by Becky McGraw
“Okay, go home, get some rest and be here tomorrow morning so we can meet with the guys and formulate a game plan.” Taylor stood, and Slade’s eyes tracked down her body dragging heated blood to her toes, before he met her gaze again. “Lose the suits, okay? Logan hates them. Jeans, tanks, or anything else will work.”
This job just sounded better and better. Now, if the pay was even close to what she’d gotten at the hotel, she’d be golden.
“Jeans it is then,” Taylor said, with a smile she felt stretch all the way to her ears. “We haven’t discussed pay or hours yet.”
“The pay is as obscene as the hours you’ll be expected to work. We’re on call twenty-four-seven, so keep your cell phone on. Give it here, so I can program in the numbers for the team before you leave.”
Taylor grabbed her purse off of the chair, found her cell phone and walked to the desk to hand it to him. A dart of fire shot up her arm when his hand brushed hers, standing every hair on end. Why did she think he felt it too, because his body tensed and his eyes met hers as he took it from her?
A knock sounded at the door, before it flew inward. “I need to talk to you.” The tall, well-built man with bright blue eyes she knew as Jaxson Thomas, the supervisor of the Deep Six crew at the hotel, filled the doorway, but he didn’t come inside. His eyes glanced off of her, then moved back to Slade. “Call me when you finish.”
Slade tensed. “I hope this isn’t what I think it is, Jaxson. I really don’t need more today. Sleep on it, and talk to me tomorrow.”
“Nah, I need to talk to you today, man. As soon as possible.” The resignation in the man’s voice was as firm as his jaw.
“Just wait a minute then.” Slade furiously punched numbers into her phone. After a couple of minutes, he handed it back to her. “That’s everyone, and I texted myself your phone number. Be here at eight in the morning, unless I call you sooner.”
Feeling light inside like she hadn’t in a long time, Taylor lifted her hand, bent her elbow and snapped off a salute like her father had taught her. “Zero eight hundred it is, sir.”
Slade’s eyebrows lifted, but his lips didn’t curve. “I’m not a trench monkey or a member of Uncle Sam’s Canoe Club like Jaxson here. I’m a Marine, and we don’t salute indoors, ma’am. Since you’re a civilian, I’ll give you a pass, but you need to know none of us are active duty anymore, so saluting is not necessary or acceptable at all. It might also piss Logan off, so lose the suit and the salute.”
Trench monkey? Canoe Club? This man was talking a different language. But she understood one thing. Before this was over, the way it sounded, the odds of her pissing off Dave Logan were very high, so she better go with plan A and just consider this job a stop gap measure until she found another job.
“I apologize if I insulted you, Slade.” Taylor’s cheeks were hot as she turned to the door. “I’ll be here at eight in the morning to get started. Call me if you need to go over anything.”
Taylor walked to the door and her eyes met Jaxson Thomas’s.
“It’s not you,” he whispered under his breath. “He just knows what I’m about to tell him. Things will be better tomorrow, I promise.”
With a nod, she walked past him and he shut the door. Glancing up and down the hallway and seeing it clear, Taylor leaned her ear against the door straining to hear what was being said. The only thing she made out was Slade begging Jaxson Thomas not to quit.
“You know that works better with one of my listening devices,” an amused male voice said close to her ear and Taylor almost jumped out of her skin.
Heart pounding in her throat she stepped back to study the stealthy man who’d snuck up on her. Overly long, uncombed dark hair brushed over his forehead and his beard scruff gave him that sexy just-rolled-out-of-bed look. His well-defined chest stretched the red graphic tee with some kind of scientific symbol on the front to its limits, and his almost worn out blue jeans hung on his trim hips. The black half-rim glasses he wore emphasized his piercing blue eyes. The epitome of a hot nerd.
“Come to my office and I’ll loan you one. I’m curious what the hell they’re talking about too. It can’t be good considering how fast Caleb lit out of here a minute ago.”
