SHADOW
HEATHER SLADE
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SECTION 6 BOOK FOUR
SHADOW
Copyright © 2019 by Heather Slade
© 2019 Heather Slade
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 10: 1-942200-65-X
ISBN 13: 978-1-942200-65-9
Created with Vellum
CONTENTS
Also by Heather Slade
Prologue
Part I
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
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Part II
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Epilogue
Want more?
Decked
About the Author
Also by Heather Slade
ALSO BY HEATHER SLADE
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SECTION 6
Book One: Shiver
Book Two: Wilder
Book Three: Pinch
Book Four: Shadow
Coming Soon!
Book Five: Quiver
New Series Coming Soon!
THE INVINCIBLES
Book One: Decked
Book Two: Edged
Book Three: Grinded
Book Four: Riled
K19 SECURITY SOLUTIONS
Book One: Razor
Book Two: Gunner
Book Three: Mistletoe
Book Four: Mantis
Book Five: Dutch
Book Six: Striker
Coming Soon!
Book Seven: Monk
BUTLER RANCH
Available Now!
Book One: Brodie
Book Two: Maddox
Book Three: Naughton
Book Four: Mercer
Book Five: Kade
COWBOYS OF CRESTED BUTTE
Available Now!
Book One: Fall for Me
Book Two: Dance with Me
Book Three: Kiss Me Cowboy
Book Four: Stay with Me
Book Five: Win Me Over
PROLOGUE
JANUARY
Q uint stretched his arms above his head and looked out at the sunrise. Typically, he’d be out, riding the ranch by now, but today, his crew was handling the morning chores on their own.
He’d asked his men to cover for him before he came in last night. He hadn’t needed to explain why; they all knew the mahogany-haired beauty asleep next to him was on the ranch and had been for the last three days.
They spared him the jabs they would’ve shared with one another under the same circumstances, perhaps sensing the woman was more than a warm body to keep him company on a cold night.
In her sleep, she’d kicked off the blankets and sheet, so her luscious body was on full display, illuminated by the bronze, orange, and yellow hues of the sun’s rays streaming in through the window.
The last time she came to visit, she stayed three months but only spent half of that time in his bed. Later this morning, she’d be leaving, and Quint wasn’t sure she’d ever be back.
Deep inside, part of him wanted to ask her to stay, but they both knew he never would. If Darrow Whittaker ever decided she wanted more than a few laughs coupled with the best sex he’d ever had in his life, she knew where to find him. He couldn’t promise he’d be sitting around, waiting on her, though.
“I thought we were sleeping in,” she groaned in her sexier-than-shit English accent. When she covered her eyes with her forearm, Quint couldn’t help but lean over and lave the nipple that was now pointed directly at him.
“God, Quint.” Darrow’s groan turned into a moan as she held his head to her breast.
“Are you sore, baby?” he asked, moving one hand lower.
She shook her head.
“Not good enough. Let me hear the words.”
This time, instead of a groan or moan, Darrow growled at him. And when he laughed, she smacked his arm, which only made him laugh harder.
She pushed him until he was on his back and nipped at his neck before trailing her lips down his body.
“Shadow,” he said in his most menacing tone.
“I’m leaving today, Quint. If I’m sore, I’ll recover.”
He pulled her up the front of his body so her chin rested on his sternum. “Let’s shower.”
“Showering means getting out of bed.”
He rolled so she was under him, and then stood. “My understanding was that you had an early flight.”
She stuck out her lower lip in a pout. “I do, which is why I don’t want to waste time now.”
“I like the idea of leaving you wanting more,” he said as he walked from the bed into the en suite bathroom.
—:—
Instead of following, Darrow lay in bed listening to the sound of water turning on and the shower door closing behind him.
Why had she agreed to leave with Doc and Merrigan today? Because if she hadn’t, she’d be flying back to England rather than just out to California. At least, by continuing her training on the Central Coast, there was a possibility Quint might come to visit her.
She knew he wouldn’t, but still, there was a better chance he’d take a two-hour flight over a ten-hour one.
Her eyes opened wide when she heard him come back into the bedroom; she must’ve drifted off. She turned and studied the man walking toward her.
