Read Online Covertly Strong (The Strong Series Book 1) by N.A. Alcorn - Free Book Online

organization known as Project Smiles. She travels to third-world countries to perform surgeries on children born with facial birth defects, primarily focusing on cleft lips and cleft palates. Consistently known as a phenomenal surgeon who graduated at the top of her class from Harvard Medical School, she also writes a small medical column for one of the biggest newspapers in the country.
    She will be giving a speech this evening at the Navy Compassionate Warriors Dinner commemorating the men who risk their lives for the good of her country. Project Smiles has received many donations from the US military to support their ongoing cause to provide underserved countries with proper medical care. And that’s the sole reason Sloan will be in attendance tonight.
    From a secret agent perspective, she has doubts about attending this dinner. There are underlying concerns that any known connections with the United States military could be used against her, but she reminds herself that Dr. Felicia Santora would not worry about this. She would accept any and all help to support her passion for helping others.
    Her bare foot rests on the coffee table as she sits comfortably on the small, brown, leather loveseat inside the barren studio apartment that’s a few blocks from Fisherman’s Wharf. Sloan doesn’t really have a home per se. She has places of residence scattered across the United States, but none of them are actually home . Her parents’ house in San Diego could be considered home, but unfortunately, it’s still a place that’s too painful for her to visit. She’s never had the heart to sell their house, and she’s hired numerous people to maintain the gorgeous, Spanish-style two-story, but it’s been years since she’s stepped foot there.
    She only keeps four small tokens of her past with her at all times.
    Her father’s medals.
    A picture from high school graduation—Sloan dressed in her cap and gown, wrapped inside her parents’ ecstatic embrace.
    Her mother’s necklace—a heart-shaped locket that holds a picture of Maria Walker beautifully pregnant with Sloan. The back of the locket is inscribed with her father’s words. My love, My life, Always - JW
    And the last piece of her past is a letter she’s kept with her for over fourteen years.
    It’s not just any letter, but a letter that reminds of her a love that was so strong— so deep —that she’ll forever be reminded of the boy with the gorgeous blue eyes and contagious smile.
    The only person who could make her heart skip a beat.
    When she looks back on the past—on her relationship with Nixon West—she knows with certainty that he was her first love. And it wasn’t because he was her first date, or first kiss, or the first person she gave herself to—it’s because he is the one guy she forever compares everyone else to. The one person she will never really get over even though she’s convinced herself she’s moved on.
    She’s never found that kind of connection with anyone else.
    The letter is a bittersweet reminder of the one and only part of her past that still manages to make her feel sentimental and wistfully aware of all of the things that might have been.
    Of course she’s had the urge to track him down over the years…
    But what would be the point in that?
    Yes, she has the resources at her disposal to pinpoint his exact location and find out what he’s doing with his life, but her affiliation with the CIA would make it impossible to ever lay eyes on him again. At times, she’s toyed with the idea of just finding out where he is, what he’s doing, what his life is like, but the idea of him happy and married and living the life Sloan knows she’ll never have would hurt too goddamn much.
    She walks into her bedroom and pulls the small, brown box filled with her past from the back of her cedar closet. The past beckons her to remember, to savor the memories of the life she no longer lives. She swipes her hand across the top of the lid,