Captive of Fate by Lindsay McKenna

Matt had not put his friend up to this. He would handle his own problems personally. Cauley struck her as a man who was loyal beyond the point of reason. “Jim…I’m sure you mean well by all of this. I don’t have a choice in this matter. It’s part of my job to investigate. I didn’t come down here prejudiced against Matt. Well,…maybe just a little,” she added. “But that’s all changed,” she added hastily. “I see him as someone who has a great deal of integrity and a strong sense of responsibility. I’m not out to smear his name for the senator, believe me.”
    Cauley pursed his lips, glancing at her for a few seconds before returning his attention to the helicopter. “You aren’t some undercover agent from the Defense Department?”
    “What?”
    “This isn’t the first time Thornton has tried to undermine Matt, you know. He’s sent men from two government agencies at different times since Matt’s return from Nam to try to slander his name. I figured this time Thornton was getting smart by hiring a damn good-looking dame to do the job.”
    She sat there dumbfounded. “Of all the—”
    “Maybe Thornton finally figured out that a woman would be able to take Matt in easier than a man. I don’t know. Let’s keep this straight—as long as you’re nosing around, I’m going to be watching you, too.”
    Perspiration broke out on the palms of her tightly clenched hands. “I’m not some femme fatale out to frame Matt!” she shot back, anger evident in her tone.
    Cauley brought the chopper into a wide banking turn, the verdant green of the jungle thousands of feet below them. “I felt Thornton would jump on this sooner or later,” he muttered. “Don’t tell me you weren’t aware that Matt lost his wife and baby as well as his parents in a car crash?”
    Alanna inhaled sharply, her eyes widening. “Oh—no…”
    Cauley’s blue eyes narrowed. “That’s right, all four of ‘em were killed in a head-on crash up in Maine.” His mouth thinned, and he watched her intently, trying to plumb the depth of her horrified reaction. “Matt was out on Recon patrol and didn’t know of their deaths until a week after the crash. Can you imagine what he went through? They were already dead and buried by the time he set foot back on friendly soil. And to make matters worse, he and his team got ordered back into the bush for an extended patrol that lasted damn near a month when he got back from the States.” He stopped, gauging her reactions. “Most men would have cracked up, but Matt didn’t. He was responsible for six other Recons, and he carried off that mission. No one but a few people up in the Pentagon knew how important that one mission was. I can’t even talk about it because it’s still top secret.”
    She swallowed hard, her throat dry and constricted. My God, he had lost his entire family…. Anguish slashed across her heart. And Alanna thought she had suffered emotional pain. How had he coped with such agony so successfully? It made her feel terribly small, her own problems insignificant in retrospect. Tears swam in her eyes, blurring her vision. “Jim, I would never intentionally hurt Matt. Please, believe me. I didn’t know about his family. My God…”
    “I hope for your sake you’re exactly what you claim to be,” he said grimly, easing the chopper down toward the landing area near the base camp. “Matt swears you’re innocent. But after those two other attacks on him, I’m not so easily convinced.”
    She didn’t know what to make of the picture Cauley was painting. But she felt dirty and less than honorable for undertaking the task that Thornton had assigned to her. “I’m not out to damage Matt’s career,” she repeated stubbornly.
    Cauley’s blue eyes seemed to bore right through her. “He likes you, you know?”
    Alanna looked up, startled. “What?”
    “I said Matt likes you. Maybe a little too much.” He set the chopper down, shutting off the engine and watching