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
Other Books by Lisa Marie Rice
Copyright
About The Author
Message posted in HER: Is anybody there? Help!
FELICITY: Hey, who is this? Just caught the message.
HER: Thank God! It’s Hope, Felicity. I’ve got men after me, they broke into my apartment. I saw it on my security app and barely escaped. I’m holing up in a friend’s house but I don’t know where else to go.
FELICITY: On secure phone?
HER: Brand new. Didn’t have a chance to give you the number which is why I didn’t show up. I’m in bad trouble. I’ve got some scary guys after me. They killed a friend of mine. I’ve been on the run for hours.
FELICITY: Oh hell. Send me your location … got it. Wait …
At exactly 10.15 tomorrow, walk out onto the sidewalk of Lawrence Street and wait on the corner of Lawrence and Hyde. A car will pull up. Password: Dungeons and Dragons. Response: World of Warcraft. The car will take you to an airfield where a corporate jet that belongs to my company, ASI, will be ready for takeoff. The jet will take you to Portland and you will be met by one of our operatives, Luke Reynolds. He’s utterly trustworthy. A highly decorated former soldier and a former cop. He will take you to a safe location and we’ll take it from there. You’ll be safe, honey. Guaranteed.
HER: Oh God, Felicity! Thnx so much! I think the men who raided my apartment killed a friend of mine. They killed my doorman. I’m so scared. Good thing you were at work and saw my bat-signal!
FELICITY: Not at work, in bed. Pregnant and spotting. Under strictest orders not to get out of bed. My husband is being really hard-assed about it.
HER: Married! Expecting! OMG!
FELICITY: Yeah. Get here safely and I’ll tell you all about it.
Portland, Oregon
It was raining when they landed at the airfield in Portland. Near the township of Hillsboro. She checked the map on her laptop when she got onto the plane. It always made her feel more secure knowing exactly where she was going.
She’d been shaking when she got into the plane, a sleek corporate jet with only one other passenger, a perfectly pleasant banker-type who nodded then pulled out spreadsheets and started working his way across the continental United States without saying a word. The pilot had taken one look at her, handed her a blanket and, just before going back to the cockpit, a cup of hot tea.
The banker never even looked up.
Good. If she opened her mouth to speak, she’d probably scream.
Hope envied the businessman, envied him his focus, envied the fact that he was able to just sink into his documents. She wanted to work her way across the country too, lose herself in work, which was her specialty. Work was her happy place. But she’d been running on fumes and was beyond exhausted. She couldn’t concentrate on work right now. She’d barely escaped with her life.
This was the first time in 24 hours she’d been safe. Inside the jet, it was all muffled sounds and neutral colors and soft seats. Plus, there was absolutely nobody who would kill her here, 35,000 feet in the air.
With any luck.
Whoever was after her wouldn’t know that she was landing in Portland, Oregon because she wasn’t on anyone’s manifest.
So now was the time for her to stop and try to figure out what had happened, to make plans, maybe even to leave the country. Felicity’s company could help her with that. But she’d have to have a coherent story ready to tell them. One that made sense instead of the random insanity that was happening to her.
Analyzing data was her job. She was good at it and got paid well for it. The reward this time wasn’t a raise or a promotion, but her life. So this was her chance to stop and try to find out what the hell was going on.
Instead, she fell fast asleep. More like falling into a coma.
Since Kyle had called the previous day, she’d been on superhigh alert. Hadn’t eaten, hadn’t slept. Probably had adrenaline coursing through her veins instead of blood.
Adrenaline crash. All nerds knew them. Forty-eight and even seventy-two hour work binges, when sleep was for sissies, for the brain-dead, followed by crashing hard for twelve hours. Like that. Only with death and danger thrown into the mix.
She fell asleep the moment she buckled her seat belt and realized that there was no one who wanted to kill her inside this steel tube that was soon going to be unreachably high up in the stratosphere. She slept through the trip, through the descent, through the landing, and only woke up when someone touched her hand.
She was torn out of a nightmare, gave a raw, whispery scream and flung her arms up over her face. Because in the dream someone was shooting her in the face and a good way to avoid that is to throw up your arms, which will of course stop a bullet.
“Hey.”
Killers didn’t say ‘hey’. Did they?
She was scrabbling in her seat, wrenching at something holding her down, before she even opened her eyes.
“Hope.” She opened her eyes and saw a man standing right in front of her. He didn’t look like a crazed killer and his voice was low and deep and calm. And he knew her name. “My name is Luke. I’m Felicity’s friend. I’m here to help you.”
The words bounced around in her head, only three words making any sense. Luke. Felicity. Friend.
But she was still bound somehow, with no freedom of movement.
“May I?” the man said. Holding up his hands. Why was he doing that? To assure her he didn’t hold weapons? But those hands were big. Those were hands that could hurt.
But they didn’t hurt. Before she could react, he reached down to her lap, she heard a metallic click and was free of the seat belt.
And the cloud in her head lifted.
