by Kaely Steel
Redeeming Jenna
G Force Five Book 1
Kaely Steel
Copyright © 2018 Kaely Steel
Redeeming Jenna is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
All right reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author.
ISBN 978-0-9937701-3-5
Cover design by Covers by Combs
Contents
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Dear Reader
About the Author
Books By Kaely Steel
Dedication
Dedicated to you, Dear Reader.
Without readers there are no stories.
Chapter 1
Inside G Force Headquarters the air was tense. We’d been briefed that Jenna was on her way. All five of us wondered what she would be like.
JENNA
NO, no, no! I banged my fist on the steering wheel of my useless rental car as it sputtered and rolled to a stop. What the hell was wrong with my GPS? I was nowhere near the gas station I had programed in. I was nowhere near anywhere and hadn’t seen another car in hours. I’d had no cell service since I started driving through the mountains and my phone must have had a heart attack being so far from a tower.
To my immediate right a large wooden sign arched over a winding driveway that looked like it went on for miles with no house visible from the road. I craned my neck, but the weathered lettering on the sign was difficult to read. I could barely make out what looked like a G, an F and a 5.
Much as I needed to disappear, being stranded in the back of beyond was hardly what I had in mind. I rested my head against the headrest and closed my eyes just for a second. I had to keep going, keep running, until I was safe. Someplace he wouldn’t find me.
I grabbed my purse and started up the gravel driveway. The gravel was not exactly kind to my designer heels. Then again, I hadn’t planned a cross-country hike when I fled Vegas and the hired assassin I learned just happened to be my new husband.
It felt like I’d walked forever before I finally caught a glimpse of a large, dark house looming over the landscape. The house was a cross between a modern ranch house and a gothic mansion. I would not have called it charming; I half-expected to see gargoyles staring down at me. Despite all that, it did exude a reassuring aura of safety, probably due to its location. The house seemed protected by the mountains, as if the landscape had parted just enough to provide a fortress-like setting.
I approached the huge front porch with trepidation. I wondered who lived here and more importantly if they had a can of lawnmower gas and a plug for my phone to re-charge.
“Can I help you?” I turned to see an incredibly well-built specimen of manhood standing a short distance from the front steps. The sun was behind him throwing his face into shadow, but there was nothing threatening in his stance. His eyes were screened behind dark-lens sunglasses. Still, my skin sang the way it always did when I was face-to-face with an attractive, testosterone-oozing male. This one looked just my type.
Sunglasses or not, I could tell he was checking me out. Short skirt, long legs, high heels, perky tits. I moistened my lips with my tongue, feeling my nipples harden against the denim of my zip-front sundress. With his unruly dark hair and trimmed beard, he was one handsome hunk of a man.
“Can I help you?” he asked again.
“I hope so.” I shifted my purse to my other arm. “I ran out of gas on the road out front.”
Even though it was early fall in the mountains, the air temperature was relatively warm. Most of the trees crowding the mountains that surrounded us were still green, only a few boasted leaves tipped with red-gold tones.
“You’d better come in.”
Inside the house? Was he kidding?
Apparently not.
I hesitated. “I was hoping you might have a can of gasoline I could buy. You know, like for a lawnmower or something.”
“No gasoline.”
I felt the heat from his shaded gaze roll over my skin and wondered what he saw when he looked at me? A twenty-two year old in trouble? Or the face I showed most people; a sex-kitten party girl who took crazy risks such a marrying a stranger?
“Perhaps you could call me a tow truck?”
He approached me with the loose-limbed gait of a man who is always in control, always ready to spring to action at a moment’s notice. He swept off his sunglasses and I swallowed hard, held captive by the most mesmerizing silver-hued eyes, like a kaleidoscope of broken mirror shards. I couldn’t look away. White teeth flashed in a sympathetic smile. I could smell alpha male emanating from every pore. Thickly muscled arms and shoulders strained the seams of his black t-shirt and my mouth started to water as I imagined those arms straining above me while we…
“We’re off grid here.”
“Off grid? You mean…”
“No phone or other devices. We easily take care of any situations that come up.”
Situation. Is that what I was? Something to be taken care of?
Suddenly this place didn’t seem such a haven after all. But didn’t serial killers work alone? I noticed he said ‘we’, meaning we weren’t alone. Maybe he had a nice little family with a wife inside, baking bread in a wood oven.
I looked up to a massive chimney that rose from one side of the steeply-pitched roof but no wood smoke curled into the air. I also didn’t see any wires or antennas. Seemed he wasn’t kidding about being off grid.
Even though I already knew the answer, I couldn’t help but ask, “I don’t suppose there is some way to charge my phone?” I’d left Vegas in such a hurry I’d forgotten my car charger. Easy enough to do when a girl learns her new husband has been paid to kill her.
“Unfortunately not.”
