Top Gun Tiger (Protection, Inc 7)

Chapter 1

Destiny

I f there was one thing Destiny Ford loved more than dancing, it was working. Not any kind of work, of course. Just the fun kind. The exciting kind. She’d liked being a military police officer in the Army, but she loved being a bodyguard at Protection, Inc. More action, less paperwork.

So when she hit the dance floor of her favorite club in her favorite dancing dress, she kept a tiny buzzer clipped into her bra, and was only slightly annoyed when it began to vibrate. When she ran to pick up her phone and see who was calling, even that little bit of annoyance disappeared. Her boss Hal wouldn’t call her on her night off just to chat. Something was up. Something dangerous. Maybe the police hadn’t swept up all the gangsters who’d tried to kill Hal and his mate, Ellie…

“Sorry to bother you,” came Hal’s deep voice. “But would you mind picking someone up at the airport?”

“Sure. Hang on a sec. Music’s pretty loud in here.”

Her dancing shoes clicked across the polished floor as she hurried toward the door, then made a duller clack as she stepped on to the asphalt outside. She looked for a place where they could talk privately. There was a dark alley beside the club. With her keen shifter vision, she saw that it was empty.

The sight of it reminded Destiny that Hal’s mate Ellie, a paramedic, had witnessed a murder in a dark alley and gotten shot at when the gangsters had spotted her. She’d barely escaped with her life. But that had been how she’d met Hal—she’d needed a bodyguard. So it had all worked out for the best.

If Ellie hadn’t taken a wrong turn, she’d never have witnessed the murder. Would she then have never met Hal? Or would their paths have crossed in some other way, maybe much later, as destiny drew them together?

Destiny.

She blew out a dismissive breath. She liked her name—it was pretty!—but she’d never been much of a believer in the concept. As far as she was concerned, people created their own destinies.

But whether lives were shaped by fate or chance or self-will, it was amazing how quickly and unexpectedly they could change. If Destiny stepped into that alley, might that be the seemingly small and random decision that would send her life down an unexpected new path?

Smiling at her own unlikely fantasy, she ducked into the alley and spoke quietly into the phone. “Is the pickup a new client? Who do they need protecting from?”

Hal gave a rumbling chuckle. “He does the protecting. He’s Special Forces—a Recon Marine. It’s Ellie’s twin brother, Ethan. He just got back from Afghanistan, and he decided to surprise her with a visit. Good thing he called her cell phone before he showed up at her apartment.”

“Oops,” said Destiny. Hal and Ellie were in his little cabin up north, hours away from town. They’d taken refuge there after the gangsters had blown up Hal’s car, then stayed for an impromptu honeymoon. “Does he know about… What does he know about?”

“Ellie filled him in on the basics,” Hal replied. “He knows she witnessed a murder, I was her bodyguard, the gangsters went after us, Protection, Inc. got evidence to put them away, they’re all behind bars awaiting trial, and Ellie and I are together. And I told him we’re not in Santa Martina right now, so I’d send one of my team to pick him up.”

“I’m alone, Hal. It’s safe to talk. So, does he know about shifters?”

“No. We thought it would be better to explain that in person.”

“In that case, I won’t show up as a tiger,” Destiny said, grinning. “Shall I drive him to the cabin?”

“If you don’t mind,” said Hal apologetically. “It’s a bit of a haul.”

“Nah, I like driving. Gimme the address.”

The truth was, Destiny was curious to see Hal’s cabin in the woods. It would be a glimpse into a side of him that she hadn’t known before. Though they’d been friends and teammates for years, in many ways Hal was as closed-off and secretive as… well, as everyone at Protection, Inc. but her and Rafa, and even Rafa had a thing or two he refused to talk about. How had a friendly, outgoing girl like her ever gotten involved with that bunch of mysterious loners?

“How’d I get tapped to be the cabbie?” she asked, inwardly placing her bet. “Least likely to object to driving for three hours in the middle of the night? First to pick up the phone?”