Hope was smart. Her essential self was basically what went on in her head. It was frightening to be out of it even for the few moments between waking up and realizing where she was. It was a sign of her exhaustion and stress that she’d reacted so badly.
She looked up at the man standing in front of her. Luke. His name was Luke Reynolds and her good friend Felicity had sent him to help her. To protect her. And she’d almost attacked him. If she hadn’t been strapped in by the seat belt, maybe she’d have tried to punch him.
Though … to tell the truth, he looked pretty unpunchable. He was tall, very lean and all muscle. Sinewy and tough-looking. She’d have only hurt her hand if she’d punched him.
“Sorry.” Her voice was a croak, still rasping from sleep. She drew in a deep shuddering breath. “So sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about.” His deep voice was even, emotionless. He reached to the side and gave her a floppy hat and sunglasses, though from what was visible through the airplane portholes, it was overcast. “Please put these on. The sunglasses are Reflectacles and distort facial features. The hat has a hidden light under the brim which makes it impossible to film your face. We have stairs with a canopy and a vehicle waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Felicity said you needed to stay undetected.”
She nodded. For some reason she was finding it hard to keep up. It took her a moment to realize he was handing her a disguise.
Disguises were good. Particularly high-tech ones. Yeah. She believed in tech the way other people believed in God.
“Thanks,” she said, glad that her voice was less croaky.
He nodded.
Hope felt creaky and disoriented, a l
ittle like she felt after a 48-hour work binge and she was inserting herself back into meatspace. She looked around. The businessman she’d been on the flight with had disappeared. She’d barely had a glimpse of him before she’d fallen into her coma. A pilot stood at the cockpit door, waiting.
For what?
For you, dummy. He’s waiting for you.
Luke was waiting too. He indicated the door with his hand.
Hope looked around. There was a sequence to getting off a plane. Unbuckle, get up, get something — get what? Then she remembered. “I don’t have any luggage, not even toiletries.”
She had only her laptop backpack with her.
Luke nodded. “Felicity had some stuff put together for you. It’s waiting in the car.”
He looked at her bare head. “Please put the glasses and hat on.”
He’d said this before.
“Oh.” Feeling unsettled, she put the floppy wide-brimmed hat and huge sunglasses on. They were heavy. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.” He reached out to touch her arm. “You’re having an adrenaline dump. It’s ok. We’ll take care of you.”
Well, that was a novel concept. Someone taking care of her. She’d been taking care of herself for a very long time.
The steps were covered and the sides were a transparent plastic. Paranoia gripped her. Anyone with binoculars could see her. If they had a powerful enough camera, they could photograph her. She knew exactly how amazingly efficient facial recognition had become. Yes, she had special glasses and a special hat but this was new tech. It sometimes failed. And if someone had a sniper rifle …
Luke took her elbow gently and nudged her forward. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “That there’s danger.” She glanced up at him. If he was working for Felicity’s company, which was a security company, he was probably professionally paranoid. Part of the job description. Paranoia was a new feeling for her and she didn’t like it. Fear wasn’t fun.
“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m thinking,” she said.
“But there is no danger. Don’t worry about it.” They were walking down the steps. With his free hand he touched the transparent sides of the portable stairs. “It’s transparent to you, but no one can see through on the other side. You’ll see once we’re in the car. The hat and the glasses are overkill. Literally no one can see you but me, and I’m on your side.”
Well, that was … reassuring.
They walked down the stairs. Luke Reynolds matched her, step by step. He looked like he could leap down the stairs but he matched her slow pace exactly. It felt … safe. She’d lived completely on the alert these past 24 hours, unconsciously ready for flight at the slightest provocation. But with this man by her side, she knew he’d see danger before she ever could, and he looked perfectly capable of reacting.
His big lean body next to hers radiated heat and safety. She wasn’t even aware of being cold until he was next to her and she had to stop herself from leaning into him. For the heat. For that feeling of strength he exuded so effortlessly.
The canopy of the stairs actually overhung the vehicle’s roof. And someone had stationed the vehicle so that she stepped straight from the safety and anonymity of the covered stairway into the passenger seat without ever touching the ground.
The windows didn’t look dark but from the outside she hadn’t been able to see inside the vehicle at all.
Luke rounded the hood, slid into the driver’s seat and drove off.
“Look behind you,” he said and she did.
Oh my god! The transparent sides weren’t transparent at all. They were opaque. Absolutely nothing showed through. Not the railing, not the steps, nothing.
“See?” She turned wide eyes toward him and he nodded. “No one in the world knows where you are,” he said softly. “So relax.”
And she did. For the first time in days. Muscles unclenched and she drew in a deep breath for the first time in what felt like forever.
Luke punched a button and classical music flowed gently into the cabin of the car. Just loud enough to be heard, to weave gentle fingers over her body, but not loud enough to stop conversation.
She turned in her seat to look at him. For the first time she noticed how amazingly good-looking he was. It had taken a while because he didn’t put out those ‘I’m so handsome it hurts’ vibes like most handsome men did. He was entirely matter of fact, entirely unaware of the effect he was producing, and one of the handsomest men she’d ever seen. Even in the movies. Lightly tanned, with sharp, clean features, ice blue eyes, sharp blade of a nose, firm mouth. Actually … grim mouth. Because he was here for serious business, protecting a woman under threat.
