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  “Take your clothes off.”

  Angel jerked to attention. Blinked twice. “What?”

  “Take off all your clothes. Now.”

  Cole stared at her with that usual intensity, his words perfectly clear, uttered in that brisk, cold tone, but she still didn’t understand.

  “Why do you want me to take off my clothes?” The idea seemed ludicrous, given the current situation.

  “Do it.”

  She jumped at the sound of his voice. She had to get a hold of herself here. “No.” She shook her head adamantly. She wasn’t taking off her clothes without a good reason. “Not until you tell me why.”

  “We walked right into a trap. I’m not taking the chance that there’s a bug I don’t know about. I need to inspect every square inch of your body.”

  DEBRA WEBB

  FULL EXPOSURE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Debra Webb was born in Scottsboro, Alabama, to parents who taught her that anything is possible if you want it badly enough. When her husband joined the military, they moved to Berlin, Germany, and Debra became a secretary in the commanding general’s office. By 1985 they were back in the States, and with the support of her husband and two beautiful daughters, Debra took up writing full-time and in 1998 her dream of writing for Harlequin came true. You can write to Debra with your comments at P.O. Box 64, Huntland, Tennessee 37345 or visit her Web site at www.debrawebb.com to find out exciting news about her next book.

  Books by Debra Webb

  HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE

  583—SAFE BY HIS SIDE*

  597—THE BODYGUARD’S BABY*

  610—PROTECTIVE CUSTODY*

  634—SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT: BABY

  646—SOLITARY SOLDIER*

  659—PERSONAL PROTECTOR*

  671—PHYSICAL EVIDENCE*

  683—CONTRACT BRIDE*

  693—UNDERCOVER WIFE**

  697—HER HIDDEN TRUTH**

  701—GUARDIAN OF THE NIGHT**

  718—HER SECRET ALIBI*

  732—KEEPING BABY SAFE*

  747—CRIES IN THE NIGHT*

  768—AGENT COWBOY*

  801—SITUATION: OUT OF CONTROL†

  807—FULL EXPOSURE†

  HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE

  864—LONGWALKER’S CHILD

  935—THE MARRIAGE PRESCRIPTION*

  948—THE DOCTOR WORE BOOTS

  995—GUARDING THE HEIRESS*

  SILHOUETTE BOMBSHELL

  22—JUSTICE

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Cole Danes—An Internal Affairs investigator assigned to ferret out the leak at the Colby Agency. Has he gone too far?

  Angel Parker—She is desperate. Someone she loves is in grave danger. Only one man can help her, but will she survive the encounter?

  Victoria Colby-Camp—Head of the Colby Agency. She refuses to believe the final report Cole Danes offers.

  Lucas Camp—Deputy director of Mission Recovery, and Victoria’s loving husband. He will do anything to protect the woman he loves, including going after Danes if he makes a mistake.

  Mildred Parker—Victoria’s personal assistant. Will her niece, Angel, be able to reach her in time?

  Thomas Casey—The director of Mission Recovery, and Lucas’s boss. If Lucas can count on anyone for backup, it’s Thomas Casey.

  John Logan—A specialist at Mission Recovery, and one of Casey’s most trusted men.

  Keith Anderson—Angel’s friend. A man Cole Danes despises for all the wrong reasons.

  Errol Leberman—A lifelong nemesis of the Colby Agency. Though Leberman is dead, his evil legacy still taunts Victoria Colby-Camp and her family.

  Wyman Clark—The final minion recruited by Errol Leberman. He is in control of this game, and the clock is ticking down.

  This book is dedicated to a young man who is tall, dark and handsome—the epitome of a romance hero.

  The woman who captures him one day will be a very lucky lady indeed. This one is for you, Robby, nephew extraordinaire.

  Love, Aunt Deb.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter One

  Winnetka, Illinois, Monday, 10:15 a.m.

  “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now.”

  The tip of the gun barrel bored into her skull. She shuddered at the harsh words. Dear God, please help me! Don’t let him kill me until I know she’s safe.

  “I don’t know what else you want from me.” The words echoed hollowly from her throat. A defeated sob tore loose from her trembling lips before she could stop it. “I’ve done everything you asked.”

  “You’re pathetic,” the evil man hovering above her hissed. “The least you could have done was fight, but you just dropped to your knees like a spineless puppet.” He laughed, the sound cruel, mocking. “Don’t you know it’s people like you who make the few and strong like us so powerful?” The cold steel drilled harder into her head.

  She didn’t have to look up to know he stared down at her, the truth in his words glaring like a humiliating spotlight. He would kill her, she didn’t doubt her fate for a single moment. And he was right, she was worse than pathetic…less than nothing. She closed her eyes and pictured her sweet baby in her mind. Who would take care of her now? There was no one else.

  And it was entirely her own fault.

  “Maybe…” the hateful voice offered slowly as the pressure on her skull lessened ever so slightly. “There might be one last use for you.”

  For the first time since she’d fallen to her knees, pleading for mercy, she looked up at him. “Anything.” She moistened her brutally dry lips. “I’ll do anything. Just—” she swallowed hard “—just don’t hurt her.”

