Daughter's Return Read online

  Most people had family to turn to

  But Anna had no idea where she really belonged. The Skwars and Burics had helped raise her, but they were bonded to their own families. She was bonded to no one.

  The only thing saving her sanity was the possibility that she’d been kidnapped by Antonin Buric. Ever since her talk with Mr. Markham, she’d been imagining the family she’d been born into.

  She had blue eyes—did her parents have blue eyes, too? Anna was a natural blonde. She stood taller and had a more slender build than the women at Skwars farm.

  Was her mother tall, or did her height come from her father? How many brothers and sisters did she have—or was she an only child? Was Anna the oldest? The youngest?

  What was her real name? Was she of English or Scottish stock? Maybe Scandinavian?

  The questions went on and on….

  Dear Reader,

  My house is only five minutes away from the home of Elizabeth Smart, the teen who was abducted in the middle of the night in June of 2002, and was miraculously returned to her family a year later.

  During this time, all of Salt Lake City went into mourning. Yellow ribbons were tied on trees and school fences throughout the valley. A pilot friend of mine and his wife went on many searches during his free time, looking for her.

  Young women and couples I knew combed the hills and canyons behind the Smart home looking for any trace of her. Volunteers by the thousands were busy putting up flyers in every conceivable place to make people aware.

  Night after night my family and I, along with millions of families throughout Utah, the U.S. and overseas, prayed for that girl, for that family. The goodness of people united in a worthy cause was awesome to behold. To see Elizabeth returned to a family that never lost faith filled every heart with joy.

  It is because of her story I was inspired to write these two Harlequin Superromance novels—Somebody’s Daughter (February 2005) and The Daughter’s Return (June 2005). Enjoy.

  Rebecca Winters

  P.S. If you have access to the Internet, please check out my Web site at www.rebeccawinters-author.com.

  The Daughter’s Return

  Rebecca Winters

  Books by Rebecca Winters

  HARLEQUIN SUPERROMANCE

  636—THE WRONG TWIN

  650—A MAN FOR ALL TIME

  697—NOT WITHOUT MY CHILD

  737—STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET

  756—LAURA’S BABY

  783—UNTIL THERE WAS YOU

  808—DEBORAH’S SON

  840—IF HE COULD SEE ME NOW

  875—THE FAMILY WAY

  916—THE UNKNOWN SISTER

  981—ACCIDENTALLY YOURS

  1005—MY PRIVATE DETECTIVE

  1034—BENEATH A TEXAS SKY

  1065—SHE’S MY MOM

  1112—ANOTHER MAN’S WIFE

  1133—HOME TO COPPER MOUNTAIN

  1210—WOMAN IN HIDING

  1233—TO BE A MOTHER

  1259—SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER

  CONTENTS

  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 ONE

  Bethesda Naval Hospital Grounds, Maryland

  July 1

  THROUGH HIS SUNGLASSES, Jake Halsey saw his CIA superior, Dan Ellerby, coming from a long way off. Even if Dan didn’t walk with a slight limp, his seersucker shirt would have branded him. He swore by them in the humidity. Jake wouldn’t be caught dead in one.

  The shirt reminded him of the old men who sat around on their porches in Jacksonville, Florida, where he grew up. They wore seersucker and those big white pants pulled up around their ribs with a wide belt while they watched the world go by.

  Though Jake was almost thirty-five years of age, he might as well have been an old buzzard like them, waiting to die. That’s the way he’d been feeling for months.

  Eager for this meeting that would end his exile, Jake’s long, powerful legs picked up speed as he hurried toward the man who’d been his boss for the past nine years.

  They met beneath a towering oak and shook hands, but Jake could tell immediately something was wrong. He pushed his shades on his head to get a better look. The other man’s countenance remained serious. In an instant, Jake’s skin went clammy. His saliva seemed to dry up.

  “It’s good to see you, Dan.”

  “You’re looking fine, Jake.”

  “But—”

  “I didn’t like your latest evaluation.”

  Jake shot him a hardened glance. “Then you know what you can do about it. Forget you saw it and let me go back to work.”

  “Can’t do that, Jake. You know why.”

  “I won’t be anybody’s liability. Just leave me alone to do my own thing.”

  “You know that’s not possible. What if you get into a situation you can’t physically get out of—someone’s going to come to the rescue. You could both be killed.”

  “So because of a shoulder replacement, I’m all washed up, is that it?”

  “You still have fifteen percent disability. It’s too much.”

  “That’s a bunch of BS and you know it. For one thing, I’m right-handed and my right shoulder’s fine. The other one will get better with time and therapy.”

  “Shall I tell you what else the doc said?” Dan kept on talking without acknowledging Jake’s comment. “You have difficulty getting to sleep and staying asleep. When you do, the nightmares come. Since the explosion you’ve fallen into a deeper depression but still deny suicidal impulses.”

  “Who in the hell wouldn’t be suicidal after being moved from one hospital to another and then being laid up here for the last five months?”

