by Dee J. Adams
Always Dangerous
Adrenaline Highs #6
by
Dee J. Adams
Leo Frost has lost his house, his car and possibly his acting career. Releasing an independent film is his only hope of paying for his sister’s twenty-four/seven care, but he’s got to finish it first. The last thing he needs is a curveball from the one woman who could break his focus with a look, a smile and the most unexpected news of his life.
Kim Jacobs wants it all—a career in a big city, a husband and a family, but a tryst two months ago with one of Hollywood’s biggest stars leaves her pregnant. Knowing Leo doesn’t want kids or a wife, Kim decides to make her own happily-ever-after with the help of a recent inheritance. All that’s left is to tell the man and move on.
Kim’s short visit to L.A. turns deadly with a series of mysterious attempts on her life. Suddenly Leo not only has to save his career, he has to find out who’s trying to murder the lady who is stealing his heart. As an actor, danger was staged and nothing was at stake, but now the threats are all too real. If Leo wants a future and a family with Kim, he has to prove he can do more than play a hero onscreen, he has to be one in real life.
Dedication
This one is for my daughter, Katelyn, and sister Eileen, two ladies who mean the world to me.
Eileen, you taught me to be strong. Thanks, Sis. Love you.
Katelyn, you continue to teach me about compassion and selflessness every day. I couldn’t be any prouder of you. I love you with all my heart.
Acknowledgments
I have to thank recently retired Detective Joel Price of the Los Angeles Police Department for his help with procedure, and for his patience with my questions, not only on this book, but on Imminent Danger as well. Thank you, sir, I appreciate all your time!
A big thank-you to stuntman Casey O’Neill for all his help with the horse stunt. You were very generous to talk to me during your vacation, so I thank you for that as well!
Thank you to stuntman Rex Reddick for allowing me to use his name and likeness in the book. You guys have seen Rex in dozens of movies, you just don’t realize it’s him. Among his many talents, his motorcycle and driving skills are the absolute best in the business.
Thank you, Debra Neil-Fisher for all your expertise in editing and the film world in general. I didn’t mean to ruin your vacation with all my questions! You are a true gem!
I’m especially happy to have contest winner and friend, Dan Lora, in this book. The man patched me up on set on several occasions and it was fun when he won my contest to be a character in Always Dangerous. He’s been waiting very patiently for this book to come out. Hope you enjoy seeing your name and likeness in this book, Dan!
My thanks to Jerome Butler, because he’s an awesome man and he has offered invaluable help during my audiobook narrations. He may not have a hand in writing the books, but he definitely has a voice—no pun intended—when it comes to the narrations.
An additional thank-you goes to Helen Hong for her help in voicing a character in my recent narration. If you get a chance to catch Helen’s stand-up routine, you should see it. The lady is crazy funny!
As always, this book wouldn’t be here without the amazing eye of my editor, Melissa Johnson. Thank you, Melissa, for being the consummate professional. I’m so glad you’re so much smarter than me! (And I mean that from the bottom of my heart!)
Thanks to Sean and Katelyn, because they are always my biggest support. I couldn’t—and wouldn’t—be doing this writing thing without you. I love you both immeasurably.
Any mistakes are my own.
Dear Reader,
It’s been fun bringing you the Adrenaline Highs, and I hope you enjoy this last book in the series. I wanted to come full circle with Kim and Leo, who were in books one and two, respectively. I loved giving questionable characters their happily ever after. Kim and Leo have been through a ton and I think they deserved each other. (I mean that in the best way possible!) They’ve seen the rougher sides of life in their different ways and they’re possibly—and probably—a little jaded.
Love may not be easy, but these two show that it’s worth fighting for! You’ll see one or two references to Dangerous Race since that’s where it all began. And there might be one or two other characters you recognize along the way.
More than anything, I want to thank you for taking the time to read any of the books in this series or my High Stakes series. There are a lot of books out there today and I’m thrilled you chose one of mine.
I love to hear from readers, so feel free to email me at [email protected].
