Deadly Target [IAD Agency 3] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Roma, Laurie

  She loved this bedroom, with its gothic feel accentuated with dark, glossy wood and a king size four-poster bed covered with a bronze duvet she had picked out when Brett had initially furnished the place. Actually, she loved the cabin. Always had. Where Brett had used it as just another safe house, Mikayla had always felt like it had the potential to be a real home.

  She walked down the wide hallway to the large kitchen that could have fit into any five star restaurant. It was bright and airy, with large windows overlooking the expanse of open land in the backyard. Mikayla knew the bullet-resistant glass gave those inside cover even if it didn’t seem like it.

  The kitchen had a large center block with a countertop of white marble over cabinets that were so dark they almost looked black. The cabinetry along the walls was made of the same dark wood with frosted glass panes, making the room sleek and contemporary with the addition of the stainless steel appliances. The kitchen should have looked completely out of place, but somehow, with the picturesque scenery shining through the large windows, it was perfect.

  Mikayla set to brewing the first pot of coffee and waited impatiently until she was sipping from a large mug. At the first sip she sighed in pleasure. She was a caffeine addict. She knew it but what the hell, everyone was entitled a vice. Coffee made her day possible and ensured she didn’t kick someone’s ass for no good reason. She stood in place at the counter until the first cup was completely finished then poured another full cup to take with her down to Brett’s bat cave.

  Walking into the main foyer, Mikayla went to the wooden paneling under the large staircase. Pressing on a panel of the wood, the panel gave a soft snick of sound as it released and a large doorway slid open. Mikayla stepped into the hidden elevator and pressed her palm down on the blank panel that looked like glass, bypassing the button that would take her upstairs. The glass panel lit up and scanned her palm. She lifted her hand as numbers appeared on the screen and quickly pressed in a sequence she had memorized. The door of the elevator slid shut. With barely a jerk, the elevator sank two floors below the house without seeming to move.

  The doors opened and Mikayla entered into a large lounge, equipped with a humongous TV, sofa, mini-kitchenette and bar. She ignored the room, moving down a corridor, passing a fully equipped bathroom, a large medical center with three large medical beds and a surgical center closed off behind automatic doors on the right. On the left were several guest rooms set up for those who needed to remain out of sight of the main cabin above.

  At the end of the corridor she entered the security center, which was a mini-version of their command center at IAD headquarters. The room held a large conference table and multiple screens on the walls. There were three smaller desks with computers attached to the mainframe and one main station in the center of the room. She sat down at the main console and powered up the computer system. On the wall several screens showed various camera angles from around the outside perimeter of the house. No one could sneak onto the property without her knowing it.

  If she did take over the property and decided to head the training division here at the cabin, at least the system was top notch. Mentally calculating, she figured she could have the place up and running in less than a month. Over time they would have to build a few other structures on the property, but that could come later.

  Mikayla felt no hesitation searching through Brett’s files, looking for the one she knew he would have. When she found it she clicked on it and began to read the information Brett had put together on his neighbors. According to the file, Gage Stark was thirty-five years old. She had been right about his height, which put him at six four, and knew he had black hair and green eyes. He lived on the property just west of her location where he ran Stark Stunts Inc. with his brother, Dylan, his sister, Katherine, and their cousin Sebastian.

  She took her time going through the file, learning what she could about the man that had intrigued her the night before and his family. She felt a second of guilt then brushed it off. It wasn’t like she did the search or called in a deep scan on his background. She was simply availing herself to the information that her friend had already gathered.

  It was like a Google search, only better.

  It was pure curiosity, nothing more. At least that was what she kept telling herself. He was not for her, and it wasn’t like she could actually start anything with her boss’s neighbor. Added to that, Roz had warned her that Gage didn’t do relationships, and from the dossier she was reading, it seemed like that was very true. Gage Stark was a wicked, wicked man. Clearly she wouldn’t be more than a warm body in his bed for a night, and that wasn’t what she wanted.

  She needed more. Wanted more for herself.

  Fuck that.

  She deserved more.

  Her head jerked up, interrupting her reading as she saw movement on one of the screens on the wall. She watched as a large black pickup truck drove down the long driveway, easily maneuvering over the snow-covered lane. Mikayla hit a button and the shot zoomed in on the view of the truck. Damn it, this was not good. She sat back in the chair and steepled her fingers, and her brain went blank as she saw the man driving and the dog on the seat beside him.

  What the hell is he doing here?

  * * * *

  Gage cursed himself as his truck headed down the long driveway to Brett Michaels’ cabin.

  Hell, it wasn’t a cabin. It was a fucking fortress.

  He knew coming here was a mistake, but here he was. After getting no sleep the night before the last thing he needed in his piss-poor mood was to have another confrontation with that violet-eyed witch.

  But something about her had gotten to him and made him want, no…need to seek her out.

  Last night at the bar he had been playing a game of pool with his brother, cousin and a friend when he’d felt a tingle run down his spine. Over the years of being in the limelight he had developed a sixth sense when it came to people watching him. He was used to the giggling women in Serenity checking him and the other men in his family out, but this had felt…different.

