by Casey Hagen
“We’re online,” Dylan’s voice filled her ear.
Thank fuck.
“I’m going to have to insist on your gun,” he said, reaching a hand out.
“Not going to happen,” she said, knowing it was only a matter of time, maybe seconds, maybe minutes, before he’d lay bare a threat so heinous that she’d turn it over without question.
“We’re on our way, Josie. Hang tight,” Cole said.
“If you can, give us details. Anything you think might help,” Evan said.
“Nice to meet you, Miss Josie. This is Tex, just hacking into the system to help out. Guys, I’ve got your coordinates and you can expect green lights the entire way.”
“So here’s what we’re going to do,” her father’s abductor said. “You’re going to give me your gun—or—and I really prefer not to do it this way since it’s so messy—I’m going to start putting holes in your father. I’m rather good at it. My personal best is thirty-seven bullets, leaving the person in agony for their last thirty-two minutes on this earth.”
“Fuck me,” Slyder ground out. “ETA, Cole?”
“Ten minutes,” Cole said, his voice taking on a panicked edge she’d never heard.
“You know, I didn’t know blond guys could be such pricks,” Josie said, forcing her voice not to shake. “Where did you get the camouflage? Local Army surplus store?”
“Cute. Gun—now.” He aimed his gun at her father’s kneecap, just inches from his pants and held out a hand to her.
She laid the gun in the palm of his hand, careful not to touch him.
“Ahhh, now that’s a good girl. You’ve restored my faith in women. Now, for the next order in business…where’s Eric?”
“I don’t know,” she said, crossing her arms.
“Don’t play with me,” he warned, grabbing her father by the back of his hair and yanking his head back.
She lunged forward. “No, don’t! I swear, I don’t know. I only knew the location of the bunker.”
“Five minutes,” Cole said, the sound of his squealing tires piercing her eardrum.
“We’ll be there in three,” Evan said.
“Still six minutes away,” Dylan said.
“Why don’t you just make an offer for the tech? That’s what you want, right?” she asked in an attempt to distract him.
“I did. Made him a hefty offer, and he took a pass,” he said between gritted teeth, the vein in his forehead bulging.
“I just got a fax,” Tex said. “Two guys matching the descriptions of the guys you took out earlier today were escorted from the conference center on the day the investors were there taking pitches. They were unverified and asked to leave.”
“Who were they representing?” Cole asked.
“Fuck me,” Tex whispered.
“I don’t like the sound of that, Tex,” Cole said.
“Matlin Group,” he said. “One of Ret’s construction companies.”
“Son of a bitch!” Cole said.
Josie put their exchange out of her head and worked on who she could only assume was Ret, in the flesh. “Maybe he didn’t trust you with it. What did you plan to use it for?” Josie asked trying to buy as much time as she could.
“Let’s just call it job security,” Ret said taking a step toward her. “I’ve got three companies and contracts are drying up. All it would take is a couple of his prototypes in the air hacking into other drones already equipped with explosives and oops—there goes a small town. And since the hacked drones aren’t the property of the good old USA, the government won’t suspect it’s one of their own.”
It was all a scam to he could line his pockets and hang the blame on foreigners. All of it, Eric’s house, being held at gunpoint in the bunker, her father, hell, his actions could start wars… all for nothing but money. “You’d kill innocent people?”
“Shitty terrorists in the making living in squalor? No one would miss them,” he said with a wave of his hand as if the people he mentioned where nothing more than flies swarming roadkill in the center of a back road.
“You’re one sick fuck,” she said. “We’re here. I’m trying for a line of sight through the living room window,” Evan said. “Slyder’s heading for the front door, but not entering just yet, unless Ret forces his hand.”
“Listen, you little bitch,” Ret said, lunging for her.
She darted away, but he snatched her by the back of her tank top and snapped her back, the force making the knife case dig into her breast.
“Thought you’d make a run for it? Not on my fucking watch. You’re going to take me to Eric, or your father’s blood is going to be on your hands. What’ll it be?” he said, pulling her back against him.
She spotted movement outside her front door, the fact that she had backup bolstering her courage. “Fuck you, limp dick,” she said, digging her fingernails into the forearm he wrapped around her throat.
He shook her, his menacing growl chilling her to the core.
“Come on, show me what you’ve got. Show me how much courage it takes for someone the size of a small tank to hurt a pint-sized woman like me. I bet you have balls the size of ball bearings,” she said before sinking her teeth into his forearm.
“Jesus Christ! I’m here. You have visual, Evan?” Cole asked.
“No, shades are down. I’m only got silhouettes.”
Ret’s hiss ended on a grunt. “A biter, huh? Let’s see how long that lasts when I pull your teeth out one by—”
“Don’t fucking move!” Cole and Slyder burst through the door and fanned out, both weapons aimed at Josie.
The barrel of Ret’s gun dug into her temple. “I’ll shoot her right through this pretty head right here. Don’t push me.”
“Put the gun down, Ret. It’s over,” Slyder said, inching closer.
