Code Name: Nanny (SEAL and Code Name #5)(18)

“Go?” He stared at her, taking in her fully buttoned suit, the purse on her shoulder. “I don’t understand. You have to pick out your dress tonight. You know it’s your last chance. Otherwise, they won’t guarantee the work will be done in time.”

Oh, the insidious stab of weakness.

The pain of letting go of so many dreams.

“It doesn’t matter, Tate. I won’t be needing the dress after all.” Cara turned, drawing her hands behind her back. Don’t let him see, she prayed. Above all, don’t let him argue. “Not today. Not next week.”

“I don’t understand,” he repeated. “Do you have to work late again? Is this something to do with the Costello appeal?”

“It has nothing to do with work.” Cara hardened her voice, closed her heart. “It’s over between us.” She forced out the awful words like pits from a bitter fruit. “I’m sorry, Tate, but I can’t marry you. The wedding is off.”





[page]chapter 6

When Summer reached the aquarium, Audra was nowhere to be seen.

Frowning, she checked with the nearest guard. “School group number three finished fifteen minutes ago, ma’am.” He studied a column on his clipboard. “Their bus just left. Number twenty-three.”

“Have you seen their student docent? Small girl, brown hair. She was wearing a red jacket and a black shirt.”

“You mean Audra O’Connor? Sure, I saw her. She took group three today.” The guard shoved back his hat. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her around since the tour finished.”

Years of training snapped into place as Summer motioned to Sophy. “Stay beside me, honey. Stay very close.” She scanned the room, searching for dark hair and a bright red jacket. “We’ve got to find Audra.” She held out an aquarium map to the guard, noting his name and badge number. “Please show me the route the tour took.” Her voice fell. “And this is no rehearsal, Simon. I’ll need three of your guards to patrol the other floors. Please give a radio description to all staff members, too.” Her voice was crisp. “How many other exits?”

“Loading and Receiving. There’s the rear deck facing the ocean, but—”

“Alert them all, and give them Audra’s description.” Summer was already shaping a field plan, sorting through her options. Most would involve approval of the aquarium director. “I need to speak with your head of security.”

The guard looked worried as he traced the tour route and handed the map back to Summer. “You don’t think—I mean, her mother told the museum director about what’s been going on, but—”

Summer cut him off, glancing down at Sophy. “Call me on my cell phone with any news, Simon. And give your security director my number.” She rattled off a string of numbers.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Summer was at the far stairs when he called her back, his walkie-talkie raised to his ear.

“I’d better take you upstairs myself, Ms. Mulvaney.”

“Did you find Audra?”

“No, ma’am, but we found her red jacket.” His face was grim. “A guard noticed it behind a bench near the sea-otter tank.”

“Simon, get people on the exit doors immediately.” Summer had a cold feeling in her stomach as she tried Audra’s cell phone. Again there was no answer.

“What’s going on?” Sophy demanded. “Why is everyone frowning? Audra’s late all the time.”

“It’s probably nothing, honey, but let’s you and I check things out. Just like in Mission Impossible.”

“Cool. Let’s go.” Sophy skipped toward the stairs, too young and protected to understand that life didn’t always deal out Hollywood-style happy endings.



Tate Winslow stared at the woman he had loved irrationally since even before their first date in law school. “What’s wrong, Cara? Talk to me.”

“There’s very little to say.” Her shoulders were a stiff, unrelenting line. “Several new cases are taking far more time than I imagined, and two of our staff are out on leave. The girls need me, too, with their new nanny coming.”

She sounded exhausted, Tate realized. She’d been tired before, but never like this, as if she couldn’t find enough energy to focus.

Fool that he was, he hadn’t seen it until now.

“You can turn the Costello appeal over to Tony or Tristan. Either one would take it in a second.”

Cara’s eyes hardened. “The day I can’t do my job is the day I quit.”

“It isn’t professional failure to step back and take a breather now and again,” Tate said quietly. “Maybe it’s time you dropped the pace a little. You’ve been working twelve hour days since I first met you.”

She had been sorting linens at the college laundry, her hands moving fast and expertly. Her face was flushed, her clothes sweaty, and Tate had loved her at first sight. So had most of the male students in the law-school dorm. The linen service had had a huge run on towels that week.

She had created quite a stir when she had shown up with black boots and sleek black jeans in the front row of Contracts I the following Monday. The first week she had twenty offers for dinner and a study date, but she turned them all down—including Tate’s.