The Dom Who Came in from the Cold

Reloaded, Book 5, Masters and Mercenaries, Book 26

About the book

Kyle Hawthorne once believed his future would be a job in the private sector—a simple, normal life. Fate had other plans and he wound up in the military. Some newly discovered talents caught the eye of the CIA, and in no time he was working with a covert team. He found himself in a relationship with fellow operative, Julia—until she turned out to be the enemy. When her betrayal was uncovered, things got bloody and Kyle returned home broken, searching for a chance to walk the road not taken.

MaeBe Vaughan has never been interested in normal. Her happy place is a dark corner of the Internet, where she disrupts all the bad guys. She has a great circle of friends and a full life. She doesn’t need a man. Until Kyle Hawthorne walked into her life. He’s all wrong for her. Surly. Damaged. His uncle is her boss. But she couldn’t help getting close to him. When his past threatened her safety, Kyle walked out without saying good-bye.

Kyle will do anything to keep MaeBe safe. He faked his death, hid in the middle of nowhere, and watched over her from afar. But when Julia resurfaces, he knows that to protect MaeBe, he’ll have to get close. So close that if they manage to survive, he will never let her go.

Excerpt

Prologue

Dallas, TX

Present day

Kyle Hawthorne stood in the darkness, peeking through the filmy drapes to glance down at the parking lot below. A tiny clown car moved into a reserved space, and he knew his prey had finally come home.

He shouldn’t think about the woman he adored as prey, but he’d decided he needed his inner predator if he was going to get out of the trap he found himself in. For a brief while the woman who was getting out of the small torture device she called a car had lulled him into thinking he could be the man he once was. The man who’d gone to college and had a normal future in front of him. The man who’d never thought about joining the Navy and would have laughed hysterically at the thought of being in the CIA. The man who would never have even thought about leaving her behind in the cruelest way.

Julia Ennis had reminded him of everything he’d become.

It had been a different person entirely who’d prompted him to think he could be both. A now dead man had poked and prodded him and made him see that this life was fucking short and if he couldn’t have Mae Beatrice Vaughn by his side, it might not be worth living.

Of course, he had to keep her alive, and that could prove to be a hard thing to do.

A man slipped out of the passenger seat. Actually what he did was unfold his big body and climb his way out of the car. MaeBe had always assured him her car would save the world someday, but that sucker had been hell on his spinal column.

He might have to rip this guy’s spine right out of his body like the movie Predator.

West Rycroft. Straight off the range and into the bodyguard unit at McKay-Taggart. He was going to have to have a long discussion with his uncle about what constituted a proper guard for a woman in MaeBe’s situation. It certainly wasn’t a baby Dom who was barely out of training both at Sanctum and the office. MaeBe required someone with experience and knowledge, and the will to ensure she followed orders when it came to her safety.

West Rycroft was barely good enough to carry her bag.

Had they used the time they’d spent in lockdown at Sanctum to play? Had West been trying his new skills on the most luscious sub in the world?

He felt a growl come from deep in his throat.

He needed to get a handle on his nasty side or he would scare the hell out of her, and he didn’t want that. She would be mad enough as it was since he was supposed to be dead.

Not that anyone believed him. His faked death was the worst-kept secret in the world, and he blamed his uncle for that, too.

MaeBe would have believed him if it hadn’t been for his uncle and her friends. She was probably mad at him, but that woman couldn’t hold a grudge to save her life. That was part of the problem. Julia had beaten the shit out of her and MaeBe probably thought they should all sit down and talk things through. She was that kind of girl.

Once he’d thought they weren’t compatible, but now he knew that her softness was a complement to his hard outer shell. They needed each other, and everything would fall into place when she walked in and he wrapped her in his arms. They would work things out this evening, and she would let him protect and take care of her.

MaeBe and her bodyguard disappeared as they walked into the building, and Kyle’s adrenaline started to flow.

His cell buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out. Normally he would ignore whoever was on the other end of the line, but only one person had this particular number, and he wouldn’t call if it wasn’t important. He had a couple of minutes until she made her way inside, and he would hear the alarm go off.

He’d gotten around that. She hadn’t changed the code. They were going to talk about that, too.

“Drake,” he said quietly into the receiver. “Have you landed yet?”

“Just touched down about an hour ago, and we’re on our way to your location,” Drake said. “We should be there in a few minutes.”

“Have you found her?”

He’d worked with Drake Radcliffe for years. Drake had been something between a boss and a brother. He’d definitely become a friend. They’d survived Julia together and were the only two people on earth who knew exactly what it had been like to be surrounded by her unique evil.

Julia had been his fiancée, but she’d been Drake’s sister.

“No, but I’m fairly certain she’s here in the States.” Drake’s voice was deep over the line. “I’ve tracked one of her known aliases to Toronto. From there she would likely cross the border by private plane and avoid passport control. I have to think she’s going to go for the information my father kept.”

Only a few days before, Drake’s father had been killed after he’d been outed as a double agent. The elder Radcliffe hadn’t actually been a working Agency operative at the time, but he had been active with a group known as The Consortium. It was an illuminati-like team of some of the world’s wealthiest corporations who conducted secret wars and influenced governments and were basically corrupt and violent. Like his ex.

