Complete Mia Kazmaroff Romantic Suspense Series, 1-4

by Kiernan-Lewis, Susan

  In two steps, he had her on the couch and she was wrenching her shirt off. He groaned at the sight of her naked breasts, the nipples puckered and taut. He leaned down and took one in his mouth, feeling her arch her back, pushing her breasts into him. She slid her hand into his jeans and wrapped her fingers around his throbbing, hard cock.

  “Make love to me tomorrow, Jack,” she whispered into his ear in ragged breaths. “Tonight just take me.”

  He released her nipple and sat back to see how beautiful she was, glowing and waiting for him, her hips rocked gently with need and urgency, begging him to hurry. Her lips were parted, her eyes glazed with want. He unbuckled his belt and flung it over the couch, then unbuttoned his jeans.

  The doorbell rang. He froze. Are you kidding me?

  He looked into her startled eyes, eyes that only seconds before had been glazed with desire.

  “Oh, shit,” she said, looking in the direction of the door. “It’s Maria. I’m supposed to take her to the barn today.”

  *****

  An hour later, as Mia drove toward Shakerag, it was all she could do to keep up a pleasant conversation with the girl, Maria. Just an hour earlier her world had been rocked to its foundation—and we haven’t even done the deed yet!

  She felt a gush of warmth in her panties as she remembered the sight of Jack looming over her, poised between her legs…

  “I very grateful, Senorita Mia,” Maria said as she watched the passing country scenery go by. “And again, I am so sorry. So sorry…”

  Focus, Mia, focus. She had one last job to do and it involved getting Maria to testify against Jamie.

  “No need to apologize. I totally understand. You were terrified of Jamie. I get it.” Mia squirmed in her seat and trying to delay thoughts of tonight.

  With Jack.

  She cleared her throat. “I also understand why you’re not comfortable testifying against him,” she said, catching a sideways look at Maria. The girl’s face took on an immediate visage of fear.

  “He will kill me,” she said.

  “Well, that’s just it, Maria,” Mia said. “If you do testify against him, he’ll go to prison for a long, long time. He won’t hurt you or anybody else.”

  “You do not know him. He is powerful.”

  “I know it seems that way,” Mia said, reasonably. “But the authorities want to lock him up forever. And they need your help for that.”

  “I am just a girl.”

  “You are also powerful.”

  “No, senorita. I am weak.”

  She said it matter-of-factly. Mia realized it was possible she’d believed that even before she’d been forced into sex slavery for two unimaginably horrible weeks. Maybe she could never see herself as strong or powerful.

  How was Mia going to convince her of that in one afternoon?

  All she knew was that she had to. It was either that or find a way to ice the little turd in jail. She smiled wryly. Jack would get a kick out of that thought. Although he was too by-the-books to ever consider such a thing. She decided it was one of the things about him that she loved.

  She drove down the long dirt and gravel drive that led to the barn and stopped herself from pointing out the spot where she had first seen José. What was the point? José wasn’t her brother.

  “I was afraid it would rain today,” Maria said timidly.

  Mia squinted up at the sky. “It might,” she admitted. “But it’ll probably be just a quick shower and we have a nice warm barn to wait it out if we have to.”

  When they rounded the last curve, the two tack barns and the dressage ring came into view. There was a single motorcycle parked in the otherwise vacant dirt parking lot. Mia frowned. She hadn’t expected anyone to be here.

  The barn manager was out of town for the weekend and most riders had come and gone much earlier in the day. She looked at the motorcycle and felt a schism of unease. She didn’t know anyone at the barn who rode motorcycles. Most equestrians had major issues with riders of ATVs or motorbikes. The feeling was that they ruined the hacking trails and their loud, abrasive noise frightened the horses, causing unnecessary accidents.

  She didn’t park near the bike and when she turned off the car, she sat for a moment to enjoy one of her favorite parts of coming out to the barn. It was that moment of complete and heavenly silence when she turned off the car engine.

