Her Enemy Protector Read Online Free PDF Page B

spoke into the mouthpiece. “Hey, Dutch, it’s Joe.”
    What kind of name was Dutch? Some kind of military nickname, maybe?
    “Yeah, I’m sitting with her right now. She wants to talk to her sister.”
    He waited in silence and she watched him cautiously. Not real conversational, these Charlie Squad guys. And then he held the phone out to her.
    Eagerly, she put it to her ear. “Julia?”
    She all but cried in relief at the sound of her sister’s voice in her ear, sobbing, “Cari? Is that you? Are you all right?”
    “So far. Are you all right?”
    Julia laughed and then made a little sound of pain as if laughing hurt. “Oh, yes. I’m fine. More than fine. But you need to leave Gavarone, honey. Get away from Eduardo.”
    “I was thinking the same thing,” Cari retorted quickly. Then she asked seriously, “Did you send Joe to help me?”
    “I sure did. He’s a hunk, isn’t he? I thought he might be your type.”
    Cari grinned. “You got that right, Sis.”
    “He’ll take care of you. Trust me. Trust him.”
    Cari looked up as Joe leaned forward and murmured, “That’s long enough. I don’t want the call traced.”
    She said into the phone, “Apparently, we can’t talk anymore or this call might get traced. I love you, J.J. And thanks.”
    A laugh. “You’re welcome. And I love you, too. Take care, and get out of there—” The line went dead.
    Cari handed the cell phone back to Joe, who tucked it back into his shirt pocket.
    “Satisfied?” he asked.
    How could she not be? Her sister had sent this gorgeous stranger to save her life. If Julia trusted him, why in the world shouldn’t she?
    “So,” Joe asked lightly, “are you going to marry me?”

    Joe waited tensely for Cari’s response to his question, his marriage proposal . His gut tied itself in a thousand knots at the very thought.
    The other guys on the squad hadn’t liked the idea, either. It was fraught with risks. But he’d been doing ’round-the-clock surveillance on Ferrare and his daughter for over a month now and not once—not once— had he found a weak spot in the bastard’s security measures. If Cari refused to go for the fake marriage thing, he and the rest of Charlie Squad had no idea what to try next. And after that little bombshell she’d just dropped about her father killing Tony—whoever the hell he was—the squad had no choice but to move fast.
    The squad had pondered and tossed out dozens of plans. And it always came back to this one: the only way to get Cari out without putting her life in serious jeopardy was for someone to infiltrate the Ferrare fortress and sneak her out by cunning. And even then, it was going to be one hell of a trick to pull off. The only positive was that Eduardo’s security was set up to keep bad guys out, not good guys in. It ought to be possible to move Cari out from under her father’s nose if Joe was careful and fast when the time came.
    A few days ago, Colonel Folly had run this marriage idea past Charlie Squad’s psychiatrist, and she’d assured him that Ferrare would be desperate to hand over control of his uncontrollable daughter to someone else. She was certain Ferrare would leap at the idea of a son-in-law to rein in Carina.
    Still, Colonel Folly had resisted the eloping scheme—that is, until the psychiatrist had dropped the other shoe. She predicted that Eduardo Ferrare would kill his daughter rather than let anyone take her away from him. The only possible exception might be if Eduardo gave his daughter away to someone of his own free will—as in approving a marriage. Reluctantly, the colonel had green-lighted the op. Now, Joe just had to get Carina to go for it.
    “Okay,” she breathed.
    “Okay what?” he asked cautiously. He needed to hear her say the words.
    “I’ll marry you, Joe. But there’s one thing…”
    Jeez, his pulse had just shot up like a rocket. “What’s that?” he asked, much more calmly than he felt.
    “It has to be a real wedding. My father