Double Deception

“Merline Lovelace rocks! Like Nora Roberts, she delivers top-rate suspense with great characters, rich atmosphere and a crackling plot!”

—New York Times bestselling author Mary Jo Putney

“Lovelace’s many fans have come to expect her signature strong, brave, resourceful heroines and she doesn’t disappoint.”

—Booklist

“Merline Lovelace delivers a book that is not to be missed.”

—RT Book Reviews on Undercover Wife

“Spicy, smart and very entertaining.”

—RT Book Reviews on Baby, It’s Cold Outside

“Ms. Lovelace wins our hearts with a tender love story featuring a fine hero who will make every woman’s heart beat faster.”

—RT Book Reviews on Wrong Bride, Right Groom

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Dear Reader,

Sooner or later, every exotic locale or intriguing historical site I visit ends up in a book! Our recent trip to Saint Petersburg was no exception. I fell in love with that city of beauty and White Lights. The gloriously restored Amber Room particularly fascinated me, as did the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the original.

So of course I had to send two intrepid OMEGA agents on the hunt for one of Russia’s most priceless treasures. Hope you enjoy their wild chase and this glimpse into the world of missing art.

For updates of my latest travels and new books, be sure to check my website at www.merlinelovelace.com or join me on Facebook.

Merline Lovelace

A career Air Force officer, Merline Lovelace served at bases all over the world, including tours in Taiwan, Vietnam and at the Pentagon. When she hung up her uniform for the last time, she decided to combine her love of adventure with a flair for storytelling, basing many of her tales on her experiences in the service.

Since then, she’s produced more than eighty action-packed novels, many of which have made USA TODAY and Waldenbooks bestseller lists. Over eleven million copies of her works are in print in thirty countries. Be sure to check her website at www.merlinelovelace.com for contests, news and information on future releases.

To Neta and Dave

Al and I treasure your friendship and all the great

adventures we’ve shared—including that fabulous evening at Catherine Palace!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Nick Jensen, code-named Lightning, took the call while attending a noisy, exuberant Fourth of July party at the MacLean, Virginia, home of Maggie and Adam Ridgeway. One of Washington, D.C.’s, true power couples, the Ridgeways were on a first-name basis with presidents and prime ministers, ambassadors and news anchors. They also sat on the boards of a half dozen charities that administered to the desperate needs of millions around the world.

The guest list at this particular party, however, didn’t include the rich and famous. Instead, they’d limited it to the members of a small, very elite organization and their families. Nick’s wife and twin boys formed one of the boisterous teams tossing water darts in the shallow end of the pool. Maggie and Adam’s adopted grandchildren, Young Tau and Mei Lin, had roped their father into anchoring a second team. A very pregnant, very glowing Claire Cantrell Esteban, code name Cyrene, watched their antics from a shaded lawn chair. Maggie and Adam’s equally pregnant eldest daughter Gillian kept Claire company.

As his gaze roamed the crowd, a fist seemed to reach into Nick’s chest and grab his heart. These people were his life, the family he’d never had. He couldn’t imagine a more different world from the one he’d roamed as a skinny, half-starved twelve-year-old. The backstreets of Cannes seemed a thousand light-years away.

As if reading his mind, the woman who’d rescued him from those streets wove through the picnic tables and slipped a hand through the crook of Nick’s arm. “Our ranks keep growing, don’t they?” Her smiling eyes lingered on the two pregnant women. “Literally and figuratively.”

Nick glanced down at the now-retired operative he’d once offered to pimp for. Damned if Maggie Sinclair couldn’t still command that kind of highly specialized service. Her brown eyes glowed with the vitality she brought to everything she did and her sparkling personality still made folks sit up and take notice whenever she walked into a room.

“Speaking of our ranks growing…” Nick tipped his chin toward a twosome engaged in a mock duel.

A diminutive, curly haired Xenia, queen of the universe, swung her plastic laser sword. Adam Ridgeway II countered her thrusts with barbecue tongs. As tall and broad-shouldered as his father, Adam had inherited his mother’s quicksilver grin and irrepressible sense of humor. He’d earned the nickname Tank on his own. Even as a small child, he exhibited a tendency to charge headlong into any and every situation. A Harvard law degree, a stint as Navy JAG and his current job as an assistant district attorney had tempered that tendency—but not his energy or thirst for new challenges.