by Dale Mayer
“And how do you know that?” Jax said.
“She’s eleven years old.”
Jax peered over his top bunk at his partner on the bottom bunk, and said, “What the hell?”
Griffin nodded with a grimace. “She’s just a child. It says here she was kidnapped, along with her nurse and her tutor.”
“And how old’s the nanny? If she’s gray-haired and sixty, we’re in trouble.”
“The nurse is sixty-eight. So, yeah, we’re in trouble. The tutor, however, is thirty-two and speaks three languages. Her name is Lorelei. Lorelei James.”
“So Lorelei got the word out?” Jax asked curiously.
“Most likely,” he said. “But, as usual, our intel is very skimpy.”
“It seems like we go into these jobs with less and less intel each time,” Jax said. He waited a moment and then said, “I heard a few details about your job with Kerrick, but it went okay, didn’t it?”
Griffin groaned. “It did, but it was touch-and-go a couple times. That kid, Brandon, he was something else.”
“Didn’t Kerrick say something about the woman he rescued being part of the same high-IQ group?”
“Yes, she’s back in her lab. The entire corporate organization has been reshuffled as she stepped up in power after all the changes. Her father had also stepped up and bought a whole pile of shares and handed over voting power to her to give her complete control of the company.”
“Wow,” Jax said. “Not bad for her. And I guess Kerrick is sticking around Paris.”
“Yeah, and he’s running communications for us this time.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Jax asked.
“I think it’s the Mavericks command center. Nobody is allowed to know what we do, where we’re from, or what our histories are.”
“So, are fake IDs in that envelope for us?”
“Maybe,” he said, “but I didn’t think so.” He grabbed the red envelope, opened it again, and then whistled gently. “Well, there is now. They were stuck to the inside of the envelope.” He quickly ripped off the tape, releasing the IDs. He handed one to Jax. “This is you, Malcolm.”
“Whoever invented these names,” Jax said, “should be shot.”
“Hey, it’s way more normal than your real one,” Griffin said with a laugh.
“You’re one to talk,” Jax said. “Who names their kid after some legendary creature in Greek mythology?”
“I think Griffins are found in many different societies back then,” he said. “So, whatever. It’s unusual enough, but I’ve always liked it.”
“I like mine too. But can’t say much about Malcolm.”
“Well, that’s all right in my opinion,” Griffin said, groaning. “I’ve been renamed as George.”
At that, Jax chuckled. “That sounds lovely.”
“It makes me sound beyond old. It’s supposedly an unassuming name. I’m George Harris,” he said. This time he checked the inside of the envelope more thoroughly—to the point where he ripped it open. “Okay, I don’t see anything else in here. But this is a journalist’s media pass, and, if you look on the back, it’s got a British citizen’s ID card.”
“Like we look like Brits,” Jax said with a scoff. “And I certainly don’t have an English accent.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about that,” he said. “I think it’s a case of nobody gets to look at these close enough to double-check.”
Just then another single knock came. Both men hopped up, with Jax standing behind the door. Griffin suddenly opened the door, hoping to surprise whoever was on the other side. But, once again, no one was there. There were, however, two large trays of covered food. He looked at it and smiled. “Well, at least my text did something.”
“What? Did you text, asking for food?” Jax said, chuckling.
“Hey, if we’ve got a lot of traveling to do, I want to make sure I’m fed. I cannot do anything if I don’t have energy.”
“Oh, I agree with you. I’m just surprised you got service so fast.”
“One thing I learned from that last op with Kerrick,” he said, “is that anything, absolutely anything you want, you just ask for it. They do their best to deliver.”
“Good to know.”
They brought the trays inside, sat down, and stared at the covered dishes. “It’s still cafeteria food though, isn’t it, just under a fancy domed plate?” Jax asked.
“But a step above,” Griffin said. “I don’t know about you, but I got steak and prawns.”
Jax looked over at Griffin’s plate in shock and said, “Seriously?” And then he lifted a different lid and said, “Look at that. I do too.”
“But you don’t like prawns, do you?”
“No. I’ll trade you for your steak.”
“Hell no,” Griffin said. “I’ll just eat your prawns when you’re done with your steak. I know you won’t eat them, so I don’t have to give you anything.” He gave Jax a big grin. “Good deal for me.”
With that, the two men quickly polished off their meals, and then, even though it was early in the morning, they stretched out, and this time both crashed.
This concludes Book 1 of The Mavericks: Kerrick.
Read about Griffin: The Mavericks, Book 2
The Mavericks: Griffin (Book #2)
What happens when the very men—trained to make the hard decisions—come up against the rules and regulations that hold them back from doing what needs to be done? They either stay and work within the constraints given to them or they walk away. Only now, for a select few, they have another option:
The Mavericks. A covert black ops team that steps up and break all the rules … but gets the job done.
Welcome to a new military romance series by USA Today best-selling author Dale Mayer. A series where you meet new friends in this raw and compelling look at the men who keep us safe every day from the darkness where they operate—and live—in the shadows … until someone special helps them step into the light.
Helping Kerrick was one thing, getting tagged for a mission of his own quite another …
His heart ached to hear a young girl had been kidnapped while at a hotel in Thailand, waiting for her father to arrive. But nothing is ever as it seems, and this case isn’t even close to simple.
Lorelai spent the last seven years enjoying her young charge, Amelia Rose. Tutoring the daughter of a wealthy business owner added perks to the job, like holidays around the world. In all these years Lorelai had never once seen the downside to having big money–until the holiday in Thailand where Amelia Rose is targeted, and they were both kidnapped.
Griffin managed to rescue the kidnapped victims, but tracing the kidnappers was a whole different story and brought the group a little too close to home …
Find book 2 here!
To find out more visit Dale Mayer’s website.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Kerrick: The Mavericks, Book 1! If you enjoyed the book, please take a moment and leave a short review here.
Dear reader,
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Cheers,
Dale Mayer
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About the Author
Dale Mayer is a USA Today bestselling author best known for her Psychic Visions and Family Blood Ties series. Her contemporary romances are raw and full of passion and emotion (Second Chances, SKIN), her
thrillers will keep you guessing (By Death series), and her romantic comedies will keep you giggling (It’s a Dog’s Life and Charmin Marvin Romantic Comedy series).
She honors the stories that come to her – and some of them are crazy and break all the rules and cross multiple genres!
To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system. She has recently published her Career Essentials Series. All her books are available in print and ebook format.
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KERRICK: THE MAVERICKS, BOOK 1
Dale Mayer
Valley Publishing Ltd.
Copyright © 2019
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ISBN-13: 978-1-773361-98-7
Kindle Edition
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