Hearing the ranch house door open, I turned in time to see a second Adonis appear. Tall, muscular, classically handsome with green eyes and burnt sugar hair he could have been a model. A jeans’ model. An underwear model. An anything model. He approached and extended his hand. “Hello there. I’m Pierce. Sorry if Wulff is a little remiss with his manners. We don’t get many visitors.”
My hand disappeared in his. All I could think about was the correlation between a man’s hand and his other attributes. I curled my fingers into Pierce’s massive palm enjoying our shared heat; my hand felt cold the second he released it. I think maybe Pierce just pierced me with his cupid’s arrow. Pierced me to the core. Which was growing hotter by the second.
Especially when behind Pierce a gorgeous Viking of a blond appeared in the open doorway. “Gentlemen, invite the lady in. I’ve just prepared some ‘happy hour’ snacks. I’m Ledger, by the way.” I almost swooned when he spoke. Ledger had the sexiest accent, like someone tickling the ivories of my spine. Surfer Aussie? Or Viking Brit? I wasn’t sure, but hot either way.
“Jenna. Jenna Stevens.” Stevens wasn’t my last name. Wulff- he so interestingly dark and shaggy like a wolf- had said they were off grid, and so it seemed unlikely they sat around watching the news, but just in case I’d been reported missing, I’d decided it was better to lie. “And I really didn’t mean to impose. My GPS must be on crack.”
“It’s no imposition.” Yummy, model-worthy Pierce took my arm and his touch sent shivers snaking u
p my arm. Good shivers. The kind that race through your blood like crazy and kick the libido into overdrive. “Come and meet the others.”
There were others? I felt faint. Like I’d fallen down Alice’s rabbit hole and landed in the midst of Everywoman’s fantasy land of hunky, gorgeous alpha males.
I stepped just inside a huge entrance hall. “This is Dare.” Oh my God. l resisted the urge to fan myself. I would do anything he dared me to, he was so cute. Dark-framed glasses gave him a studious look but in no way detracted from the gorgeous sapphire-blue of his eyes, nor from the way his smile lit up the room and sent a zing right to my hidden assets.
“And this is Hart.” I turned and swear I melted, right through to my insides. My panties felt damp. Hart’s brown hair was cut short, but not too short, emphasizing his raw masculine energy that practically vibrated through the air between us.
Ledger addressed the others with that sexy accent. “Meet Jenna Stevens.” He turned to me. “Please sit and relax. Nothing ever comes along that we can’t handle.”
Handle. I folded onto the couch before my legs gave way. What I wouldn’t give to have them handle me.
Any of them.
All of them.
“What do you all do out here?” I asked, even as my body screamed: Do me. Do me!
I felt ridiculously safe from everything bad I’d left behind. Any danger was far away from this household of gorgeous men.
Dare adjusted his glasses. “Occasionally we get a visitor who needs our help.”
I wondered if Dare was being funny or sarcastic, but those blue eyes of his were dead serious.
Yummy model, Pierce-my-heart nodded. “We’re always happy to help.”
“And the rest of the time?”
“We have plenty to keep us busy.”
“We’re self-sufficient,” steal-my-Hart said. Most of the others were in tight T-shirts, but Hart wore a blue button front denim shirt that matched his eyes.
“You mean you live off the land,” I asked. “Like a commune or a religious cult?” Usually those types had a stable full of women they passed around. I swallowed thickly as I took in my surroundings more closely. No sign of any women. The furnishings, at least what I could see of them, were uber-masculine. Big and dark like the house itself.
“No cult. Just a group of guys taking care of business.”
Abruptly I felt myself deflate. Why were the best-looking men always gay? That had to be it. They were a ménage, living in isolation, outside of society’s norm.
“You look like you could use this.” His yummy accent rolled over me as surfer-boy Ledger handed me a flute of icy-cold Prosecco. I took a grateful sip. Maybe off-the-grid wasn’t so bad after all. At least they served decent wine.
“You’re reading my mind.” I batted my lashes. Perhaps they were bi. I could do bi. It would be a shame to waste all this testosterone. I was so flushed I considered resting the glass against my cheeks to cool myself off.
“For the record, we’re not gay,” Ledger said. “We’re also not opposed to ah…” He paused, as if choosing his words carefully, “helping a charming woman when she needs us.”
I choked on my wine then recovered, letting my gaze slide from one man to the next. “Does this happen very often? A woman wanders by needing your assistance?”
Pierce ran a hand through his brown-sugar hair. “We’re all gentlemen, Jenna. You’re totally safe here with us.”
For some crazy reason, maybe because my life had been such a cluster-fuck lately, I believed him. “What if I told you I was in a bit of a jam? Nothing illegal, I just need to disappear for a while.”
Pierce answered for the group. “I’d say you’ve come to the right place.”
“How far is it to the nearest town?” It was always good to have Plan B.
“Far enough away that no one comes snooping around where they don’t belong,” Ledger said in that divine, drool-worthy accent. “You’ll be safe here.”
