Win a Print Copy of INTO THE WHIRLWIND
INTO THE WHIRLWIND
B.O.S.S., Inc. #2
Kat Martin
Released May 31st, 2016
Zebra
A
bodyguard, a bounty hunter, a private investigator, no one can handle the heat
like the men of BOSS, Inc.
Megan O’Brien is at her wit’s end.
Her three-year-old son has been kidnapped. No police, says the ransom demand.
Fearing for her son’s life, Meg has no choice but to turn to her former
bodyguard, Dirk Reynolds.
Dirk’s never forgiven Meg for the
way she left him after their brief affair. But with bounty hunter Luke Brodie
on his side, Dirk knows he’s got to help Meg rescue her son.
The few clues they’ve gathered send
them spiraling into a murky world of big banking and international crime. Meg
may be way out of her depths, but she’s seeing a side of Dirk she never
suspected—one no woman could possibly resist.
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“Ms. Megan, thank God you’re home! It’s
. . . it’s Charlie. I can’t find little Charlie.”
Meg’s
heart took a leap as she stepped into the house, nearly colliding with her
housekeeper, Rose Wills.
“He
probably woke up and wandered off somewhere. He has to be here someplace.” But
even as she said the words, worry jolted through her. Telling herself not to
panic, Meg hurried toward the stairs.
“I
put him down for a nap an hour ago,” Rose said, hurrying along behind her.
“When I went back to check on him, he was gone.”
“You
know how he likes to hide. He’s just found a new place.” But fear had her pulse
kicking up, and her stomach started to churn. At the top of the landing, she
turned and ran down the hall to her three-year-old’s bedroom, the housekeeper
close behind her.
Charlie
wasn’t in his small white youth bed. “Charlie! Mama’s home. Charlie! Where are
you, sweetheart?” Meg ran to the closet and pulled open the door, searched
through the stuffed toys and games on the closet floor, but found no sign of
her son.
Her
heart was hammering now, her stomach balled into a fist. Meg told herself to
stay calm. There were dozens of places a little boy could hide in a two-story
house.
“Charlie!
Charlie, where are you, sweetie?”
Rose’s
higher-pitched, worried voice chimed in. “Charlie! Come out now. Your mommy
wants you.”
They
searched upstairs, but he was nowhere to be seen, went downstairs and searched
the floor below.
“God,
Rose, where could he be? You don’t think he went outside?”
“I
always keep the doors locked and the chain on. There’s no way he could have
gotten out.”
They
checked all the doors, but Rose was right. No way could her little boy have
gotten out of the house.
Meg
ran back upstairs. She returned to his room, walked over to the bed to see if
the covers still held a trace of warmth. Reaching down, she touched the soft
blue blanket with the sailboats on it, but none of Charlie’s heat remained.
Instead,
she spotted an envelope protruding from the folds, her name in ink on the
front.
“What
did you find?” Rose came up beside her.
“It’s
a letter.” Her hands shook as she tore the envelope open.
“I
didn’t see it before,” Rose said. “Oh, dear Lord.” She started to tremble, her
breasts heaving as the implication sank in. She was a big woman, nearly as tall
as Meg’s five-foot ten-inch frame. “What . . . what does it say?”
Meg
read the note and her heart clutched, then turned to stone. “‘We have your son.
He’ll cost you ten million in cash. You’ve got three days or he’s . . . he’s
dead. No police.’“
Meg
swayed on her feet. She gripped the headboard, afraid she might faint. Dear
God, my baby! She turned, let Rose pull her into a hug, and her eyes welled
with tears. They clung to each other, both of them crying.
The
housekeeper straightened away. “We have to call the police. They’ll know what
to do. They’ll get Charlie back.”
Meg
shook her head. “No police. If we call them, they’ll kill him.”
Rose
crossed herself. “What are going to do, Ms. Meg?”
Meg
closed her eyes and prayed for strength. Her dad was extremely wealthy. He
loved his grandson. Her father could get the ten million dollars they needed to
pay the ransom.
But
her dad was also extremely controlling. And he believed money was the solution
to everything. What if the kidnappers took the money and still killed her baby?
She
thought of Charlie’s father, Jonathan Hollander, the man she had married to
please her dad. Yes, he was hand-some. She couldn’t deny she’d been attracted
to his dark good looks and charming smile. Her father hadn’t been able to see
past Jonathan’s impressive Harvard education and his family’s lofty position in
society.
Meg
thought what a no-good, lying cheat he had turned out to be.
She
couldn’t go to Jonathan.
Another
man’s image came to mind. Smart. Loyal to a fault. Strong. Tough. Reliable. The
one man she would trust with her precious son’s life.
“I
know someone.” Strength seeped through her as determination set in. “I know a
man who can bring Charlie home.”
Megan
O’Brien parked at the end of the gravel driveway and quietly got out of her
white BMW X1 compact SUV. Through the trees, she could hear the roar of a
chainsaw, hear hammers banging away, see two-by-fours of golden-yellow pine
going up to form the sides of the house under construction.
The
garage was already finished, undoubtedly full of Dirk’s toys, including a
Harley and a custom Dodge Viper. In the summer, he kept a boat docked on the
lake below the house.
Though
two other men were hard at work, her gaze went straight to Dirk. Hammer in
hand, carpenter’s belt dangling low on his waist, he was shirtless, though the
January air was chill.
Hard
muscle flexed across his back and shoulders as he pounded in a nail with an
ease that said how many times he had done it. Long, sinewy muscles outlined by
the soft fabric of his jeans stretched and moved as he worked on his house.
Meg’s
gaze went over the familiar dragon tattoo that wound over one shoulder and
inched up the side of his neck. The colored ink seemed right with the sexy,
short-cropped horseshoe mustache that framed his mouth and curved down to his
jaw, making him look like the hard, tough man he was.