Josie’s gaze locked on Cole’s. She inched her fingers toward her bra, the movement going unnoticed because Ret continued to shuffle her back and forth as he glanced between Slyder and Cole.
She managed to snag the knife and with a quick flick of her wrist, she popped it open and slid the blade home, right into Ret’s thigh.
He screamed in pain.
It wasn’t enough.
She gave the blade a sharp twist getting satisfaction in the way his body vibrated in agony.
The arm braced around her neck broke free, and she dropped to the floor.
Pop. Pop. Pop—pop—pop.
She covered her ears, her heart thundering in her chest as bullets rained over her head.
When the shots stopped, she scrambled to her feet. “My father?” she said, lunging for him.
Slyder checked his pulse. “It’s strong. He wasn’t hit.”
Cole leaned over Ret sprawled out on the floor, the blood seeping from his chest into the rug under him and slowly fanning out. He kicked Ret’s boot. “He, however, was.”
Her shoulders slumped as the last vestiges of danger faded, and the adrenaline slowly drained from her body, leaving bone-deep exhaustion in its wake. The faint smell of blood and gunfire filled the air, seeping into her pores.
“It’s over?” she asked with a weary sigh.
Cole pulled her into his arms and propped his chin on her head. “Yeah, it’s finally over.”
“I’ve gotta tell you, Cole. Your client was a real cocksucker. I hope you got paid up front,” she muttered into his shirt.
“You’re a funny one, Josie,” he said, kissing the top of her head.
She tilted her face up to his. “Admit it. Life would be boring without me around.”
“Positively empty,” he said, kissing her forehead. “I’m not sure how I would go on.”
She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed his stubbled chin. “Sounds like love.”
“A permanent condition then,” he said with a grin.
“Terminal even, if we keep this up,” she said as she glanced at the wreckage around them.
He slung an arm over her shoulders. “We’ll vacation a few times a year. Give the world
“Hold that thought,” she said spotting the neighbors box from the open door.
She always followed through.
Epilogue
Josie walked hand in hand with Cole along the sidewalk, finally coming to a stop in front of The Lit Dragon.
A three-dimensional reptile with working LED lights and real shooting flames jutted out, creating a one-of-a-kind awning for the drag club.
“You didn’t?” Cole asked.
“I might have done,” she said, pursing her lips. “Come on. I can’t wait for you to meet Eric.”
Laser lights flashed and danced over the mock brocade walls. Bodies filled the dance floor, gyrating with the music, hands in the air, and smiles on their exhilarated faces.
Scantily clad drag queens wound their way through the crowd pouring free shots down willing patrons’ throats.
“Holy hell,” Cole said, his gaze landing on one of the performers as he glided past. “Okay, there’s no way that’s a man.”
She craned her neck and spotted Lonely Dove, the drag queen in question. “Definitely a man.”
He leaned in, his lips right next to her ear. “Okay, then explain this…where did he put his, his—well, his—”
“Gingerbread?” she asked with a smile.
“That’s not a good word for it,” he muttered as he rubbed his fingers against his forehead and winced.
“Excuse me,” she said, pressing a hand to her chest and straightening her spine. “He tucked both his testicles and penis. Is that better for your delicate sensitivities?”
His eyes widened and rolled in his head. “Not really better, no. Tucked them where?”
“I’ll show you later,” she told him as she searched for Diamond.
“Doesn’t it hurt?” he asked.
“Probably. We’ll test it out later,” she said, spotting Diamond.
He waved from the balcony with a group of queens surrounding him, likely on break.
Waving back, she grabbed Cole’s hand.
“I think I’ll take a pass on testing it out,” he muttered, his forehead crinkling. “Where are we going?”
“I want you to meet, Diamond. He’s a good friend of mine, and he’s the one who took Eric in.”
She dragged him through the club, a laugh dancing up from her throat at the range of expressions on his face, from confusion, curiosity, and a touch of horror.
It took three days to clean up the mess from the shooting and her father’s abduction. Her father spent a night in the hospital with broken blood vessels in his eyes, a crack in his cheekbone, and a fractured nose.
He’d been forced to take two weeks off to recover. He’d started calling her upward of twenty times a day in his boredom.
It was a good thing she loved the man, or she might be tempted to put him out of his misery—and hers.
Cole’s team asked her to join them, something she said she needed to think about. While she loved the idea that they accepted her, she loved Cole more and didn’t want to risk their relationship.
Truth be told, she was giving him a week to bring up any arguments he might have. If he still wanted her on the team after the week, she’d take the job.
But he didn’t need to know that.
He’d gotten a bit big for his britches after two days in bed and some rather intense lovemaking.
She needed to knock him down a peg since her inner harlot kept rolling over with her legs in the air every time he winked at her and begged him to keep doing all the delicious things he liked to do to her, leaving him with a swollen ego and swagger.
Soon, he’d have trouble making it through ordinary doorways with that swelled head of his.
They followed a spiral staircase up to Diamond’s private balcony and pulled back the heavy velvet curtain.