I hope you enjoy Kim and Leo and their adventure in Always Dangerous!
Best,
Dee J. Adams
Chapter One
The high-pitched shriek woke Leo Frost with the finesse of a jackhammer and his pulse skyrocketed until he defined the source. Cats. Exhaling a slow breath, Leo blinked at the moonlight filtering through the curtains and the strange room came into focus. Right. His new bedroom. Would it ever be home? A few small pieces of his espresso colored furniture filled the room, but his custom headboard hadn’t fit against any of the walls so he’d had to settle for the queen size bed that had been in his guest room.
Outside, the felines battled for the King of the Wall separating his property from the next and he winced at the high pierced reooows that cut through the night like warped buzz saws. Not only had he barely slept in days, but despite his exhaustion, he’d had a hard time getting to sleep when he had the opportunity. He’d finally drifted off—he glanced at the clock—twenty minutes ago and now this?
A fresh battle of meows screeched loud enough to wake the dead. “Shut up!” he yelled before slamming the pillow over his head.
As if life wasn’t bad enough. He’d lost his beautiful house, his gorgeous sleek Porsche, most of the movie memorabilia that meant anything to him and now he’d even lost a peaceful night’s sleep.
The cats screamed again because apparently he wasn’t miserable enough.
Frustration and rage snapped the last threadbare string of his patience. “Dammit! That’s it!” Leo tossed the covers off, dug his feet into his mammoth cross-trainers and stalked out of the room wearing only his nylon basketball shorts. Who had cats in the hills anyway? Weren’t they hawk or eagle bait? At this moment, he wouldn’t mind a couple of winged animals hauling away the culprits.
Leo turned the doorknob when all hell broke loose outside. What the hell? Table legs scraped against the patio cement, the cats screeched bloody murder. He fumbled for the outside light and ran to break up the ruckus. Cool October air hit his bare chest and legs. Seemed like an awful lot of noise for…
“Holy shit!” he muttered, his tired brain now fully awake and taking in the picture. More than just fucking cats. A coyote had one cat in his mouth and another one cornered. A fucking coyote! Leo’s heart pounded harder and sweat prickled his skin. “Hey!” he shouted, picking up a nearby broom leaning against the wall. “Get out!”
The coyote turned on him, a low growl rumbling in his throat. Jesus, coyotes weren’t supposed to be aggressive unless they were in a pack. Unless this guy was sick. Or just damn hungry.
Fresh sweat dotted Leo’s spine, but he wasn’t going to give the animal a chance to pounce. He lifted the broom. “Out!” He rushed the coyote as the cornered cat swiped with vicious claws and scary white teeth. The cat in his mouth wasn’t going without a fight either and it did a good job of marking up the coyote’s face before the animal decided to cut his losses. Yelping in pain and dropping the cat, the coyote hightailed it back up the terraced yard and into the hills above.
Leo chased the coyote to make sure it disappeared. Breathing hard, he squinted into the dark hills. By the t
ime he got back to his side yard, only one cat remained. The one the coyote had nearly had for its midnight snack.
The cat’s matted black fur was slick, a mixture of blood and saliva. Hell, his whole patio was full of blood and fur. What a mess. Both cats must have given the coyote a good chase. A couple potted plants were turned over and dirt was spread across the pavers. God, he didn’t want to deal with this now. Or ever for that matter. He had enough on his plate without this mess.
The feline gazed at him with helpless eyes as it panted. Probably waiting to see if Leo was another monster out to hurt him. Poor little guy was in bad shape.
“Shit,” Leo muttered. “I don’t do cats.”
He’d just moved in so he didn’t know his neighbors. Not that he could ring anyone’s doorbell in the middle of the night. He also couldn’t just leave it here. Who knew if the coyote would come back?
Leo had never owned a pet. He’d begged his mom for a dog for years, but she’d categorically refused. Once he’d started working, he’d been traveling too much to keep a dog. Leo crouched next to the cat. “Okay. How about I call animal control? They’ll fix you up.”
