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  COWBOY AND THE CAPTIVE

  PROLOGUE

  The enemy’s promises were made to be broken.

  —FROM AESOP’S FABLE “THE NURSE AND THE WOLF”

  Luc Jardin knew Miss Maria Catarina Angeles was going to be trouble the minute she stepped into the small hangar where he and his friend and partner, Jack Riley, were waiting to see if they could pick up a last-minute job flying out of the small South American airport.

  This job was looking too good to be true. He never did like the ones that were too much of a good thing, and this woman could be described no other way.

  She was slender and graceful, her skin a bit pale, but otherwise appearing as soft as satin. Her green eyes were vacant, but he had recognized her right off the bat. A spoiled little rich girl with too much time and money on her hands. It wasn’t exactly the demeanor Luc had glimpsed the few times he had been forced into the social circles she moved in, but it wasn’t the first time he had been wrong about a beautiful woman. He was sure it wouldn’t be the last.

  He and Jack had always been suckers for redheads, though, and Maria Catarina Angeles was a true redhead. And she had the one thing they needed desperately to keep their foundering air delivery service off the ground. Money. Lots of money and a name that should be trustworthy.

  The American businessman Jonathon Angeles was considered one of the richest men in the nation, and Maria Catarina was heralded as an angel of mercy and light.

  What could it hurt to help her out?

  “I’ll give you a hundred thousand dollars and a night you’ll never forget,” she purred sweetly as she stepped up to Luc, rubbing her lithe little body against his harder one.

  The feel of her moving against him almost made him forget the little niggle of worry that tapped at his brain. The one that warned him there could be more to this than returning a simple little crate filled with supplies to the charity’s home office. But damn if it wasn’t hard to think about danger when slender fingers were loosening his belt and undoing his jeans. All he could think about was sex and the lack of it in the past few months.

  “Consider this a down payment,” she murmured.

  When she finished Jack off, leaving him damp with sweat but satisfied—just as Luc had been before him—she rose to her feet, wiped her mouth delicately, then looked back to Luc.

  “Do we have a deal then?”

  A hundred thousand dollars to transport her and the crate of supplies back home from the South American jungle before the rebels could figure out she was there. It was a short flight. She had the crate sitting outside, and it wasn’t as though they were overbooked. She could have gotten a much better deal if she had bargained for it.

  “Where do you need to go?” Jack was all for it.

  “A small private airfield just over the American border.” She smiled sweetly. “My friends will be meeting me there to take the crate, and the neighboring town has the cutest little motel we can spend the night in.”

  Easy enough. So why were his guts sending out warning signals? Luc shook his head at his own suspicions. He was getting too cynical. Maria Angeles was known for her flights of mercy over international borders. The fact that she was flying supplies into America raised a question, but not enough of one to have him cutting his nose off for the answers. He wanted the money. He could survive without the fuck, but he needed that money to finance the cargo operation he had started the year before.

  “Get ready to fly.” Luc shrugged. “We’ll load the crate.”

  The small South American airfield where they were cooling their heels wasn’t the busiest in the country. They were unlikely to get a better deal. Hell, they hadn’t had a better deal in the year they had been running the plane anyway.

  The flight from the airfield to the small California border town was uneventful, but then most flights were. The fact that she directed them to a nearly deserted, dusty field to land in should have been his first warning.

  “This doesn’t feel good, Jack,” he said softly into the headset he used to communicate with his buddy in the copilot’s seat.

  Maybe it was time to return to the ranch, Luc thought. The plane wasn’t turning a profit and some of the jobs they were offered were less than legal. Some were downright life threatening. And this one was just plain making him nervous.

  “There you go, letting the good things slide by you again, man.” Jack laughed as he pushed a wave of long blond hair back from his face. “Go with the flow. What could happen?”

  But Luc was worried enough that he checked the gun he carried at his hip before landing the plane. As Miss Angeles had predicted, there was a truck waiting at the end of the airfield, along with several of her friends.

  “We’re right on time,” she announced happily from behind him as he and Jack rose from their seats and headed to the back of the plane.

  Luc watched closely as she picked her purse up from the seat. He pushed the box down the small ramp Jack was lowering and watched as it slid to the ground. Several of the “friends” were moving closer. Luc liked to think he wasn’t an overly suspicious guy, but the bulges under those coats were definitely messing with his nerves.

  “Thank you for the ride, Mr. Jardin.” Maria’s voice was unusually high, her pupils dilated.

  Luc stared at her closely then glanced to the cargo area, thinking about the crate.

  His suspicions were getting worse and screaming that the crate held more than just supplies for the various charities the woman worked for. Drugs. He was sure of it.

  Son of a bitch. He kept his expression impassive as he watched her move into the cargo area, her hips swaying with a sensuality that hadn’t been present before. She was too relaxed now, smiling too sweetly as she kissed Jack on the jaw before moving down the ramp.