His bronze skin was taut over his magnificently contoured arm muscles, and he smelled like the outdoors, even now when he’d just gotten out of the shower. His stomach was ripped in a classic six-pack, tapering to a perfect “V.” When he turned around to get something from his wardrobe, Darrow feasted her eyes on his back that was as toned as his front. The rippling muscles of his thighs and his rock-hard arse left her breathless.
He turned back to face her after putting on his jeans—not trousers, he’d told her. A tangle of dark hair peeked out of his bulging fly.
“Are you sure there isn’t anything I can do for you, cowboy?”
“You know I can’t get enough of you, Shadow,” he said, using the nickname a second time that she’d grown to love and had missed hearing so much. Quint let the jeans slide off those well-muscled thighs until he was, again, gloriously naked.
Darrow licked her lip
s instinctively.
“Like what you see, darlin’?” he teased in his Texan drawl, his voice so deep that the vibrations of it heated her core. His searing gaze met hers, and she held her hand out to him.
“Ask me to stay,” she whispered.
Instead of saying the words she longed to hear, Quint kissed the back of her hand before sliding in next to her. He put his arm around her, and Darrow rested her head on his chest.
“This is a great opportunity for you, Shadow. I remember hearing stories about Burns Butler and Leech Hess from Deck and my pa.”
Darrow smiled at his use of “pa” over “father.”
Anyone who’d met Archer “Z” Alexander knew he was about as far from a “pa” as a man could get. The ranch had been his home base for many years before his wife, Quint’s mother, passed away, but he’d still traveled endlessly on behalf of his job with the Security Service, also known as MI5. He’d eventually risen through the ranks of the United Kingdom’s domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and was named director general. Last year, Z had been promoted to chief of MI6, the international Secret Intelligence Service branch.
Like Darrow, Quint had grown up surrounded by people in the intelligence community. The difference between them, though, was she always felt like an outsider amongst a group of people she longed desperately to be on the inside with.
Quint, on the other hand, was perfectly comfortable living his life as a cowboy on his family’s hundred-thousand-acre ranch.
There’d been a time she was just as comfortable here—until the man who was like a second father to her fell gravely ill and she was called back to England.
That was the cog that had set the whole train in motion in terms of her life and what she wanted to do with it.
Maybe if she hadn’t been offered the slot at Fort Monckton, MI6’s training center, she would’ve been content here still. But the idea that the dreams she had since she was a little girl were within her reach, was something she couldn’t ignore. She made her choice, just like Z once had, to serve Her Majesty, the Queen.
Quint was squeezing her shoulder. “Earth to Darrow.”
“What? Sorry. Got lost in thought for a moment. Yes, you’re right. It is quite the opportunity.”
His voice grew softer. “Go out and grab your dreams, Shadow. Don’t tell me to ask you to stay.”
“I don’t know when I’ll ever be back,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.
“So be it, darlin’.”
“That’s it? What will be, will be?”
Quint took his arm from around her shoulders and turned his body so they were facing each other. “I’ve made my decisions, Darrow. I know what kind of life I want and where I want to live it. No one can make that decision on behalf of another person. You’ve figured out what you want, and it isn’t waking up before dawn to traipse out to a barn and feed cattle. I respect that in the same way I expect you to respect my choices.”
“What if we never see one another again?” Darrow wished she’d see some kind of emotion play out on Quint’s face, but none did.
“Like I said, Darrow. So be it.”
PART I
1
Previous August
“Hey, Pa,” Quint said, answering his father’s call and knowing the first thing he’d do would be to laugh.
“Hello, Son. I wish there were some equally cowpoke-type phrase I could greet you with.”
“Boy. That works.”
His father, known to most—including Quint—as Z, laughed again.
“Not that I don’t love talking to you, but to what do I owe the honor of this particular call?”
“How’s your sister?”
Quint scrubbed his face with his hand. Seven months ago, Wren had showed up back on the ranch saying she was taking a leave of absence from her job with the NGA—the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency—a branch of the United State’s National Security Agency.
She hadn’t offered up any details, and Quint hadn’t asked. He sensed there was more to it than a simple leave of absence, but he had no idea what.
“She puts one foot in front of the other,” he finally answered his father.
