The Naughty Nine: Where Danger and Passion Collide

by Nina Bruhns

  She knew she shouldn’t rile him but she couldn’t hold the words back. “You are a monster. You deserve everything the justice system can do to you.”

  He laughed. “Can you still believe in our system? All the while I’ve held an exalted position with our government, I’ve been building my own private empire. Twenty years, Agent Burke. My, where has the time gone.”

  Twenty years. Since before Cassie’s abduction. The impact hit Mallory. Was it possible Manning was also responsible for Cassie? If he hadn’t kept records they would never have proof, but by his own admission it was probable.

  Hatred like she’d never known rose within Mallory. “You’ll have time to ponder that question while you’re on death row. Though there hasn’t been an execution in years, in case you’ve forgotten, Congressman, New York is still a death penalty state.”

  His smile slipped. The color drained from his cheeks. “I’m going to enjoy dropping you off my mountain.”

  Mallory braced, seeking a chance to disarm Manning but his grip on her remained tight and the gun remained pressed hard to her nape.

  She fought back nerves as he backed her to the edge of the mountain. She tried to dig in and hold her ground, but couldn’t keep a foothold in the snow. When they reached the edge, Manning delighted in dangling her weak leg over the cliff.

  “Let her go, Manning.”

  It was Gage. He was holding a semi-automatic trained on Manning but the congressman’s grip on her meant Gage couldn’t shoot Manning without Mallory going over the edge as well.

  Manning gasped in surprise then swung around, bringing Mallory to stand beside him. “I don’t believe I’ll do that.”

  Manning tightened his hold on her throat and Mallory gagged. Though Gage’s grip on the gun was rock-steady, she saw sweat bead on his brow.

  “She’s no good to you dead,” Gage said.

  “Or to you,” Manning responded. “Looks like we’re at a standoff.”

  Manning smiled and gave her a little push so that she teetered on the edge of the cliff. It was only the congressman’s hold on her that kept her from falling. Whereas before she wanted nothing more than for him to release her, now she seized his arms with both hands, hanging on for her life.

  She was shivering from the cold and from fear. The wind picked up and she feared that the slight increase to the breeze might be enough to unbalance her and send her over the edge.

  She saw her own fear mirrored in Gage’s eyes and knew he was going to put down his gun. Manning would kill him and her too. She scrambled for a way to save them both but her mind went blank.

  The whup whup of helicopter blades cut the air and the marking on the chopper identified it as government issue. Lucinda and the women must have reached safety and had sent help.

  The helicopter hovered above them. The door opened. A man crouched in the opening with a rifle aimed at them.

  Someone on the helicopter spoke through a loud speaker: “Drop your weapon and back away from the woman!”

  “No!”

  Gage shouted the command at the chopper, then addressed the congressman. “Manning you can still walk away from this.” Gage’s voice vibrated with emotion.

  Manning smiled. Horror filled Gage’s eyes. Manning continued to watch Gage as he stepped back off the mountain, taking Mallory with him.

  Mallory screamed. Gage lunged. He caught her hand in one of his and his fingers clamped around her.

  “Gage!”

  He dropped onto his belly. She reached up and grasped his wrist with both of her hands while he brought his other hand around and grabbed her by the elbow.

  Manning was still holding on to her, now by one foot. Clearly, he wanted to make sure she died with him.

  Gage’s gun was in the snow beside him within easy reach to shoot Manning but he would need to take one hand off Mallory to do that, and he couldn’t keep her from falling down the rest of the mountain with just one hand.

  His arms trembled with the strain of so much weight. His face reddened and the veins in his neck bulged.

  He would not be able to pull them both up. She kicked back, striking the congressman in the face. Still, he held on. Her hand slipped in Gage’s and she dropped a little farther down the mountain. She screamed. Gage slid forward. Now he was hanging over the edge, too.

  He was not going to release her. If she didn’t break Manning’s hold, Gage would go down this mountain with them.

  She brought her legs up then reared back, hitting Manning with all she was capable of. The congressman lost his grip on her. His screams echoed as he fell.

  Gage reached down, seized her under one arm and pulled her up the mountain. Her teeth were chattering. She was trembling. He was shaking as well as he crushed her against him.

  “I have you. I have you.” He repeated the words over and over.

  Dimly, Mallory realized that the helicopter had landed and men were running toward them. Tears filled her eyes. She buried her face in Gage’s shoulder and let them come.

  Snowbound: Chapter Thirteen

  Mallory had the television in her apartment at low volume while she read a dossier on a new investigation. The cooking show she’d been listening to with half an ear as she skimmed background information ended and a talk show began. The host led with the story of Congressman Pritchard Manning who had been leading a double life as a respected politician and the head of a human trafficking operation. Shock waves of his secret criminal persona were rippling across the nation, the host said. Manning’s picture appeared on the screen. Mallory picked up the remote and turned the television off.

  It was five days since Manning stepped off that mountain and took her with him. She still got cold and shaky whenever she recalled that moment. She wrapped her arms around herself now and moved to the window. The snow storm that had precipitated her escape into the mountains had marked the end of the winter. Spring had come early. Eight floors below, Bradley’s residents were enjoying the mild afternoon. Mallory raised her face to the bright, warm sunlight.

