Against the Wind Read Online Free PDF Page A

am,” she snapped. “Don’t you know me?”
    The guard reappeared behind Jake, her pawed-through purse in his hand. He handed it to Jake, adding a military salute that only added to Maddy’s uneasiness. Keeping the gun trained on her, Jake rummaged through the purse, and it took all Maddy’s self-control not to protest. He pulled out her passport and Maddy breathed a sigh of relief. One that quickly changed to despair as he flipped it open and she remembered what it read.
    “Allison M. Henderson,” he read in that raspy voice ofhis that had grown even more gravelly in the ensuing years. The sound of it had filled more than one fantasy years ago. Now it grated on her raw nerves. He looked up at her then, and his hazel eyes were cold and merciless. “No, I don’t know you, Allison Henderson. I’ve never seen you before in my life.”
    “That’s not my real name,” she said, her voice a sudden babble of nervousness.
    He raised an eyebrow beneath that sweat-stained bandanna. “Not your real name, Miss Henderson? Don’t you know it’s a federal crime to get a passport under a phony name? I ought to report you to the American Consulate. Unfortunately San Pablo no longer has an American Consulate. I believe it was blown up, along with half the local workers, several months ago.”
    “I mean, it’s my legal name, but not my real name,” she stammered. “My name is Allison Madelyn Lambert Henderson. My mother remarried and—”
    “And being a loyal daughter you gave up your father’s name,” Jake supplied smoothly, still watching her out of those cold eyes, the gun never moving. “Samuel wouldn’t have a daughter like that.”
    Maddy flinched. She wasn’t about to make excuses to this hard-eyed stranger, particularly when he was holding a gun on her. Wasn’t about to explain that the only way she could get a passport and visa that quickly was to take the protection of her stepfather’s powerful name, the name she’d accepted through apathy when she wasn’t quite eighteen and abandoned when she was twenty. “But you do admit he had a daughter?” she pressed.
    There was a long silence, one that seemed to go on forever, but in actuality it was probably less than thirty seconds, as Maddy watched the man opposite her and begged him to remember her. She held her breath, waiting,praying with a fervor that she wouldn’t have thought she was capable of.
    Finally he spoke, the rough voice shattering a small, secret portion of her heart. “He may have had a daughter,” Jake Murphy drawled. “I don’t really remember. It was a long time ago.”
    Part of her had been expecting it, but it didn’t make it any easier to take. “This is ridiculous,” she said finally. “I don’t have to convince you of anything. Take me to see my father. I expect his memory might be a little better.”
    Jake lowered the gun then, uncocking it and tucking inside the waistband of his faded khaki pants. “I’m afraid you’re wrong about that.”
    “About what?”
    “It is me you’ll have to convince. Sam’s in no shape to be bothered by General Ortega’s latest conspiracy. I don’t know what the two of you have in mind, but you’re not getting within ten feet of Sam Lambert until I say so.”
    She stared at him, mouth agape, fury and something else warring for control. “Damn you, I want to see my father!” she demanded furiously.
    For the first time Jake Murphy smiled, a cold, heartless smile that barely lifted the corners of his hard mouth. “Then I expect you’ll have to go back to the States where you’ll doubtless find him. That is, if you ever knew him in the first place.”
    It took her a moment to recognize the insult, and it set the seal of her almost incoherent fury. “Listen, Jake Murphy, if I’m not Sam’s daughter, how would I know you?”
    “Everyone who knows anything about El Patrón knows me,” he drawled. “And I’m tired of arguing with you, lady.”
    Maddy had never considered herself a