Without waiting for her response, he turned and opened the door across the hallway from Slade’s. Because she wanted to know who this man was and what he did at Deep Six to have listening devices in his office, Taylor followed him inside. Boxes and gadgets lined every wall of the man’s office, if you could call it that. He had work tables and computers set up everywhere, but not a desk in sight.
“I have a long-range orbiter that would probably do the trick. I just need to remember where I put it.” With a laugh, he walked to the right wall and stared up at the stack of boxes. “I told Logan we needed to get a warehouse for this stuff, but he’s so damned tight that’ll never happen. Caleb barely convinced him to get a gun safe so we could get all the weapons and ammo out of here.” He reached for the box on the top of the stack and hefted it down then plunked it on the floor. “We should just move all this stuff out to the compound. I’d be just as happy working out there. Happier, really, because I wouldn’t have to dress up for work.”
“Dress up?” Taylor repeated with a laugh, taking in his clothes again.
He turned to look at her then his eyes tracked down his body. “Oh, I forgot to wear my t-shirt with the tuxedo on it today.” He winked, as he walked over to her and stuck out his hand. “I guess I forgot something else too. I’m Dexter, the spy gadget and electronics guy for Deep Six. Sort of like that guy in the James Bond movies, but on a much tighter budget.”
“I’m Taylor Kincaid, and I guess I’m a new employee,” she said, taking his hand and liking that he actually shook hers with a firm grip.
Dex’s eyebrows raised and his eyes took a tour of her body to her toes. “Slade sure works fast, and I like it, but I’m not so sure our fearless leader will when he gets back.”
“Our fearless leader can kiss my ass,” Slade said gruffly as he walked into the office. “He wants an incommunicado vacation? I’m going to give him one, but I need to hire another operative now, because Jaxson just quit.”
“Why did Jax quit?” Dex asked, his brow furrowing.
“Because he’s a freaking martyr evidently. He quit the SEAL teams to save his squad embarrassment, now he quit Deep Six for the same reason. He thinks it’s his fault the prince’s son got kidnapped and believes we’ll keep the contract if he’s gone.”
“Did the prince say that?” Dex asked.
“According to Tariq, the prince’s brother, we’re out anyway. They don’t want us anywhere near that hotel. I planned on speaking to the prince myself, but was told that he was unavailable.”
“Tariq likes to run interference—or interfere,” Taylor interjected, and both men’s eyes swung her way. “I don’t trust that man as far as I can throw him. He’s always coming and going at all hours of the night, or in a corner on his cell phone.”
“Do you have his cell phone number?” Slade asked Taylor, but his eyes slid to Dex.
“No, I don’t. I was not allowed to be an insider with that family at all. It actually worked out, because I got to observe a lot more since I wasn’t directly involved, but your man Jaxson probably has more information than I do.”
“Well, Jax is gone, and his mouth was sealed—no pun intended.” His chin dropped to his chest as if he were thinking, then he looked back at Dex. “Dave’s cell phone is in a box beside my desk. Go through it and see if you can find the prince’s number. You know what to do.”
Dex nodded, and started for the door.
“He has two or three cell phones,” Taylor informed, and Dex stopped in the doorway. She’d seen Ahmed holding conversations on two of them at once one time and was impressed.
“Dex will figure it out. I want to go back to that hotel and run Lola through a search to see exactly where the kid was taken out.”
“I watched all the surveillance video.
They took Zami out the back stairway and that was the last sighting.” Taylor blew out a breath. “I’ve been after Mr. Baker to put up cameras on the west end of the building for six months, but he refused. Since the last sighting on the video was the stairwell door on the penthouse level, I assume they went west out of the exit door or they’d have been seen on the video.”
“Dex, I need a copy of that video footage, and keep a tap into that system so we can keep an eye on things now.” Slade thought a minute. “Call Fletch and tell him to get inside the hotel and find that kid’s room. I need something with Zami’s scent on it. Think you can manage that?”
“Can I manage it?” Dex asked cockily, with an eye roll.
“Forget I asked that, geek boy. Just do it.” Slade shook his head as he walked to the door. “As soon as Fletch gets what I need, I’ll go back to the hotel to run Lola and see if she picks up on anything.”
