Covert Cowboy Read online

  Colorado Confidential turns up the heat in the search for the Langworthy baby. There’s a new agent on board to shake up the case and shake down another lead—if he can handle the very cool, very pregnant Marilyn Langworthy…

  “I’m pregnant. I’m not going to make a total fool of myself.”

  “A fool of yourself? Why would you say that?” Con’s expression was unreadable.

  “Because it would be foolish of me to believe the things you say. And I can’t afford to be foolish anymore. I’ll work with you, but that’s as far as it goes.”

  “And if I want it to go further, cher?” Emerald eyes narrowed at her. “I’m out of luck is what you’re saying?”

  He was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen, and to pretend she was immune to his brand of sexy Southern charm would be a lie. “A man like you is never at the end of his luck, Con,” she said softly. “I don’t think I’m going to cause you any sleepless nights.”

  “You might be surprised at what keeps me awake nights,” Con drawled. “If you want to keep it business between us I’ll do my best. But I don’t guarantee anything.”

  Dear Harlequin Intrigue Reader,

  Take a very well-deserved break from Thanksgiving preparations and rejuvenate yourself with Harlequin Intrigue’s tempting offerings this month!

  To start off the festivities, Harper Allen brings you Covert Cowboy—the next riveting installment of COLORADO CONFIDENTIAL. Watch the sparks fly when a Native American secret agent teams up with the headstrong mother of his unborn child to catch a slippery criminal. Looking to live on the edge? Then enter the dark and somber HEARTSKEEP estate—with caution!—when Dani Sinclair brings you The Second Sister—the next book in her gothic trilogy.

  The thrills don’t stop there! His Mysterious Ways pairs a ruthless mercenary with a secretive seductress as they ward off evil forces. Don’t miss this new series in Amanda Stevens’s extraordinary QUANTUM MEN books. Join Mallory Kane for an action-packed story about a heroine who must turn to a tough-hearted FBI operative when she’s targeted by a stalker in Bodyguard/Husband.

  A homecoming unveils a deadly conspiracy in Unmarked Man by Darlene Scalera—the latest offering in our new theme promotion BACHELORS AT LARGE. And finally this month, ’tis the season for some spine-tingling suspense in The Christmas Target by Charlotte Douglas when a sexy cowboy cop must ride to the rescue as a twisted Santa sets his sights on a beautiful businesswoman.

  So gather your loved ones all around and warm up by the fire with some steamy romantic suspense!

  Enjoy,

  Denise O’Sullivan

  Senior Editor

  Harlequin Intrigue

  COVERT COWBOY

  HARPER ALLEN

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Harper Allen lives in the country in the middle of a hundred acres of maple trees with her husband, Wayne, six cats, four dogs—and a very nervous cockatiel at the bottom of the food chain. For excitement she and Wayne drive to the nearest village and buy jumbo bags of pet food. She believes in love at first sight because it happened to her.

  Books by Harper Allen

  HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE

  468—THE MAN THAT GOT AWAY

  547—TWICE TEMPTED

  599—WOMAN MOST WANTED

  628—GUARDING JANE DOE *

  632—SULLIVAN’S LAST STAND *

  663—THE BRIDE AND THE MERCENARY *

  680—THE NIGHT IN QUESTION

  695—MCQUEEN’S HEAT

  735—COVERT COWBOY

  * * *

  The Confidential Code

  I will protect my country and its citizens.

  I will stand in the line of fire between innocents and criminals.

  I will back up my fellow agents without questions.

  I will trust my instincts.

  And most of all…

  I WILL KEEP MY MISSION AND MY IDENTITY STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

  * * *

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Marilyn Langworthy—Her nickname’s the Ice Queen, but her detached facade hides the guilt she feels over her tiny nephew’s disappearance.

  Conrad Burke—He’s only working with Colorado Confidential because he’s hunting an enemy from the past.

  Holly Langworthy—Marilyn’s younger half sister, she may know more about her baby’s kidnapping than she’s revealing.

