chapter 1
“I’m not staying here a second longer.”
I tossed clothes into my suitcases, not caring in the least how haphazardly they were strewn about.
“Ari, just take some deep breaths,” said Kyle Jenns, my best friend and up-and-coming Mr. Muscle Bodyguard Extraordinaire. He crossed his bulging biceps over his wide chest and pinned me with a serious look. “You’re freaking out prematurely.”
“Oh, yeah?” I glared at him, my pulse racing, my heart thundering. “Two diamondbacks on the Kool Deck mere feet from where I turned off the waterfalls in the pool is no cause to freak out? Come on, Kyle. Everywhere I turn, it’s snakes, scorpions, and stalkers. And I am always the mark. I’ve had enough, thank you very much.”
“Should have thought of that before you married Dane.”
“Leave him out of this.”
Kyle heeded the warning, but demanded, “Where will you go?” Concern etched his strong features. “There’s nowhere else like this fortress—walls that can’t be scaled, topped with high-voltage electrical wiring. We even have a watchtower, for God’s sake.”
“Fat lot of good that’s all done. Vale Hilliard got to me anyway, didn’t he?”
The man who’d once kidnapped me and unleashed unspeakable nightmares was supposed to be dead. But he was the only one who knew how to terrify me, and he’d done it again this evening. So chances were very good he had not been in the car struck by a freight train, despite earlier news reports suggesting otherwise.
Kyle gripped my shoulders and looked deep into my eyes, which were a couple of shades darker than his sky-blue ones. “Ari, chill out for a minute.” He spoke with a slow, measured tone, meant to reassure me, no doubt. “I know you’re scared. But whatever happened tonight, we’ll get to the bottom of it. There’s no better place for you to be than here.”
“Yes, there is. Home.”
He released me. “The Oak Creek house?” He hated that I considered it my permanent residence. He’d taken great offense when I’d moved in with Dane last fall, after only a few months of seeing each other—although it hadn’t taken even that brief amount of time for us to realize we were fated, couldn’t exist without each other.
“I feel safer there, Kyle.” I’d never once encountered a problem inside the gated property. Yes, Kyle and I had been set up a while back and we’d nearly fallen into the trap, but the trouble had occurred on the other side of the massive security fences, not within.
He shoved a hand through his crazily mussed sandy-brown hair. Agitation turned his all-American, athletic looks stony. A former college quarterback, Kyle had taken to bodybuilding, martial arts, and target practice with the GLOCK he’d recently purchased. Over the past year, he’d turned into the quick-thinking, determined-to-save-the-day sort of man who made a walking target such as myself thankful for his loyalty. And monumentally guilty that loyalty put him in danger right along with me.
“I know Amano is grilling his security people right this very minute,” I said, trying to sound reasonable and stable, though my voice faltered. “And he’ll figure out how two rattlesnakes ended up on our back patio. I’m grateful for that. I’m also grateful that you’re still here, when you really ought to wash your hands of the whole damn—”
“Not gonna happen, Ari.” He gave me that stern yet somewhat cocky expression he’d adopted, which radiated confidence and heroic charm. The two-day stubble currently lining his squared jawline added to his rugged good looks and resolute disposition. “If you’re going to the creek house, I’m going with you.”
So, too, would Amano. My shadow. Kyle’s mentor. A man you wouldn’t want to run into in a dark alley if you’d just mugged a little old lady of her collection plate money. You’d pay dearly out of sheer principle.
“Get packing then,” I told Kyle. “Because I can’t stay here tonight. I can’t sleep here. I can’t breathe here.”
Facing coiled and hissing rattlers was horrific enough—I wouldn’t wait around for the second-string army of venomous scorpions on the attack. Tonight I’d lost my steady frame of mind when it came to this precarious situation we’d all inadvertently found ourselves in after several of the original investors in the opulent hotel 10,000 Lux had been cut from the roster for global financial and criminal corruption.