Meow. The softest little sound he’d ever heard. Meow.
His heart took an uncharacteristic thump. “Gonna play dirty, huh?” He touched his thumb behind its ear and the cat closed its eyes and pressed subtly into the rub. He reconsidered the cat’s sex. “You must be a girl. I know your type,” he murmured. He sighed. Damn. Cat needed help and sitting here wasn’t going to accomplish anything. “Give me two minutes to call animal control. Be right back.” He stood up and stopped. “Nope. Can’t leave you out here alone, can I? Cujo is probably waiting for a chance to finish the job.”
Leo grabbed the towel sitting on the stationary bike under the awning and gently eased it under the cat, before scooping it all up in his arms and walking inside. “Okay, let’s see what the Internet will tell us.”
After setting the kitty in an empty moving box stacked in the corner of the laundry room, Leo opened his laptop on the kitchen counter and found the number for animal control. A phone call later, he discovered their only unit was out dealing with an emergency, so he couldn’t even get a time frame for arrival. The officer on the phone gave him the address of the nearest emergency vet clinic and Leo hung up the phone.
“The emergency room?” he asked the cat, glancing around the small, dim galley kitchen. “I’m really taking you to the emergency room?” Of all the stupid, aggravating… Leo fought the urge to throw an adolescent fit. He just wanted to sleep. Was that asking too much? “I don’t take anyone to the E.R., cat. Do you know who I am?”
The cat blinked slowly with heavy eyes and Leo’s heart melted a little more. “I’m Leo. Leo Frost. I was in Dangerous Race. I won an Oscar and Emmy during the same season.” But even as he spoke, he realized what he had to do. “I’ve got two People’s Choice awards too.” He walked as he spoke, grabbing keys and throwing on a clean, but wrinkled as hell T-shirt from the pile on top of the dryer.
“Let’s go, cat,” Leo said, picking up the box and heading out. “You owe me. Big time.”
The cat mewled a response and Leo’s heart took another hit. “Oh no you don’t,” he said, balancing the box and closing the door to the garage behind him. “I’m not falling for that shit.” Then he glanced at the pitiful ball of fur with the heavy eyes and bloody coat. “Hold tight, cat. I may not be a hero in real life, but I play one in the movies. Let’s see if I can’t get you to the doctor in time.”
It didn’t even take Leo twelve minutes to get to the vet. It would’ve been even faster if he’d been driving Stella. But now he was stuck in a previously owned—oh how far he’d fallen—old-model Mercedes. At least it was black. About the only thing it had going for it. Between the middle of the night hours and no traffic—and maybe the fact that he went about seventy on Ventura Boulevard—he made it in “American Racing Organization” time. He knew learning to drive an open-wheel Arrow car during the filming of Dangerous Race would come in handy.
After squealing into a parking spot, he scooped up the box and rang the bell to be admitted inside. Luckily the place wasn’t packed. Just one guy sitting on a long bench with a very dejected look on his face. He barely glanced up and the stuffy smell of dirty fur assaulted Leo’s senses.
“Hi,” Leo said, setting the box down on the counter at the reception desk.
The young brunette behind the desk stood up and looked inside the box. Her green hospital scrubs hid any hint of a figure, not that he cared. There was only one figure burned into his brain and it currently belonged to a woman eighteen hundred miles away. “Aw. Who’s this? What happened?” she asked.
“Don’t know who it is. It managed to get attacked on my patio. Coyote.”
She rubbed the cat’s head. “Poor baby.” She looked up. The tiny stud in her nose caught the light and her brown eyes widened as she recognized him. “Oh. Um. Hi.” Her cheeks burned bright red. “Leo Frost, right?”
“Yeah. Hi. And you are…?” All he wanted to do was drop off the fur ball, but he never dissed a fan. If being nice to this girl got the cat faster care then he was fine with that.
“Rebecca. Rebecca Marx. Hi.” She looked around and seemed to realize there was a bleeding cat between them. “Oh, I should…here.” She handed him a clipboard from her desk with papers and a pen. “You need to fill out some paperwork.”
