Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
COLLIDE
TALON SECURITY SERIES: BOOK 3
MEGAN O’BRIEN
If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or win it from an author-sponsored giveaway, this book has been pirated. Please delete it from your device, and support the author by purchasing a legal copy from one of many distributors.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
Collide, The Talon Security Series
Copyright © Megan O’Brien 2017
All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, mechanical, or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.
Edited by Hot Tree Editing
E-book formatting by www.gopublished.com
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Prologue
I walked into Talon Security, where I’d been working as a receptionist for the past two years, as the sun was just beginning to rise. I turned off the elaborate security system and flipped on the lights in the expansive space as I headed toward the back to make coffee. Converted from an old warehouse, the building had been turned into a state-of-the-art security headquarters and training facility. Despite the cavernous space and modern design that could feel cold to some, it was like a second home to me.
The guys got up early for training, and though Travis, my boss, had never said I had to be here as early as the team, I liked getting things prepped and I knew they appreciated the fresh pot of coffee.
Plus, it wasn’t like I was sleeping these days. At all.
The coffeepot was beginning to percolate when I heard the elevator ping, indicating one of the guys’ arrival.
“Sarah.” Travis greeted me. I turned to face my boss and friend, Travis McAllister.
“Hey, Trav.” I greeted. “You gonna go easy on the guys today after yesterday?” I asked with a lifted brow, already knowing the answer.
Travis had led his team through a particularly brutal workout yesterday. All former military, the guys were in amazing shape, but Travis liked to push their boundaries. After years working with them, I’d learned they thrived on the challenge.
He offered a rare smile. “Nope.”
I hadn’t thought so.
The coffee was done when Sid Masters and Declan Hale walked in. With his startling blue eyes and colorful tattoos decorating most of his body, Sid was a gorgeous man—he was also one of my best friend’s, Sam’s, husband. Declan was handsome as well with his dark eyes and olive skin tone. But there was only one man at Talon Security that got my heart pounding.
As though reading my thoughts, his loud voice boomed. “You gonna torture us again today, McAllister?”
A moment later the man himself appeared, and my palms became damp and heart started pounding.
Theo Armstrong.
I wasn’t sure when my irritation had bloomed into something beyond a crush. I swore the man lived to tease me. And when I was honest, I could admit I enjoyed the banter he and I had perfected over the years. He was brash, occasionally vulgar, and cocky as hell, but he also had the biggest heart of any man I’d ever known. He liked to try to hide it with humor, but I knew it was there.
He was also infuriatingly, heart-palpitation-inducingly handsome. With his gorgeous toffee-colored eyes framed by thick, dark lashes, the fullest, most kissable mouth I’d ever seen, and a body that looked as though it had been carved from stone, he’d been the subject of my fantasies for years.
Travis grunted at Theo, breaking me from my swoon. “We’ll see.”
Theo groaned dramatically, turning to me, his eyes sparkling with humor. “If I run away, would you come with me?”
I rolled my eyes. “Not likely.”
He slung an arm around my shoulder. “Oh come on,” he coaxed. “You know you’d miss me.”
He didn’t know how true that statement was—or how real that might be very soon.
“Stop fucking around, Armstrong. Let’s hit it,” Travis directed in a statement said so many times through the years it could be one of the slogans of the company.
Theo pulled me closer for half a beat before releasing me. He looked over his shoulder at me, winking, then disappeared into the gym.
I shook my head at him, biting back a smile, and headed to my desk to start the day.
“Sarah.” Travis’s voice had me jumping out of my seat with a yelp a few hours later. “You okay?” he asked with concern at my reaction.
I’d been jumpy lately. I knew it but couldn’t seem to control it. The e-mail I’d just received certainly wasn’t helping. I felt sick to my stomach as I wiped my damp palms on my jeans.
“Yeah,” I assured him too quickly, offering a forced smile. “What’s up?”
I saw Theo watching us from his desk, his brow pinched with concern. All the guys had been watching me especially closely lately. They knew something was up with me, but hadn’t pressed.
I knew my time on that was running out.
“I’m fine,” I reiterated when Travis still hadn’t spoken. “I was actually about to run out for lunch. Want me to pick anything up?”
He shook his head, eyeing me intently.
I grabbed my purse, knowing my movements were jerky as I rose from my seat, desperate to escape his practiced eye. He didn’t stop me as I headed for the elevator and made my way to the garage below.
I was nearly to my car when Theo spoke from behind me. “Sarah.”
I turned to face him in surprise. As usual, I hadn’t heard him coming. For such a big man, he had the capacity to move completely silently. It was unnerving at times.
