BOSS, Inc. #1
Kat Martin
Releasing on January 26, 2016
Zebra
A bodyguard, a bounty hunter, a
P.I.--the men of Brodie Operations Security Service, Inc. are down for the job.
. .
Sinners, whores, and sluts
beware--your time is at hand: a faceless menace is threatening lingerie models
on a cross country tour, and Ethan Brodie is there to defend and protect.
Ethan's learned the hard way that
beauty is no substitute for character. So even though Valentine Hart is one of
the most breathtaking women he's ever seen, he's keeping his hands off and his
eyes open. Or that's what he tells himself.
Then one of the models is murdered,
and the closer Ethan gets to the answers, the closer he finds himself to
Valentine--and the hotter the pressure feels. There's more to Val--more to the
other girls--than he could have guessed. But one is keeping a secret that could
kill them all.
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After he’d talked to
Heather and a couple of the other girls about the notes they’d received, he’d
decided to concentrate on the four women who lived in the Seattle area, since
the note had likely come from someone in the vicinity.
That meant Valentine, Megan,
Delilah, and Isabel. He’d spoken to all but Isabel and come up with zilch.
He figured Mark Dargan, Valentine’s
trainer, was worth talking to. As Ethan shoved through the glass front door,
the familiar sounds of clanking metal and the thud of weights dropping onto
rubber mats reached him. The air conditioner hummed, keeping the rooms just shy
of chilly, exactly the way he liked to work out.
At the front desk he asked for
Dargan, found him easily. Six feet tall, blond and athletic, the guy seemed
popular with everyone in the gym. He was working with a client, midforties,
balding, and probably fighting to keep the weight off. Fortunately, the workout
was coming to an end.
Finished with the last set, Dargan’s
client set down the barbells, said good-bye, grabbed his workout towel, and
headed off to the showers.
“You’re Mark?”
“That’s right.”
“Ethan Brodie. I’m working security
for La Belle. You know the name, right?”
“Yeah. One of my clients models for
La Belle.”
“Valentine Hart.”
“That’s right. What can I do for
you?”
“With the show coming up, we’re
trying to nail down any potential problems before they arise. Valentine
mentioned she’d had trouble a couple of times with guys working out at the gym.
Said you’d handled them.”
Dargan shrugged a set of lean-muscled
shoulders. The guy was in great shape. But he got paid to be, same as Ethan.
“Wasn’t any big deal,” Dargan said.
“One or two got flirty, tried to get a date. One got a little pushy.” Mark
grinned. “I told him I was Val’s boyfriend and he’d better leave her alone.”
“Are you?”
Mark shook his head. “Don’t I wish.
She’s too busy for men. Or at least that’s what she says. We’ve never really
been more than friends anyway, and besides, I’ve started seeing someone.”
“Good for you.”
“Val’s the best,” Mark said. “She’s
got a beautiful figure, not overly
muscled, you know? Just smooth and toned and fit. That’s what La Belle wants in
a model. It’s my job to keep her that way.”
Ethan thought of how she’d looked in
black tights under a pair of cutoff jeans, midriff bare, her top cut just low
enough to hint at full breasts. His mind conjured an image of what she’d look
like in nothing but skimpy lingerie, and an unwanted tightening started in his
groin.
“Any chance the guy who gave her
trouble would pursue the matter, send some kind of threatening note to Val and
some of the other models?”
“I don’t think so. The man never
bothered her again, only came around here a few times after that. Most guys
start working out but stop after a couple of months.” Mark’s gaze ran over
Ethan. “Not you, though. You stay in shape.”
“Part of my job, same as you.”
“You’re a bodyguard, right? How
about keeping a special eye out for Val? Like I said, she’s the best.”
“Seems you aren’t the only one who
thinks so.” Mark glanced over, caught a wave from his next customer. “Anything
else?”
Ethan handed him a card. “Not unless
you think of something.”
Mark took the card and walked away,
and Ethan headed for the door. As he reached the parking lot, he looked down at
his big stainless-steel wristwatch. It wasn’t that late. Clouds still hovered
above the city, but a weak sun pushed through in places.
It wasn’t Hannah’s bedtime yet. His
daughter would still be awake, and he wanted to see her. Since he would soon be
leaving the city, he was determined to make that happen, and this time Ally
wasn’t going to stop him.
The porch light was on when he
rolled up in front of the big two-story house, parked his black four-door
Wrangler hardtop at the curb. Through the curtains, he could see the yellow
glow of the lamp next to the sofa in the living room.
He had almost reached the front door
when he heard Allison’s laughter out in the backyard. Ethan stepped off the
cement path and headed in that direction. Stopping at the side gate, he lifted the latch, shoved the gate open, and
kept walking.
Allison Winfield sat in a blue
canvas swing on the big covered patio. A man in a short-sleeved yellow Izod
shirt, sandy brown hair neatly combed, sat in the swing beside her.