  Dan squinted at him. “After your last covert operation, it’s a miracle you’re alive. I know you want to get back out there and do some damage, but I can’t let you.”

  “Then it’s a damn shame I’ve been taking up bed space here.” He turned on his heel and headed toward the hospital.

  “Hold on, Jake. I didn’t come to give you your walking papers. Anything but. There’s another assignment waiting for you when you’ve healed.”

  Jake paused midstride and turned around. “A job shuffling papers isn’t what I had in mind.”

  “Me, either. Just hear me out. Until you’re better and I can brief you about it, I’ve managed to arrange something for you while you’re biding your time.”

  Because it was his boss pleading with him, Jake felt obliged to listen. Dan had forgiven him for a lot of unorthodox things he’d pulled in the past. He supposed this was payback time.

  “Go ahead.”

  “I’m placing you on medical leave. You need a year to prove you’re a hundred percent, but I can’t give you that much time without raising too many questions from the higher ups. So it’ll be six months.”

  Jake’s head reared. “Six months?” He’d rot in that amount of time.

  “It’ll be a desk job, but not with the CIA. By then if you’ve improved enough to pass the physical fitness test, I’ll send you back out.”

  They stared hard at each other. Jake knew Dan was once again sticking his neck out for him. He should be kissing the other man’s feet.

  “Thanks,” he whispered.

  “I’m on your side, Jake. Tomorrow you’ll leave the hospital and be flown on a military transport to Hill Air Force Base outside Salt Lake City, Utah.”
r />   Jake frowned. His first instinct was to ask why Dan hadn’t found him a position near the ocean. Pacific or Atlantic. It didn’t matter as long as it was within sight of water.

  “What’s in Salt Lake?

  “You mean you’ve never been there?”

  “Afraid not. It’s one of those places you fly over on your way to California.”

  “Exactly. Salt Lake means anonymity, the perfect cover for you while you’re on the mend. The city happens to be the world’s greatest repository for genealogical records. The famous Family History Center in downtown Salt Lake links people from every country around the globe to their ancestors. Genealogists assemble there by the thousands. They need translators for that kind of work. With your knowledge of Czech and Polish, it’s a job right up your alley, yet no one would think to look for you in such a benign environment.

  “You’ll be given a car. There’s an apartment close by. A hospital you can walk to. It has the latest techniques in therapy following a shoulder injury like yours where damage from shrapnel was the cause.”

  Dan went on. “Before you tell me you’ll expire if you’re landlocked, I have something important to tell you. It’ll explain why I want you to blend in with the sand and salt of the desert.”

  His choice of words caused Jake to freeze.

  “In the last few days it’s come to light one of the men in your section is a double agent. He was behind several ‘supposed’ accidents, including the explosion that took out two of our best men and almost got you killed.”

  They’d been set up?

  “The three of you were earmarked for assassination, but by some miracle, you survived.” His boss took a deep breath. “You couldn’t have prevented it,” he said in a quiet voice.

  Adrenaline shot through Jake’s system. “Who’s the mole?”

  “I can’t tell you that yet, but knowing you couldn’t possibly have been responsible for their deaths should help you sleep better nights.”

  Hearing those words brought Jake exquisite relief. He’d headed that particular operation. He’d relived the explosion a thousand times, wondering what he’d done to make everything go wrong.

  It appeared Dan knew him a lot better than Jake had given him credit for. The man had just removed an untenable burden.

  “Do me one more favor? Get me to Prague? I need to see Kamila before I fly to Salt Lake.”

  Dan’s expression didn’t change, but his hesitation made Jake nervous as hell. “I knew you would ask, and I’d like to do it, but your cover’s been blown. We haven’t spent the better part of a year bringing you back to life only to let you be a walking target inside the Czech border now.”

  “What else haven’t you told me?”

  Dan pursed his lips. “Your father’s wife disappeared soon after he was buried.”

  “And you never told me?”

  His father had died of complications following an infection in his chest. Jake had gotten to Prague in time to say goodbye to his dad and help his stepmother bury him, but he hadn’t been able to get back there since.

  “By the time our operatives learned of her disappearance, you were deep undercover. Then came the explosion that almost wiped you out. With you barely hanging on, it wasn’t the right time to be giving you bad news about your stepmother.”

  Dear Lord. “There’s been no trace of her?”

  “Afraid not. The company where she worked launched an investigation. One of our agents told us the police have been looking into the matter, but you know how far down their list of priorities that goes.”

  Jake knew exactly how missing persons cases were handled. Anyone over eighteen was an adult and capable of coming and going without permission. After fifteen months, the case would have been shoved into a box and forgotten. That was true in any country, including the Czech Republic.

  Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the country had transformed itself into a Western-oriented market economy. More than eighty percent of their enterprises were in private hands. With that kind of major improvement, the Florida-based manufacturing firm his father worked for had expanded their toiletries branch overseas to include Prague.

