by Roma, Laurie
IAD Agency 3
Deadly Target
IAD agent Mikayla “Lynx” Lincoln is in desperate need of a vacation after taking a bullet during her last mission. On orders to relax and recover, she's sent to a cabin in the secluded woods of Colorado for some peace and quiet. But her plans for a restful recovery are shot to hell the moment she crosses paths with former movie star Gage Stark.
Gage Stark is a man with a troubled past. After a brutal betrayal ended his promising acting career, he returned home to heal and start a new life. The moment Gage meets Mikayla, their chemistry is too strong to deny. Passion explodes every time they're together, and their volatile relationship is anything but quiet.
When a shocking discovery is made and secrets are revealed, trust is put to the test. Will Gage be strong enough to stand beside Mikayla and fight, or will his need to protect her shatter the fragile bond between them?
Genre: Contemporary, Romantic Suspense
Length: 87,584 words
DEADLY TARGET
IAD Agency 3
Laurie Roma
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
DEADLY TARGET
Copyright © 2013 by Laurie Roma
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62740-243-9
First E-book Publication: July 2013
Cover design by Christine Kirchoff
All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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DEDICATION
To Mika,
My childhood friend and sister of my heart. Thank you for always supporting and believing in me. You deserve a bigger and brighter happily ever after than I could ever put into words.
Thank you for being you…
DEADLY TARGET
IAD Agency 3
LAURIE ROMA
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
“I can’t see a damn thing!”
The windshield wipers worked furiously back and forth against the window as Mikayla “Lynx” Lincoln rolled her eyes from the passenger seat of the large SUV. Not that the wipers helped against the relentless fall of swirling white mist outside the car window.
It’s not like it had been her idea to drive out in a storm. No, it had been the brainchild of the man currently sitting in the driver’s seat, but now was probably not a good time to mention that.
God save her from friends with good intentions.
Continuing to rant, Adrian Savage let out a stream of curses as the SUV skidded on the icy road. “I think all weathermen should be shot. Do you hear me? Shot! Light snow my ass! We are in the frickin’ arctic tundra and I can’t see a fucking thing!”
Mikayla glanced out the window into the blizzard that only hours ago had been forecasted as a light snowfall until the late hours of the night. Barely evening now, it seemed that the forecasters were indeed wrong again.
Mikayla’s own reflection shone back at her from the side window against the pure white backdrop outside. She was beautiful, even though she didn’t work at it. She kept her curly, dark hair short but fashionably styled, although most of the time she left it piled on the top of her head out of her way and off her face. She had a sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of her nose and on her cheeks, but instead of detracting from her beauty, the light markings only seemed to enhance it.
She knew the importance of presentation and she worked it well. She wore little makeup, but what she did wear accented her exotic features in a way that enhanced her natural beauty and olive skin tone. She was tall at five nine, but Mikayla’s most striking feature were her unusual violet eyes. Unique and beautiful, they could be used to pierce a man’s soul with one look. She had made herself a strong, independent woman who knew who she was and what she wanted.
Too bad her work took over every minute of her life…
Looking back down at the map in her hands Mikayla shoved her hair back off of her face, absently wishing that she had tied it up as she tried to see how much farther they had to go until they reached their destination. Signs, signs would be good.
Not that they could see anything anyways.
Stopping somewhere where they could ride out the storm was essential considering they were in bum-fuck Colorado, literally in the middle of nowhere. They had flown into Denver then rented a car to drive her out to the small, isolated town of Serenity where she needed to go. Ha, she wasn’t exactly feeling too serene right now. A little light snow didn’t seem like a good reason to put off the journey Adrian had said, against Mikayla’s protests. But now, well, now it was a completely different story.
To put it simply, they were screwed.
“Adrian, we need to get the hell out of this storm. I can’t see the signs or landmarks for the turnoff,” Mikayla said.
Hands tight on the wheel, Adrian shot a glare at the rearview mirror. “Rock! Wake up, you fucking asshole!”
