by Devyn Quinn
Dangerous Ties
Dangerous Ties
Devyn Quinn
Jodi Lynn Copeland
Anya Howard
APHRODISIA
KENSINGTON BOOKS
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
Contents
Personal Possessions
Devyn Quinn
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Captive Heat
Jodi Lynn Copeland
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Liaison
Anya Howard
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Personal Possessions
Devyn Quinn
Prologue
Bisti Wilderness Area
New Mexico
Nikki Malone expected to start the new year off with a bang. Kicking it off with a shootout over stolen drug money—not. But that was what had happened.
Nikki glanced at the backpack in the passenger seat. Even in the dim interior of the car she could make out the dark patches of blood staining the faded blue denim.
Sammy’s blood.
A shiver shimmied down Nikki’s spine as her gaze cut back to the long stretch of unpaved road in front of her. Remembering how Sammy had died, she felt fear drench her in her own cold perspiration. As far as she knew, his corpse was still sprawled where she’d dumped it—somewhere in the desert. Only God knew exactly where.
Nikki hadn’t done the killing, though. No, far from it. Sammy had gotten his own self killed.
“Holy shit,” she muttered. A nightmare come to life, nothing she’d encountered in her twenty-three years had ever prepared her for this. She’d just witnessed an act of shocking brutality, seeing her boyfriend shot down like a rabid dog.
The sound of shots ringing out still echoed in her ears, kick-starting her breathing with an involuntary burst of adrenaline. Complete, paralyzing shock. That pretty well described it. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel as if expecting to hear the sounds all over again.
Her vision momentarily blurred. Fear blossomed inside her heart all over again. She hastily blinked away the tears. Lose it now and she’d go to pieces.
Nikki gave her cheek a slap, relishing the brief sting of her palm against her skin. Sometimes pain could be a good thing. This was no time to cry, or time to mourn. She had to be hard, cold, and emotionless. Get the job done by getting her ass down the road, far away from the danger Sammy had plunged her into.
She pressed her lips together until her jaws began to ache from clenching. Her whole body felt hot, sticky. Fueled by disbelief, shadowy thoughts swirled in her mind. Don’t look back. You can never look back.
The last thing she needed was to think. But her brain betrayed her, rewinding and replaying the same bloody footage until she thought she’d scream.
“We were stupid,” she muttered bitterly. The memory sent a hot tremor through her. Their lives had been less than stellar, but at least they’d been alive. With one stupid act of greed, they’d erased their chances of a clean start like chalk washed off a sidewalk by a furious rainstorm. Stealing from drug dealers was a bad idea.
Initially, the setup had seemed foolproof. Too easy to go wrong. Throughout the lonely desert hinterlands bordering the Navajo Indian Reservation, the illegal drug trade flourished. A lot of narcotics—and cash—passed through the rarely visited and largely unknown area, most of it trafficked from Mexico. With a little patience and a pair of binoculars, it wasn’t hard to chart the comings and goings of light aircraft making regular drops in the inhospitable region, part of the pipeline bringing Mexican contraband into the country. The plan to catch a drop and heist some cash should have gone off without a hitch.
It didn’t.
The Mexicans had shown up, armed to the teeth and ready to fight for what belonged to them. Not only were they illegals and drug dealers, these fugitives were also cold-blooded killers. No one cared who died in the desert except the vultures.
Caught in the crossfire, the only thing Nikki thought about was saving her ass come hell or high water. She damn sure didn’t intend to die because she’d gotten tangled up with a con man like Sammy Blair. This time her attraction to bad boys had gotten her in deep shit, to the hip and sinking in more ways than one. The allure of walking on the wild side had definitely lost its appeal.
Nikki drew a deep breath, forcibly calming herself. This mess hadn’t been her doing, but she’d willingly gone along for the ride. Now that she was in trouble, the only thing she could do was pull a Houdini and make herself disappear.
Fugitive. The idea made her shudder. Whether with horror or fascination, she didn’t know. It should be the former. Save for a few petty misdemeanors, she’d never been in a lot of trouble with the law. Now she was a bad girl, wanted by pissed-off Mexican drug dealers. If they caught up with her, no doubt they’d put a bullet right between her eyes. She’d seen what they looked like, knew what they’d do. No question, no doubt.
Going to the cops was definitely out. Especially since she’d already disposed of Sammy’s body. Hell, he was dead. Certainly not any help now, and traveling with a corpse in the back seat creeped her out. It made sense to get rid of his remains—one less impediment between her and a clean getaway. She might have felt sorry for Sammy, but she wasn’t stupid. The felonies she’d racked up in fleeing the scene of a brutal murder weren’t exactly going to be brownie points to the judge or jury. Time was already against her. She had to get out of New Mexico as soon as possible.
She scowled. That is, if she could ever find a way out of this goddamned desert. She’d torn out to the sound of gunfire, not knowing where she was going or even what direction would take her to safety.