In the fading light, Ethan could see
Hannah sitting crosslegged on the patio a few feet away, playing with the doll
he had given her. Her silky blond hair, pulled up in a ponytail, swung from the
top of her head, and her blue eyes danced as she spoke to the doll she’d named
Martha, God only knew why.
His heart squeezed. Surely his
little girl couldn’t have changed so much in the few weeks since he’d seen her.
Surely she didn’t look older, more grown up. Yet, as he watched her, it seemed
that she did.
He started striding toward her,
heard her squeal of delight when she spotted him, felt a tightening in his
chest.
“Daddy!” She was on her feet and
racing toward him, the ponytail on top of her head bobbing madly. “Daddy!”
Ethan bent and scooped her up in his
arms. She smelled like cinnamon graham crackers mixed with a child’s natural
sweetness. Just holding her made his heart hurt.
“Hi, sweet cakes. How’s Daddy’s best
little girl?”
She giggled, slid her arms around
his neck. “I’m Daddy’s only little girl.”
Ally’s shrill voice had him turning.
“What are you doing here, Ethan? You know you aren’t welcome.” Allison Winfield
was auburn-haired, of average height, and very pretty. She had a great figure
and came from a family with way too much money.
She was also spoiled and conniving.
When he’d met her, he’d been so in lust he hadn’t been able to see her faults.
By the time she was pregnant with Hannah, it had been too late. “I’ve got a job
that’ll take me out of town for a while,” he said. “I wanted to see Hannah
before I left the city.” He kissed his daughter’s soft cheek and she giggled.
Hannah made up for all the trouble Ally gave him.
“The least you could do was call
before you showed up uninvited.”
“Every time I call, you say you’re
just leaving. There’s never a time that’s convenient. She’s my daughter, too,
Ally. If you don’t start making it easier for me to see her, I’m going to take
you back to court.”
He’d had to hire an attorney and get
a DNA test to prove he was Hannah’s father. He’d spent a small fortune on legal
fees to establish his rights, and if Allison continued to block his visitation,
he was going to have to go to court again.
“Do whatever you like,” Allison said
smugly. Because she was still on Daddy’s purse strings, legal fees and court
costs weren’t a problem for her. “You should have thought of Hannah before you
left me.”
“You’re the one who ended it, Ally.
I would have married you and you know it.”
“And divorced me. You made no bones
about it. You said from the start you didn’t think it would work.”
“I couldn’t make you happy. Both of
us knew that.” He tipped his head to the man who stood watching from a few feet
away, back straight, shoulders rigid. Slender, athletic, and handsome, he
looked like a guy who played tennis or golf; not a tough guy, but ready to
defend his damsel in distress.
“Who’s your friend?” Ethan asked.
Allison glanced behind her, tossed
her shoulder-length auburn curls, gave the poor fool a come-on smile. “That’s
Arthur. If it’s any of your business, which it isn’t.”
Ethan ignored the guy, tried not to
feel sorry for him. “I just want to see Hannah, Ally. I’d think you’d be happy
about it. Seems like you could use a little time to yourself once in a while.”
Arthur walked up beside her, set a
hand possessively at her waist. “If you want me to make him leave, Allison, I
will.”
“Take it easy,” Ethan said. “I’m
just here to see my kid.” He turned to Ally. “Give me five minutes and I’m
gone.”
Her mouth curved into a catty smile.
“Why should I?”
“Because if you don’t, there’s going
to be trouble and your friend will feel obliged to interfere. That won’t go
well for him. Five minutes. That’s all I want.”
She cast Arthur a glance. He was
puffed up and ready to fight. Ally must have known what the outcome would be if
she goaded him any further.
“Fine. Five minutes. Then you
leave.”
Kat Martin is the author of twenty-one Historical
and Contemporary Romance novels. She tackles many different aspects of her
genre with settings ranging from the rugged West to the Antebellum South,
Regency, Georgian, and Medieval England. Not one to shy away from change, she
also tackles Contemporary Romantic Suspense novels which involve the
paranormal. Some of her titles include Nothing But Velvet, Sweet Vengeance, and
Dangerous Passions. These works have won a bevy of awards including a recent
Romantic Times Magazine nomination for Best Historical Romance of 1998 for her
latest release, Wicked Promise. She is also published in, among others,
Germany, Norway, Sweden, China, Russia, and Spain.
Before starting her writing career in 1985, Kat was a
real estate broker. During that time, she met her husband, Larry Jay Martin,
also a Kensington author. After double majoring in Anthropology and History at
the University of California at Santa Barbara, she found herself incredibly
interested in the past. In fact, she and Larry often do research in the areas
where their books take place. She remarks, "We like to stay in out-of-the-way
inns and houses built in times past. It's fun and it gives a wonderful sense of
a bygone era."
In
May, Kat will release her next Historical Romance, Night Secrets. Following
that is an upcoming Zebra release, a Contemporary Romantic Suspense entitled The
Silent Rose, which will be out in August. "It's a ghostly tale of romance
and intrigue that was based on a real life incident," says Kat. "It's
a little bit scary, a whole lot sexy, and hopefully lots of fun to read."
INTO THE WHIRLWIND
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