“Wait! I know where you can get something with his scent!” Taylor shouted, following him out of the office into the hallway. She put her hand on his arm, and his muscles flexed. Warmth flowed through her fingers up her arm to ooze through her body.
Slade looked down at her and frowned.
“They send all their clothes out to a local dry cleaner on Tuesday mornings. A batch went this morning. The dry cleaner knows me and will give me the clothes. I’d also like to go with you for the search, since I know the lay of the land at that hotel better than anyone. I know the blind spots, so we can avoid being seen.”
Taylor fought a shiver as his eyes slid down her body to her toes. “In that bright blue business suit and heels you’re wearing, we’re guaranteed to be seen. That’s not exactly covert ops attire, ma’am.”
“We have a while before dark, so we can stop by my house so I can change too.” Taylor was not letting this man go without her. He needed her with him, and it felt damned good to be useful for a change.
Slade studied her for a minute through hooded green eyes, then sighed. “Fine, but you are going to stay in the car and let Lola work.”
“Yes, sir.” Taylor smiled and her arm itching to snap off another salute at his authoritative attitude, which was actually kind of sexy. But her determination to fit in here kept it firmly at her side. There was a lot she found sexy about her new boss, but Taylor was keeping that firmly where it belonged too.
Out of the picture.
CHAPTER FOUR
Slade followed Taylor Kincaid’s directions, as he turned onto a poorly maintained residential street with small, equally unkempt bungalows on either side. Not the best neighborhood for a woman alone to be living for sure. But who was he to judge? He officially lived with his mother when he wasn’t out at Logan’s compound outside of the city. But that was by choice. He didn’t need a place of his own.
“The hotel didn’t pay you well did they?” he asked gruffly.
As much money as that luxury hotel raked in on the prince and his entourage, as well as their other high-end guests, that was just sickening to Slade. It’s probably why they hired a woman for the position. So they could pay her less.
“Nobody at the hotel is paid well, not even the manager, Mr. Baker,” she replied.
Interesting, and it added another notch in favor of the kidnapping being an inside job. The employees there would be ripe for a payoff from whoever was behind the kidnapping.
“Why’d you take that job then? I saw your pre-law diploma.” He’d also seen the shooting trophies, and the martial arts awards. This woman had skills that could’ve landed her a job at most any private investigation firm. That’s why he hadn’t bothered grilling her about her credentials, or experience. But her silence, and the fact that she was gnawing on her lower lip bothered him for several reasons and in several ways.
There was a story there, one she didn’t want to tell him, and if he could get past the distraction of seeing her gnawing her lip he’d find out.
“It’s the last house on the left at the dead end,” she said, moving to sit on the edge of the seat and look over the dash. “The yellow one. Excuse the yard...I haven’t been home much to cut it. The inside isn’t much better, because Buddy hates when I’m not home.”
Taylor was dodging his question with chatter. Slade would let it go for now, but he would get his answer. Right now, the question burning in his mind was—who in the hell was Buddy? He swung the Humvee into the half-gravel-half-pavement rutted driveway, and stopped. Taylor had the door opened before he took his foot off of the brake and stood outside.
“I won’t be long,” she said, shutting the door to jog to the front porch in her heels where she hustled up the steps to the door.
Slade had thought about staying in the vehicle, but he knew women and how long it took them to change clothes. He needed to hurry her along, so they could get on the road.
Now that she’d so eloquently outlined the problems he could expect inside the house because of the mysterious Buddy, he also didn’t want her going inside alone. If Buddy was an abusive boyfriend, Slade knew just how to deal with him, and so did Lola.
He opened his door and then let Lola out of the backseat. A loud woof! from the porch made him swing his eyes there just in time to see a huge yellow lab launch out of the door to flatten Taylor on the porch. “Buddy, no!” she yelled, answering Slade’s question about the identity of Buddy. Slade ran to the porch, and Lola was right behind him. He grabbed the dog’s collar, and pulled him away from bathing Taylor’s face, while she batted him away with her hands.