Even if she had a map, Nikki had no idea where to begin looking. There were no signposts. The wide, open stretch of desolate high desert enveloped the land like a disease. As dusk descended and the night deepened, it had become abundantly clear she was going nowhere fast. All she could do was drive and hope for a sign that would point her back toward the highway.
No such luck.
Tightening her grip on the steering wheel, Nikki lowered her gaze to the dashboard. The fuel gauge registered a quarter of a tank. Muscles bunching in her shoulders, an alarm sounded in the back of her skull.
She gulped, licking dry lips. Her mouth and throat felt dry as the sand covering mile after mile. She would give anything for a drink of water, or a shot of Jose Cuervo. “Shit.” The day she’d thought couldn’t get any worse had done just that. Running out of gas in the middle of nowhere definitely wasn’t the way she wanted to end up. All sorts of bad thoughts unspooled through her cranium, all ending with hungry coyotes running off with pieces of her body to gnaw on.
To distract herself, Nikki flicked on the radio. Static crunched in her ears. Breathing hard, she viciously twisted the dial, hoping for the sound of a human voice. Nothing.
She snapped off the radio. The rumbling of the car over unpaved road was giving her a headache. She started to open her mouth to curse, scream, shout. Anything to break the intense sense of isolation washing over her. No words would form in her throat.
Her gaze darted in all directions, desperately searching the murk. The desert was a veritable ocean of nowhere. She racked her brains for a better way to go. It seem
ed like she’d been driving through this godforsaken place all night, even though the dashboard clock testified that barely an hour had passed.
And then she saw them.
Lights.
Sprinkling the far horizon like stars come to earth.
A quick smile flashed across Nikki’s face. Her mind quickly processed that maybe her luck was about to change. Almost simultaneously an image floated up by the side of the road, a green signpost framed and painted with white. Most of the letters had faded away, erased by time and the elements.
HELLE–12
“Hallelujah,” she breathed out in relief. Thank heavens. Oh, for some good food to fill her gnawing stomach, a hot shower to wash away the grime, and a bed with clean sheets. A bag full of money would buy a lot of luxury. No more trailer-trash chic for her. She could afford nice things now, forget secondhand. As for work, well, she’d definitely served her last fucking beer.
Paradise definitely lay ahead.
Nikki’s foot pressed harder on the accelerator, urging Sammy’s seventeen-year-old Oldsmobile down the craggy road. Urgency rode her hard. The transmission was already grinding in the worst of ways. She needed to ditch it as soon as possible.
She eyed the backpack again. What it held inside was something so precious that men would lie, cheat, and steal to have it. Kill to have it. Cold, hard fucking cash.
Enough to start over. New town. New life.
Shit. Face it, getting himself shot and killed was the best thing Sammy had done for her lately. He was scum. No one would miss him. Not the law or the family who had written him off as a liability years ago.
Nikki bolstered her resolve. She wasn’t going to fold like a wet paper sack just because Sammy had to be cut loose and left behind. So he could slap her around and fuck her like a stallion afterward. That didn’t make him good for her. It just made him an abuser, something she seemed to have no trouble picking out time and time again.
Rubbing a hand across her burning eyes, Nikki nodded to herself. Maybe this time she’d learned. Mess around with ex-convicts and you got screwed right back, however twisted your own intentions to enjoy the fucking. Definitely karma…but maybe good karma this time. By dying in such a convenient way, Sammy had set her free. Handed her the ticket to ride.
That’s all she had to do now.
Ride.
With salvation drawing her forward, Nikki lost touch with her own sordid reality. She focused on the lights ahead, not the slow blossom of blood staining the front of her shirt. Concentrating on the mechanics of driving, she ignored the pain. It didn’t exist, not now, not when salvation was so close. It was nothing. A dull ache in her gut, not the reality of a mortal wound torn through flesh and muscle, leaking a steady flow of blood. It was nothing. Nothing at all.
Nikki shivered and groaned under her breath, ignoring the uncomfortable sensation. Suddenly, she felt so tired, drained, as if a heavy weight had attached itself to her thoughts, dragging them down into a spectral abyss. Go there and she wouldn’t be able to climb out of the everlasting darkness. Bowels clenching, the insidious grip of fear grappled with mind-numbing exhaustion. Worry started low in her belly, oozing upward until she could taste the bile burning the back of her throat.
She focused on the lights ahead, growing brighter and more welcoming with every mile the car ate up. Ample evidence of the truth crowded into her skull from all sides, but her mind refused to accept it. Heart fluttering, her pulse began to falter. Sweat drenched her even as a cold chill settled inside her core. A sense of déjà vu flashed in the forefront of her brain, the horrific images of Sammy’s shot-up body. She’d never seen a man die before. The panic she’d held at bay tightened into a death grip around her senses. Eternity had just come knocking.
“I want another chance,” she choked out, dismayed that freedom appeared to be slipping through her fingers like so many grains of sand. The chances of getting out of the desert were slim to none. It wasn’t going to happen.
