Heart of Danger

by Sidney Bristol

  “I think that was pretty damn good way to say it,” she said.

  “Not too fast?”

  “Did you forget who you’re talking to?” She pressed against him and lifted her chin.

  “You are the world’s most unforgettable woman.”

  “Oh, that was smooth.” She leaned in and kissed him, a slow, lingering touch. Her lips moved against his and she whispered, “I love you, too. Let’s get married.”

  SATURDAY. LA PLAYA de Belén, Colombia. Christmas Day.

  Val pressed her hands to her stomach and the decades old lace. She’d had no idea what was in the box Abuela had her bring down from the attic. At least not until a few days ago when she’d pitched the idea to get married to Duke to her family.

  No important life decision should be made while sleep deprived and possibly still inebriated, but she’d spoken from the heart and meant every bit of it. If Duke could put up with her the way he’d done the last six months, being together would only make it better.

  “Oh...my...God... Val! Look.”

  “I need you to bring your voice down like, fifteen decibels.” Val opened her eyes, not truly ready to look at herself.

  Abuela had borrowed a massive mirror from the beauty shop across the square that allowed Val to see her full reflection. She gulped down air and blinked to keep her carefully applied makeup from running.

  Jackie, Mom, and Abuela stood behind her, their smiles so wide they looked like dolls.

  “Oh—wow. It fits? It zipped up and everything?” She turned this way and that.

  “Yeah. That’s amazing.” Jackie just kept grinning.

  It was a dress of its decade, with a high lace collar and sleeves. It was relatively fitted down through the hips then flared out around her knees. On Abuela, it would have hit mid-calf, but on Val it was knee length.

  The church bell chimed.

  Val started and turned to glance over her shoulder at Abuela.

  “If you’re going to leave him at the altar, I promise to console him.” Abuela winked.

  “You. Be careful. He’s starting to understand you.” Val wagged her finger at Abuela, though it wouldn’t do any good.

  “Come on, come on.” Mom picked up Val’s bouquet and handed it to her. “We’ll be inside. You look beautiful.”

  Both Mom and Abuela scurried out.

  They’d timed it to about ninety seconds for both of them to get inside and seated.

  “Are you ready? Are you excited?” Jackie bounced on the balls of her feet.

  “I am. Look.” Val held up her hand, the slight tremor belying her otherwise steel nerves.

  “I’m so excited.” Jackie cradled her camera against her chest. In a few more moments she’d join her boyfriend, Felix, to take what pictures they could.

  “When are you going to do this? Huh? I’d have thought you’d do it first.” Val swallowed, her nerves winding up tighter and tighter.

  “We’ve been figuring out how to be together with both of us traveling as much as we do.”

  “And?”

  “And—yeah, someday. We’re just not in a rush like someone I know.” Jackie shrugged.

  “You’re going to have to spill.” Val leveled a glare at her best friend.

  “We’re focusing on you right now.” Jackie checked her watch. “Ready?”

  “Yes.”

  “You sure?”

  Val frowned and Jackie held up her hands.

  “Your hands have never shook before. I figured I had to double check.” Jackie opened the door to the street and held it for her.

  The courtyard was oddly empty, even for Christmas Day.

  They strode across the old stone square to the church doors. It would be a simple ceremony, just the family, and that was everything Val could have ever wanted.

  “Good?” Jackie pulled the door open a hair.

  “Yeah.”

  “Awesome. Oh—and by the way? The church is kind of standing room only. Make sure to smile!”

  Jackie ducked into the church, leaving Val gaping on the steps.

  Standing room only? What about her small, intimate ceremony?

  “YOU GOT THE CHEAT sheet?”

  “Here.” Duke had the small piece of paper tucked under his wrist watch. They’d made a quick guide to a Catholic wedding, so he wasn’t completely lost.

  “Good.” Felix checked the time. “Okay—”

  The door to the small room off the chapel opened and two familiar faces walked in.

  Val’s parents hadn’t paused once since they’d announced their crazy plan to get married today. In fact, they’d been enthusiastic about gaining a son.

  “Almost time.” Felix tapped his watch. “I’ll be out there. Break a leg, man.”

  Duke waved at Felix, but kept his eyes on his future in-laws. They were people on a mission, their hands clasped together.

  “Hey.” Duke didn’t know why they were here, but he offered his hand to Val’s mother and she took it.

  The couple looked at each other and nodded.

  Val’s Dad uttered a word Duke didn’t understand, then shook his head and tried again.

  It wasn’t Spanish.

  Or English.

  It was Duke’s native Swahili. He grinned and focused on the oddly sounding words.

  “We are happy you are our son,” Duke’s father-in-law said slowly.

  Those words punched Duke in the stomach.

  He’d lost two sets of parents during his life. He hadn’t given much thought to gaining a third, but here he was. He shook his head and closed his eyes.

  Being in love with Val meant loving her family as well. They made it easy with their jokes and smiles. They were the kind of people he wanted for a family, the ones he wanted to send his kids to visit with because they’d be doted on and loved.

  “Thank you. I am glad to be a son again,” Duke replied in his native tongue.

  The priest entered through a small door and held back.