Julia had gotten away, and now they believed she was going after what Drake’s father called his burn files. The former CIA operative had kept notes on everyone he’d worked for in case he ever needed to blackmail his way out of a bad situation.

Kyle meant to find those files because if Julia got her hands on them, she would be more powerful than she’d ever been before.

“I’m sending you everything I know. I can’t work on this without clueing my bosses in on it, and then we’ll have to work against them, too,” Drake admitted. “Everyone will want these files. I suspect my dad kept records on his friends as well.”

Don Radcliffe had been friendly with some of the world’s most powerful men. Yes, a lot of people would want those records, so it was important to keep the fact that they existed quiet. “I’m meeting with my uncle tomorrow, and I’ve asked Adam and Chelsea to join us. After I get MaeBe on her way to Loa Mali, I’ll work nonstop on finding the intel.”

“You’re going to try to send MaeBe to Loa Mali? Without you? I thought you were going after your girl.”

“I am, but I need to make sure she’s safe first. She’s not like Taylor. I need to make sure Julia can’t find her.” Drake’s girlfriend Taylor was a well-trained operative who could probably take Drake in a fight. MaeBe was a genius when it came to a computer, but she wasn’t a field agent.

He was going to be patient with her since he was the reason she’d gotten her ass kicked by Julia. He hadn’t read the signs right, had let himself believe the bad guy was dead and gone when he should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.

“I don’t think this is the right way to turn MaeBe around, man. You should drop to your knees and beg. Whine until she feels sorry for you and then get her in bed and don’t let her out until she’s willing to work with you,” Drake advised. “You have to bring her in. She’s got skills. She can help you. She might forget how pissed she is if you give her a job to do.”

“I don’t want her to do anything but relax,” he said quietly, listening for the beep that would sound when MaeBe walked in. “My uncle has had her training in self-defense and moving from house to house. I’m sending her to Loa Mali where she’s going to work on the king’s cyber security and be treated like a princess. I’m going to explain the situation to her, and she will understand. She’s a reasonable woman. Once I tell her how I feel, we’ll be okay.”

Drake snorted over the line. “Good luck with that, man. And you should protect your balls. I’ll see you soon.”

The line went dead as he heard the beep as the door opened.

She was here, and he was about to start his life again.

He’d been wrong to try to trick her. He should have been upfront and honest with her about Julia and how dangerous the situation was. She would have understood.

She was talking to West, but he couldn’t quite make out what she was saying. Would she see the present he’d left her on the bar and know he was here?

Spicy girl. One day I’ll show you how hot you can be.

He’d said those words to her the day before he “died.” The day before Julia had blown up the world again. He’d been ready to start their lives together after a year of circling warily around each other. They’d become friends, and he’d never meant to be more, but somehow this one woman had become the whole fucking world to him.

He loved Mae Beatrice Vaughn, and he wasn’t going to let Julia ruin that for either of them. Mae needed him and he needed her, and once he’d taken care of the situation he was going to marry her and they were going to have whatever weird amazing life they could.

“You’re getting so damn good at this, girl,” that dumbass cowboy player was saying. “Pretty soon you’ll be the one protecting me.”

Sure she would. She would never see that asshole again after tonight. West was getting kicked out of here in a few moments.

“Somehow I doubt that.” She was walking toward him, her voice rising as she crossed the space between them. “I’ll be right back.”

He stood in the darkest corner of her room as the door opened and he got his first look at her. She’d changed her hair color. It was brown now, and he hated that it wasn’t some crazy, not-to-be-found-in-nature hue. She’d dimmed her light, and she’d had to do it for him.

He would bring it all back, work hard to give her the life she deserved.

He would be worthy of all the love and trust she’d shown him in the past. His stupid heart actually clenched at the sight of her. She’d lost weight, likely because she was so worried.

She stopped, and her whole body stiffened.

He stepped out of the shadows. “Hello, MaeBe.”

She stared at him for a moment. “Kyle. Death seems to have been good to you. Why are you here?”

She was mad. He understood that. “You know why I’m here. I shouldn’t have left you the way I did. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? Sorry about what? Sorry you promised me the world and then didn’t bother to tell me you weren’t dead? I understand that. You worked hard to get away from me. I’ve never had a man fake his own death before. It was a lot. All you had to say was ‘Hey MaeBe, I think we’re more like friends than boyfriend/girlfriend.’ You’re forgiven. You can leave now, and don’t break into my apartment again.”

Now he was confused. “I didn’t fake my death to break up with you.” He moved into her space. He needed to get his arms around her, to show her they were both okay. He put his hands on her shoulders. “I did it to protect you.”

Her head tilted toward him and then she moved, bringing her knee up.

He should have listened to Drake and protected his balls.

Pain exploded in his body, and he dropped to his knees.

“You can leave, Kyle.” She stood over him, hands on her hips, and he could see the newly honed muscles in her arms. She’d been working out hard. “As you can see I can protect myself now.”

That was the moment he realized she’d pulled a gun on him.

He closed his eyes and wondered how the hell they’d gotten here.