Nikki’s heart thumped harder. Creeping panic wrapped itself slowly around her lungs and began to squeeze. The air she breathed seemed to hang like cobwebs in her lungs, heavy and sticky, slowly smothering her. An involuntary shiver raced across skin already goose bumped with chills. Her head spun and her eyes didn’t seem to be focusing properly anymore. A thousand impressions tumbled end to end, colliding and clashing. All came to the same inevitable conclusion that took only seconds to compute. Her body already understood what her mind refused to process.
Nikki cursed viciously through numb lips. Fury obliterated all other emotions. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. “Fuck…I’m going to die….” The idea almost made her laugh. Almost.
The shock and adrenaline pushing her abruptly ran out. Her world reeled, then slowly tilted over. The last of her energy drained away. In that same instant, a ferocious shudder consumed her entire body. She drew a breath to scream, but darkness slammed through the fading wisps of final, grasping consciousness.
Before a sound passed her lips, everything went black.
1
Nikki drifted back to consciousness.
She kept her eyes closed as familiar sensations seeped into her fuzzy brain. An ocean of cool softness cocooned her, the luxurious slide of silk on bare flesh. The support beneath her body bespoke of a mattress cradling her outstretched limbs. The soft pillow beneath her head invited her to slip back into the embrace of gentle slumber.
Close to wandering back into peaceful darkness, Nikki felt a hard male body settle next to hers. Without thinking, she stretched languorously against the solid mass of what felt like pure muscle. A firm hand settled on her breast, teasing fingers slowly circling the hard bud of her nipple. Warm lips descended to explore the soft hollow between her neck and shoulder. The nuzzling felt wickedly good. Her heart skipped a beat inside her chest; a warm ribbon of need coiled around her. A low moan slipped from her throat.
Smiling, Nikki rolled into her lover’s embrace. Half on top of him, her breasts lightly brushed his chest, her legs tangling through the sheets with his. Big hands cupped her ass, settling her comfortably against narrow hips wielding a nice, hard cock.
She didn’t open her eyes, wanting to enjoy the sensations just a minute longer. Mmm. What a way to wake up. How great was that sensation?
“God, Sammy,” she breathed, “you wouldn’t believe the dream I had.” Her skin was already sweaty. The kind of sweat generated from having a naked man cuddling you after sweaty sex.
Strong fingers skimmed through her long hair, twisting, holding, tightening. Teeth nipped at her neck, pinching the soft skin of her throat. “Oh, but I do know,” a softly accented voice replied. “I know everything about you, darling Nikki.”
The voice was male, definitely.
But not Sammy’s.
Eyes opening, a series of strange impressions assailed Nikki’s senses. Dismay flooded through her. The man lying beneath her was a stranger. He wasn’t naked either, though he was held fast under her in the most intimate of ways.
Nikki recoiled violently. One hand fumbling toward her face, she closed her eyes and rubbed them hard. “This isn’t real,” she gasped. What she was seeing couldn’t have any basis in reality. She’d never seen this man before and certainly hadn’t ever been in bed with him. It had to be a dream.
A really, really far-out dream.
The male voice under her said, “But it is real, Nikki.”
She ignored him. “No, it’s not.”
A warm hand slid over her hip, traveling up her side to find her breast. “I’m definitely not your imagination either.” Thumb and forefinger rolled her nipple in a most enticing way. “You have the most amazing breasts, my dear. Firm and round like peaches. I really must get my lips on them soon.”
A blatantly sexual shock tore right through her gut. Nikki definitely couldn’t ignore that. Her breath hissed past her lips in a short burst as her body responded with a powerful surge of red-hot lust. Memory of the cock she’d felt press
ing against her came right back into her mind. A small trickle of moisture seeped between her thighs. Her body unquestionably had ideas of its own.
She looked down at the stranger. A thick mane of messy black hair haloed his head, curling just enough to give the unkempt mass charm. Arched brows ruled over a gaze of unusual intensity. His eyes were a coppery green shade, like brand-new pennies surrounded by freshly cut summer grass. The mix was so unusual that his eye color just had to be fake.
Two words instantly came to mind: breathtaking and gorgeous.
Nikki blinked in disbelief. Being in bed with the best looking man she’d ever seen in her entire life wasn’t a bad way to wake up, especially when he’d been in the process of making sensual love to her.
There was just one problem: She didn’t know him, and she didn’t know where she was. A search of her mind revealed a big black hole in the center, as if every memory of the recent past had been vacuumed up.
For the first time, she realized she was naked save for the white sheet tangled around her hips. Though a little belated in coming, she demurely crossed her hands over her bare breasts. The feeling that he knew everything about her and that she knew nothing about him was more than a bit frightening. He seemed perfectly comfortable to have her in his bed, and perfectly willing to take advantage of the fact.
“Who are you?” she asked, very confused. She recognized nothing around her. It all felt so alien, as though she’d been shot into outer space and landed on another planet. Trouble was, she didn’t recall signing up for the trip and couldn’t quite remember what had happened before liftoff. Some mind-bendingly radical thing had occurred, something she really needed to remember.