  Tony Corso—Nephew of a mobster, he used his position at a Langworthy-owned pharmaceutical firm to steal dangerous viral stock.

  Samuel Langworthy—Marilyn’s father, he’s been estranged from her for too long.

  Joshua Langworthy—Marilyn’s politically minded brother intends to be Colorado’s next governor.

  Helio DeMarco—The shadowy mobster has a liking for biological weapons, and a hatred of Con Burke.

  Wiley Longbottom—He suggested Con for Colorado Confidential. Now he wonders if he picked the right man for the job.

  Colleen Wellesley—The head of Colorado Confidential, she doesn’t particularly like Con, and the feeling’s mutual.

  To Wayne with Love

  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

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  Nineteen days, five hours, and—

  Marilyn Langworthy glanced at the diamond watch on her wrist before focusing again on the computer monitor in front of her.

  —thirty-odd minutes. Still no ransom note. Still no leads. Dear God, how can anyone hide a four-month-old baby this long without drawing attention to themselves?

  The figures on the monitor wavered. She squeezed her eyes shut against the cold wave of fear washing over her, but the logical part of her brain refused to shut off.

  That was why there hadn’t been a demand for money. That was why no one had phoned the police to report a crying baby in a house where there hadn’t been a baby a few weeks ago, why no curious store clerk had gossiped about someone who looked like a thug or a crazy suddenly coming in on a regular basis to buy diapers and formula. Maybe her nephew’s kidnappers had panicked, maybe they’d realized too late that snatching a baby boy was one thing but keeping him concealed while they negotiated a ransom was another.

  Maybe Sky was already—

  “Ms. Langworthy?”

  She opened her eyes. Her expression eased as she saw the older woman standing in the open doorway.

  “Don’t tell me, Elva,” she said, apology tingeing her tone. “Everyone else left hours ago, right?”

  Briskly her secretary entered with the same efficient energy she’d displayed hours earlier when her working day had commenced. Elva Hare had started in the typing pool at Mills & Grommett Pharmaceuticals thirty-two years ago and had worked her way up to the position of Samuel Langworthy’s personal assistant. Why she volunteered to become my secretary when I arrived from Boston to become Father’s vice president of sales I’ll never know, Marilyn thought. But I couldn’t have handled this job without her.

  “I’m no shrinking violet waiting for you to tell me when it’s quitting time, so don’t worry about it,” Elva replied, laying some papers on the desk. “I wanted to pull these sales figures together for you before your meeting tomorrow.”

  “God, the meeting.” Marilyn sank back in her chair. “I’d forgotten all about it.”

  “Under the circumstances that’s understandable.” Ben
eath an iron-gray perm, Elva’s gaze was concerned. “I don’t hold with this business-as-usual policy your father’s keeping to, especially since as the sole family member involved in his company you’re the only one affected. Your brother’s canceled all but his most important speaking engagements, and Holly—”

  She shook her head. “Now isn’t the time to air my opinion of your half sister’s life of leisure,” she said quietly. “No woman should have to go through what she’s had to endure these past three weeks. The police haven’t…?”

  “They haven’t come up with a thing, Elva.”

  Marilyn heard the hopelessness in her voice as she answered the older woman—heard it, and hated herself for it. She pulled the sheaf of papers toward her, but instead of looking at them she glanced up at her secretary.

  “I went to church on Sunday,” she said softly. “I can’t remember the last time I attended. Oh, Christmas and Easter, of course, and whenever I go back to Boston to pay Mother a visit. But just an ordinary Sunday? It’s been a while.”

  “I don’t need to ask what you prayed for.” Elva sighed. “I haven’t mentioned anything to the rest of the staff, since the family wants to keep a lid on the publicity, but if you hear anything, Ms. Langworthy…”

  “If I hear anything I’ll let you know right away,” Marilyn promised. “Although sometimes I think you’re more in the Langworthy loop than I am.” She’d meant it as a small joke. It hadn’t come out that way, she realized in embarrassment.