Man, he was hotthough.
Hope needed to stop thinking what she was thinking. What she was thinking was entirely unlike her. Hope didn’t flirt and it usually took her months to work up an attraction. This instant — thing he inspired was kind of scary. Her entire body was awake, hormones firing, skin sensitive. He was such an eye magnet she turned her head to look out the passenger side window.
“So. Where are we going?” she asked the window, then looked back at him. Because he was such an eye magnet.
However, not knowing where he was taking her was so weird.
God. Her entire job was doing one thing while thinking five or six or seven steps ahead. She wasn’t thinking ahead now, just following this man, moment by moment, not knowing where she was going. When was the last time that happened?
Had the danger and fear knocked something loose? Something she didn’t know she had? Was she going to be sandbagged by her hormones at the wrongest moment possible?
Luke glanced at her briefly and it was like the sun shone on her for an instant.
“The company hires a suite in a very nice upscale hotel. No one will know you are there because it’s booked under another company’s name. We’ll have room service and you can debrief me knowing you’re safe.” He looked over at her, head to toe. She was dressed for work. Black stovepipe pants, oversized forest green linen top, oversized black linen jacket. “It’s a deluxe hotel, and you’ll fit right in, if anyone sees you, which they won’t,” he said. He blew out a breath. “Sorry I’m not dressed for it. I’ve been on a stake-out.”
She slid her eyes back over to him. His blond hair was too long and he had blond scruff softening a hard jawline. Not the deliberate kind of scruff that took a barber to curate. The real deal, that came from not shaving. He had on faded jeans, a shapeless, long-sleeved, grayish tee that had been washed too many times and a blue flannel shirt over it like a jacket. Everything rumpled.
Whew. It lifted her spirits.
She had her first smile in days. “Don’t worry. At my company, formal dress means your shoes match and your pants are zipped. You’re almost overdressed.”
Luke hadn’t expected Felicity’s friend to be so goddamned pretty. Maybe he should have. Felicity herself was a beautiful woman. The most beautiful woman in the world, according to her husband, Metal. He’d probably shoot the face off anyone who denied that.
But in Luke’s head, the odds against having two pretty women computer nerds were high. He’d spent ten years in the Army, most of them as a Ranger. A lot of fellow soldiers in the Army who were analysts or in communications were women, and as sexless as their computers to him. Most were more like bots than people.
Not this woman. She was looking out the window to her right so he could keep sneaking glances at her without coming off as skeevy. She was more than pretty. She was beautiful. Delicate features, huge green eyes surrounded by thick black lashes, perfect ivory skin, short spiky blue-black hair. Slender and fragile-looking, though it was hard to tell because she wore oversized clothes as if trying to hide herself from the world.
Her whole body language was — don’t look at me. Well, yeah, if she had killers after her, she definitely didn’t want to be seen.
Though with regular-fitting clothes and without possible killers after her, people would look at
her. Definitely. Men, in particular.
She was in big trouble, though Felicity had only given him the bare bones of her story. It’s better if Hope tells you herself, she said. And yeah, that made sense. A secondhand story wouldn’t do anyone any good. They’d have plenty of time for her to tell him what was going on. Where they were going, they could stay for a while, figuring things out. Luke didn’t start work at ASI for another two weeks and he was absolutely certain that no one knew where Hope Ellis was. ASI was good at that.
Well, unless Satan himself — armed with excellent gear — was after her. Always a possibility. After his recent experiences, Luke wouldn’t swear that the devil himself was not alive and kicking in Portland, Oregon.
Nice little city. Gentle, responsible people around. They obeyed the laws, gave to charity and recycled. But there were monsters here, too. He was living proof of that.
They were at the hotel. Luke drove past the façade and around the corner. ASI had a separate entrance with security cameras that could be turned off from the garage up to the top suite. They’d already checked in. No one on earth except ASI knew where they were and Luke would lay his life on the line that no one at ASI would leak the info, or could be bought or coerced into talking.
He believed in ASI when he no longer believed in much of anything, particularly the law.
Hope’s eyes were large as she glanced at the façade as they drove by. “This is a fancy hotel,” she said.
“Yeah.” It was. Way beyond the architecture and design, it was in part a safe house and a lot of money had gone into making it secure.
She turned her head to look at him as he plunged into the garage, turning right into an area off-limits to other guests.
“I have money to repay your company,” she said earnestly. “Not to mention the private plane over. As a matter of fact, my parents left me a lot of money and I earn very well. But the thing is —”
Luke held up a hand and she cut herself off. He parked and turned fully in his seat toward her. His heart clenched a little because she was looking so worried. So pale and fragile, curled against the door. As if nobody would help her if she couldn’t pay right away. As if she were expecting to be abandoned. She looked so small and vulnerable in her oversized clothes, pale face turned anxiously toward him.
Midnight Kiss Page 1