He stepped into my space. “What’s going on with you?” he demanded gently, his brown eyes concerned. Those eyes of his, they got me every time with their warm toffee brown made lighter by the gold flecks that seemed to grow brighter with emotion. Now, they were shining brighter than I’d ever seen and I wasn’t sure at all what to make of that.
“I’m fine,” I repe
ated.
“So you’ve said.” He growled with frustration. His hand came up to cup my face in a gesture far more intimate than anything we’d shared before. “Talk to me.” His tone was close to pleading.
I wished with everything I had that I could. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him everything, to burrow myself close to him and beg him not to let me go.
But I couldn’t.
I was deeply ashamed and fearful that my past was not only a threat to me, but to those I’d grown closest to. The best and only solution I’d come up with was to walk away.
“I have to go.” I managed to step back from his touch and open my car door.
“Sarah.” He tried again.
I offered a small smile. “I’ll be back soon.” I waved in parting, trying to look casual when I felt anything but. There was something playing behind his eyes, an intensity, a promise of something far greater than we’d ever spoken of, but I felt that I had to get away for fear I’d never leave at all.
I watched him in my rearview as he stood, arms braced over his broad chest staring after me.
I picked up my phone the moment I left the garage, my car filling with Los Angeles sunshine. “Dad?” My voice wavered when I heard his voice on the other end. “I think—I think I need to come home.”
Chapter 1
One Year Later
I peered over the steering wheel at the expansive blue sky that seemed to go on forever as I pressed my foot to the gas.
Big Sky.
There was a reason why the term was synonymous with Montana, my home state where I’d returned a year ago. I never got tired of staring up at the limitless blue, scattered with the occasional thunderhead during the hot summer months. Winter was another sight to behold, when the sky overhead could turn black in the blink of an eye.
I forced good old Betty, the pickup I’d had since high school, to pick up speed. I’d gotten caught up in town catching up with a few friends from high school, and needed to get home.
I was a mile out from my family’s ranch when the sight of an animal running along the road had me squinting. I let out a groan of frustration when I got closer and was able to confirm it was indeed one of our dogs.
That damn shepherd was always turning up somewhere other than where she ought to be.
“Dammit, Blackie,” I grumbled pulling the truck to the side and hopping out.
She rushed over to me with such excitement you’d think it had been years since I’d seen her rather than just hours. I dropped the tailgate and she immediately jumped in.
“You just wanted an excuse to hitch a ride didn’t you?” I accused lightly, offering her a quick scratch behind the ears. “Ten acres and you just have to find the boundary and break it,” I chastised.
She cocked her head, staring at me intently.
“I know how you feel,” I confided with a smile, and with a final scratch headed back to the driver side.
I turned off the main road, the truck bouncing along the dirt road as my childhood home gradually came into view. Set a mile off the road, the two-story home with the expansive front porch had seen better days, but the spectacular mountain range and fields that encircled it seemed determined to afford the home as much dignity as nature would allow.
I pulled to a stop in front of the barn, hopping out to once again drop the tailgate. “Blackie, what are you doin’?” My father’s voice boomed in reproach.
“Wandering,” I answered with a grin on the dog’s behalf.
“Damn dog.” He shook his head without malice as Blackie went to greet him with such exuberance I worried she’d hurt herself, or worse yet, him.
I eyed his leg, encased in the cast he’d had for the past month. Since taking a fall off one of our horses, he was homebound.
“Shouldn’t you be resting?” I accused, knowing full well the response I’d receive.
He grunted. My father was a rancher through and through. Being confined to the house, or near it, without the ability to ride or care for the animals or the land, was harder on him than he’d ever admit.
Hell, he’d never admit it at all. Full of brass and pride, my father was.
I loved the hell out of him.
“How was town?” he asked instead as I wrapped an arm around his waist under the pretext of a hug, but really I wanted to help him into the house.
“Small,” I replied dryly.
He snorted. “My city girl. Who would have thought.”
“I’m not a city girl,” I assured him. “I just don’t know if I’m a small-town girl either. Still figuring that out.”
He offered my shoulder a squeeze. “You have time, Sarah. We’re glad you’re home, is all. I think your mother is going to burn the house down baking all your favorite desserts.”
My mother was known for her baking skills, as my tight jeans when I’d first come home could attest. “Yeah well, it’s been a year now. I think she can ease up.” I laughed. “I finally lost the ten pounds I gained when I moved back, I’m not about to add to it.”
“Aw hell, you’re a tiny thing. Always have been. Plus, all that running you do, you can eat what you want.” He shrugged.