  Elva didn’t pretend not to understand. “Your father’s a fine man in many ways,” she said evenly. “But he doesn’t like admitting he’s capable of failure, and rightly or wrongly, he sees the breakdown of his first marriage as a failure. When your mother got custody of you and went back home to Beacon Hill, the only way he could handle it was to close off that part of his life. It helped that he was so crazy about your stepmother,” she added dryly. “And to an empire-builder like Samuel a firstborn son like Joshua is a godsend.”

  “Oh, Josh was always meant to fulfill Father’s political hopes, even when he went through his rebellious phase,” Marilyn said crisply. “Running for governor is just the start, and if I was ever jealous of my golden-boy brother I got over it long ago.”

  “But coming back here to Colorado reminded you of how your younger half sister took your place?” Elva probed with characteristic bluntness. Marilyn grimaced.

  “I was born on a Thursday. Holly is Sunday’s child.” She shrugged. “You ever hear the old rhyme?”

  “I seem to remember the child born on the Sabbath gets the whole shebang, so to speak.” The older woman’s normally businesslike tones softened. “What about Thursday’s?”

  “Thursday’s child has far to go.” Marilyn’s smile was one-sided. “That’s me all over, Elva. Sometimes I feel like I just have so darn far to go before I get to where I want to be. Or to who I want to be,” she added huskily. “I’m not sure I like the person I’ve become since I moved back here, so I can’t complain when the rest of the family make it clear they’d rather I’d stayed in Boston.”

  She fell silent for a moment. Then she nudged her computer’s mouse so that the floral screen-saver disappeared.

  “An absolutely perfect example of what I mean.” She forced a laugh. “I’m sitting here feeling sorry for my inner child when there’s a real baby missing. You’re right, Elva—Holly must be going through hell, wondering when the authorities will get a break in this case. Somehow her situation puts my little problems into perspective, doesn’t it?”

  She sighed. “But meanwhile life at Mills & Grommett goes on, complete with the Wednesday morning meetings I got too used to leaving for Tony to handle when he was here.”

  “I’ll inform security you’re working late.” Easily Elva slipped back into the persona of efficient secretary. She nodded pleasantly. “Good night, Ms. Langworthy.”

  “’Night, Elva.” Feeling foolishly lonely all of a sudden, Marilyn flipped open the sheaf of papers, but even as she did she realized Elva had paused in the doorway. She looked up.

  “Happy birthday, Ms. Langworthy.” The older woman’s tone was tentative. “At M & G we normally order in a cake for these kinds of occasions. I knew you wouldn’t feel like celebrating today, but I didn’t want you to think no one had remembered.”

  A cake. As she heard Elva’s footsteps tapping through the outer offices and listened for the thunk of the dead bolt being turned in the reception area door leading to the fortieth floor hallway, a vision of what she’d been spared flitted through Marilyn’s mind. She gave a mental shudder. It was bad enough turning thirty-one. Turning thirty-one in a staff lunchroom had root canals and bikini waxing beat hands down in the excruciatingly painful category. And as Elva had surmised, this was one July twenty-second she had no desire to celebrate.

  Coming to Denver was the biggest mistake of your life.

  The thought dropped into her mind with the suddenness of unwelcome certainty. Unable to continue feigning an interest in the information in front of her, she got up and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows that took up one wall of her office. On the same unsettled impulse, she flicked off the overhead fluorescents so that only her desk lamp remained on. Below her the lights of the city spread out like diamonds on velvet.

  Maybe coming here hadn’t been the biggest mistake, she told herself stonily. Maybe accepting her father’s far-from-enthusiastic invitation to take this position at his company had been. Or maybe breaking her own unwritten rule of not dating a co-worker took the prize—yet another reason cake in the staffroom wouldn’t have been a fun idea. Since that disastrously eye-opening final evening with Tony Corso and his abrupt resignation the next morning, she’d suspected she hadn’t been the first female at M & G he’d shown his true colors to. She had no desire to exchange girlfriend horror stories with Angie, the receptionist, or Leeza, the records clerk.