Leo put his hands up. “Oh, no. Not me. I’m not filling anything out. Not my cat.” His mistake was looking at the animal in question when he said it. The fur ball tried to move and let out a very pitiful whine. “What?” Leo said to the cat. “I’m not responsible for you. Hell, I can barely take care of myself.”
The cat blinked another slow, deliberate time.
“No,” Leo told it.
Meow. Meow. Meooowwww.
Dammit, he wasn’t made of stone. “You don’t play fair, cat. I’ll remember that.” Leo snatched the clipboard. “This is stupid. I don’t know anything about the cat. If he had a collar the coyote got it off him.”
“Maybe she has a chip,” the receptionist or technician—or whatever she was—said.
“It’s a she?” Leo looked up from the papers. He hated leaving a damsel in distress. Force of job habit.
“From what I can see, yes.” She took the box. “Go ahead and fill out what you can and I’ll take her back to the doctor. He’s almost done with his current patient. Shouldn’t take long.”
Leo might’ve growled as he took a seat and looked over the questions. Aside from the contact information, he couldn’t check any boxes or fill in any blanks when it came to the feline’s prior health. Half these diseases he’d never even heard of. “Pointless,” he muttered.
“You can’t leave her here,” the guy on the opposite bench said.
Leo looked up. The twenty-something guy sitting across from him had out of control brown curls wigged out in every direction. Wearing sweats and a stained AC/DC T-shirt, he seemed as if he’d also been pulled from his bed. “You talking to me?”
“Yeah. You can’t leave the cat or they’ll just send her to the pound where she’ll be put down. You can’t leave her.”
Leo didn’t especially appreciate being told what he could and couldn’t do. It wasn’t like he didn’t have a heart. “It’s not my cat. Look… I don’t do cats.” That definitely sounded a little cold, but he had valid reasons. “Sometimes I’m not home for months at a time. I can’t have pets.”
“Don’t you have an assistant? I thought all big time actors had assistants.”
He used to, but times had changed. Not that he planned to tell this guy anything…and wasn’t it nice of him to bring it up. “That’s not the point. An animal needs love and companionship. I’m hardly home. I don’t do pets. I never have.”
“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start.” Persistent dude.
“Look…” Leo leaned forward, hoping to get it in this guy’s skull that he wasn’t in a position to ow
n a pet, but the door opened and a different technician—male, bald and with a colorful tattoo sleeve on his right arm—wearing the same green-colored scrubs appeared.
“Mr. Seaton, you can come back now,” he said. “Chocolate is bandaged up and ready to go home.”
Chocolate? A dog? A cat? Leo really didn’t care. But as the door closed behind the guy, Leo felt the hard stab of guilt slam into his chest. She’ll be put down. The words kept bouncing around in his head and the longer he sat there, the more they made him sick.
He’d worked with a golden retriever once years ago and ran into the trainer a few months back who told him that Sam had been euthanized because of kidney failure. Leo had been sad, but figured at least the dog wasn’t suffering anymore. But this: an animal that could be nursed back to good health, but might die because he walked out the door…that made him feel like a flat out dick.
It was another forty minutes of arguing with himself about the cat’s well-being before the same technician opened the door and called him back. She showed him into a small sterile room where the feline was laid out on her side, bandaged and breathing hard.
A bald technician moved out of the room as Leo came in. “The doctor will be right with you,” he said and closed the door behind him.
Leo would’ve protested, but he couldn’t take his gaze off the injured animal. Her yellow eyes looked up at him, soulful and sad. Leo stroked the same spot behind her ear and she purred. She fucking purred.
“Yeah, you and every other chick that comes my way, huh, babe.”
The door opened and the doctor came in, his blue scrubs differentiating him from his staff. Buzz cut gray hair, chubby cheeks and round glasses over brown eyes. “Hey, there. I’m Dr. Soledad. Nice to meet you. I took special care of your girl. I’m a big fan.” He smiled and winked.