Mikayla glanced over her shoulder to where Rock Savage was sleeping peacefully in the back seat of the SUV in ignorant bliss to what was going on outside. Rock and Adrian Savage were twins, identical except
for their hair. Rock had his head shaved and Adrian has short dark-brown spikes, but both were now covered with skull caps to keep the cold out. The men’s personalities were like night and day. Rock was a quiet man and preferred to blend into the background, while Adrian was usually the more friendly of the two.
Except for presently.
Adrian’s piercing green eyes were filled with barely contained rage as the car skidded on the icy road again. Once he gained control, Adrian took an empty bottle of water out of the cupholder and threw it in the back. Rock, being Rock, caught it on the fly without opening his eyes and yawned, stretching his long arms as far as he could in the confines of the car. Adrian let out another vicious curse as Rock kicked the driver’s seat hard from behind in retaliation.
Mikayla rolled her eyes before looking out the window again. She was trying to make out any landmarks that would help them figure out where in the hell they were as the men switched to a heated verbal battle that only brothers could manage without coming to physical blows. Not that they wouldn’t enjoy a physical brawl just as much.
The twins had taken an assignment in Denver dealing with some security issues, but they had planned to stay the night before making the trek back to the city. She knew they wanted to make sure she was settled in safe and sound in the cabin before they headed back. They would be busy working at Cryton Dynamics for the next month, but she had a feeling she would see them again before their assignment was complete.
Mikayla, Adrian and Rock all worked for a company that specialized in security. Mac Securities provided defense assistance and installed security systems in high-risk facilities around the world using the latest technology and military precision.
Mac Securities was the top in the field. Part of that was because their boss, Jason MacBain, only hired the best and brightest for his company. The other part was due to the fact that Mac Securities was also a front for IAD, a specialized intelligence agency and counter-terrorist task force that very few people even knew existed.
The International Alliance of Defense was an extremely covert branch in the intelligence community, more like a transnational agency, the ultimate warriors of global warfare with agents stationed all over the world. The members of NATO formed IAD, with a policy of “get it done, no matter the cost.” IAD handled their own problems and discourses internally, and that was just the way they liked it.
They were the elite and only the best were chosen to serve.
For the highly skilled select members of IAD it was a dream come true, since most of the agents had been disillusioned with the rules, regulations and red tape of the regular intelligence branches. Only the highest, most qualified candidates where chosen for IAD, given a kind of worldwide immunity for their actions.
Government agencies around the world looked at the members of IAD with awe and a great amount of envy. Not that it didn’t piss off other agencies when they had to defer to IAD agents if the situation called for it. IAD worked jointly with many other government agencies. It was easier for them to step in and finish the jobs that others couldn’t handle.
Mikayla had joined IAD straight out of the military. Unlike most of her colleagues, she was not a product of a tortured past. No, her nightmares came to her later on in life, a product of her chosen profession. She had simply been born an elite sniper with a natural talent for death. One of the few females in a male-dominated field, Mikayla Lincoln had made a name for herself, although very few people actually knew that the infamous sniper “Lynx” was a woman.
Early on in her career Mikayla had taken her share of suicide missions. Going into hostile territory alone to complete a task had become a norm for her, and she hadn’t always been lucky. No, she had her share of scars, both on the inside and out. Some thought she had a death wish, but she scoffed at that. It was simply her job as a sniper, and it was her job…no, her duty to protect those in need.
Born overseas, Mikayla was the daughter of a Greek heiress and a US ambassador. For the first twelve years of her life Mikayla had been blessed. She had traveled the world with her parents and lived a life that few could even dream about. But all of that had changed the day a bomb had killed everyone at the embassy while she was away at school.
Mikayla had suffered a shocking blow at the death of her parents. For two weeks she wouldn’t speak to anyone and she fell into a pit of despair where no one could reach her. Her mother’s Greek relatives had no clue what to do to aid her and simply left her alone with her grief. When her uncle Ethan, a general in the US Army, had arrived to take her home to the States with him she was practically catatonic, hiding inside herself to escape her pain.
Mikayla’s uncle had whisked her back to the US, raising her as his own beloved child. Slowly, she began to find her way back as her uncle pushed her into activities with him like shooting and messing around on the obstacle courses at the Army base.
