Rogue Christmas Operation

By Juno Rushdan

He'll sacrifice his safety

…for a woman who could completely upend his Christmas.  

   

After Gage Graham saves her from drowning, Hope Fischer revives, determined to learn the truth about her sister's death. All she has to do is infiltrate a mysterious closed Virginia town and discover why the attractive—but secretive—Gage feels compelled to help her. Can she trust him? Will he risk being discovered by his former employer, the CIA, for a woman he just met? Neither will matter if a killer succeeds.   

From Harlequin Intrigue: Seek thrills. Solve crimes. Justice served.

Discover more action-packed stories in the Fugitive Heroes: Topaz Unit series. All books are stand-alone with uplifting endings but were published in the following order:

Book 1: Rogue Christmas Operation
Book 2: Alaskan Christmas Escape
Book 3: Disavowed in Wyoming
Book 4: An Operative's Last Stand

• Language: English
• Publisher: Harlequin Intrigue
• Release date: Oct 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9780369709318

Juno Rushdan

Juno Rushdan is a veteran US Air Force intelligence officer and award-winning author. Her books are action-packed and fast-paced. Critics from Kirkus and Library Journal have called her work “heart-pounding James Bond-ian adventure” that “will captivate lovers of romantic thrillers.” Visit her website: www.junorushdan.com.

Book preview

Chapter One

Her rental car slid across the ice and swerved. Hope gripped the steering wheel tighter, regaining control.

The night was pitch-black. Storm clouds that threatened to unleash more freezing rain blocked out the moon. To her right, beyond the darkness, was a steep slope that led straight to Goode Mountain Lake. No streetlamps or guardrails were along the side of this godforsaken road—the only road—that led in and out of the insulated town of Benediction, Virginia. There were only the bright lights from the SUV behind her.

High beams blared into her sedan. She glanced up at the rearview mirror. The light reflected was blinding.

Raising a palm to shield her eyes, she squinted against the harsh glare, but her car swerved once again. Hope put both hands back on the wheel as her heart drummed faster.

The dark two-lane road was slicker than she’d anticipated tonight from the rain earlier and the dropping temperature. She needed to slow down, but the driver behind her picked up speed, riding her bumper.

Misgivings stirred in her gut, crawling through her like worms beneath her skin, but she ignored them. She had to do this. For her sister, Faith. For her own peace of mind. She had to keep going until she made it inside Benediction, got answers about Faith’s death.

No matter the cost.

Steeling her nerves, Hope tapped the accelerator. Just enough to get some distance between her and the SUV.

Nothing was going to stop her.

Raindrops hit the windshield and pounded the roof in a frenetic beat, ratcheting up her tension. She winced as she turned on the wipers. The downpour only obscured her visibility and made the road even more treacherous.

Wiper blades whisked aside the rain from the windshield, giving her a spotty view.

Headlights from an oncoming vehicle ahead pierced the darkness. A car had left Benediction. In the distance, she barely made out the lights from the lampposts marking the electric security fence surrounding the restricted town.

She checked the rearview mirror.

The SUV roared up behind her, too close on her tail. She touched the brakes to back him off, but the vehicle tapped her bumper.

She jolted forward in the seat, holding tight on to the steering wheel. Heart racing, she accelerated. A little farther and she’d make it.

The rain picked up, the torrent battering the car. Anything past sixty feet was erased by the deluge. Headlights from the vehicle that had left Benediction were no longer visible.

The SUV rammed her again. The steering wheel jerked in her hand as the back end of her car fishtailed. She forced herself not to struggle against it. Steering in the opposite direction would only make things worse.

Hope flicked a glance at the hazard button on her dash. She could hit it, slow down, stop the car and turn back to Goode, the neighboring town. Turn away from Benediction. Give up her search for the truth.

She’d been warned. That’s what everyone wanted. For her to leave it all alone. To go back to California and bury her head in the sand.

But then a murderer would go free.

She had failed her sister once. Not again. She swallowed past the ball of anxiety in her throat. You can do this.

The SUV zoomed up alongside her, sending a new wave of fear crashing through her. What was he doing?

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than the SUV swerved sharply. The front end slammed into her side of the car, propelling it into a wild slide toward the edge.

Hope panicked, hitting the brakes. The wheels locked. Her vehicle lost traction and went into a skid. Everything was happening so fast. Too fast.

Spinning out of control, her car missed a large tree and slid over the edge of the slope. A high-pitched cry escaped her lips. Dirt and rocks spit up. She tried to straighten the steering wheel and pumped the brakes. Her car fishtailed, clipped a tree and went airborne.