  Then he had looked up and saw her.

  Like a fist to the gut, he had felt the power of her gaze from clear across the room. And in that single moment he wanted her so much he could barely breathe. If anyone had asked Gage if he had ever been hit with lust at first sight before last night he would have said hell no.

  That had all changed when he saw Mikayla.

  It had been humiliating that he had had to ask his little sister the name of the siren that had haunted his dreams. Shit, last night had been a goddamn clusterfuck of errors on his part. First, he had interrupted her conversation with his sister and Roz. Granted he had been rude about it, but he couldn’t really expect Mikayla to know that the vet was a woman who hit on him every time he went in there with his dog. Still, when she had called him out about his behavior it had both pissed him off and intrigued him.

  Gage liked that she had stood up for his sister even though she had only known her for a short time. It had irritated him at the time. Fuck that, it had pissed him off to the point he had wanted to shake her. Or kiss her senseless. He wasn’t used to people talking back to him or calling him out for his shit, but she had. Then it was the incident out in the parking lot where Mikayla became the only woman in the last ten years to turn him down.

  Not that he had offered her much.

  Gage was used to being around beautiful women. His time in Hollywood had left him jaded and almost desensitized to the allure of a pretty face. Discovered when he was twenty-two at the University of Colorado, Gage’s life took a turn that he had never expected. A famous director had been filming a movie on campus and had grabbed Gage, asking him if he could fight. Gage had simply grinned, and like that he had snagged his first role in a movie.

  From there, Gage had made a name for himself. He was a natural with lines and the camera seemed to love him. No matter how high his stardom had risen, he treated everyone on set with respect. He had become one of the highes
t-paid actors in the industry and had even been voted sexiest man by a popular magazine four years in a row.

  Gage was known for doing as much of his own stunts as possible. He had been hit, kicked, ridden horses, repelled off of buildings, jumped from moving cars, fought with swords and done so many other things the list was too long to remember. When he won the Oscar for Best Actor people had said the sky was the limit for him. That was, until a fellow actor had rigged the car that Gage drove in a chase scene and caused the end of his career.

  Gage’s hands tightened on the steering wheel as he thought back to that day. He remembered sitting behind the wheel of the sports car with the camera crew filming right next to him in the chase car as they sped down a long stretch of highway over the water in Florida. He wasn’t going extremely fast, but they had wanted to get the reaction shots with him in the car from every angle so they had him in the car, alone. He had tried to slow the car down at the director’s signal and felt the panic fill him when the brakes failed to slow the car.

  Gage had pumped the brakes, but it had done nothing. He had yelled into the mic that his brakes weren’t working a second before he heard the loud pop as the wheel blew. The car had flipped, crashing into the rail where it had burst into flames. Fighting to free himself from the fiery inferno inside the car, Gage had ripped off the seat belt and kicked out the window so he fell into the water only seconds before the rest of the car exploded. He had come to in the hospital to find that he had become a monster, with burns covering half of his body that had been extremely painful to heal.

  As fast as his career in the movie industry had begun, it had ended.

  After several painful surgeries, the burn damage had been minimized. The scarring left would always be a daily reminder of what had happened to him, but no amount of surgery could help the scars the accident had left on his soul. When he had gotten out of the burn ward at the hospital, Gage had come back home to Serenity where he could recover in peace.

  But he knew in his heart that he would never be the same.

  Gage had decided that he was done being an actor. He never wanted to be on the screen ever again, but he still kept a love for the business. That was when he created Stark Stunts Inc., a company Gage ran with the other members of his family. On their large ranch they were able to train other actors in fighting, horseback riding and even took on groups that wanted wilderness training. It was a good business and enabled Gage to use his connections to the industry while staying out of the public eye.

  His younger brother Dylan had always had an affinity for tracking and hunting, and was their resident computer expert. Their cousin Sebastian had ended his service in the Army when Gage had been burned. He was a skilled fighter and could basically fill in anywhere Gage needed him.

  Gage himself was a proficient fighter and could handle a variety of weapons. He and Wulf were also part of the volunteer search and rescue team that operated within the area if the need came up. Together the three of them ran training while Katie ran the day-to-day operations behind the scenes. They did good business, but Mikayla’s words last night had instilled a worry in him that he was caging Katie in the isolated world he had created over the years since he’d been back.

  Even living in the public eye, very few people knew the real Gage Stark. He had been dedicated to his craft, smiling when it was expected of him, but no one saw what had been beneath the flashy veneer. Deep inside Gage was shadowed, filled with a dark hunger that he brutally controlled and kept leashed. He had a temper, was extremely possessive, and knew that if that control slipped he would end up being the ruthless bastard his father had been.

  Malcolm Stark had been a wealthy man. He had run the ranch where Gage grew up and built a grand house for his mother to live and raise their family in. They had once been happy together, but then Gage’s mother had been taken from them in a riding accident that had broken her neck. Part of Gage’s father had died that day. He had loved his mother so much that he had gone a little crazy when she died. For the years that followed, Malcolm had lived a half-life, not caring about anyone or anything until the day cancer had finally taken him.