“Too far to walk, if that’s what you’re thinking,” dark Wulff said. His jeans and shirt were both black, in contrast to the other guys. “Besides, you’d never make it in those shoes.” I glanced down at my Minolo’s and realized labels and status, so important until a day ago, had no place here where life was basic and primal. I found this a thrilling revelation, and these men a refreshing change.
Dare pushed his glasses up his nose in a gesture I found adorable. “For now, we’d just like you to enjoy being our guest.”
I stood. “This guest needs to use the little girl’s room, if that’s a possibility.”
Hart-of-my heart stood. “It’s this way. I’ll show you.”
He started down the hall in front of me. That’s when I saw the scars. They snaked around the back of his neck and disappeared into the collar of his shirt. When he stopped at the door to the powder room, I couldn’t help myself. I reached out and lightly ran my index finger over the pink and puckered skin. He flinched then turned slowly. His light blue eyes bored into mine as he unfastened the buttons fronting his denim shirt. My mouth went dry. His chest was magnificent- bronzed, heavily muscled, well-defined and shadowed by dark hair as short as on his head.
“I got caught in a fire.” He slid his shirt down and turned to show me his back where scar tissue zig-zagged through the ropey well-developed muscles. One unscarred shoulder bore the tattoo of a fire-breathing dragon.
I swallowed thickly before, acting on sheer instinct, I pressed my lips to the warm skin and followed the map of scars, wishing I could kiss them away. I felt him stiffen then slowly relax beneath my touch.
“We all get burned one way or another,” I said. “The difference is most people’s scars don’t show.”
He buttoned his shirt as if my lips against his skin had never happened and gestured toward the washroom. “Take your time.”
I took care of business then studied my pale reflection in the mirror as I washed my hands. I looked pretty beat-up after my drive. I dug through my purse for a lipstick, unable to put my finger on why I felt safe. This house? These men?
I returned to the great room where only Dare remained, my suitcase at his feet. Which meant someone had been down to the car and back while I cleaned up.
“The others had things to see to,” Dare said. “Come. I’ll show you to your room.”
“Are you sure there’s no internet?” I asked. “People will be worried when I don’t show up as expected. I’d like to let them know I’m all right.”
Dare’s blue eyes shone seriously behind his glasses. “Thor knows where you are, Jenna. Thor arranged for you to be here.”
I froze. “How the hell do you know my godfather?”
Chapter 2
PIERCE
“Do you think it was a good idea to tell Jenna about Thor?” I raised the question in all our minds as we gathered in the kitchen.
Dare shrugged. “Thor said it wouldn’t be easy to gain her trust after what she’d been through. It seemed the most effective way.”
Wulff looked up from where he sat cleaning his gun. “What were you afraid she’d do? Run off?”
“We need to keep her out of the line of fire until her problem is taken care of,” I said. It wouldn’t be the first time we’d had a guest try to flee.
Ledger spoke up. “This time is no different from others. Someone has a problem, we take care of the problem the way we’ve been trained to do.”
“Do you really believe that?” I said. “We’ve never had someone here before with a connection to The Group.”
“It’ll be fine,” Ledger said. Easy for him to say, he tended to be the most laid-back of any of us even though he’d been wrongly incarcerated. There was something about Jenna that rang different. Was I the only one who felt it?
I looked at my team, but as usual they were unreadable. We’d been trained that way, which hadn’t been difficult given our backgrounds. Sometimes I wondered if we would ever fully know each other.
“Are we sure Thor has our best int
erests at heart? Or just Jenna’s?” Wulff came across as the strong and silent type, yet always had deeper questions than the rest of us.
“Jenna needs protecting, not us,” Dare said. “We’re all technically dead.”
“What do you mean, you’re all technically dead?” Jenna asked as she wandered, barefoot and unnoticed, into the great room.
Damn! We should be having this conversation down in the Command Center with no chance of being overheard.
“It’s a little difficult to explain,” I said.
Jenna curled up in a nearby wingback chair. “Try me. I know Thor has his secrets. It appears you five are one of many.”
We exchanged looks.
“We don’t like to see good people get taken advantage of,” Ledger said, running a hand through his longish blond hair. “We have the skills and ability to put wrongs to right as deemed necessary by The Group. And we’re untraceable.”
Jenna pressed her lips together in a way I found irresistible. “So you five do things,” she said. “You right these wrongs, when instructed by people like my godfather.”
“That’s the simplified version, yes.”
“Kind of like rooting for the underdog. Defending people who wouldn’t ordinarily be able to defend themselves.”
We all murmured something that passed for agreement.
“Interesting, “Jenna said as if processing her thoughts. “Thor knew I was coming to him for protection, and yet I wind up here.”
“Thor knows that the man you impulsively married is not who he said he was. That his reasons for marrying you were not very noble.”
“Not very noble?” Jenna snorted. “I found out he’s a professional assassin. And given what else I learned… Well, do you blame me for running?”