“I was afraid of that.”
Wren rode out with him every day, helping with whatever chores needed to be done, just like she had as a teenager. However, there was no light in her green eyes.
“I have a favor to ask,” said his father.
“Shoot.”
“You are familiar with the Whittaker family?”
“Not really.”
“There’s a daughter who finds herself a bit out of sorts. She came to me looking for your sister, actually.”
“And?” He could guess where this conversation was headed, but he’d rather have his father spell it out for him.
“I’d like to offer Darrow respite on the ranch for a time.”
“How long?”
“Open-ended.”
“You said you were asking a favor, but this ranch is as much yours as it is mine.”
“I don’t live there, Quint. You do. And for the time being, so does your sister. I don’t want to inundate or inconvenience you.”
Quint chuckled. “With over a hundred thousand acres, I think I’ll be able to find somewhere to disappear for a while if the added estrogen overwhelms me.”
“Thank you, Quint.”
“No need to thank me, Pa, but I appreciate the heads up. When is she due to arrive?”
“Two days from now, and I’ll be escorting her. There’s one more thing, Quint. I’d like to keep this visit a surprise for Wren.”
Quint laughed out loud. “You mean to say, you don’t want her to know this woman is on the way.”
“Your sister was…involved with one of Darrow’s older brothers.”
That explained a great deal although, like before, he had no intention of asking Wren about it. “She doesn’t like secrets, Z.”
“That’s why I’m coming with Darrow. Now that I’m assured you have no issues with the visit, you can forget this conversation took place.”
“Roger that,” Quint answered, shaking his head and smiling. “See you soon, Pa.”
He could hear his father’s laughter as he ended the call.
QUINT WALKED OVER and looked out the kitchen window. He loved his simple life here on the ranch, free from the drama that had led his sister, and now this other woman, here.
Sure, it got lonely from time to time, and was maybe a little too remote, but a night in either Austin or San Antonio usually assuaged his yearning for companionship enough that he couldn’t wait to get back home.
This time of year, though, there was no reason to visit the big city. Quint, the ranch’s foreman, Decker, and three other hands competed in ranch rodeos all over the region.
Every weekend there were several team-roping events to choose from. Since they weren’t in it for the money, they always picked the ranch rodeos over any other. It was more about the competition and the fun they had after the day’s events were over and the participants and spectators stayed to play.
“Good morning, Quint,” said Wren, joining him in the kitchen. “Who were you talking to?”
“Z.”
Wren didn’t ask why their father had called. Instead, she walked over and poured herself a cup of coffee. “What’s on the board today?” she asked, standing next to him to look out at their land.
“Movin’ cattle out to the southwest pastures.”
“Good,” she answered, washing her cup.
“You should eat somethin’ before you head out.”
His sister nodded and walked out of the house. It wasn’t different than any other day since she’d showed up on the ranch. She looked like she’d dropped twenty pounds, on a frame that didn’t have that much to lose. He could encourage her to eat more, but she was a grown-ass woman; it wasn’t up to him to make sure she didn’t waste away to nothing. She was his little sister, though, and he couldn’t help but loo
k out for her.
Instead of making his usual two-sandwich lunch, he made three, threw them in his day pack, and walked out of the house like she had.
IT WAS hotter than hell this time of year in Texas. Quint was already sweating and he hadn’t gotten all the way back to the barn after his morning break. He wiped his brow with a handkerchief and approached the stall where his horse, Gunsmoke, stood at the ready.
This morning he’d taken PeeWee out just to get the giant of a horse some exercise before it got too hot. The fifteen-hundred-pound American Quarter Horse stood at almost sixteen hands and was approaching his thirtieth birthday. Quint figured the big old boy had at least five good years left in him, but that didn’t mean he’d push him, especially in this heat.
His Paint, Gunsmoke, on the other hand, was a fifteen-hand, six-year-old gelding. The horse was happiest out, working the land and could go all day. Quint doubted he was over a thousand pounds, and if he was, it was all muscle. There were five other horses in his string that he rode day-in, day-out throughout the year, but there was no question that Gunsmoke was his favorite.
Shadow (Military Intelligence Section 6 Book 4) Page 1