  “You gave us a name.” One side of the man’s vile mouth lifted in the barest hint of a smile. “We want him.”

  Dread expanded in her chest once more. “I don’t know what else I can do.” She’d done everything they had asked already. He’d promised to leave her alone. But the man who’d made that promise didn’t appear to be in charge anymore. Another, even more evil man apparently had control. She couldn’t trust this one. Though she’d never met him before today, somehow she knew with complete certainty.

  This man would kill her.

  She didn’t even care anymore. If only he wouldn’t hurt—

  “Bring him to us,” he ordered, a new kind of chill in his tone. “We want him to pay for what he has done.”

  Confusion spiraled into her already fragmented thoughts. “I—I’m not sure—”

  “We want to teach him a lesson first, then he’ll pay,” he explained, an eerie look of anticipation in those icy gray eyes. “Yes.” He nodded succinctly as if having weighed the merit of his suggestion he found it worthy. “Perhaps if you did this for us, we could spare her.”

  A glint of faltering hope sent a new wave of emotion brimming against her lashes. “Please.” She lifted her hands in supplication. “Please don’t hurt her.” She struggled to draw in an agonizing breath. “I want to help you. I swear I do, just don’t—”

  “You have forty-eight hours. I’ll be in touch with specific instructions. Bring him to us or she dies.”

  Terror squeezed her heart. “Please.” God, please don’t let him do this… “How can I bring this man to you when I don’t even know him? How am I supposed to find him?”

  The
man wielding the ultimate power of life and death over her world snickered. “Don’t worry, Cole Danes will find you.”

  Chapter Two

  Inside the Colby Agency, Monday, 10:30 a.m.

  Cole Danes watched Lucas Camp enter the office of Victoria Colby-Camp, head of the Colby Agency. Cole had anticipated this meeting. He’d known when he turned in his final report that his conclusions would not sit well with his employers on this assignment.

  No one liked the truth when it hit too close to home.

  He’d been summoned to Victoria’s office this morning, however, she had insisted on waiting for Lucas’s arrival before starting the meeting. Cole hadn’t argued. His findings were conclusive. Whether she wanted to believe him or not was strictly her decision. Lucas, however, would surely look upon the situation with a bit more objectivity. He, after all, had been the one to hire Cole. Lucas Camp would not second-guess Cole’s work.

  Lucas, his trademark limp scarcely noticeable to anyone unaware of his past, moved to the wing chair adjacent to Cole’s and nodded once to his lovely wife as he sat down. He propped his distinctive cane against the chair and leaned back, his full attention settling onto Cole.

  “Mr. Danes,” Victoria began, her voice stern yet with an underlying fragility that Cole found intensely curious, “I have reviewed your report very thoroughly and I must say that your documentation of evidence is rock solid.”

  Cole inclined his head in agreement with her assessment. “I’m certain you expected nothing less.”

  He studied her during the moment of uncomfortable stillness that followed. Strong, capable. Victoria was both of those things. He knew from the dossier he’d compiled upon Lucas’s request that he consider this assignment, that she had suffered greatly in her life, had every reason to falter, and yet she had not.

  Until now.

  The uncertainty—the utter vulnerability—he saw now surprised him. Had his findings somehow served as the final blow that would crumble her already heavily burdened emotional fortress?

  “Having recognized that undeniable fact,” she continued, surprising him once more with the sudden burst of strength in her tone, “I will, without reservation, stand behind this member of my staff in unconditional rejection of your charges.”

  Impatience trickled through Cole. His record was irrefutable. He never failed to complete an investigation and his findings were always infallible.

  Her denial, he admitted, was not completely unexpected. Though strong and capable, Victoria Colby-Camp operated with one weakness that Cole had long ago conquered, human compassion. A crippling emotion at best.

  She cared deeply for her agency and those she employed there. Too deeply, it seemed, to see the truth now.

  “I understand your hesitation, Mrs.—”

  “No you don’t.” She leaned forward, braced her arms on her polished mahogany desk. “I’ve spoken at length with Heath Murphy since his surgery barely thirty-six hours ago. Some of his accusations against you were corroborated by the medical staff at Aspen Valley Hospital. So don’t pretend to understand how I feel, Mr. Danes. I’m of the opinion that feeling is something you’re quite incapable of.”

  Well, she had him there. He had done what he deemed necessary to complete the mission. He refused to apologize for it.

  “Let’s not get off track,” Lucas offered gently.

  Cole turned his attention to the man who’d brought him into this situation. Lucas Camp, deputy director of Mission Recovery, a shadow operation that scarcely anyone was aware of, had hired Cole to perform an internal-affairs investigation to find a leak in the Colby Agency that appeared to go back at least two years.