The sedan flipped. Rolled end over end down the gradient. Metal crunched and groaned around her.

Hope’s seat belt jerked hard across her body, cutting off her oxygen for a second.

The airbag deployed like a hot fist, knocking her head back against the seat. Dust and chemicals saturated the air.

Her lungs seized as a scream lodged in her throat.

The car slammed to a stop with the impact of crashing into a brick wall. Her skull smashed into something hard.

A riot of pain flared...everywhere. In her head, chest, bones—even her teeth hurt.

Her vision blurred. Not that it mattered. She couldn’t see past the airbag, which was the size of a large beach ball in her face.

Hope pushed on the light fabric, and the airbag deflated. Coughing, she wiped at the wetness coming from her nose with the back of her hand. Blood. Her nose was bleeding.

She switched on the interior light and pushed the deflated airbag out of her way.

The headlights were still on.

Water.

The car was in the lake. Beneath the water, or at least half of it. The weight of the engine pitched the front end forward, so that the car was almost pointing straight down. She looked back at the rear window. Rain and darkness.

Water was starting to seep inside the vehicle. The foot well was filling up as water rushed in. Faster and faster.

Hope pressed the button to release the seat belt. But nothing happened. It was stuck, jammed tight. She yanked on the belt, trying again, tugging and pushing. Praying.

Oh, God. She was trapped.

Icy water rose past her hips to her waist. Shockingly cold. Her toes were already growing numb, and she was shivering. She had to get out. Now!

Her purse floated up on the passenger’s side. If she reached it, got to the Swiss Army knife inside, she could cut herself free.

She extended her hand in the water. Her bag was inches from her fingertips. She stretched out as much as she could, straining her arm muscles. A pang wrenched through her chest, her eyes tearing at the intense pain, but she didn’t stop. She kept reaching for her purse. Almost had it. The bag was so close—she needed to stretch a hair farther, but the seat belt had her pinned.

The car shifted, still moving. Down and down it sank. The car tipped to the side, and water carried her purse away, out of reach.

No, no, no. It’s not supposed to happen like this.

Pressure built in her ears, making her head pound. The headlights flickered and died. Then the interior light blinked off. Everything went black.

I’m going to die. In this cold, dark lake without ever learning the truth.

This was a mistake.

She screamed, venting her grief and rage, until her lungs were empty.

Faith. You deserve justice.

Even if the seat belt was useless, Hope had to try. She got back to work on getting the hell out of there. With her last breath she’d fight to get free.

Tugging harder, she pushed on the seat-belt release again as a surge of water wrapped its icy arms around her chest.

---

WHAT IN THE HELL? Gage Graham said aloud to himself, slowing down his truck.

An SUV had just run a car off the road right in front of him, wheeled a U-turn, and the driver was hightailing it from the scene.

In his thirty years, he’d seen a lot of insane stuff, most of it horrible, but nothing quite so bizarre.

Gage tried to make out the license plate number of the SUV, but it was impossible in the dark with the raging storm.

It burned him to the bone to let such a vicious piece of work get away, but he didn’t have much choice. The driver of the sedan might be hurt or worse.

He pulled to the opposite side of the road and stopped at an angle with his headlights pointed in the area where the car had gone over the side. Switching on his high beams, the lights illuminated the area well enough for him to get a decent look at the situation.

The car had gone into Goode Mountain Lake. A fifteen-thousand-acre reservoir. The whole front end was submerged, and the rest was quickly sinking. It’d only take minutes, maybe five, tops, for the entire car to fill up with water. By his count, more than sixty seconds had already lapsed since the car went off the road.

Calling 911 was pointless. Goode was twenty-five miles away, and first responders wouldn’t make it in time.

As for the residents of Benediction, they didn’t respond to anything outside its gates. One of the many iron-clad rules. Most of the road was considered no-man’s land. Luckily for the driver of the car in the lake, he wasn’t a typical inhabitant and believed if a rule couldn’t be broken, there was usually a way to bend it.

Gage pulled his Sig Sauer P220 from the ankle holster and stowed it in the glove box. After switching on his hazard lights, he jumped out of the car.

Icy-cold rain pelted down on him like tiny daggers, soaking most of his clothes. He only had on a down puffer vest over his turtleneck, since he hadn’t planned on being exposed to the elements. The weather had turned from bad to nasty with the inbound winter storm that was going to drop an estimated foot of snow tomorrow. The temperature had already dipped into the thirties, but it wasn’t below freezing yet.