  This is why she wanted to bring Maria here. Here where it was harmonious and peaceful, where it was natural. God’s country. Could anyone feel worried or stressed in such a serene environment?

  And then the phone rang. Grimacing, Mia answered it while she turned off the ringer. “Hello?”

  “Mia? Liz Magnuson, here.”

  “Hello, Liz,” Mia said. “What can I do for you?”

  “I’ll get right to the point. My contacts within the Atlanta PD have informed me of a significant bust last night. Did you find your Maria?”

  Mia caught her breath and looked at Maria who was looking at her questioning.

  What the hell. “Yes, I did,” she said, smiling at Maria.

  “Excellent. I’ll be expecting you and Jack to honor your promise to help out at Atlantans Against Modern Slavery on a volunteer basis. You remember you promised?”

  “Yes, Liz. You can count on us.”

  “That’s all I wanted to know. Next week? And as Trey still hasn’t come back to work I am in a position to offer you a small stipend for your time.”

  “Yes, alright, Liz. We’ll talk about it next week, okay?”

  After she hung up, she noticed Maria was looking around the stable yard with wide eyes. Maybe she didn’t come from a rural village?

  “Come on, Maria,” Mia said getting out of the car. “I want you to meet Shiloh.”

  They walked to the metal gate and Mia unlatched it so they could both walk into the pasture.

  “Are you familiar with horses?” she asked Maria.

  The girl nodded. “My uncle owned donkeys,” she said.

  “Did you use to ride the donkeys?”

  Maria looked at her as if it were a strange question but eventually she said, “When I was a child. But they are working animals.”

  Mia nodded. She pointed to the large herd of horses by the pond, a hundred yards away. “You see that chestnut there? The one with the blaze down his nose? That’s Shiloh. If you were going to stay in Atlanta, you could come out and ride with me.”

  “I want to go home,” Maria said softly.

  “Sure. I can see that.”

  Mia gave a low whistle and smiled when she saw Shiloh lift his head and turn to look in her direction. He left the herd and began to slowly amble toward her.

  “He is beautiful, Senorita Mia,” Maria said.

  “Thank you. He’s very special to me.” When Shiloh joined them, he nuzzled Mia’s shoulder in greeting. She snaked the halter over his head and buckled it. “I forgot his carrots,” she said. “Usually I give him one for coming. You know, Maria, when you go home you’ll be safe but every day girls will come from your country thinking that something good is going to happen to them only to run into someone like Jamie. If you don’t testify, it might even be Jamie. I know you don’t want that to happen.”

  “Why does not your country tell everyone what is happening?” Maria said, as she walked beside Mia and the horse back to the gate and the barn.

  “Well, you’re right. That’s important but putting the bad guys away is even more important. It makes the pimps think twice about…doing it again.”

  “I don’t think so, Senorita,” Maria said sadly. “I don’t think they are thinking twice at all.”

  Mia sighed and led Shiloh through the gate to the alcove off the first tack room. It was fifty yards from the parking lot.

  “Do you feel comfortable waiting here with Shiloh while I run back to the car to get the carrots I brought?” she asked.

  Maria put her hand on Shiloh’s neck and patted him. “Si,” she said simply.

  Mia headed toward th
e parking lot when she noticed a strange car pull up next to the motorbike. She was sure she knew everyone’s car who rode at Shakerag. As she got closer, her face broke into a grin.

  It was Ben, untangling his long legs from the car, and trying to be careful where he stepped. Horse droppings littered the ground even in the parking lot. She saw he held a large bag of apples in his hand.

  “This is a surprise!” she said as she walked up to him. “How did you know I was here?”

  Should she tell him now? His face looked so hopeful and happy to see her. She hated to spoil that but now that things with Jack were coming together she didn’t want to lead Ben on any longer than she already had.

  “I stopped by your Mom’s first, hoping to catch you. I hope you don’t mind. You weren’t answering your phone and hers was the only address I could find associated with your phone number. I hope that wasn’t too pushy. I just really wanted to see to you.”

