“Who are you?” she asked.
“I told you, I’m Cole Grayson.”
“That’s not what I mean. They’ve been calling me Jane Doe. That might even be my name, or maybe it’s Susan Smith or Mary Jackson. But whatever it is, a name doesn’t tell anything about who I am or who you are.”
He gazed down at her for a long moment then finally turned away and angled a hip onto the windowsill, studying their reflection in the dark glass. “I’m nobody you want to know.”
A gray veil of desolation emanated from him. She could see it, feel it in the weight of the air, smell the leaden scent, taste the bitter agony. Perhaps because her mind was completely empty of her own emotions, his came to her, strong and clear.
“I don’t have a choice right now,” she said. “You’re the only person I know.”
Dear Harlequin Intrigue Reader,
The recipe for a perfect Valentine’s Day: chocolate, champagne—and four original romantic suspense titles from Harlequin Intrigue!
Our TOP SECRET BABIES promotion kicks off with Rita Herron’s Saving His Son (#601). Devastated single mother Lindsey Payne suspects her child is alive and well—and being kept from her deliberately. The only man who’d be as determined as she is to find her child is Detective Gavin McCord—if he knew he’d fathered her missing baby….
In Best-Kept Secrets (#602) by Dani Sinclair, the tongues in MYSTERY JUNCTION are wagging about newcomer Jake Collins. Amy Thomas’s first and only love has returned at last and she’s ready to tell him the secret she’s long kept hidden. But would revealing it suddenly put her life in jeopardy?
Our ON THE EDGE program continues with Private Vows (#603) by Sally Steward.A beautiful amnesiac is desperate to remember her past. Investigator Cole Grayson is desperate to keep it hidden. For if she remembers the truth, she’d never be his….
Bachelor Will Sheridan thinks he’s found the perfect Mystery Bride (#604) in B.J. Daniels’s latest romantic thriller. But the sexy and provocative Samantha Murphy is a female P.I. in the middle of a puzzling case when Will suddenly becomes her shadow. Now with desire distracting her and a child’s life in the balance, Samantha and Will are about to discover the true meaning of “partnership”!
Sincerely,
Denise O’Sullivan
Associate Senior Editor
Harlequin Intrigue
Private Vows
Sally Steward
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sally Steward, a hard-core romantic who expects life and novels to have happy endings, is married to Max and they live in Missouri, with their large cat, Leo, and their very small dog, Cricket. Although this is her first Harlequin Intrigue, Sally has written for mainstream publishers under her own name, and for Silhouette Romance as Sally Carleen. Her hobbies are drinking Coca-Cola and eating chocolate, especially Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream. Sally loves to hear from her readers, and you can contact her at P.O. Box 6614, Lee’s Summit, MO 64064.
Books by Sally Steward
HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE
603—PRIVATE VOWS
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Cole Grayson—The former-cop-turned-private-investigator wants to help the beautiful woman with amnesia but fears he will only lead her straight to hell.
Mary Jackson—She can’t remember anything from her past except for vague, terrifying images, images that fit with the blood on her wedding gown.
Pete Townley—The police officer is skeptical of Mary’s story. Does she really have amnesia or is she covering up a deadly secret?
Sam Maynard—He claims to be Mary’s fiancé. He’s obsessed with her, has his bedroom plastered with her pictures.
Geoffrey Sloan—He’s wealthy, charming and handsome and also says he’s Mary’s fiancé….
For Sharon Bishop.
Contents
Chapter One
With the top down on his big old T-bird convertible and one arm angled out the window, Cole Grayson drove slowly along Turtle Creek Boulevard, focusing on the trees and flowers, breathing in their essence, breathing out the bad taste his last job had left with him. This wasn’t the fastest way home by any means, but the older, wooded area—so close to downtown Dallas in actual mileage but so distant in other ways—always soothed him.
The early-June evening and the location were perfect, but they weren’t working their magic, weren’t dissolving that edgy, irritable feeling. He sat upright in the seat, fingers clenching the steering wheel, eyes darting from side to side, glowering at other drivers, ready to lean on the horn if somebody committed a slight infraction. What the hell was the matter with him? He should be happy!
He’d just turned in his final report on his last job, helping a large corporation catch an embezzler. Last month he’d found proof of fraud in an insurance scam. Business was booming, and it was good business. It paid better than being a cop and was certainly less dangerous.
And he felt totally useless.
Up ahead a woman emerged from between two buildings and paused, looking up and down the street. Cole sat even straighter and blinked, doubting his own eyes.
The woman wore a formal bridal gown.
Her clothing alone was enough to make him take notice, but it was her face, pale in the gathering dusk, her eyes wide with fear, that really caught his attention.
His foot jerked off the gas pedal and hovered over the brake but he ordered himself to go on. This