  And none of that mattered a damn, Marilyn thought. Because everything else faded into insignificance beside baby Sky’s disappearance.

  She’d had the chance to hold him. She’d turned Holly down. Regret, more corrosive than acid, spilled through her. As it had done a hundred times in the days since Sky’s kidnapping, the memory of the one and only occasion she’d allowed herself to visit her half sister and her newborn nephew came flooding back.

  “Sweetie, it’s a Karan blouse and a Jacobs suit,” she’d said coolly. “Baby sick-up isn’t my idea of the perfect accessory. Here’s a little welcome-to-the-world gift for him, by the way. When I told the store clerk what I wanted engraved on it I’m sure he thought we were holdouts from the hippie era or something. Why would you pick Schyler as a name, when you must have known he’d be saddled with such an odd nickname?”

  Holly’s only reply had been the annoyingly beatific smile Marilyn had privately told herself her half sister must have received along with the rest of the trappings of motherhood. That smile had been infuriating on more than one level, but at the very least it had been a clear indication that the status quo between them had changed, in Holly’s mind, anyway.

  It had always been so easy to prick Holly’s perfect little bubble, she’d thought with a flash of irritation—easy and satisfying and…and justified. Except now it seemed her half sister’s lifelong lack of self-confidence where their father’s first daughter was concerned was gone. Incredibly, that smile seemed to indicate that Holly felt sorry for her.

  “It’s beautiful, Marilee. Thank you.”

  The use of the foolish pet name that had been the closest a baby Holly had been able to get to pronouncing “Marilyn” had set her teeth on edge. Her half sister had enclosed the solid-silver baby rattle in its nest of tissue paper and ribbon.

  “Aren’t you going to let him play with it?” Her usual tone when speaking to Holly was a bored drawl. It had been disconcerting to hear a touch of sharpness in her voice, and she’d modulated it with a laugh. “It’s never too early to develop good taste, and hallmarked silver beats a che
wed-up terry cloth toy any day. Take that disgusting rabbit thing away from him and give him the rattle.”

  “That disgusting rabbit thing is Bun-Bun, I’ll have you know,” Holly had replied with a smile. “Sky frets when he can’t find him. And besides, Marilee—” Her smile had faltered. “—he’s just a baby. The rattle’s exquisite, but it’s far too heavy for him to lift.”

  She’d dropped a quick kiss on the top of her son’s downy head. “I never imagined I’d feel like this,” she’d said softly. “I could just sit here all day and inhale him. Are you sure you don’t want to hold him for a minute?”

  “I think I’ll pass on that thrill, sweetie.” She’d barely been able to get the words out. “I’d rather inhale something a little more fragrant, like a dry white wine, and I’m late for my lunch at Zenith with Tony.” As she’d kissed the air near Holly’s cheek the sight of her discarded gift had prompted her to add, “Next time I come a-callin’ on Mama and baby I’ll ask him along, shall I? A little boy should have at least one male figure in his life besides his uncle and grandfather, don’t you think?”

  As soon as she’d launched the barb some part of her had wished she could recall it…and some part of her, she remembered now with shame, had felt a surge of satisfaction as Holly’s complacent smile had given way to a stricken look. Her half sister’s back had curved slightly, as if to protect the baby in her arms from the words that had just been uttered.

  “You were jealous.” Marilyn stared sightlessly at the glittering panorama that was Denver at night. Her voice rang out too loudly in the shadowed office.

  “You wished he was yours. Never mind that either his father didn’t want to stick around or Holly decided she and Sky were better off without him. You only used that because you wanted to hurt her, and you wanted to hurt her because you envied her. You were terrified of holding that baby—terrified of showing how you really felt, terrified Holly would somehow guess that you’d give anything in the world to have one of your own.”