Even
her terrible fear for her son couldn’t block the memories of how it had felt to
lie with him. Couldn’t lessen the yearning that burned through her body just at
the sight of him.
Meg
had met Dirk Reynolds five months before when she had been preparing for the La
Belle fashion show tour. Meg, one of their top models, worked for the chain of
expensive lingerie stores.
She
glanced back at Dirk. He and his friend, Ethan Brodie, did private
investigation and personal security for Brodie Operations Security Services,
Inc., the company that had been hired to protect the models after one of them
was murdered.
Dirk
had been her bodyguard, and though every instinct had warned her not to get
involved with him, the fierce attraction between them had been impossible to
resist.
Once
the models returned home, Meg had ended the affair. She and Dirk weren’t right
for each other. Dirk lived fast and hard. He rode a motorcycle, drove a car
that could go two hundred miles an hour. Dirk Reynolds was wild and fierce,
while she was a single mother with a son to raise.
She
couldn’t have Dirk Reynolds. She had a responsibility to her little boy. With a
failed marriage behind her, she couldn’t risk failing again.
But
she had never gotten over Dirk.
Meg
steeled herself and headed along the gravel driveway toward the house Dirk was
rebuilding after the fire that had nearly killed him five months ago. One thing
she knew, Dirk Reynolds was a hard man to kill.
Which
was the reason she had swallowed her pride and her heartache and come to him.
She needed him, trusted him as she never had any other man. Her little boy’s
life de-pended on gaining this man’s help. This man she had loved and rejected.
She
stepped out of the foliage-covered driveway into the open area around the house
he was rebuilding. She had called his office looking for him. Nick Brodie, one
of the other PIs at BOSS Inc., had reluctantly told her where to find him.
Maybe it was the tears he heard in her voice when she had said how important it
was. That it was a matter of life or death.
With
Dirk’s usual keen senses, he turned, alert that some-one was there, though the
buzz of the saw had hid the sound of her footsteps.
For
several long moments, he just stared, watching as she walked toward him. He was
six-two, his body lean and sculpted. Wavy dark brown hair curled at the nape of
his neck. She forced herself to keep walking, even as his jaw locked and a
fierce scowl darkened his face.
Dirk
grabbed a faded blue work shirt and shrugged it on, covering most of his
amazing chest. He didn’t bother fastening the buttons, just strode toward her,
blocking her view of the house.
He
stopped right in front of her. “What are doing here, Meg?”
“I
need to talk to you. It’s . . . it’s urgent.”
“You’re
trespassing. What do you want?”
She
swallowed, fought to stay strong. He didn’t want her there. She had known he
wouldn’t. Known he thought of her only with contempt. She wished he would hold
her the way he used to when she was afraid. “I . . . I want to hire you.”
The
corner of his mouth edged into a ruthless half smile. “What for? Stud service?”
She
wanted to cry. She wanted to beg his forgiveness. Tell him she had never
forgotten him. That she never would. She knew it wouldn’t matter to Dirk. Not
anymore.
All
that mattered now was saving her son.
She
looked into those hard hazel eyes and for the first time wondered if she’d been
wrong to think he would help her. Dear God, what would she do if Dirk refused?
A
sob wedged in her throat. She fought desperately to hold on to her courage.
“It’s Charlie. He’s been kidnapped. They left a note. It says they’ll . . .
they’ll kill him if I go to the police.”
Something
shifted in those hard, condemning eyes. For a moment, the old Dirk appeared.
Concerned for her, determined to protect her at any cost, even his life.
“I’ll
take you down to the office. Ethan’s out of town with Val. I’ll get Nick to
work with you. Or Luke. They’ll help you find your boy. They’ll help you get
him back.”
They
were all private investigators and they were the best. But they weren’t Dirk
Reynolds. Meg started shaking her head, couldn’t stop the tears that leaked
onto her cheeks. “It has to be you. I know in my heart you can save Charlie.
Only you.”
His
jaw went iron hard. “Jesus, Meg.”
“Please,
Dirk. Please help me.”
“Do
you know what you’re asking?”
She
knew. There was a time he had loved her. He had begged her to stay with him,
give them a chance. Meg had refused.
“He’s
just a little boy. I know you can save him. You won’t give up until you do.”
“Jesus.”
He raked a hand through his heavy dark hair. She remembered the exact silky
feel of the strands between her fingers.
“The
note says they want ten million dollars,” she said. “They’ll kill him if they
don’t get it.”
He
took a deep breath, released it slowly. “How much time did they give you?”
“Three
days.”
“Ten
million. That’s a helluva lot of money.”
“My
father can get it.”
His
gaze remained on her face. “But you don’t trust him to get your boy back.
That’s smart, Meg, because money doesn’t always work.”
She
swiped at her tears with the back of her hand. “Will you help me?”
His
eyes went dark. “You knew I would when you came here.”
“I
prayed you would. I wasn’t sure anymore.”
He
gazed over her shoulder through the trees, spotted her small white SUV. “You
okay to drive?”
“I’m
all right.”
“I’ll
follow you back to your house.” His mouth barely curved. “I think I can
remember where it is.”
Meg
turned away from him. Three days. In three days Charlie would be safely
returned. Dirk would go on with his life and she would go on with hers.
Three
days.
The
pain didn’t matter. Charlie was all that mattered. Meg had no other choice.
New York
Times bestselling author Kat Martin is a graduate of the University of
California at Santa Barbara where she majored in Anthropology and also studied
History. Currently residing in Missoula, Montana with her Western-author
husband, L. J. Martin, Kat has written sixty-five Historical and Contemporary
Romantic Suspense novels. More than sixteen million copies of her books are in
print and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. Kat is currently
at work on her next Romantic Suspense.
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