  Mallory’s brother, John, came up beside her and put his arm around her. His dark hair was mussed as if he’d recently driven his fingers through it. When news broke about Manning and Mallory’s role in apprehending the congressman, John had taken an emergency leave from his CIA team. Her brother was having a difficult time dealing with her near-death experience with Manning and since his arrival at her apartment, had taken to keeping her in his sights. John brought her close now and planted a kiss on the top of her head, then they just stood together, without speaking.

  John’s first night there, they’d stayed up until the early hours of the morning, talking about Manning and the investigation and about . . . Cassie. There was little Mallory had never shared with John, and while he knew some of her driving need to find out what happened to Cassie, he hadn’t known just how deep that need went. John had held her and rocked her as she’d told him of it, and cried for her dearest friend.

  Footsteps behind them drew their attention. Mallory turned with John to see Eve, the woman John would marry at Christmas, coming toward them. Eve was bearing a tray with steaming mugs and a plate piled high with sandwiches.

  “Thought you might like some lunch,” Eve said as she set the tray down on the coffee table.

  Eve smoothed her slim designer skirt beneath her before gracefully lowering herself onto the armchair. John’s eyes went soft and warm as he took in the woman he so clearly loved. Eve was a beautiful woman both outside and inside and Mallory welcomed her as a sister. Though she couldn’t be happier that John and Eve had found each other, seeing them together also brought a degree of pain and a deep longing for Gage.

  Like Mallory, Gage had given statements to York and to a bevy of high ranking government officials, and no doubt to his own police chief. But she hadn’t heard that from him. She hadn’t seen or spoken with Gage since he’d pulled her up that mountain.

  Though it hurt to admit, she didn’t expect to hear from him. They’d said all
they needed to say outside the Bureau building on the day he left. Or, he had. After he’d spoken, there’d been nothing she could say. She was not over him and had accepted she never would be.

  “Lunch sounds great, honey,” John said to Eve. He faced Mallory. “How about it, Mal?”

  Mallory left the window and accompanied her brother to the couch, welcoming the distraction from thinking about Gage. She hadn’t told John or Eve about her love for Gage. The wound was too raw.

  Eve bit delicately into an egg salad sandwich. “I was hoping you and I could take a look at some bridal magazines after lunch.”

  Mallory swallowed a lump that formed in her throat and nodded. “Yes. Absolutely.”

  The doorbell rang. Mallory rose from the couch. She swung the front door open and went still at the sight of Gage standing in the corridor.

  She took in a quick breath at the deep wound at his hairline that was healing but was still red and raw. He was wearing a dark suit and tie. It was the first time she’d seen him in anything but jeans and the business look had been made with him in mind. She hadn’t thought he could possibly be more handsome, but he was.

  “Hello, Mallory.”

  “Gage.”

  A silence dragged on. He broke it. “May I come in?”

  She would have preferred not to invite him in. Seeing him had started her heart racing and had brought to the forefront every feeling she had for him. But after all they’d been through together, he certainly deserved better than to be left standing outside in the hall and she stepped back from the doorway.

  John stood. Mallory cleared her throat to make introductions. “Gage, this is my brother, John, and his fiancée, Eve Collins. John, this is Gage Broderick.”

  John met Gage at the door and extended his hand. “Thank you.”

  Gage shook John’s hand. “No thanks necessary.”

  Eve joined them. She cast a look to Gage and then to Mallory, then retrieved her coat and John’s from the hall closet. “John, let’s take a walk.”

  Before John or Mallory herself could utter a word, Eve hustled John out the door. Now alone with Gage, the silence resumed.

  Gage looked around. “You changed some things.”

  “I replaced what was broken when Manning’s men came in here.”

  “Looks good.”

  Mallory closed the door but kept her hand on the knob, needing something to hold on to. “I heard you were required to return to Washington.”

  “My boss, among others, wanted to know how I was involved in what went down over here.”

  “How’d that go?”

  “I’m back to work.”

  Mallory felt happy for him. “I’m glad. You’re a good cop. How does it feel being back?”

  “Right.” He gave her a level look. “How are you?”

  “I’m fine, thank you. How are you?”

  Gage’s eyes narrowed on her, assessing her. “Really, how are you?”

  After Gage pulled her up the mountain, she’d been treated for the ribs Big Brute had broken and the concussion he and his associate had caused, but to Gage now she said, “Really, I’m fine.”

  She couldn’t do this with him. Couldn’t stand here making small talk. Seeing him was one more assault to the delicate balance of her emotions. She felt her composure slip and turned the knob to open the door before she lost it completely.

  “Mallory, we need to talk about how we left things.”

  She didn’t want to hear reasons why they couldn’t be together. Her heart breaking all over again, she said, “Gage, I don’t want you to blame yourself for leaving the day that Manning got me. That wasn’t your fault. You have nothing to feel guilty about.” That guilt would have taken him over the mountain with her.

  “Please. Hear me out.”