Jerking once on his collar, Slade shouted, “Sitz!” The dog’s big brown eyes watered as he looked up at Slade like he’d clubbed him. Slade pushed gently on his rear. “Sitz, Buddy,” he repeated in a calm, but firm tone and the dog finally sat. “Good boy.”
“Wow, how’d you do that?” Taylor asked sitting up to brush the dirt off of her elbows, before she tried to stand, and stumbled because one heel was broken.
Slade grabbed her arm to help her up, and her skin felt like silk under his fingers. “Buddy is like a spoiled two-year-old. Don’t you teach him discipline and manners?”
Taylor slid her shoes off of the tiniest, cutest damned feet Slade had ever seen. She met his eyes and shook her head. “You haven’t seen anything yet. It’s my fault, because I don’t have time to spend with him. This neighborhood is not good to walk him, and he’s gotten too big to fit in my car. He is a two-year-old, and needs more exercise, but—”
“But what?” Slade asked gruffly. It pissed him off royally when people bought puppies because they were cute but they didn’t think about the time and expense required to raise them. He didn’t have kids, had never been around them, but he suspected raising a puppy was about the same as raising a baby. “You committed yourself to that dog and his needs when you got him, so you’re right—it is your fault.”
It was Taylor’s turn to look up at him with guilt-filled moist eyes, and he was the one who felt clubbed this time. “I didn’t get him, I was left with him when I kicked my boyfriend out of my house. I knew I needed to get rid of him too, but I just couldn’t make myself do it. And he’s a decent watchdog.”
She sighed heavily, brushed off her skirt, then bent to pick up her purse, and Slade couldn’t stop his eyes from locking on her nicely shaped ass. She stood and pushed the door open wider. “I’ll put an ad in the paper tomorrow and try to find—”
“No—I’ll help you train him.” Slade felt sorry for her, but sorrier for the dog. If Buddy went to another home with this lack of training, the odds were he’d end up in the paper again until he finally wound up in a kill shelter. Slade wasn’t going to let that happen.
Taylor rolled her eyes, and walked inside. Glancing back, Slade saw that Buddy was still sitting where he put him, but was squirming, which said once Slade went inside the dog would take off to find more trouble to get into.
“Lola, pas auf!” Lola, who was looking at Buddy like he was about the dumbest animal she’d ever encountered, stood and moved up on the porch to si
t and block the steps. She’d guard him, while they assessed the damage inside. Slade walked inside, but staggered to a stop.
“Good, God!” he wheezed, as he took in the condition of her tiny living room.
Cottony stuffing from something, newspaper and toilet paper shreds and garbage littered the wooden floor. His eyes traveled to the small camelback loveseat against the far wall and he knew where the stuffing had come from. One of the cushions hung off of the seat with a huge hole chewed in the center. It appeared the hole had been covered with duct tape, but that had been ripped off to expose the crater there now. The curtain rod behind the sofa hung lower on one end and he was sure he’d find the bottom of the curtain shredded too.
Blowing out a breath, he walked further inside, and put his arm around Taylor’s slumped shoulders. “You have another roll of toilet paper for the mess?” he asked, as his eyes landed on the present Buddy left her on the other side of the sofa.
“I have to get rid of him,” she said, her voice breaking.
“No, you need to get me a dust pan and broom, and a roll of toilet paper,” he replied, squeezing her shoulders. “Give me thirty days, and Buddy will be the most well-behaved dog you’ve ever seen.” She looked at him with raised brows. “Just trust me.”
With a roll of her big blue eyes, Taylor padded off toward the kitchen, which looked to be in equally bad condition. If he wasn’t mistaken, Buddy had found the dog food in the pantry, and maybe a loaf of bread and had himself a party in there.
If that dog wasn’t sick tonight, which would be another mess, Taylor would be damned lucky. They’d both be lucky, because the dog would have to go with them tonight. Leaving him here alone was not going to work. If he threw up in Slade’s Hummer though, he might be the one to deliver him to the pound.
Taylor walked back in the room with the dust pan and broom. She bent and started sweeping up the mess, but Slade took the broom from her. “Just go get changed, and I’ll take care of this.”
