Covert Cargo

DANGEROUS WATERS

Undercover as a coast guard captain, navy SEAL Dillon Randall is determined to capture the leaders of a human trafficking ring off the California coast. When a woman living in a remote lighthouse unwittingly becomes a target of the traffickers, Dillon’s mission suddenly includes protecting Beth Forrester. Yet he can’t let himself get too close to the reclusive beauty. The last time he lost focus on a mission, people died. He won’t make that mistake again. Dillon must win Beth’s trust—while keeping his identity as a SEAL a secret. However he’s finding it harder to maintain his cover around the woman working her way into his heart. Can he save Beth’s life without breaking her already wounded heart?

Navy SEAL Defenders: Bound by honor and dedicated to protection.

“I’m the target, aren’t I?” Beth asked.

Her voice shook as she continued, “The cartel wants to eliminate me. They want me dead, right?”

Dillon said nothing at first, his silence answer enough. “I’ll need to assign you protection. This is too serious to ignore.”

Beth thought of her tranquil, little cottage by the lighthouse, cramped with people allotted to look after her. “Okay,” she said quietly. “Who would be staying with me?”

“A surveillance expert and I will create a lookout post in your lighthouse tower and set up home there for the mission until the cartel members are in custody and no longer a threat to you.”

“Mission?” she questioned. “You make it sound like a military operation.”

“The coast guard is a branch of the US Armed Forces,” he replied. “Ensuring your safety is as important as any task I need to accomplish in my day job, but I can’t take personal responsibility for protecting you.” He sighed. “It’s complicated.”

She looked him full in the face. “One thing I’ve learned over the years is that things are always complicated.”

“I will make absolutely sure that nothing bad happens to you.” He laid a hand over hers. “You deserve all the resources we have, and you’re worth the effort. You should know that.”

His words almost took her breath away.

ELISABETH REES was raised in the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye, where her father was the parish vicar. She attended Cardiff University and gained a degree in politics. After meeting her husband, they moved to the wild, rolling hills of Carmarthenshire, and Elisabeth took up writing. She is now a full-time wife, mother and author. Find out more about Elisabeth at elisabethrees.com.

Covert Cargo

Elisabeth Rees

www.millsandboon.co.uk

I will say to the Lord, My refuge and my fortress,

My God, in whom I trust.

—Psalms 91:2

“A good teacher is like a candle—it consumes itself to light the way for others.”

—Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

For Elin Watkins, a head teacher who has guided countless children to realize their potential and then encouraged them to surpass it, with love and thanks from the pupils, staff and governors at Llansadwrn School.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

EPILOGUE

Dear Reader

Extract

Copyright

ONE

The Return to Grace Lighthouse was under familiar attack. A wailing wind whipped around the tower and rattled the windows of the cozy keeper’s cottage. Beth Forrester put another log on the fire of her unique home and pulled her dog, Ted, away from the front door, where he whined and scratched, seemingly eager to go out into the wild, dark night.

Ted reluctantly walked toward the hearth, stopping to sniff the cracked remains of an old rowboat that were drying next to the warmth of the flames. The wreck had washed up on the beach a couple of weeks back, broken into two pieces but with the hull intact. After establishing that no one had claimed it, Beth had asked a local fisherman to help her bring the bulky hull inside, where it now lay, ridding itself of the salt water that had seeped into its wooden bones. Beth was in the process of turning the wreck into a bed frame—sanding it down, repairing it, lovingly turning the broken wood into something new and beautiful. Then it would be sold for enough money to keep her going for another couple of months. The pieces of driftwood that washed up on the shore were treasures to her, and she turned them into cabinets, tables, chairs, beds and works of art. Her profession suited her reclusive lifestyle perfectly. This remote lighthouse, standing at the edge of the town of Bracelet Bay in Northern California, had become her sanctuary, her hideaway from the world. She needed nobody and nobody needed her.

A noise outside caught her attention—a high-pitched wailing sound being carried in waves on the wind. Her dog instantly ran back to the door to resume scraping the wood with his paws. The wailing on the other side of the door grew louder.

Beth shook her head, almost disbelieving what she was hearing. “No,” she said to herself. “Can that really be what I think it is?” She looked at Ted. “Is there a child out there?”