  On his death bed, Malcolm had once again warned Gage about the Stark curse. The curse was something Gage had heard about since he was born. He had always thought the family legacy was a joke, but Malcolm had always claimed it was true. Starks were born with a dark possessive nature, and it was said that love was the downfall of all Stark men.

  Gage knew he had inherited that same dark core from his father, and frankly, it scared the shit out of him. That was why he had never really dated or pursued a woman he was truly interested in. After the accident, that had gotten even worse. Still, it was all because Gage knew a truth that no one else did. The truth was that if Gage ever did fall in love, he would love the woman to the point of madness and end up destroying her.

  Cursing softly under his breath again, Gage pulled his truck to a stop in front of the large fortress that belonged to his friend, Brett. Rage surged hot in Gage’s veins as he thought about just what else inside that house might belong to his friend.

  “Come on, boy,” Gage said to Wulf as he opened the door to the truck. Wulf jumped down to the ground and began sniffing at his new surroundings as Gage slammed the door shut. His thick boots crunched over the pristine snow-covered walkway leading up to the house, telling Gage that no one had been here since last night’s snowfall. Cursing again, he wondered why the hell it even mattered to him.

  As he was halfway up the steps the front door opened and there she was. His violet-eyed witch stood framed in the doorway, the purple shirt she wore making those violet eyes glow even brighter against the white backdrop of the snow. Before he could say a word Wulf let out a happy bark and bound up the stairs toward Mikayla, causing fear to stiffen Gage’s body. His dog was huge and she was already injured and could really be hurt if Wulf jumped on her.

  “Damn it, Wulf! Get—”

  Mikayla said something in a foreign language Gage didn’t understand. Her voice filled with command as she held out a hand, and to his surprise his dog plopped down on his butt. She smiled down at Wulf and patted him on the head, causing his tail to wag, his body quivering as if awaiting the next command from the woman before him.

  “What did you say to him?” Gage asked as he walked the rest of the way up to stand on the porch beside his dog. He unconsciously turned his body to his left side, which was the farthest away from her, making it difficult for her to see the scars on his face.

  “I just told him to sit down. I wasn’t about to let him jump on me again.”

  “But what language was that?”

  “Greek. It’s not so much the word but the tone that the dog should heed.”

  “I know that,” Gage snapped. He blew out a breath. Damn it, what was it about this woman that put his back up? “So, you’re Greek?”

  “Part of me is,” Mikayla said with an easy smile. “To what do I owe this neighborly visit, Mr. Stark?”

  She watched him with those quiet, eerie-colored eyes that made him feel like he was falling into her. With one damn look Gage’s cock rose to half mast, making him glad his long coat covered his wayward erection. “I came to apologize. I was rude last night.”

  Mikayla sighed. “We both were. Apology accepted and returned.”

  “Fine.”

  They studied each other for a moment in silence before she spoke again. “Well then, is there something else I can help you with?”

  “Are you sleeping with Brett?”

  His cock went from haft-mast to rock hard when her beautiful eyes took on a steely edge as she glared at him. Why in the world did that kick-ass look of hers make him want to rip her clothes off? And Jesus, where the fuck was his filter?

  “What is wrong with you?”

  What was wrong with him? He had asked her to fuck last night and she had said no, so why was he here pursuing her still? It was simple. Because he wanted her. He needed to have her so he could work this wa
nt for her out of his system. Gage ran a hand through his hair, dislodging the strands so they fell in a haphazard way. “Brett’s a friend. I wouldn’t be comfortable knowing that I hit on his woman. So I need to know if you belong to him.”

  Mikayla’s eyes narrowed further. “I don’t belong to anyone. And, not that it’s any of your business, but no, I’m not sleeping with Brett. That still doesn’t mean I’ll be sleeping with you either.”

  A slow smile spread across Gage’s face. “But you will.”

  Mikayla let out a disbelieving laugh. “You know, I read somewhere that you were good with women. Obviously I can’t believe everything I read. Is rude your default setting? Because you need some serious rewiring if it is.”

  Gage’s smile turned into a frown as he once again felt the brunt of her displeasure. She wasn’t just playing hard to get. The scorn in her voice was very real. Was he really this out of practice actually speaking to a woman? Damn him this woman was trouble, but he simply couldn’t let it go. “Have lunch with me.”

  Her eyes widened. “What? Do you mean like a date? I thought you didn’t do those, Mr. Stark.”

  “Cut the Mr. Stark shit off, would you, and just call me Gage.”

  Mikayla’s expression cleared, making her impossible to read. “Why are you here, Gage? I don’t particularly care for what you’ve offered so far, and if that is what this is about then you can forget it. I hardly think you are hard up for female company so just move on to the next woman on your list.”

  “I don’t want another woman right now.”

  “So, you want to fuck me so you can get over it and move on. Awesome. The flattery you are heaping at my feet is just spectacular…not. If you say any more of this sweet stuff to me, I may just have to hit you.” The mocking rebuke in her voice was almost enough to make him blush. He didn’t blush, ever.