Running had been a pastime I’d picked up recently. It helped work out my anxiety. The pounds I’d lost weren’t a bad benefit either.
“I’d have to run across state lines to work off one of Mom’s pies,” I responded.
His laughter heralded our arrival as we walked into the house, the smell of apples and sugar permeating the air. “Told you.” He chuckled.
“Told her what?” My mother asked as she bent over the oven, peering at whatever masterpiece she had baking inside.
“Nothing, darlin’,” my dad assured her with nothing but adoration in his gaze. “I’m gonna go sit for a while.”
My mother turned to watch him go, concern evident in her blue eyes as he made his way slowly from the room.
“He’s okay, Mom,” I assured her gently as I sat on one of the barstools.
She nodded. “I know.” He expression lightened, and I couldn’t tell if it was deliberate or not. “How was town?”
“Fine. I ran into Jessica Hastings,” I told her, referring to an old friend from high school.
“Oh yeah? How’s her mother? She had that surgery on her knee a while back. I brought them a few pies.”
Of course she had.
“She’s fine.” I smiled just as a petulant wail sounded through the room.
Owen was up from his nap.
My nephew was the light of my life even if he was a little terror.
My sister, Charlotte, walked into the room, Owen balanced on her hip as he continued to protest, loudly. “I have no idea what he wants.” Char sighed, looking at her son with a mixture of exasperation and adoration.
“Gimme.” I clapped my hands, more than eager to hold him. She handed him over willingly and sat heavily in a nearby chair. “Okay, Char?” I asked as I bounced a wriggling Owen on my hip.
Ever since her good-for-nothing boyfriend had bailed when she became pregnant, my younger sister had been living at home. We’d all been relieved when she’d agreed to move in with our folks until she got back on her feet.
“Fine.” She nodded.
“Why don’t you two go out tonight?” my mom suggested, pulling the pie out of the oven. “You’ve barely been out of this house.”
Charlotte looked at Owen worriedly. “I don’t know, Mom, he’s kind of a handful right now, and with Dad laid up with his leg—”
“I’m not laid up!” my dad hollered petulantly from the other room.
We looked at each other and burst into laughter. “I have my hands full with your father,” my mom whispered, humor shining in her gaze. “Owen’s a piece of cake.”
I laughed, turning to Charlotte. “Come on, it’d be fun.” Truth be told, I didn’t feel much like going out. I’d mastered the art of lying low—not that that kept my past from haunting me. But Char needed a night off, and my sister came ahead of my
fears.
Char looked at me dubiously just as Owen took a fistful of my hair and yanked.
I winced. “I mean, I get that this guy is the best possible date and all,” I said dryly, trying to untangle my locks from his chubby fingers. “But maybe a night where you don’t lose a clump of hair is in order.”
She laughed. “All right, you’re right. Sarah to the rescue.”
“Damn straight.” I nodded.
****
Even the country music blaring couldn’t obscure the crunch of peanut shells underneath my boots as we made our way through the dimly lit space to the bar. There were a few nicer spots in town, but Mickey’s had always been a favorite of ours.
“Well, Sarah and Charlotte Scott, to what do we owe the honor?” Mick’s voice boomed from behind the bar.
I rolled my eyes good-naturedly as I slid onto a stool. “Taking my girl here out on the town.” I cocked my head toward Char.
He threw a few napkins at us before bracing his hands on the bar, eyeing Char intently. “You heard from Pete?”
She winced at the mention of her ex, and shook her head.
Mick’s jaw clenched as he tapped the bar. “Well, first round’s on me—what’ll it be?”
We ordered a few beers and sat catching up, saying the occasional hello to folks as the bar filled up.
“Have you talked to any of your friends back in Los Angeles lately?” she asked gently as Mick put a second round in front of us.
I stared into my beer, fighting back a wince at the mention of what I’d left behind—of who I’d left behind. “To the girls a bit.” I nodded. “But in general, it’s easier to make a clean break,” I murmured.
“Easier for who exactly?” she pressed, knowing me all too well. “Sarah, what happened to you, it wasn’t your fault,” she told me for the hundredth time. “And as much as I hate it, it all followed you here anyway. I don’t want you to look back and feel as though you left something or someone great for nothing.” She squeezed my hand gently. “You were happy there. Here, well,” she shrugged, “you put on a brave face, but you’re not fooling anyone. Especially me.”
“I was happy,” I confirmed quietly, the ever-present lump rising in my throat. “But I just—I couldn’t face them knowing everything.”
Collide (Talon Security Series Book 3) Page 1
