Mission: Marriage. Karen Whiddon
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exploding, her cell phone rang.
“Ignore it,” she murmured, shimmying into position over him, poised to take him deep inside her. “They’ll call back.”
“Good advice,” he muttered. One thrust and he’d be in, yet for some reason, he hesitated.
As soon as her cell quit ringing, his began.
Reluctantly, he glanced at it. “It must be important,” he growled. Body throbbing, he cursed once more before snatching the phone and flipping it open. “Hello?”
“Sean, I have some bad news,” Corbett’s voice came over the line. “Phillip’s missing.”
“Missing?”
“Who?” Natalie mouthed, suddenly alert.
“Your father.”
All the blood drained from her face.
Gripping the phone, Sean swallowed. “What do you mean, missing? He’s in a wheelchair and when he goes out he’s driven by one of your men. You should know where he is at all times.”
“His van and my man are missing also.” Corbett sounded weary and furious, all at the same time.
“What?” None of this made sense. “Why?”
“I don’t know. I’ve got people working on finding that out.”
Sean raised his head to find Natalie watching him, an expression of concern on her lovely face. His gut clenched as he remembered his own family and how he’d tried to shield her from the terrible truth.
He could not shield her from this.
“Let me talk to Natalie,” Corbett said.
“Not now.” Sean took a deep breath. “We’ll call you back.” Without giving Corbett a chance to disagree, he disconnected the call.
“What happened to my father?”
He told her all he knew, holding her tightly.
In shock, she let him. When she raised her head, the blank look she gave him clawed at his heart. “Is there something else you haven’t told me?”
“No.”
Her frown made it plain she didn’t believe him. “No ransom note?”
“Corbett’s looking into it. You know how close the two of them are.”
With a sound of pain, she twisted out of his arms, got off the bed and grabbed her clothes.
“I want to talk to Corbett.” Opening her own phone, she punched in the number.
Corbett must have been waiting by the phone for her call. Sean watched while Natalie listened, the anguished expression on her face making him ache.
“Wait a minute, Corbett,” she said, clutching the phone so tightly her knuckles showed white. “Let me put you on speaker so Sean can hear, too.” She pressed a button. “All right. Go ahead.”
“I’ve got two people working full-time on finding him.”
“Who?” Sean asked.
“Martin Routh and Catherine Cordasic.”
Sean started. “One of the Cordasics?” Widely known in the international espionage community, the Cordasics were a highly respected family of spies whose lineage dated back to the eighteenth century.
“Yes. She’s working as an independent contractor, at my request.”
Sean whistled. “You must have pulled a few strings.”
Natalie cleared her throat. “Famous spies mean nothing to me unless they find my father. Tell me the truth, Corbett. You and my father didn’t have a clandestine conversation about the need for him to go into hiding, did you?”
“Of course not.” Corbett’s icy voice turned positively glacial. “I’m afraid your father’s disappearance might be tied up with the Hungarian.”
Sean choked back a curse. Not again. He didn’t know how he’d live through more senseless slaughter.
Natalie strode over to the window, gazing out. “What would the Hungarian want with him? Dad’s been retired for years now. He’s not involved in any of this.”
“No, but you are,” Corbett answered.
Natalie looked at Sean. The look on her face was so bleak, he knew the words Corbett didn’t speak tasted like ashes in her mouth.
She swallowed. “You think they took him to get to me. To use him as bait.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“My father’s the only family I have left in this world, Corbett. You know that.”
“Of course I do.” The older man’s tone was equally firm. “He’s my good friend as well.”
“Do you think it’s possible Phillip simply decided to begin his own investigation?” Sean asked.
No one discounted the idea. Despite his handicap, Natalie’s father was an extremely determined man.
“Either way, I think they have him. He was mentioned in the e-mail message I intercepted this morning.”
“From who?” Sean asked.
“One of my old adversaries in contact with the Hungarian.”
Sean froze. “What did it say?”
Corbett cleared his throat. “Something about upping the stakes. The last sentence said, ‘One down, three more to go.’”
“Three?” Natalie piped up. “There are only two—myself and Sean.”
“And me,” Corbett said quietly. “I make three.”
“Damn it. There’s something we’re missing. Some piece to a cryptic jigsaw puzzle.”
“The code,” Natalie breathed. “I’ve got to decipher this code.”
Sean knew Natalie had always loved jigsaw puzzles. Growing up, her father had made sure she had a steady supply of them. Sean had continued the tradition. He’d always said her aptitude with puzzles was one of the reasons she was so good at cracking codes.
“It’s time to tell us everything, Corbett.” Natalie’s quiet voice was edged with steel. “Obviously, something happened in the past to make this guy hate you.”
Corbett sighed. Sean could picture him running his hand through his perfectly cut hair. “My operations have angered hundreds, maybe thousands of people over the years. Such is the high price of freedom.”
“If he so much as harms a hair on my father’s head …”
“Stay calm, Natalie. For now, we can’t assume the worst.”
“How can I not?” Natalie said, her even tone somehow more horrible than a scream. “My father’s missing. Until he’s found, I have no choice but to assume the worst.”
Closing the phone, she placed it back on the dresser. When her gaze met Sean’s he saw her eyes had gone blank and guarded. “I don’t believe this.”
“Unfortunately, I do. The Hungarian will stop at nothing to get what he wants.”
Expression thoughtful, Natalie prowled around the room like an agitated lioness. “Someone, somewhere has to know the Hungarian’s identity. Someone has to have seen his face.”
Sean’s heart stopped. He cleared his throat, forcing himself to sound nonchalant. “I have seen his face, and I actually know his first name. But I’ve never been able to learn his surname.”
“You?” She stared. “You’ve never mentioned this before. When did you see him? Does Corbett know?”
He