Katherine Garbera - Exclusive

Tory reached into her bag and took out the hunting knife her dad had given her.

A sound at the other end of the alley had her turning. She slipped away from Ben, farther into the shadows to give him a clear shot at the assailants. They let out a burst of semiautomatic fire and dove for cover.

Ben moved left and she took the right side. She watched him blend seamlessly into the darkness. She closed her eyes and focused her senses, listening for things that were out of place. She heard it then, the rustle of cloth against the building.

She just made out the silhouette of a man with an assault rifle crouched low to the ground, waiting for her or Ben to make a mistake.

As soon as he scanned away from her, Tory moved. Quickly she ran forward and attacked him from the back. Holding her knife to his throat, she growled, “Drop your weapon.”

Her grip slipped and the man lifted his gun.

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Dear Reader,

I’m so excited to be a part of Athena Force again. Given the current climate in the world and the danger to journalists everywhere, I knew that Tory would be up for another adventure. And Ben is still trying to keep his macho instincts in check and figure out how to live with such an independent woman.

I was lucky enough to interview a local newscaster in Orlando, Florida, when I was researching Exposed, the first Ben and Tory adventure, so I used my notes on that as a starting point. I also researched the very hunky Anderson Cooper—oh, I mean the very reliable Anderson Cooper—to see how he covered the news. I liked the freedom that cable news channels have to send their reporters wherever news is happening, and I started at that point to come up with a new plot for Tory. I wanted her to be conflicted about having gotten what she always wanted…her own news show. That was based on my own experience in wanting something really badly and then getting it and finding it wasn’t what I thought it would be.

The country of Berzhaan is fictional, but it is loosely based on Azerbaijan, a country that is struggling to find its feet after years of Communist rule. It was interesting to me to read about the economy and the companies that were building there, many with familiar names like McDonald’s!

Returning to Ben and Tory also gave me a chance to look at their relationship and to see if it would last past the initial attraction. They both have demanding jobs, like many couples I know. Two careers are hard on any couple and I wanted to explore that. I hope you enjoy this adventure with Tory and Ben and their Athena Force friends.

Enjoy!

Katherine

Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Katherine Garbera for her contribution to the ATHENA FORCE miniseries.

is the award-winning, bestselling author of more than twenty-five books. She started making up stories for her own benefit when she was on a competitive swim team in high school. Katherine holds a red belt in the martial art of Tae Kwon Do and vows that there’s not a piece of plywood out there that can take her in a fair match! Readers can visit her on the Web at www.katherinegarbera.com.

To my kick-ass gal pals—Beverly Brandt, Eve Gaddy,

Nancy Thompson and Mary Louise Wells—who make

the adventure of writing such a fun one.

A huge thank-you to Cindy Dees for answering every question imaginable pertaining to the military and for doing it so quickly. Any mistakes are my own.

Also thanks to all the writers in the Slave Away Café whose shared company made it easier to write this book!

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

Ben Forsythe was having a crappy day.

He’d been in meetings virtually all day and now, when he finally had a free moment to dial Tory Patton’s number, he got her voice mail. He rubbed the back of his neck and almost hung up without leaving a message. He couldn’t tell her where he was, didn’t know when he could call again. But he needed to hear her voice. Needed for just a second to remember who was waiting for him at home.

“Babe,” he said, just to needle her, “it’s me. Don’t know when I’ll be able to call again. Be good.”

He hung up. He had e-mail available but seldom used it because his team was always on the move and he didn’t want to leave an electronic trail of where they’d been.

It was dry and blazing hot in late June in the desert of Berzhaan and he was sick to death of sand. He shaded his eyes and wished for a minute that he was a different man. The kind who could walk away and never look back. The kind who could blithely go about his everyday life and never know that there were men and women who were risking their lives to enable that.

But he wasn’t.

Ben’s father had been an undercover CIA agent, a man whose government’s only acknowledgment of his death overseas while on an assignment was a star and a date on a wall. Ben was starting to think that he wanted more than that at the end of his days.

He entered the makeshift command center and awaited his orders. He worked for a covert military group called LASER, the Lost Airman’s Service. Their mandate was simple and focused—they rescued servicemen who were being held prisoner in hostile places. They used whatever means were necessary to bring them home.

With the help of AA.gov, a Web site and organization whose main function was to keep alumni of the Athena Academy for the Advancement of Women in touch with one another, but whose covert side included certain spy missions, he’d embedded one of his men with a television news crew. The lead reporter, Andrea Jancey, was Tory’s protégé at UBC. She and Tory had both attended the prestigious Athena Academy. Andrea had the same skills that Tory did, which meant she could handle herself in almost any situation. Ben had a lot of respect for the Athena grads he knew, including his own sister, Alex.

For this mission, Ben was using Andrea and her news crew to get close to the insurgents fighting in the desert of Berzhaan. His intel had identified a group under Kemeni rebel leader Al Ahib as having captured two Marine pilots. The Kemeni were down in strength at the moment, but highly uncooperative with the U.S. Ben’s team was in country to get the pilots out. He had a small team of seven men. They’d worked together for a long time and knew each other well.

“Any word from Manning?” he asked Lewis Salvo, their communications guru. Salvo managed the satellite, navigation/GPS and emergency radios. Ben had seen him coax a waterlogged radio back into action. If anyone could raise a signal on Manning, it was Salvo.