He hustled around to the back and popped open the door to the under-bed storage compartment. Fished out a flare from his emergency roadside kit.

The last thing he needed was a passerby sideswiping his truck, exacerbating the situation, because they didn’t see his hazard lights until it was too late.

Gusts of wet wind lashed his face and stung his eyes, but he’d been through much worse. This paled in comparison to what he’d endured in the CIA. Besides, he’d take cold rain over sand in his eyes any day.

With the flare lit, he tossed it a few feet away in the direction of oncoming traffic. He grabbed the flashlight—a floating, waterproof one that was impact resistant and could be used as a weapon in a pinch. He slammed the trunk closed and took off for the embankment.

A patch of ice had him slipping on the road but didn’t take him down thanks to the traction on the soles of his thermo tactical boots. He made his way along the slope. Moved quickly but carefully over the slick grass.

There wasn’t a second to lose. The smashed-in trunk of the sedan slipped underwater.

He dived into the lake.

Although he’d braced himself for the cold, the brutal chill of the water was startling. A jolt of pain ripped through his whole body, but he didn’t stop swimming.

Diving deeper, he swam to the driver’s door and shone his flashlight inside.

A woman was trapped behind the steering wheel. She gasped for her last breath of air as the water inside the car overtook her completely, and then she was under.

She moved her head, her dark hair flowing in the water, and looked at him. Terrified, pretty and about to drown if he didn’t get her out. She pointed to her seat belt and yanked at it.

The belt was stuck.

Gage tried the door handle. Locked. He tapped the window, gesturing for her to unlock it.

She glanced down and hit the button. The lock disengaged, and he pulled on the handle as she pushed. But it didn’t budge.

Doors didn’t jam when submerged, but they became very heavy due to the pressure exerted by the water pushing it toward the car. It’d be nearly impossible to open until the car completely filled with water. Then the pressure would be in equilibrium, but she didn’t have that kind of time to wait.

Gage slammed the hard case of the flashlight against the window. He swung again, and the glass held. Blunt force wouldn’t work.

Too bad she hadn’t rolled down the window before the car had lost power. The windshield was a spiderweb of cracks. From the inside of the car, it could be kicked out. Trying to do the reverse, from the outside in, wouldn’t work.

He was almost out of air. His lungs strained for oxygen.

Gage pointed to his chest and then up.

She pressed her palms to the glass. Her eyes were wide with panic as she shook her head. For him not to go? That she couldn’t hold her breath for a minute longer?

Either way, it’d serve no one if they both drowned. Still, something in his chest squeezed at what he had to do next.

He had to leave her.

Chapter Two

Hope shook her head, desperate for the man not to leave. Help had come. The stranger from Benediction had stopped his car. Had dared to jump into the lake against the odds. Tried and failed to open the door. Only to abandon her.

She banged on the window, frantic. Please! Don’t go!

He held up one finger. Then he turned and kicked off the car with his feet. He swam away through the darkness, leaving her behind and taking the light with him.

No! Hope screamed the word in her mind.

She yanked at the seat belt. Kicked the dash. Pounded at the glass. It was no use.

The car sank deeper, leveling out. The pressure popped her ears, and she was now dizzy.

Her lungs began burning, starved for oxygen. Fear inundated her. No matter how hard she fought to get loose, she was helpless. Probably ten, twenty feet from the surface, but it might as well have been twenty miles.

Was this all a lost cause?

He’d warned her, told her not to do this. Mark my words, you’ll end up dead, just like Faith, if you don’t let this go, he had said to her.

Desperate for the sweet taste of oxygen, she clutched at her throat. Her lungs ached like they were on the verge of exploding. The weight of the water, the strain of holding her breath hurt so much.

She couldn’t fight the urge any longer. The impulse was as instinctual as it was overpowering, even though she knew it would it mean the end, but there was no stopping the inevitable. She gasped and sucked in water.

Excruciating pain mixed with blinding panic as her lungs filled. She flailed like a madwoman. Frantic to get out.

Something brushed her head. She reached up and grabbed it. Smooth leather in her hand.

Her purse.

Hope struggled to unzip it. Her hands were shaking so badly. She gagged and choked.

God, oh, God. She was drowning.

A bolt of agony and sheer terror went straight through her. But a sense of calm quickly followed as everything slowed and faded.

Suddenly, she wasn’t afraid to die anymore.