There was a shuffling noise, and Ellie’s clear voice came over the phone. “It was my call, Destiny. Ethan’s just come back from six months in combat, and I dropped a whole lot of surprises on him all at once. I want him to have a nice, normal, pleasant ride to the cabin with a nice, normal, pleasant person.” Hastily, she added, “Not that the other agents aren’t nice! Or normal! Or—”

“But you don’t want your brother’s first contact with Protection, Inc. to be the Dragon Prince, the Ice Queen, the Invisible Man, F-Bomb Nick, or Rico Suave,” Destiny said with a snicker. “Don’t worry, Ellie. You know me, I’m the girl next door. Pretty as a picture, sweet as pie. Absolutely normal.”

Normal, she thought as she hung up and got into her car. Yeah. I’m good at faking that.

She considered swinging by her home to change—it wasn’t exactly normal to pick someone up from the airport in a sequined minidress and silver dancing shoes—but the club was much closer to the airport than her apartment was, and it was almost 2:00 AM. Destiny had never been in Special Forces, as none of them had been open to women when she’d enlisted. But she had vivid memories of coming back to America after a long deployment, simultaneously exhausted and wired, and how endless all the waiting around the airport had felt when she just wanted to find a bed and sleep.

No. She wouldn’t keep Ethan waiting a second longer than he absolutely had to. And if he took one look at her and thought he must still be in Afghanistan, having a dream so sweet that he’d just about cry when he woke up and found himself sleeping on the ground and surrounded by a bunch of sweaty, grimy, very male Marines, well, a little looking never did anyone any harm.

And hey, h

e was a Recon Marine, which meant he had to be in fantastic shape. She might do a little looking herself. And who knows? If they hit it off, they might do more than just look…

Down, girl, Destiny ordered herself. You haven’t even met him yet. You might hate each other. And won’t that be fun, stuck in a car together for hours with a jerk.

She didn’t even know why she’d drifted into thoughts of romance with some random guy. Destiny supposed it was by association: he was the brother of the woman her boss was in love with, therefore she thought of love. And there was absolutely no question that Hal and Ellie were deeply, devotedly, permanently in love. They had to be: they were mates.

Destiny had known about mates, of course, but she’d never expected to find one herself. Up until a couple weeks ago, none of her teammates had mates, which had reinforced her impression that it was more of an ideal than a common reality. Then Hal had walked into the office with Ellie on his arm, his rugged features transformed with happiness like nothing she’d ever seen on him before. Like nothing she’d ever seen, period.

Could I have that? Destiny had wondered, awed. Is there someone out there who’ll look at me like they’re looking at each other, like I’m the most precious thing in the whole wide world?

As she braked for a red light, she thought of how Hal had walked into a police station to meet a stranger, and his life had changed forever. If Destiny had a mate, could he be closer than she thought? Could he be in the next car over, just waiting for her to turn her head and see him?

Unable to resist, she looked inside the next car over. The driver was a woman.

That would be a no, Destiny thought, amused at herself.

As she drove toward the airport, she shook her head, chasing away those fantasies. Sure she was going to find her one-and-only, her destined true love, tonight. No, she’d be patient—she’d always been good at that—and content herself with the knowledge that mates actually were a real thing, and maybe someday, if she was very very lucky, in another year or five or ten or even fifty, she might meet hers.

It was only as she walked up to the airport that she realized that she had no idea what Ethan looked like. Sure, he was Ellie’s twin, but they were brother and sister—fraternal twins, not identical. They might not resemble each other at all.

Destiny shrugged. With any luck, Ellie had called him back and told him to keep an eye out for a petite, curvy, African-American woman. If not, she supposed she could scrounge up some paper and make a sign.

Then she stepped into Passenger Arrivals, and laughed at herself. Of course. She could just look for the Marine. There he was, a strong-looking man in faded fatigues sitting on a military-issue duffel bag, with sandy blond hair in a slightly grown-out crew cut. His face was turned away because he was busy scanning the rest of the airport as if he expected an ambush. She remembered that from the Army, that constant battle-ready wariness. It took a while to wear off.

She walked up to him. He was on his feet and turning to her in a flash, moving with a fluid agility that made her briefly wonder if he was a shifter. No, couldn’t be. He’d have told his twin. It was probably just a Special Forces thing. After all, they were the best of the best.

Their eyes met.

A jolt went through Destiny, like his intense gaze had physical form. His eyes were so beautiful—blue-green as a tropical sea, with golden lashes like the rising sun. Looking into them, she felt like she was recognizing him rather than seeing him for the first time, as if he were her long-lost best friend from childhood…