That was when she discovered her talent for death.
She had slowly recovered, but a piece of her heart had died along with her parents on that dark day long ago. She had learned to live again, to function day by day. To the outside world, Mikayla seemed like a “normal” teenage girl, but deep inside she knew that she had changed. She had the unique ability to distance herself from her emotions, closing herself off from the pain she felt, and had finally understood why she had been given her macabre talent.
It was her duty to ensure that no one suffered a loss as she had by senseless violence.
Mikayla excelled at the war games her uncle Ethan played with her. So much so that Mikayla enlisted as soon as she was old enough, even though her uncle didn’t want the life of a solider for her. She was good at it, so good that there were very few that could beat her on the range. That was when she began her career of killing, becoming one of the best long-range snipers the Army had ever seen.
She worked without a spotter, partly because she didn’t need one, but the other part was that she couldn’t ask someone else to take the chances that she did on a regular basis. She didn’t take the dangerous assignment because she wanted to build a name for herself or because she had a death wish like some people thought. The truth was that she was just that good and she didn’t want someone else at risk when she knew she could make a shot. But all that changed when she was transferred into a special ops unit with the Savage twins, as well as Marco “Slade” Sladerman, and Brett “Bishop” Michaels.
Overnight Mikayla had gotten four brothers. Used to working alone, it was almost comical how the men in her new unit would never let her go on assignment without at least one of them along for the ride. Together, they had covered each other’s backs for years, doing what was necessary to save each other.
Just like their last mission…
Mikayla was currently taking some time off to recover from an injury. Well, it wasn’t a choice. She had been ordered on this little R&R sabbatical by Brett “Bishop” Michaels, who was one of the directors of IAD, and her uncle. Mikayla’s uncle was now commander of the allied forces, making him technically their boss as one of the founders of IAD. He and Brett were worried about her and wanted her to get some rest, ensuring that she did so by sticking her out in the middle of nowhere to do it.
Brett owned over a hundred acres of prime land in Colorado and had built a cabin on the property a few years back. The cabin wasn’t one of those ramshackle places. It was pure comfort and utility built into a massive log estate, reinforced with steel walls and a hidden escape route off of the property.
It was a beautiful house, with two stories above ground and three below that no one outside their agency would ever know about. Brett had fitted his place with the latest technology and could sleep the entire team in its eight bedrooms, but the truth was that he only made use of the place a few times a year. A few weeks ago Brett had spoken to her about moving to the cabin and opening a training facility for IAD agents that could also be used as a retreat and safe house for their agents. She was intrigued by the idea, but it was a difficult de
cision to pull herself off of active status. Besides, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to make a permanent move to Colorado.
Mikayla had been out to stay at the cabin a couple of times, but only in the summer. Cold and snow did not equal a vacation to her and they sure as hell weren’t helping at the moment. She knew she was due for some time off, but this was sure as hell not what she’d had in mind.
When the SUV slid on the icy road again, Mikayla pressed her feet down onto the floor in reaction to the movement, then cursed herself and bit her lip to hold back a wince as a searing pain shot up her leg. Damn it, she’d really be pissed if she’d lived through another bullet wound to die in a fucking car crash.
On their last mission, Mikayla had taken a bullet high up on the outside of her right thigh. It had been a bullet that had been aimed at her best friend’s heart. With no time to warn him, Mikayla had thrown herself at Brett and had gladly taken the bullet that had been meant for him.
It wasn’t her first injury in the line of duty, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.
In fact, her last two active missions had been brutal. A few months ago, Mikayla and Brett had both taken fire on a mission in Malaysia. She had prepped her shot, leaving it to Brett to take the heat off of both of them. Things had gone fubar pretty damn quick when they realized the terrorists they had been sent to take out already knew they were there.
Brett and Mikayla had received a coded message from the notorious hacker, only known as the Phoenix, telling them they had been made and to get the hell out of dodge. As they were deciding whether or not to believe the message, the militia had converged on them. Mikayla was able to take out the leader and they had hauled ass, but both had taken hits before they made it to their extraction point.
