Gail Barrett - Seduced by His Target

Secrets, passion and revenge fuel this thrilling new installment of award-winning author Gail Barrett’s BURIED SECRETS series!

For victims of violence, Nadine Seymour—formerly Nadira al Kahtani—is a savior in surgeon’s clothing. But this time it’s Nadira who must be saved…from her own corrupt family. Rasheed Davar—a rebellious CIA agent seeking to avenge his wife’s murder—could risk his undercover mission to save her. But will he?

As a dangerous plot heats up in the nation’s capital, Rasheed can’t deny the mounting tension—or his desperate need to tamp down his attraction. Nadira is beautiful. She is brave. And she’s just the kind of high-stakes hostage who could awaken his own battered heart—and lure them both into the terrorists’ crosshairs….

“Men like you are selfish,” she continued, her voice trembling.

“You think your stupid beliefs give you the right to take whatever you want. But you’re wrong. What you believe is wrong. And you’re not going to win.”

Her chest heaved. Her eyes stung, but she blinked back the tears, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She would not show any weakness around this man.

His eyes turned even blacker. He closed the distance between them, but she held her ground, refusing to budge. “Stay in the hut, Nadira. Don’t try to escape.”

“Or what?” she taunted. “You’ll kill me?” She let out a high-pitched laugh.

His big hands gripped her shoulders. He gave her a shake, fueling her temper even more.

But then his mouth was on hers. She froze, utterly shocked, the feel of him slaying her senses—his warm, hard lips, the scrape of his sandpapered jaw, the strength in his massive hands. A thought bubbled up, that she needed to resist this, but it vanished like smoke in the wind.

Buried Secrets: Three murder witnesses, one deadly conspiracy.

Dear Reader,

When most people think of cosmetic surgery, they think of facelifts and fillers, implants or liposuction—procedures designed to enhance a person’s beauty and youth. But there is another side to plastic surgery, the healing side, restoring features disfigured by accidents, violence or disease.

The heroine of Seduced by His Target, Nadine Seymour, is just such a plastic surgeon. She specializes in reconstructive work on battered women. Coming from an abusive background, Nadine understands the value corrective surgery can have, not just in making these victimized women beautiful again, but in helping repair their broken lives.

But Nadine has wounds of her own, deep ones she has avoided for fifteen years. Now, when her past finally catches up to her, she must stand her ground and confront her enemies, including a lethal warrior who is everything she most fears...and desires.

This is the last installment of the Buried Secrets trilogy. It has been quite an adventure watching these three courageous runaways confront their pasts, face down their biggest fears and earn the happy endings they deserve. I hope you’ve enjoyed their stories as much as I have.

Happy reading!

Gail Barrett

Seduced by His Target

Gail Barrett

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Gail Barrett

always knew she’d be a writer. Who else would spend her childhood grinding sparkling rocks into fairy dust and convincing her friends it was real? Or daydream her way through elementary school, spend high school reading philosophy and playing the bagpipes, then head off to Spain during college to live the writer’s life? After four years, she straggled back home—broke, but fluent in Spanish. She became a teacher, earned a master’s degree in linguistics, married a coast-guard officer and had two sons.

But she never lost the desire to write. Then one day she discovered a Silhouette Intimate Moments novel in a bookstore—and knew she was destined to write romance. Her books have won numerous awards, including a National Readers’ Choice Award and Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Golden Heart Award.

Gail currently lives in western Maryland. Readers can contact her through her website, www.gailbarrett.com.

I’d like to thank my brother, Ken Archer, for helping me with the financial details of this story, and my critique partner, Karen Anders, for her expertise and support. Thank you both!

To John, one of the good guys.

Contents

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

Epilogue

Excerpt

Chapter 1

It was the perfect day for a kidnapping.

Steel-gray clouds hovered over the mountains, obscuring their escape route. Thunder rumbled in the distance, promising to mask any cries for help. The local farmers, exhausted after a brutal day spent toiling in the Peruvian highlands, had taken shelter in their drab mud huts, oblivious to the terrorists preparing to pounce.

Gazing through his binoculars, Rasheed Davar lay flat on his belly in a tuft of chiliwua grass, studying the American medical team milling around their camp below. “Which one is the target?”

The terrorist beside him lowered his binoculars, his silver tooth gleaming in the dwindling light. “She’s not here yet.”

She? Rasheed shifted, a sliver of uneasiness stirring inside him, but he clamped down hard on the doubt. He couldn’t react, couldn’t show any hesitation or concern. Too many lives depended on this mission’s success—including his.

Schooling his expression into indifference, he thumbed the focus on his binoculars and continued to survey the camp. A young blond woman fed kindling into the campfire. A gray-haired man sat beside her, stirring something in a metal pot. Both wore scrubs, typical attire for the volunteer medical teams that traveled through the remote villages in the Andes Mountains doing humanitarian work. Another woman, a brunette in a bulky parka, knelt on a tarp laden with pharmaceutical supplies, sorting and packing them into various bags. On the periphery of the camp, beyond a cluster of dome-shaped tents, a brown-skinned man, his chullo hat and poncho marking him as a Peruvian native, tended the tethered mules.

“So what’s the plan?” Rasheed asked.

The terrorist looked at him again. Known only as Amir, he had cold, flat eyes as black as death, and promising as much. Rasheed had met hundreds of men like him during the years he’d lived in the mountains of Jaziirastan, working his way through the training camps. Ruthless. Callous. Inured to all human feelings except one—sheer, unbridled hate. Men who would kill in a heartbeat, whose goal was the annihilation of anyone who didn’t submit to their way of life. Zealots who destroyed innocents with utter disinterest, murdering women and children with no remorse.

Like Rasheed’s pregnant wife.

“We’ll wait for the woman to show up,” Amir told him in his native Jaziirastani. “As soon as we identify her tent, we’ll rejoin Manzoor. We’ll move in tonight when the rain hits. Manzoor and I’ll stand guard. You’ll grab the woman. Just make sure you get the right one.”

“I’ll get her,” he promised. He had no choice. He had to play his part.

But why did they want a prisoner? This crack terror cell, the Rising Light’s most elite contingent, had come to Peru for one reason only—to join up with the South American drug cartel that would ferry them into the United States. Or so Rasheed had thought. This surprise detour to capture an American doctor didn’t make sense.

But he didn’t dare question their plans. Neither Amir nor Manzoor, their small cell’s leader, trusted him completely, even though he’d been careful not to cause any doubt. He’d paid his dues. He’d spent years proving his loyalty as he rose through the Rising Light’s ranks. And thanks to his Jaziirastani parents—and the CIA’s most talented forgers—he had the linguistic skills and documents to pass as a native of that land. Whether the terrorists suspected him of being a traitor or were withholding information out of their usual paranoia, Rasheed didn’t know. But he needed to show them the blind obedience they expected to keep from tipping them off.