him to stay away, he’d walked into her coffee shop and she’d lost her courage in that same second. Her knees had gone rubbery and her heart had overridden her brain. He had taken control of her as easily and completely as if she had been a mere puppet.

Maggie swallowed back the lump in her throat. She was addicted to him. There was no denying the truth. Sleep eluded her if he wasn’t in her bed. Her very soul ached if more than a day passed without him making love to her. Even though the intensity of his lovemaking terrified her at times, she could not resist. How was that possible? No man, not even her low-life former husband, had held that kind of power over her. She’d been a lot younger back then. Wasn’t she supposed to be smarter now?

But everything had changed for Maggie sixteen hours and twenty minutes ago. That defining instant had somehow cleared the fog from her brain, and her entire life had zoomed into vivid focus.

At 7:40 a.m. she had finally summoned the courage to take a pregnancy test. It had been positive. Positive.

She was pregnant and plenty old enough to know better. How had this happened? She swallowed those little daily pills faithfully. Never missed a day. Ever. Two more tests an hour or so later—long enough to frantically dash to the corner drugstore—had both confirmed the same reality. Maggie was pregnant.