  Duke’s in laws embraced him briefly and said something about time.

  He was very aware of the clock ticking down. Every waking moment he was certain wasn’t real. And each time he woke up he asked Val again if it was happening.

  They didn’t have rings.

  They were wearing borrowed clothes.

  They weren’t even certain the ceremony would be legally binding, but none of that mattered.

  What was important to both of them was that they were—from now until forever—together. The rest could be handled in time.

  “Ready?” the priest asked.

  Duke nodded, too moved by emotion to speak.

  They entered through the same side door he and Val had walked out through a week ago on a mad mission to change the world. They’d succeeded, and now here they were, making another crazy decision.

  “Holy...” Duke paused inside the chapel.

  People stood along the walls. The pews were packed. Every available space was full of now familiar faces. Townsfolk, people from the Rojas ranch, and the surrounding villages. A friendly man patted his shoulder which helped get him going.

  Duke followed in the priest’s footsteps, but couldn’t help staring around the chapel at all the people. They hadn’t expressly invited anyone though Val had made it clear she was in favor of small and intimate. All of these people had come on their own, to celebrate with them.

  He took his place at the altar, putting his toe on a piece of tape Felix had put down, and turned as the first strains of music reverberated through the church and the chapel doors were swept open.

  Sunlight silhouetted Val, and she took the first steps toward him, and their new future.

  Now this was the best moment of his life.

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  Explore the whole Aegis world in these series...

  It all began with the Aegis Group.

  Dangerous Attraction

  Dangerous in Train
ing

  Dangerous Games

  Dangerous Assignment

  Dangerous Protector

  Dangerous Heat (coming 2018)

  In Dangerous Games it continued with the Gone Geek girls.

  Beauty and the Geek

  Mr. Purr-fect and the Geek

  The Jock and the Geek

  The Gamer and the Geek

  The Adorkable Girl and the Geek

  The Billionaire and the Geek (coming 2018)

  When the Seattle office of Aegis Group opened the Twisted Royals took the stage.

  The Origin Story

  Alpha Prince

  Her Prince

  Bad Boy Prince

  Noble Prince

  Within Aegis Group, special teams take on special jobs, beginning with the Alpha Team.

  Dangerous in Love

  Dangerous in Action

  Dangerous in Transit

  Dangerous in Motion (coming 2018)

  Dangerous in Charge (coming 2018)

  Stay tuned for the appearance of the Lepta Team, Troy Team and Omega Team.

  For short reads, tune in this December for the Body of Danger novella series kick-off.

  Heart for Danger (December 2017)

  Mind for Danger (coming 2018)

  Soul for Danger (coming 2018)

  Dangerous in Love

  Aegis Group Alpha Team 1

  He follows orders.

  A good SEAL, Shane York values chain of command. Following the rules means staying alive. All of that is wrecked when his team is sent to Jamaica on a hostage rescue. She’s not the mission, but they leave no one behind.

  She breaks the rules.

  Travel blogger Lacey Miles lives for today. Thanks to her unexpected rescue from certain death, she has a shot at tomorrow. She wants her mercenary captors to pay, and she has the evidence to ensure it—if she lives long enough to deliver it.

  Opposites spark an unlikely romance in the heat of danger.

  Delivering the intel and keeping the hostages alive becomes priority one for the Aegis Group Alpha Team. The last thing Shane and Lacey have time for is love. As the team races home and bullets fly, rules fall by the wayside and lines begin to blur. With a traitor in their midst, will love be a distraction or a strength?

  Dangerous in Action

  Aegis Group Alpha Team 2

  He doesn't like complications.

  Retired SEAL Shane Cohen believes pleasure and work can coexist. What begins as a typical save the girl and get home job is anything but. Soon it's not the girl who needs saving, it's his team.

  Her whole life is complicated.

  Playing the part of a madman's girlfriend nearly got Tanya killed. Two years undercover and the death of her partner have taken their toll. She doesn't know who she can trust, until him. The man who catches her when she falls.

  Their no strings situation becomes a tangled mess of emotions.

  It's a race against time to prove Tanya's story is real. If she's telling the truth, the whole eastern seaboard could be in danger. If not, Isaac could be falling for a woman more deadly than anything he's ever encountered.

  Dangerous in Transit

  Aegis Group Alpha Team 3

  He takes his time.

  Retired Royal Navy Lieutenant Felix Larson thought this job would be like any other. Get in, get the girl and get out. But this trust fund princess isn't like any other woman he's met, and she's ready to take on the whole Alpha Team to get her way.

  She lives in the moment.

  Jackie Davis is relieved when she and her medical team are rescued while on a humanitarian mission in the African country of Mauritania. Her thanks is short lived when she butts heads with a particularly infuriating Viking-like man, intent on telling her what to do.

  The magnetic attraction of two lovers might keep a whole country together.

  When the Alpha Team is attacked and their team scattered, Felix must get Jackie out of the country to stop a rogue political faction from using her as a tool in their civil war. But when their friends are taken hostage and a deadly secret emerges, it might ruin their budding romance.

