Collateral Damage

COLLATERAL DAMAGE Eileen Nauman a.k.a. Lindsay McKenna Collateral Damage First edition 2023 Original Copyright © 2015, R. Eileen Nauman ISBN: 978-1-951236-39-7, Kindle Edition Excerpt from No Quarter Original Copyright © 2015, R. Eileen Nauman All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Blue Turtle Publishing, 7050 Oak Level Road, Bassett, VA 24055 USA. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition is published by arrangement with Blue Turtle Publishing Company. Dear Readers, Welcome to my latest romantic military suspense series: SHADOW TEAM! Ex-SEAL Cal Sinclaire is going to marry Sky Lambert, and everything seems to be a dream come true for them until a shocking event occurs. Sky disappears on the day before her wedding. Anguished, Cal calls on his old SEAL team friends, together with a Master Chief at the SEAL units, to try to find Sky. No one has any idea who did it or why. They have no evidence to go on to locate her. She could be anywhere in the world, and his SEAL team dives into finding microscopic clues to her possible whereabouts. Come hell or high water, they will find her…or else. Sky’s whole world implodes as she slowly regains consciousness and finds herself bound, gagged and blindfolded after being heavily drugged. She has no idea who has done this to her, where she is or where they are taking her. Her heart cries out for Cal, for all they’ve gone through over the years, and for finally being able to admit their binding love to one another. WHO has done this to her? All the years in Witness Protection, hiding at the ends of the Earth from a crazed Russian man who wanted her for his own, whether she wanted to be his or not. She was rid of him, killed earlier in the Peruvian jungle. Her dreams are destroyed, and Sky sees no way out—not realizing she is collateral damage. Dedication To all the readers who love romantic military suspense! Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dear Readers Dedication 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 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Epilogue Excerpt from No Quarter Available from Lindsay McKenna Everything Lindsay McKenna CHAPTER 1 June 1 Cal Sinclair didn’t have the heart to interrupt Sky Lambert, the woman he was going to marry in two weeks’ time. He halted near the cedar stairs to their master bedroom on the second floor of his Virginia home he’d built himself over a seven-year period. The cabin sat on a hill surrounded by Douglas fir, oak, maple, elm, and beech trees. There, in the alcove where the bay windows looked out over the pristine meadow below, he watched Sky sitting and drawing with her pastel chalk set on her easel. Weeks ago, she’d discovered all his drafting tools and accessories he used to build his two-story cedar home down in the basement. Cal smiled a little, wrapping his arms across his chest, watching her intently. The morning sunlight poured through the cathedral windows that stretched skyward on the eastern side of their bedroom. He loved this woman who had stolen his heart and fed his soul like the sunlight drifting silently through the bedroom. They had both lost so much in the past, and Cal felt incredibly grateful it was behind them. He enjoyed watching Sky choose certain pastel colors and apply them to the paper attached to the easel, capturing the beauty of the meadow and stream beyond the bay windows. His mouth twitched as he remembered looking for Sky and finding her rooting around with eager curiosity through every drawer and shelf in the basement. Along one wall, he’d placed all his sketched drawings, some in ink, some in pencil, and others in pastel chalks, that he’d imagined his dream home would someday look like. It had been a seven-year vision spanning five years when he was in the SEALs, and two years with Shield Security in Alexandria, Virginia. Any time between missions had been spent building it. Sky had discovered the colorful box of chalk and had been transformed into an excited child, finding sixty pastels, touching them as if they were precious jewels. She carried his easel, the paper, and chalks up to her favorite place, the bay windows that overlooked the meadow and stream north of where the house sat. Cal’s heart opened powerfully as he watched Sky working intently, her blond brows drawn down in concentration, trying to capture the meadow where deer crossed it daily at dawn and dusk. Sky had a special connection with the dark green velvet settee that sat facing those windows. After he’d brought her home from Cusco, Peru, from that hellish challenge to get her out of there alive, Sky had settled in with him on Valentine’s Day. And over the past months, he’d watched her make his home her home. It was something Cal had wanted desperately for Sky because her childhood had been a nightmare existence. Now she was at peace. He could see it in her oval face, the way her incredible, turquoise-colored eyes shined with happiness. Sky WAS happy. Hell, so was he. He loved her. And for whatever reason unknown to him, she loved him just as fiercely in return. Rousing himself, Cal deliberately made enough