  She didn’t want to do that. Not when his words were sure to pour salt on her bleeding heart. But he wasn’t going to let this go and she was now dangerously close to breaking down. That would only upset them both. So before she did, she would let him get it all out and then he would leave her for the last time. Swallowing tears, she nodded

  “When Ben and Josh were killed, something inside me died too,” Gage said. “I went up to that mountain never expecting to come down.”

  Mallory rubbed the heel of her hand to her heart where it now ached for Gage.

  He closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, he went to the new bookcase in her living room where among tomes on investigative procedure and recent bestsellers, were photographs of Mallory at various ages with her parents, brothers, and Cassie. He stood facing them, but Mallory didn’t think he was actually seeing the pictures.

  “Up there,” Gage continued, “I was in a place where no one could ever be hurt again because of me. Where I couldn’t be hurt. I’d lost the two people I’d loved most in this world. I didn’t want to love anyone again.”

  Mallory closed her eyes against the pain of those words. When she opened them, Gage had turned away from the photographs, back to her.

  “As long as I live I will never get the sight of you hanging off that mountain out of my head.” Gage shuddered.

  “You saved me. I’d be dead now if not for you.”

  “If I could remove the hurt that Manning caused you, and all the hurt I caused you . . . ” He shook his head. “I can’t—”

  Her heart squeezed. “I know you can’t—” Love me. “—change how you feel.”

  “Change what happened.”

  “You don’t have to do this, Gage. You have nothing to blame yourself for.”

  He left the bookcase and came to stand in front of her again. The expression on his face was raw and open, unlike any she’d seen on him before. “You think because I’d left you and then Manning caught you, I came after you out of guilt.” His eyes blazed into hers. “Nothing I ever did with you was out of guilt.”

  Mallory just stared at him.

  He framed her face between his broad palms. “I came after you because I love you.”

  Mallory’s lips began to tremble. Her eyes stung with tears. Gage kissed her as the first one fell.

  Against her lips he said, “I can’t change what’s happened, but I don’t have to let that be all there is for us. I want a life with you.” His voice was thick with emotion.

  Mallory couldn’t blink fast enough to clear the tears blurring her view of him. Kissing him, she murmured. “I want that too. I love you so much.”

  With Gage in Washington and her in New York, theirs would be a long distance relationship until they could get some things worked out, but for now all she could think was he was here holding her in his arms. “When do you need to go back home?”

  Gage drew back from her. His gaze lit on each feature of her face before returning to meet her eyes. As his mouth covered hers again he said, “Baby, I am home.”

  THE END

  About the Author

  Karen Fenech

  USA Today Bestselling Author Karen Fenech writes romantic suspense novels and short works of suspense. She is the author of the romantic suspense series, The Protectors. The first four books in the series are available now: Book 1: IMPOSTER. Book 2: SNOWBOUND. Book 3: PURSUED. Book 4: HIDE. Karen's novels and short suspense fiction have received critical acclaim and have been translated into several languages and released by her publisher in audio. When Karen's not writing or spending time with her family, she loves to shop, watch movies, and just kick back in a comfortable chair and read.

  You can reach Karen here:

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/KarenFenechsFriends

  Twitter: @karenfenech

  Website: www.karenfenech.com

  If you'd like to know when Karen Fenech's next novel is released, sign up for her notification-only news at: www.karenfenech.com/books.html

  More books by Karen Fenech:

  IMPOSTER: The Protectors Series ‒ Book One

  PURSUED: The Protectors Series ‒ Book Three

  HIDE: The Protectors Series ‒ Book Four />
  (Bonus Story)

  SECRET IDENTITY

  by Jill Sanders

  Secret Identity: Prologue

  Carter watched Eve from across the room. For the last ten years of his life, he'd watched her every chance he could. He would consider himself a borderline stalker if she wasn't one of his best friends. He didn't know if she knew that he watched her or if she knew how he felt, but he wasn't ready to risk it. Yet.

  A few hours later, however, he'd had the right mix of lack of food, too much sun, and too much beer. When he’d walked into his grandparents’ old place, he’d accidentally bumped into her in the upstairs hallway. He hadn't even known she was in the house. He'd thought she was still outside with the many other guests, either on the dock soaking up the sun, or out on the boat, water skiing. But there she was, just outside his grandparents’ old bedroom. Instincts had kicked in and before he knew it, he'd pushed her through the door, shutting it with his foot as he’d swooped in for the most fantastic kiss he'd ever had. She’d tasted like strawberries and felt smoother than silk as he’d run his hands over her half-naked body. For a split second, he thought she'd arched into him and relaxed into the kiss. But then they had heard a cough and a click, then jumped apart like they’d been caught kissing, and well, they had. By one of Eve's best friends, Susan.

  For the next week, Carter hadn't known how to approach her. Or what to say. Did he say anything? Or act like nothing had happened.

  When he had finally approached her, she’d looked at her feet and told him she was getting married to her longtime boyfriend, Steve. His heart had been broken. That night he'd gone out with Mitch, his other best friend, and over their second pitcher of beer, they'd come up with a business plan that had rocketed them to the big times.