My husband, owner of the now-decimated megaresort, wasn’t one to take blows without hitting back. Although he’d frightened me a bit at first with the wrath he’d let loose on Vale Hilliard when he’d found me bound and bleeding, Dane had sworn to work with the FBI to bring down the ousted investors legally—not with his lethal bare hands. And he was so very close to finishing what he’d started.
But while he put the heat on so, too, did the opposition.
With shaky fingers, I zipped my luggage and said, “If it was just Amano and me waiting for this to all come to a conclusion, I could stick with the plan. Sit tight in this fortress. But the circle has expanded, Kyle. To include you—and believe me, I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you. Neither would Dane, despite the fact that he, well … doesn’t like you.”
It was a territorial thing. Dane was the determined sort who protected what was his at all costs—so he didn’t easily accept that his wife’s best friend was male. A macho one at that, who was always by my side.
“I’ve told you a million times, Ari. I know what I’m involved with. Do I like it? Hell, no. Would I love to punch Dane in the face for all of this? Hell, yes. But I get what it is that he has to do.” This came re
luctantly. “He’s given up everything to crack this syndicate wide open and help the Feds reel in these assholes. I can’t imagine the torture of all that—knowing you’re here with me, out of his reach, and the fact that your baby is in jeopardy, too.”
That was the other contributing factor to my panic attack. I was five months pregnant. I’d kept the news from Dane as long as possible, so that he could concentrate on his work, not worry about me and our child. Amano—devoted to me, but loyal as a Labrador to Dane—had ratted me out. I didn’t blame him. Still, it complicated matters, just as Kyle had stated.
“I don’t feel safe here,” I reiterated. “No offense to you or Amano, but that was a very foreboding sign on the patio tonight and I read Vale’s threat loud and clear.”
“Fine. If you want to leave Sedona to return to Gotham, I’ll go with you. Amano will, too, but you already know that.”
I smirked at Kyle’s reference to the creek house. Yes, I’d gone a little Mistress of the Dark when I’d thought Dane had been killed in the explosion, but the fact was, his house comforted me.
The Mediterranean-style estate on which we currently resided was beautiful and spacious, with all manner of amenities. But I missed the lovely serenity of our home, nestled in the woods with the water flowing over smooth rocks just beyond our terrace.
“If you’re sure you want to go, I admit I could use the company,” I told Kyle.
“I’d pretty much follow you anywhere.” He shook his head. He knew as well as I did that wasn’t a sane conviction, but we were sort of attached to each other. Kyle wanted more between us and, had I never laid eyes on Dane Bax, he just might have gotten his wish. But one look at the tall, gorgeous, green-eyed brooder … and I’d been hooked.
There would never be anyone else for me. Ever. No matter what.
“You know that I appreciate everything you do for me—for all of us,” I said. Then added, “Shit, I should pay you. Why didn’t I think of that sooner? You haven’t been able to work recently, because you’ve been dodging danger with me.” The attacks had started last fall. It was now May. The trouble had only escalated.
He said, “Dane already offered.”
“What?” This shocked me. “He never said anything.”
“Probably because it’s moot. I turned him down.”
“Are you insane?” My husband was worth billions. That meant I was worth billions, too, but that was still a near-impossible reality to grasp, even though we’d been secretly married for six months.
“What’s the big deal?” Kyle asked with the shrug of a ridiculously broad shoulder. “I made plenty at the Lux and then the physical rehab retreat when you were there to put into savings. I let go of my apartment when I moved in here. My Rubicon was bought used and is now paid for, and let’s face it, I practically eat you out of house and home. Plus, I canceled my gym membership because of the fitness room we have here. I figure we’re even.”
“You figure way wrong, my friend. You deserve hazard pay. And you know Dane’s going to end up compensating you, regardless of your stance on the subject. He’s indebted to you. We all are.”
“See?” Kyle gave his enthusiastic, engaging grin—the one I’d witnessed turn many feminine cheeks flush since we’d met. “The King of Everything is indebted to me. Really, that just makes my day. And I get to hang out with you.”