  But the old secret police still operated the same as before. Things weren’t that different throughout the former Eastern Bloc. The KGB might operate under another name, yet it continued to flourish.

  Jake’s hard-muscled frame broke out in a cold sweat to think his work in the CIA might have been responsible for Kamila’s disappearance.

  His job had been to track the sale of Czech munitions to countries supporting terrorist groups in exchange for oil. Once discovered, he blew up the munitions while ground support from special forces took out the enemy, who used and guarded the stockpiles. His work had taken him around the globe. The horrific planned accident that almost cost him his life had happened in the Middle East.

  “You’ve got to help me get to Prague, Dan. I know my dad’s old haunts and friends. People who might be reluctant to talk to anyone else will talk to me.”

  “Can’t risk it, Jake. I’ve had operatives looking for her ever since she didn’t show up for work. I swear you’ll hear news the minute I’m given any information on her.”

  Jake covered his face with his hand. By now those monsters could have done anything to his stepmother. If she was being held somewhere and tortured because of him…

  Claremont, California

  July 29

  THE GUESTS CLUSTERED around the bottom of the staircase at the Talbots’ Spanish mission-styled home, waiting for the beaming bride to toss the bouquet over her shoulder. Melissa Kit Aldridge Talbot McFarland looked beautiful.

  She shot Maggie McFarland a wicked glance before starting the countdown.

  “Whoever catches this is going to be the next bride, so watch out! One! Two! Three! Here it comes!”

  A dozen pairs of female hands reached up to grab it, but when Kit threw the bouquet, it sailed high over everyone’s head. As if it were a heat-seeking missile, it came straight for Maggie, who, at five feet nine inches, stood a little taller than the other hopefuls.

  She’d been an easy mark for her new sister-in-law. In order not to hurt Kit’s feelings, she had no choice but to pluck it out of the air and pretend to be overjoyed.

  What nobody knew was that Maggie had never been hopeful in the marriage department. In fact, hopeful was the wrong word. Maggie had never aspired to marriage, period. She was thirty years old, free as the clouds where she loved to fly, and she ran a thriving law practice.

  But she adored her brother Cord, who badly needed to be married to the right woman. Kit was made for him. Theirs was one of those marriages you knew had been made in heaven.

  Please, God. Let it last forever. Don’t let something ghastly happen to destroy their happiness.

  “Come on, Maggie. We’re driving the lovebirds to the hotel. Let’s slip out the back way to the car before the mob descends.”

  Steven Talbot, Kit’s twenty-five-year-old brother, grasped her hand and pulled her along, bouquet and all. They darted through the house and out the back door off the kitchen into the soft, balmy night air.

  Over the last six weeks, while prewedding parties had been going on both in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Claremont, California, the two of them had become good friends. Whenever the families got together, he naturally gravitated to her because he was starting his third year of law school at UCLA in Los Angeles at the end of August.

  With his dark brown hair and blue eyes, he looked so much like Kit, whom Maggie loved, it was almost like being with her twin. Steven shared Kit’s zest for life.

  She hurried toward his parents’ car with him. Once they were inside, he turned to her. “Quick, while we’re alone, how about staying on for a while? We can drive to Laguna, spend a few days at our beach house.”

  “That sounds tempting, but I’ve got clients, plus foundation business to see about.”

  “You work too hard.”

  If he was trying to make her feel guil
ty, it had the opposite effect. “I like work.”

  “Everyone needs time off, Maggie.”

  “I’m afraid I’m one of those people who has such a hard time trying to enjoy a vacation, I need one after it’s over.”

  He burst into laughter. “You mean to tell me you wouldn’t like a day to lie on the sand with nothing more to do than listen to the surf?”

  “It would be pure torture.”

  After a sustained silence he said, “You meant that, didn’t you?”

  She watched the guests start to pour out the front door of the house. The newlyweds would to be coming out any minute now. “My mind won’t shut off, Steve.”

  “Because of your sister?”

  “It started out that way. I was four when Kathryn was abducted from the house. Though I wasn’t old enough to comprehend everything, I knew something terrible had happened to make my parents and brothers so grief stricken. As I grew older, I learned their grief was shared by thousands of parents and families who also had missing children.”

  He grimaced. “When Kit was stolen from Mom by that bank robber, neither David or I were even born yet. I’m afraid my parents’ pain didn’t impact me the same way.”

  “You mean you didn’t feel compelled to spend your whole life looking for Kit?”

  Steven pounded the steering wheel with the palm of his hand a couple of times. “Something like that.”

  “Your mom was lucky to get pregnant right away after the horror your parents had to live through. No doubt being able to dote on you made a huge difference in their ability to recover as well as they did.”

  “You’re right.”

  “Then your brother came along. Your folks were so busy raising you both, they were able to detach themselves from the worst of their pain. Unfortunately Kathryn was Mom’s last baby because the doctor advised her not to get pregnant again due to her high blood pressure. I’m afraid her arms have always felt empty.”