  Mia checked her phone. Because she’d turned the ringer off after Liz Magnuson’s call she’d missed a call from Ben and three from her mother. Probably calling me to give me a heads up that Ben was coming. Noticing her battery was low, she turned it off to save what power she had and slipped it back in her pocket.

  He held up the bag of apples. “She gave me these as I was leaving.”

  “That’s my mom.”

  “Yeah, she seemed pretty cool. I’m fairly confident I got the mom-vote.”

  “Well, that counts for a lot,” Mia said with a smile, but her stomach muscles were tightening as if her gut was in the process of trying to reject something sour. “I’m glad you came. It’s actually one of the little tests I have for every new boyfriend.” Why did I say that? Is it nerves? He is no longer a boyfriend candidate. Why get his hopes up?

  “The ability to dodge horse patties? Or not scream like a girl when they sneeze? Because I’ve heard them before and they are very loud.”

  Mia laughed. “Can you wait just a sec? I’m here with one of the girls from last night’s bust and I’m sure she’s going to freak when she sees your face.”

  She watched his expression become serious. “I understand,” he said. “Story of my life.”

  “Just give me a minute to talk to her.”

  Mia turned and hurried back to the tack shed but before she could reach it, she saw that Maria was peering around the slats of the structure, looking for her. Maria saw Ben. The girl began to back up, her face a mask of horror, until she tripped over an ill-placed bale of hay and fell. Quickly scrambling to her feet, she turned and ran in the direction of the pasture.

  “Maria, no! It’s not him!”

  Mia watched Maria run to the gate they’d just come through, wrench it open and run back inside the pasture. Two horses near the gate flung their heads up and, luckily, wheeled off in the opposite direction of the gate when Maria ran past them.

  Mia had to get that gate shut and find Maria. The pasture was a benign place unless you didn’t know how to behave in it. Then it could hold all manner of dangers.

  Mia ran to Shiloh and jerked his lead rope out of the knot that tied him to the shed. She led him quickly to the mounting block by the edge of the shed and hopped up on it, positioning herself to climb on his back—when he took two steps away from her. She fell forward, cursing herself and him. A flash of lightning illuminated the darkening late afternoon sky. Trying not to lose any more time, she led Shiloh back to the block and yanked his lead rope hard.

  “Now, stand still!” Ready for him this time, she was on his back and twisting his head in the direction of the gate before he had a chance to move away on his own accord. She dug her heels in and took him from a standstill to a canter though the open gate. There were no horses anywhere near the gate.

  From on top of Shiloh, she could see Maria running up the nearest hill. The effort slowed her considerably—and she was in the open—but Mia knew why she’d gone that way. She was hemmed in on the other two sides with fencing and the third area showed most of the horses together and already acting antsy.

  Shit. This needs to happen now, Mia thought desperately…before a thunder crack turns this already-nervous herd of flight animals into a stampeding swarm of squealing, uncontrolled terror. She pointed Shiloh’s head in the direction of the hill and tightened her legs around his sides to tell him what she wanted. Instantly, he shifted into a gallop and she charged in the direction of the fleeing girl.

  Long before Maria could hope to reach the hill’s summit, Mia raced past her and wheeled around in front of her, dropping to the ground before Shiloh had completed the turn.

  The rain was coming down now.

  She held up her hands. “Maria, stop! It’s not him! Not Jamie!”

  The girl, gasping, fell to her knees in front of Mia, but she looked over her shoulder. She had no breath in her. Mia, still holding Shiloh’s lead rope, went to her and knelt down.

  “It isn’t him, Maria. Don’t you trust me? I swear you’re safe.”

  “It….he…” Maria gulped in air and looked over her shoulder again. At that moment, a long finger of lightning jabbed to the ground beyond the tree line.

  Way too close. Mia jumped back up, tugging Maria with her. When the clap of thunder boomed across the pasture, Shiloh reared and backed away from her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the other horses, already on the move, now starting to crisscross the pasture in an uncontrolled stampede of panic. Knowing any minute the horses were likely to head in their direction, Mia dragged Maria to where Shiloh stood and shouted over the now pouring rain.