  Victoria and her agency had been plagued by a man named Errol Leberman for nearly two decades. He had kidnapped her son, tortured and brainwashed him, ultimately sending him to assassinate his own mother some eighteen years later. Leberman had spent many of those years, while waiting for the son she thought dead to become the killing machine he needed for his coup de grâce, playing head games with both Victoria and Lucas. There were times when his moves could only have been made with skilled help. And, more recently, with the use of inside information. Lucas had recognized that cold hard fact even when Victoria had not wanted to see it.

  One week ago when Cole assumed control of the Colby Agency to begin his internal-affairs investigation he already knew the name of the primary man who had helped Leberman. Cole had needed only two things to complete his work, the identity of the agency employee who had leaked information and the elimination of Leberman’s associate.

  He had accomplished both. The first he had quickly ascertained through his interrogations and extensive background investigations. The second had taken a bit more time and the help of one of the Colby Agency’s investigators. The newest investigator on staff, one who would have no ties to Leberman and the leak. Heath Murphy.

  Heath had not failed him, though he had been royally P.O.ed at what he recognized as a setup early in the game. But that was his problem. Cole’s single goal was to see that the elimination occurred.

  Leberman’s associate, Howard Stephens, was dead, and Victoria had her name. The Colby Agency’s involvement in the matter was over. Cole had his own agenda from here. Nor would he apologize for using Stephens’s own daughter, Jayne, to bring him down.

  “Danes,” Lucas addressed Cole now, “I brought you into this investigation because you’re the best.”

  He was. Lucas and his team of Specialists were superior, as well. However, Cole had possessed one piece of information they hadn’t. That was part of what made him the best in this particular situation. Lucas and his lovely wife had no need to know certain details.

  “Thank you, Lucas.” Cole looked directly at the man when he spoke, allowed him to visually inspect his eyes and expression. Cole knew he watched for any sign of deceit. “I have yet to fail.”

  “There’s always a first time,” Victoria accused.

  Cole offered her a patient smile. She responded with a furious glare. “I appreciate that this is a delicate situation, but I can assure you that my assessment is correct.”

  Lucas held up a hand when she would have argued otherwise. “Let’s just say that I agree,” he ventured.

  Cole knew it was a front to spare his wife from feeling further injury. Lucas knew he was right. He was no fool, nor was he blinded by overpowering emotion on the subject.

  “If you have any doubts,” Cole suggested with little attempt to keep the smugness out of his tone, “why don’t you speak with the employee yourself? I’m familiar with your interrogation techniques, Lucas, a few questions is all it would take and my conclusion would be corroborated.”

  Lucas’s expression turned hard. “You know the answer to that, Danes.”

  Oh, yes. He knew why the employee couldn’t be questioned. This meeting wasted precious time. Perhaps he was the only one present who truly understood just how little of that valuable commodity remained within grasp.

  Mildred Parker, Victoria’s longtime secretary and personal assistant. A woman who had started at the Colby Agency with its inception. She was the leak. She’d gone missing in action two days ago, at basically the same time the final piece of evidence had confirmed his suspicions.

  Victoria stood. Her chair banged against the credenza behind her desk. “I will not listen to another word of this.” She glowered at Cole. “Mildred has dedicated her life to this agency. She would never do anything to harm me or anyone else here, much less my son.”

  She was right about one part. Mildred’s involvement in leaked information only went back two years. Prior to that Leberman had used guesswork and an uncanny knowledge of his prey’s method of operation to go about his nasty business. No one at the Colby Agency had helped Leberman take the Colby child. He’d merely waited for the right opportunity and utilized a skilled accomplice. Revenge was a strong motivator and as misplaced as his had been, Leberman had been out for the ultimate revenge.

  Victoria stormed ou
t of the office. The door slammed, punctuating her determined exit with a firm thwack.

  Lucas expelled a heavy breath. “There’s more you’re not telling me, Danes.”

  Cole redirected his attention to Lucas. He hadn’t expected anything less of the man. Lucas Camp had spent a lifetime reading between the lines. “There is.”

  “Why haven’t you shared this additional information?” Lucas kept his temper carefully contained though Cole knew for a certainty that he felt supremely annoyed by this admission.

  “Your wife has no need to know this part,” Cole said bluntly. “It would only add to her discomfort.” He propped his elbows on the chair’s arms and steepled his fingers thoughtfully. “Contrary to popular thinking I do suffer a measure of compassion.”

  Lucas chuckled but the sound held little humor and his expression exhibited even less. “Perhaps we’ll debate that issue another time.” The older man’s gaze pushed hard against Cole’s. “I know you, Danes. You’re forty years old. You’ve spent the past dozen years of your life making other people’s lives miserable. You’re the best interrogator in the business. Since moving into internal affairs at NSA ten years ago you’ve proven your ability time and time again. Nothing gets past you. Tell me what it is you’re leaving out.”

  Cole rarely worked directly for the National Security Agency these days. His skills were too highly sought after to remain attached to one agency.

  “Fair enough,” Cole permitted. But Lucas would only know what he wanted him to know. As good as this longtime superspy was, he wasn’t quite as good at deception as Cole.

  “If my calculations are correct,” he said, choosing his words carefully, “only two men remain of the original group Leberman started some twenty years ago.”