The Soldier's Mission

The Soldier's Mission
Lenora Worth

Counseling is more than Laura Walton's job–it's her calling. So when Luke Martinez hangs up abruptly after calling the hotline where she works, Laura won't let it go.She tracks Luke to the Grand Canyon, little knowing she's walking into a heap of trouble. Laura's not the only one tracking Luke, and while she came to help him heal, his other pursuer has murder in mind. Luke thinks he has nothing left to lose until Laura makes him believe–and love–again. Just in time, too, since he'll need all his faith to face this last enemy.

Luke shoved Laura down behind the car, his hand covering her head. “Friends of yours?”

“I don’t know,” she said on a gasp of air, the shock of her words telling him she was being honest. “What’s going on?”

“You tell me.” He lifted his head an inch. And was rewarded with another round of rifle fire. “Somebody doesn’t like you being here, sweetheart.”

She tried to peek around the car’s bumper, but he held her down. Glaring up at him, she whispered, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you sure they aren’t shooting at you?”

“That is a possibility,” he said on a growl. “I’ve made a lot of enemies lately.”

“Anybody in particular?”

Luke thought about the laundry list of sins he’d committed in the name of grief. “We don’t have that long. I have to get you out of here.”

She seemed to like that idea. “So…how do you plan to do that?”

LENORA WORTH

has written more than forty books, most of those for Steeple Hill. She has freelanced for a local magazine, where she wrote monthly opinion columns, feature articles and social commentaries. She also wrote for the local paper for five years. Married to her high school sweetheart for thirty-five years, Lenora lives in Louisiana and has two grown children and a cat. She loves to read, take long walks, sit in her garden and go shoe shopping.

The Soldier’s Mission

Lenora Worth

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

“But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.”

—Proverbs 15:13

To my son Kaleb—a true heart hunter.

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 SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

LETTER TO READER

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

ONE

He’d had the dream again.

The stifling desert air burned hot, dirty and dry. The acrid smell of charred metal and scorched wires mixed with the metallic, sickly sweet smell of blood all around him. The sound of rapid-fire machine guns mingled with the screams of pain as, one by one, the men in his unit fell. He saw the horror of a landmine exploding against the jagged rocks of the craggy mountainside where they’d been penned down for forty-eight hours. One misstep and three of his men gone in a flash of searing fire and ear-shattering explosions. The others were taken out as the insurgents fought to the finish.

Then, the eerie sound of a deathly silence as the shooting stopped…and even after all of Luke’s efforts to save his wounded men, the moans and cries for help eased away…until there was nothing left but scorched dust lifting out over the rocks.

He was the only man left standing. But he wasn’t alone on that mountain. And he knew he’d be dead before dusk.

He’d jolted awake, gasping for air, a cold sweat covering his body, his hands shaking, grasping for his machine gun.

Luke “Paco” Martinez sat up and pushed at his damp hair then searched for the glowing green of the digital clock. 6:00 a.m. Old habits died hard. And a good night’s sleep was always just beyond his reach.

Barefoot, his cotton pajama bottoms dragging on the cool linoleum of the tiny trailer’s floor, Luke went straight to the coffeepot and hit the brew button. And while he waited for the coffee, he stared at the lone bottle of tequila sitting on the window seal.

Stared and remembered the dream, the nightmare, that wouldn’t let him find any rest.