“Josephine,” Diamond drawled, opening his arms to her.
She curled into his embrace and glanced up at him. “Was he good?”
“Darling, he was fabulous. An absolute gem,” Diamond said with a flourish of his jewel-crusted hand. “Now tell me, Josephine—who is this specimen you’ve brought with you?”
“This is Cole. Cole, this is Diamond, the owner of The Lit Dragon and quite possibly the single-most talented drag queen in the US. Definitely the most powerful,” she said with a nod.
“Nice to meet you,” Cole said, reaching out to shake Diamond’s hand, but switching gears when Diamond “offered” his hand instead.
“Mmm, mmm, mmm. Strong hands, muscles, I’m betting just the right amount of hair sprinkling over his toned chest…I’m guessing this is your story for another time you were avoiding telling me about. Wherever did you find him?”
“I met him on the case, and now we’re a couple so don’t get any ideas…I like him just the way he is,” Josie warned with a point of her finger.
“No ideas He’s too perfect to makeover. Eric on the other hand…”
“You didn’t?” Oh God, she’d never live this down.
“Champagne?” one of the queens asked, stopping with a tray.
“Sure, thanks!” Josie said, taking a flute of bubbly. “So, where is he?” she asked, taking a long sip of the Dom Pérignon.
“Why Josephine, he’s right here!” Diamond said with a glance at the queen holding the tray.
Josie’s gaze locked on the queen holding the tray and champagne sprayed from her mouth out into the air, coating him and the rest of the drinks.
“She never did appreciate the good stuff,” Eric said with a flick of his long, blue fingernails over the front of his now-damp sequined gown.
“You were supposed to hide him,” Josie sputtered.
“And I did. I hid him so well, even you couldn’t find him, Josephine. I’d call that a job well done,” Diamond said with a firm nod.
Eric slid the tray on the table and shrugged. “I’m still me, JoJo. Relax. It was fun.”
“Yeah, well…you can teach Curious Cole over here the art of tucking later then,” she said, wiping sticky alcohol from her lips.
Eric leaned toward Cole. “Dude, not gonna lie, the tucking sucks,” he said behind his hand.
What the hell had she done?
About the Author
I hope you loved Cole and Josie’s story!
Curious about Evan? He’s the next to fall in Shielding Blair coming Fall 2018
Find links to all of my books, from various retailers on my website!
www.caseyhagenauthor.com
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ABOUT CASEY HAGEN
Casey Hagen pens her snarky, passionate stories from the salty air of Kennebunk, Maine. She’s a born and raised Vermont native, a New England girl to the core, with Ben & Jerry’s in her heart and real Vermont maple syrup pumping through her veins.
She’s the proud mother of three girls and a soon-to-be first-time grandma with an insatiable addiction to Fall Out Boy, and a new, rather concerning obsession with tattoos and piercings. Can you say “cool grandma?”
The inked and pierced grandma spends her time tucked away in her office, coated in cat hair, alternating between tearing her hair out trying to find the perfect words and being one step ahead of her three scheming fur babies she is positive are plotting her demise with every swirl around her ankles at the top of her office stairs.
She loves writing stories about real people, with complicated histories, relatable everyday problems, and giving them the hard-won happily-ever-afters they deserve.
And she thanks every last one of you who picks up one of her stories.
Casey is done talking about herself in the third person.
*Casey out*
As you know, this book included at least one character from Susan Stoker’s books. To check out more, see below.
<br /> Delta Force Heroes Series
Rescuing Rayne (FREE!)
Rescuing Aimee
Rescuing Emily
Rescuing Harley
Marrying Emily
Rescuing Kassie
Rescuing Bryn
Rescuing Casey
Rescuing Sadie
Rescuing Wendy
Rescuing Mary (Oct 2018)
Rescuing Macie (April 2019)
Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Series
Justice for Mackenzie (FREE!)
Justice for Mickie
Justice for Corrie
Justice for Laine (novella)
Shelter for Elizabeth
Justice for Boone
Shelter for Adeline
Shelter for Sophie
Justice for Erin
Justice for Milena
Shelter for Blythe
Justice for Hope (Sept 2018)
Shelter for Quinn (TBA)
Shelter for Koren (TBA)
Shelter for Penelope (TBA)
SEAL of Protection Series
Protecting Caroline (FREE!)
Protecting Alabama
Protecting Fiona
Marrying Caroline (novella)
Protecting Summer
Protecting Cheyenne
Protecting Jessyka
Protecting Julie (novella)
Protecting Melody
Protecting the Future
Protecting Alabama’s Kids (novella)
Protecting Kiera (novella)
Protecting Dakota
New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author Susan Stoker has a heart as big as the state of Texas where she lives, but this all American girl has also spent the last fourteen years living in Missouri, California, Colorado, and Indiana. She’s married to a retired Army man who now gets to follow her around the country.
She debuted her first series in 2014 and quickly followed that up with the SEAL of Protection Series, which solidified her love of writing and creating stories readers can get lost in.
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