  “My friends will take care of your fee.” She giggled like a young girl as she turned back. “But I don’t think they’ll let me fuck you after all. My boyfriend gets pretty possessive.” She watched them closely now as she stepped to the ground. “The money should be enough, though.”

  Luc glanced at Jack in concern. This job was about to go from sugar to shit real fast.

  Shock lined the other man’s face as he saw the men who came to a stop at the ramp. Several grabbed the crate and hauled it away as Luc quickly estimated their chances of survival. They weren’t good considering three of them had their hands disappearing beneath their jackets.

  “Get back!” he yelled to Jack as he hit the control button for the ramp and threw himself at the other man.

  Maria’s scream echoed around him as she jumped from the plane and turned to look back into the interior. Luc pushed Jack into the recessed frame and prayed for a miracle as the ramp began to rise slowly. Too damned slowly.

  “Come on! Cockpit,” he yelled at Jack as he caught sight of the automatic weapons her friends were aiming into the plane, glee reflecting on their faces as their fingers tightened
on the triggers.

  Gunfire ripped through the plane as he ducked and jerked Jack back, nearly falling as the other man stumbled against him, a stain of red blooming over Jack’s chest. Luc threw him into the copilot’s seat before taking his own and accelerating the plane back down the runway.

  “Son of a bitch,” Jack wheezed as he gripped his shoulder. “Dammit to hell, Luc, this shit hurts.”

  Bullets pinged against the hull of the plane while Luc sped down the runway, fury enveloping him as he realized Jack hadn’t been the only one hit. His leg was bleeding profusely and the ranch was over an hour away. He prayed harder. But amid the prayers was a fury that surged hot and sweet through his brain. Angel of mercy, his ass.

  That bitch would pay, he swore. And he would make certain she paid well.

  ONE

  Family obligations shouldn’t involve life or death, Melina Catarina Angeles thought as she faced her parents across the brightly lit living room. The sun shone through the large arched windows to one side, reflecting back from the highly polished hardwood floors and lending an air of comfort and warmth to the expensively decorated room.

  Antiques were her mother’s passion, and the living room reflected her love for them. Being surrounded by everything her parents had worked for in their lifetime should have comforted Melina; instead, it left her cold as she stared back at them, fighting to hide her shock.

  She was one of two daughters, the younger of a set of twins. The quiet, studious one. The one who had always stepped in to save her parents the humiliation of what her older twin had wrought. But she couldn’t do it any longer.

  They had rarely associated with her in two years. Not since the last fiasco her sister, Maria, had managed to cause. With that one, she had nearly killed two innocent men, and through her selfishness had almost caused Melina’s death months later. She had sworn then that she would never step in to play Maria’s part ever again. Her parents had retaliated by cutting her out of their lives. Until now. Until Maria had once again gotten herself into a mess she couldn’t get out of.

  “This isn’t my fight.” Melina faced her estranged parents in her father’s mansion and finally put her foot down. “Maria has gone too far this time, Papa. I refuse to cover for her.”

  She held back the pain that they would even ask it of her. Her twin sister was once again in a scrape that their money couldn’t buy her out of without the proper presentation. They needed Melina for that presentation. And after the last time, there wasn’t a chance in hell. She had spent a week in jail, during which time her father had been out of town and supposedly had not received her messages.

  Thankfully, the police had already fingerprinted Maria, and Melina had been spared the horrifying knowledge that her fingerprints were on file as a criminal. A drug addict. A thief. Good God, her sister was deteriorating rapidly. And now this. Arrested for smuggling drugs into the country. Again. It was a certain prison term, and Melina was sick of paying for her sister’s crimes. There was no way in hell she was going to take a chance on going to prison for her sister. Not after the last debacle.

  Two men could have died the last time. When Lucas Jardin had arrived on her father’s steps two years before, furious over his friend, her father had almost broken the man financially as well as personally. If Jardin hadn’t been a highly respected rancher and businessman, her father would have succeeded. All because of the addiction that was growing closer to destroying not just her sister, but her family as well.

  “Melina, Maria needs all our help right now. She can’t fight this addiction alone,” her father argued passionately. “It’s little enough to do.”

  Melina turned from the pleading eyes of the man who had sired her to glance at her mother’s miserable, tear-filled eyes. Margaret Angeles loved all her children, but her older twin daughter was destroying all their lives.

  “No, Papa,” she repeated gently. “It was enough that I spent a week in jail for her and you ignored the messages I left both here and on your answering service. I told you then, I won’t ever make the same mistake.”

  She remembered the look in Luc Jardin’s eyes when he entered the house and saw her standing with her parents. He had thought she was Maria, and Melina had been too shocked to deny it. After learning the reason for his fury, she had wanted to kill her sister. Jardin was a man unlike any Melina had known in her life. Not just tall and broad, but rough enough around the edges to make her long to smooth them. He was untamed, and she was woman enough to want to tame him.

