Alice Sharpe - Duplicate Daughter

But the moment of ire was brief.

Katie and his little girl looked so right lying there together. A woman with a big heart and strong convictions and a child who had lost her mother.

Katie was worming her way into his house, his heart, his child’s life.

He had to put a stop to this. He couldn’t be the hero Katie wanted, the hero she needed. He couldn’t take a chance of leaving his child alone in the world, he couldn’t risk…

Risk. That’s what it amounted to. Terrible risk.

He left the room with a heavy heart. When Katie woke up he’d have to be firm, he’d have to make her understand. He’d get her to safety and that’s all.

For now, he’d be her protector. Beyond that, he could do no more.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

This book is dedicated to Katherine Jones, Hayden Jones

and Carmen Sharpe, with everlasting love.

Alice Sharpe met her husband-to-be on a cold, foggy beach in Northern California. One year later they were married. Their union has survived the rearing of two children, a handful of earthquakes registering over 6.5, numerous cats and a few special dogs, the latest of which is a yellow Lab named Annie Rose. Alice and her husband now live in a small rural town in Oregon, where she devotes the majority of her time to pursuing her second love, writing.

Alice loves to hear from readers. You can write her at P.O. Box 755, Brownsville, OR 97327. A SASE for reply is appreciated.

Katie Fields—This Jill-of-all-trades newly discovered twin sister is injured, and their honeymooning mother is missing. Can Katie reclaim her family before it’s too late?

Nick Pierce—A widower whose three-year-old daughter is his sole priority. Can Katie convince him he’s her mother’s only hope?

Lily Pierce—A three-year-old enchantress whose mother died tragically. It doesn’t take Katie long to realize why Nick will go to the ends of the earth to protect Lily.

Caroline Mays-Swope—Katie’s missing mother. She’s made some difficult decisions in her life. Have they now come back to haunt her?

Bill Thurman (aka Bill Swope)—Nick’s father and Caroline’s new husband. Trouble follows this man.

Helen Delaney—Nick’s housekeeper and Lily’s babysitter. She’s sworn to do whatever it takes to keep Lily safe.

Frank Carson—This cop gone bad brags that he always gets his man. What else is he searching for?

Benito Mutzi—A mob boss who wants back what was once his. He isn’t finicky about how he goes about it.

Doc—An old army buddy of Nick’s. It helps to know a doctor who won’t ask tricky questions about gunshot wounds.

FBI agent Loni Boone—Is she as good as her word or does she have her own agenda?

Tess Mays—Katie’s twin sister, injured while helping Katie, depending now on Katie to help her.

Ryan Hill—The Oregon cop who loves Tess.

Prologue

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

Epilogue

She awoke in the dark, head throbbing, throat dry. For a second, she didn’t have the slightest idea where she was or what had happened to her.

First things first. Get to your feet. Find out where you are.

Struggling to her knees, she reached forward until her hands touched a rough, damp dirt wall. Leveraging her body, she attempted to stand. Her head hit the ceiling while she was still crouching and she cried out, her voice a muffled squeak. Wherever she was, there was no standing room and she sank back down to the dirt floor, a geyser of hopelessness welling up inside her chest.

Into the cold, dank air she whispered, “My name is Caroline. I have a daughter named Tess.”

This last thought made her wince. Thoughts of her beloved Tess always made her wince. Not because of Tess herself, but because of Katie, frozen forever in her mind as a six-month-old baby, born in the spring when the roses bloomed…

Flowers! White roses. Yellow freesias.

Of course…a wedding…her wedding…

Bill!

Visions of men with masks, men with guns. Bill crumpled on the motel floor…

Tears filled her eyes and rolled down her cheeks as the past few days came back in total clarity.

Bill.

Where was Bill?

Nick Pierce stood on the tarmac gazing upward, though he knew from experience the high mountain air of Frostbite, Alaska, meant he’d hear the single-engine plane before he actually saw it.

He was anxious to get this over with. He was anxious to get back home. There was nothing he could tell the woman flying out of her way to talk to him. He would have made that clear when she called, but like an ostrich hiding its head in the sand, he’d figured if he ignored her she’d go away, and he’d never actually taken one of her calls himself.

It hadn’t worked. Hell, that approach to problems never worked, but he always seemed compelled to give it a try anyway.

To top it off, the weather was changing. He could feel the cold bite of an approaching storm on his face, sweeping over the inlet, up the Panhandle, bringing snow and ice. Winter days were short this far north and at two-thirty in the afternoon, there was only about an hour of daylight left. Oh, face it—he was sorely tempted to drive away and forgo the meeting before he got stuck at the airport.

And then he heard a drone overhead and realized the time to leave had come and gone. A few minutes later, Toby Macleod’s aqua DeHavilland Otter came to a stop a few yards away from Nick’s four-wheel-drive truck, the wheel skis making slide marks in the accumulating snow. Nick stamped his feet to get his circulation moving, waiting for Toby to turn off the big turbo engine, then walked around to the far side of the plane, waving at Toby as he did so.

The sole passenger making the long climb out of the plane was bundled up to her ears in black boots, jeans and an olive-green parka, her head wrapped securely in a pale blue wool scarf. When she looked around to survey her surroundings, flaming red tendrils escaped the folds of wool, snapping like scarlet ribbons against the increasingly white environment. Reaching up and taking her ungloved hand, he helped her step down.

She stumbled as her right foot touched the ground, immediately straightening herself. Her head barely came level with his shoulder. She struck him as small, delicate, and out of place as she shoved her hands in her pockets and shivered.

“You’re Nicolas Pierce,” she said through clattering teeth, looking up at him with eyes as deep and blue as a fjord. She was extremely pretty and extremely young, at least to his world-weary eyes. He’d be thirty-eight in a few months and this woman looked about eighteen, though he guessed she was actually in her early twenties.

Taking her arm, he ushered her around the plane toward his truck.

“Call me Nick,” he said, the weather clock ticking in his head. “And you’re Tess Mays,” he added.

He felt her flinch through her padded coat. “No, my name is Katie Fields.”