  Dangerous Attraction

  Aegis Group 1

  Ex-Navy SEAL Travis Ration is an expert hunter. Whether his prey is criminal or victim, he always gets his mark. He's no hero, just a man doing his job. It’s all he has after a felony conviction after a bad judgment call. When the FBI call in a favor and ask him to look into a serial killer over the holiday break, he jumps at the opportunity to fill the long, cold days with something besides regret and bad movies. In Las Vegas, he's on the hunt for a prolific serial killer no one wants to admit exists. The leads are dry and the evidence gone, until she walks into his life. Bliss Giles—curvy, sassy and everything he can't have.

  What’s worse, Travis knows Bliss’ sister is the killer's latest victim. She fits the profile. Time is running out and the fastest way to retrace the killer's path is with Bliss at Travis' side. In the seat of danger. He vows to keep Bliss safe and his hands to himself, after all, a nice girl like her doesn't need a guy like him in her life. Too bad no one told Bliss Travis was off-limits. She tests his boundaries and pushes his control every minute they're together until he can't remember why wanting her is a bad idea.

  The hunters become the hunted in this tale of serial killers and SEALs for hire. One broken man must unpack his baggage, a woman has make a leap of faith and a sister chooses to live in this new, romantic suspense serial by NYT & USA Today bestselling author, Sidney Bristol.

  Warning: Hold onto your panties, because nothing is safe.

  Dangerous in Training

  Aegis Group 2

  Disgraced Navy SEAL Mason Clark knows how to track his prey. He is an expert operative with a history of wrong-place-wrong-time luck. Landing a gig as a vacation bodyguard should have been an easy job—if he wasn't supposed to be protecting her body.

  Hannah Stevens. His boss's virgin daughter. Their lust is forbidden and a relationship is out of the question—but what happens in Mexico is their secret. Getting lost between the sheets is their one and only goal, until Hannah's friends are brutally kidnapped by a human-trafficking ring. Things quickly spiral out of control when the kidnappers put Hannah in their cross hairs.

  Mason is a man ready to put it all on the line to rescue the woman he loves. Love and honor are put to the test in this new, romantic suspense series by NYT and USA Today bestselling author, Sidney Bristol.

  Warning: Deflowering virgins doesn't come with volume control.

  Dangerous Games

  Aegis Group 3

  Ex-Navy SEAL Zain Lloyd is good with his hands and even better with his head. As the chief intelligence officer for the private security firm, Aegis Group, it's his job to tackle problems before they costs his friend's their lives. Which is why R&R time away from the high-stress environment is always a top priority, and a week at ComicCon is just what this closet-geek wants most, until a fateful elevator ride with the woman of his internet fantasies.

  Andrea Clark can't trust anyone, least of all the mysteriously sexy man she meets outside of her trashed hotel room. But Zain might be her only hope of making it through the convention and home alive. He's her very own superhero, made of all the stuff to make her fall fast and hard. With no safety net in place, she can only pray that Zain will catch her when she falls.

  A web of lies and deceit ensnare two lovers. Zain must use more than his brain and quick fingers to put a stop to the doxxing and death threats before a killer emerges from the ranks of Andrea's friends.

  Warning: The geeks do it better.

  Dangerous Assignment

  Aegis Group 4

  Veteran Navy SEAL Luke Briar has a solution for every problem, except when his latest job goes sideways. Things were so much simpler when all he had to worry about was how to put a smile on Abigail's face, though nothing he does chases the shadows from her eyes. Now Luke and his lovely new partner must protect a pair of criminals from people trying to kill th
em.

  Abigail is a lie. Everything about her is false, but keeping the truth from her partner is becoming increasingly difficult. Her mission was simple, kill two internationally wanted criminals and get out. But she wasn't counting on him. Luke. He awakens parts of her she long thought were dead. But people like her don’t get second chances at life, and her betrayal will crush any happiness they might have had. Falling for Luke can't happen.

  When the tables are turned and someone else gets to Abigail's targets before she can, all hell breaks loose. Luke doesn’t know if the woman he’s fallen for is a terrorist or something worse. Explosive desire isn't a license for murder, but he can’t live without her. With the authorities closing in, Luke must decide who to trust—law or love.

  Warning: Explosive chemistry ahead.

  Dangerous Protector

  Aegis Group 5

  Retired Navy SEAL Marco Benally knows the cost of right and wrong, and he's willing to pay the price. After his family's home is stolen out from under them by a company covering up their illegal activities, Marco takes matters into his own hands. No cost is too great to reclaim the generational homestead. Even if that means someone else has to take the fall. Or that's what he tells himself until he meets her. The woman with the tight skirt, tall heels and darkness in her eyes. One night, one lie to get the evidence he needs and then it's over. Or at least that's what he tells himself.

  Fiona Goero survives by following very careful rules. She's lived more of her life in Witness Protection than out of it. As one of the Internet's Most Wanted for helping the FBI put away a group of hackers, she is never safe. She's the traitor. The hacker who turned against her own. For one night she wants to indulge her every desire. To be held. To feel again. What should have been a passionate encounter becomes a snarled mess of lies and spies. Someone close to her is not only using her, they're trying to kill her. Her one-night-stand might be the only thing between her and being six foot under.