Soon, she’d see Faith again.

---

GAGE POPPED TO the surface. The torrential rain pounded against his face. He sucked in a few deep breaths, easing his lungs while he thought of a way to quickly get the woman out. Teeth chattering, he shed his soaked-through down-filled vest and heavy wool turtleneck, leaving his long-sleeved thermal undershirt while keeping a grip on the flashlight.

His knife. He could use it to get her out.

He took another breath, the deepest, longest one he could hold, and dived back under.

Before he’d left the woman, he had held up one finger to the car window, letting her know he wouldn’t abandon her. All he needed was a minute and then he’d be back.

Hang on.

The car had settled into the muck at the bottom close to shore. He swam to the driver’s side and cast the light inside.

Her arms were floating up by her purse, and her eyes were closed. She was no longer conscious.

Damn it. He’d taken too long.

Gage dug into his left boot, his fingers numb from the frosty water, and pulled out his Venom double-action knife. It had a lightning-fast release button, but he didn’t need the four-inch blade yet. He angled the handle at the window. On the end of the knife was a pommel designed to break glass, though he’d never used the feature prior to today and for a moment had forgotten it was even there.

One hard tap pierced the window, fracturing the glass. A second tap and the pane shattered.

Gage hit the button on the side of the knife, releasing the blade. First, he cut the shoulder strap, followed by the one across her lap. He shoved the knife back in his boot, grabbed her purse and let go of the flashlight.

Taking care not to hit her head on the door frame, he pulled the woman from the car. The flashlight was floating to the surface, the beam of light providing a guide.

The cold pressed in on him from all sides, icy teeth sinking into his skin, deeper to his bones. He pushed off the car with both feet for a boost, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Keeping one arm wrapped around the woman’s chest, he swam with one arm, pulling at the water, scissoring his legs with all his might.

Blood pounded in his head along with his thundering heartbeat. His lungs screamed for oxygen, the cold knotting his muscles. Every cell in his body burned from the cold.

He clawed his way through the water, following the light.

They were close. So close.

Slowing down wasn’t an option even as his lungs ached and heaviness set into his limbs.

Darkness danced on the edge of his vision. He was growing tired, but he ignored the fatigue. It was only a product of the cold. He ran six miles a day, lifted weights, stayed in peak condition since he’d been disgraced and disavowed from the Agency. There was no doubt in his mind that he had the strength to make it to the surface.

He was not going to let this woman die. Keep going. Don’t stop.

The flashlight was right there, and then he broke the surface.

Uh! He raked in rejuvenating air as he also sucked droplets of water into his heaving lungs.

Relief whooshed through him, but he was nowhere near done. He pushed onward, doing a sidestroke while ensuring her head stayed above water until he reached dirt. His body ached from the exertion, and the chill spearing through him only made it worse. He wanted to rest for a moment, but the rush of adrenaline kept him moving. If he was going to save her, he had to act quickly.

Panting, Gage hauled the woman up onto the muddy bank and into the brightness from the headlights. Her face was pale, nose bloody and her lips had turned blue. Getting her breathing was paramount, and getting her warm would be equally important.

The freezing rain hadn’t let up. It was coming down hard at a vicious angle, making his next task even more difficult.

He rose on his knees beside the woman and began chest compressions. The heel of one hand on the center of her chest, the other hand on top of the first, and he used his entire upper body, not just his arms, to push. Counted to thirty.

No response from her.

Come on.

He tilted her head back and pried her lips apart. Pinching her nostrils closed gently in case her nose was broken, he sealed his mouth over hers, wasting no time. He blew life-giving breaths into her. Two, long and steady.

Still nothing. He resumed chest compressions, pushing even harder this time. Breathe for me. Come on!

The woman jerked and pushed him away with a forceful cough.

Gage rolled her onto her side, swept her hair back from her face and helped her expel the brackish water. Those first few breaths must’ve felt like fire. He rubbed her back and her arm, encouraging her while she wheezed and sputtered.

Once she finished hacking up the liquid, she dug her palms into the mud and rolled her upper body off the ground. She looked him over. Brilliant eyes took in his face as her lips quivered, body shaking, chest rising and falling in the desperate rhythm of the utterly spent.

Gage exhaled hard himself, white puffs of breath leaving his mouth.

Thank you, she said, still gulping air. Her soft voice was barely audible over the pounding rain. You...okay?

Gage was fairly sure he was the one who should’ve been asking that question. She’d nearly died but was concerned about his