  He was man enough to despise her, though, when her parents introduced her as Maria. It was then she began to suspect the position she had allowed her parents to place her in. The week spent in jail had only cemented it. She had sworn then she would never lift a finger to get her twin out of trouble again.

  Convincing her father to cease his crusade of vengeance against the pilot hadn’t been easy. He had flatly refused until the day after Melina had been released from jail, walked into the lawyer’s office, and threatened to publicly side with Jardin if it did not cease. She had moved out of the family house the next week. But she had never forgotten Lucas Jardin or her reaction to him.

  “Melina, your sister could go to prison,” her mother sobbed then, tears spilling from her eyes. “I cannot imagine one of my babies in prison.”

  Melina pushed her fingers through her shoulder-length red hair as she faced her weeping mother. She hated to see her mother cry.

  “Momma, you said that when it was a jail sentence,” she argued desperately. “Maria didn’t spend any time in jail, but I did.” And she hadn’t forgotten it. She still had nightmares about it.

  “It was a mistake, baby,” her father exclaimed fiercely. “You were supposed to get probation. The lawyer assured us that was all. He even said everything was fine when we called.”

  “The point is, you left.” She crossed her arms over her chest as the remembered horror and fear swept over her. “You weren’t in the courtroom, you weren’t there to make certain I was protected, and on top of it, you knew that lawyer would lie for her. They were sleeping together, for God’s sake.”

  Jonathon Angeles flinched. “I was wrong. It won’t happen again.”

  “I won’t do it.” Her heart clenched as her mother’s weeping grew louder. “Papa, you have to make Maria accept the consequences. She’s going to kill herself at this rate if you don’t.”

  “I promise. We’ll put her in a clinic,” Jonathon swore.

  “You promised that last time,” she argued painfully. “Papa, please don’t ask this of me. I can’t do it. I won’t do it. Please don’t make me feel bad for it.”

  “There is such a thing as loyalty to the family, Melina,” her father snapped. “Your sister will never convince the judge she had no idea what was happening. You know she can’t.”

  “Because she would have to lie,” Melina retorted. “You never see her lies, Papa. The rest of us do, but never you. Maria is killing herself and this family, and I refuse to let her destroy my life in the process.”

  Silence met her harsh words. Her father placed his arms around her mother’s shaking shoulders and tried to comfort her weeping, and though Melina didn’t shed a tear, inside her heart was breaking. It was a reenactment of the last crisis her sister had caused. Only then, Melina had given in. She had sworn she never would again.

  She turned from her parents and paced over to the large window that looked out over the private lake of her parents’ home. She had grown up here. Had learned to swim in the lake and had realized as she grew up that she would never measure up, in her parents’ eyes, to Maria. Somehow her twin had drawn complete loyalty from them, whereas Melina had drawn only their distant affection.

  “Melina, I cannot believe you would see your sister suffer in such a way,” her father accused. “This would be no hardship for you.”

  “This is a federal offense with a mandatory prison term if convicted.” She turned back to her parents as hurt and anger rolled over her. “With
Maria’s record she’s certain to get time, no matter how great the argument. I will not go to prison for someone who stood aside as her criminal friends nearly slaughtered two men. It’s bad enough she has no loyalty to her family, but she has no respect for life, either.

  “I’m sorry, Papa, but spending time in prison would be considered a major hardship for me.” She shook her head, fighting the memory of her week in jail. It had been horrible, locked into that tiny block room, at the mercy of the guards as well as the other prisoners.

  She had been without protection. The bribes to the guards that would have ensured it hadn’t been paid, and Melina hadn’t been strong enough to defend herself.

  “You will not go to prison.” Her father surged to his feet, his portly body shaking with anger. “I have told you, I will not allow it.”

  He was furious. She hated it when her father was so angry with her. It made her want to please him, want to wipe the derision from his eyes as he looked at her. But she had learned to stand alone in the past two years and she wasn’t going to fall back into the trench of despair that saving her sister always created.

  “I’m sorry, Papa,” she whispered again, her voice bleak. “I can’t do this for you. You know as well as I do that all the pleading and good behavior in the world is not going to save Maria this time. You would do better to petition the courts or the prosecutor for a plea bargain. They would look more favorably on that than they would a sweet little protest of innocence. Surely even your lawyer has told you that.”

  “He has assured me this will work.” His hand sliced through the air furiously as her mother’s sobs filled the background. “I am asking you for nothing. Nothing. This matter is so slight it will take only a single afternoon.”

  Melina pushed her shaking hands into the pockets of her jeans and lowered her head to hide the misery in her eyes. How many times had they argued just like that?

  That it would take so little for her to take her sister’s punishments. All her life she had been standing in front of Maria, taking the blame and the punishment in her name. She wasn’t willing to do so anymore. Maria had turned into a vapid, heartless conniver. All that mattered was the drugs. Nothing more. Not family or friends or even personal honor held any meaning to her.