  “Put your foot in my hand. Comprendo?”

  Maria hesitated but nodded and Mia laced her hands together to form a foothold next to Shiloh.

  I swear to God if he moves away now I’ll sell him for glue…

  Maria put her foot in the hold and Mia tossed her easily onto Shiloh’s back. She looked around for something to climb on and saw a rock by the edge of the wood that would serve. Over the rain, she heard and felt the vibrations in the earth that told her the herd and turned. They were coming toward them.

  Mia grabbed the lead rope and jogged to the rock. She just had to get on him. One horse in a stampede was nothing. One person on the ground in a stampede…

  “Hang on!” she shouted in the wind as she led Shiloh near the rock. She climbed up on the rock. Looking over his back, she could see the herd coming, full force, right toward them.

  She put his hands on his back. Stay calm, boy, she prayed. Please, stay steady.

  She was on his back and seated behind Maria in seconds, the lead rope wrapped around her forearm. If he decided to go with the herd, she would do her best to stay on—and to keep Maria on—but she knew their chances weren’t good. She sat up straight, willing her spine to drill into his back with the order: stand and stay. She held Maria with her left arm while the fingers of her right hand laced through his mane.

  The herd charged, twenty-five strong, every one of them petrified, the whites of their eyes showing their terror and frenzy. Mia forced herself to accept whatever came.

  When the stampeding herd reached them, it veered off into two groups, splitting down the middle and racing to the opposite ends of where the woods began. Mia felt her legs quivering. She put a hand on Shiloh’s neck.

  “Good boy,” she said, her voice cracked and tremulous. “You done good, Shy.” She moved him away from the edge of the woods to see if she could see where the herd had gone. She spotted it—once more a single unit—racing madly along the perimeter of the eastern fence. The horses looked less out of control to her. As if the running had eased them of their fear.

  She glanced at the gate, over two hundred yards away. It was still open. God forbid any of the herd had enough sense to take this show on the road, she thought, but if they did run past the gate and one of them was bright enough to see the open gate…

  “You okay, Maria?” she asked as she closed her legs around Shiloh and began to walk him in the direction of the gate. They would be dre
nched by the time they got back to the barn.

  The girl nodded her head.

  “There’s nothing to worry about,” Mia said in Maria’s ear. “The man at the barn is Jamie’s twin. They look alike but it isn’t Jamie.”

  Maria hesitated. “What means twins?” she asked.

  “Doubles. Two babies in one pregnancy.”

  “Oh! Gemelos.”

  “That’s right, Gemini’s, or whatever you said. They look alike but this guy is not Jamie. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Maria said, clearly still not sure. Mia held her snugly in case Maria got another idea to make a run for it. Keeping her eye on the herd, still busy up along the fence line and well away from them, Mia trotted Shiloh through the open gate. When they were through, she jumped down, and swung the gate closed and latched it.

  Suddenly she heard a roaring explosion of noise that made her snap her head around in time to see Maria tumble to the ground.

  19

  The cheese was bubbling on top of the baked ziti. Burton pulled the pan out of the oven and set it on the stove. He loved the fact that Mia was a hearty eater.

  No lettuce and spritzers for my girl, he thought and then caught himself. God that sounded good. Whether it was true or not. As they say, it looked like she was his to lose…

  He turned back to his cutting board. It was a great feeling to solve the case. With poor José dead, there wasn’t ever going to be any dancing in the streets over the resolution to the murder—and especially with Maria still out there somewhere—but they’d followed the loose threads and uncovered a few that weren’t showing and they had every reason to be proud of themselves tonight. He halved a small bowl of cherry tomatoes.

  Still. It was annoying about Jamie Danvers cobbling together a plea. He wouldn’t get totally off, but he wouldn’t get what was coming to him. And something else didn’t feel quite right either. He looked up and frowned until his eyes rested on his phone on the counter.