DeliciousDanger

Delicious Danger

Desiree Holt

Book 3 in the Phoenix Agency
series.

Kelly was shocked when her
Caucasian Ovcharka, Xena, bonded with Rick Latrobe. The dogs are known for
linking with only their owners. She’s even more shocked at the intense sexual
heat that sizzles between her and Rick. When she tumbles into bed with him at
the very first opportunity, experiencing a night of erotic bliss in his arms,
she knows they have something special.

But Xena is very much aware when an
attempt is made on Rick’s life, and the dog drives Kelly crazy with signals of
danger. Rick is nearly killed and Kelly and Xena are ferried to the secret
clinic where he’s recovering. As Rick heals and they race to find the
mastermind behind the attempted murder, the lust between them heats to the
boiling point.

Chapter One

“Granddad?” Kelly Monroe finished checking the air pressure
on her truck tires and called out to her grandfather standing by the hangar.
The vacation in Key West had been great and the visit here in Maryland with her
grandfather even better. But now it was time to get home and back to work.
Maine was still many long hours on the road away.

Harry Monroe disconnected the call he was taking, shoved his
cell phone in his pocket and jogged slowly over to the truck. At seventy he was
still fit and jogging didn’t even wind him. “I sure wish you’d stay longer,” he
told her. “I don’t get to see you nearly enough.”

“I’d try to coax you up to Maine but I know being in charge
of the Phoenix Agency airfield and running security on their craft doesn’t
leave you much time for visiting.”

The Phoenix Agency, a top security agency that took jobs for
both the government and private industry, was based in Maryland. Headed by the
charismatic Dan Romeo, he and his four partners had built its reputation on the
quality of their work. All former military, they each brought an area of
expertise to the business. Harry had been recommended to them by Dan’s former
commanding officer in the Marines and it had given the retired sergeant a new
lease on life.

“They could spare me for a few days,” he protested.

She grinned at him. “We’ll see. You were there for me when
Mom and Dad were killed but I wasn’t a kid, Granddad. And you needed to do
something besides rock and read. I’m glad you have this.”

“Me too,” he chuckled. “And the guys are very good to me.”

“As well they should be.”

“You should stay the night,” he told her. “It’s late in the
day. Too late to be starting out.”

“We’ll camp out about halfway there. No problem.”

“It’s a problem to me,” he grumbled.

“I promise we’ll be fine.”She turned to a large dog sitting
quietly by the hangar, watching them intently. “Hey, Xena. Come on, girl. We’ve
got to get going.”

Kelly had bought the Caucasian Ovcharka from a breeder seven
years ago as a gift to herself on her twenty-first birthday. Unlike any other
dog she’d ever seen, Xena had deep-set, dark eyes and ears densely covered with
fur. The shoulders were slightly raised from the back and the tail had a heavy
feathering of fur. With long forelimbs and large heavy paws, she looked exactly
like what she was—a guard dog. And she guarded Kelly well, in many ways.

“Come on,” Kelly called again. “Quit stalling.”

“I think she wants to stay,” Harry said.

“Oh, honestly.” She started toward Xena at a slow trot,
motioning to the dog as she moved. She hadn’t taken ten steps before the
one-hundred-thirty-pound body flew through the air like a shot and landed
directly in front of her.

Kelly pulled up short. “What the heck?”

“You nearly tripped over that hose you didn’t see,” Harry
pointed out.

“Is that it, girl?” Kelly knelt and threaded her fingers
through the dog’s fur. “Were you taking care of me again?” She fixed her gaze
on the dog’s. “Yes, you’re right. I need to pay more attention.”

“I swear.” Harry scratched his head. “You and that dog read
each other’s minds. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Don’t joke. Ovcharkas are known for certain psychic
abilities. Xena’s have saved my butt more than once.”

“You were always like that with animals. Knowing what was
wrong with them. What they wanted. Having silent conversations with them. But
with Xena?” He shook his head. “It’s the weirdest thing. That’s just something
else.”

“She’ll take good care of me on the way home too. Don’t you
worry.” She kissed the dog’s black nose. “Come on, girl. Into the truck. Time
to hit the road.”

“Don’t you even want to meet any of the guys? They always
ask about you. The one time you show up they’re all busy with something.”

“Next time,” she told him. “I promise we’ll stay a little
longer.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” But he said it affectionately.

* * * * *

Eric “Rick” Latrobe was bone weary. He’d barely slept in
forty-eight hours, his head throbbed and his eyes felt as if someone had rubbed
grit into them. The noise of the helicopter wasn’t helping his headache,
either. In spite of Mike D’Antoni’s superlative skills, the ride from the
airfield where the cargo plane had dropped him off was bumpy and only added to
his general pissed-off feeling.

More than anything he wanted a hot shower, a cold beer and a
clean bed. But he knew that none of those things would be forthcoming any time
soon. Before he could even think about going home he needed a sit-down with his
partners and a no-holds-barred conversation.

He hadn’t wanted to get involved in the whole Iraq business
to begin with. Phoenix was busy enough as it was, with enough contracts to
juggle. But Grainger Caldwell had gotten some lucrative pieces of the pie to
rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure, the company was a high-dollar client and Charlie
Grainger wanted—no, demanded—that Phoenix game-plan the security they’d need,
train the people who’d work the security details and set it all up.

One of the biggest headaches was recruiting the right
people. Many of them they were able to import from the States, especially those
who filled specific requirements. The others came from local cities like
Baghdad. Rick thanked god every day that one of the languages he was trained in
was Arabic. Otherwise they’d have had more than the wool pulled over his eyes.

But even so, he’d already made a mental note to tell Charlie
they needed to cut back on the use of the locals. Communication was only part
of the problem. Too many of these people were thugs looking for either a free
ride or an excuse to shoot someone. That wasn’t what he needed, not when he was
supposed to train people to protect the construction workers and the staff who
had been sent there.

And now they had to figure out what was going wrong with the
setup. Why little things were happening that shouldn’t. In a week’s time he was
shepherding a Hercules C-130J full of heavy arms and Humvees over to the
Grainger Caldwell setup and he couldn’t afford to have any screw-ups.

It was bad enough that a deep-cover contact had passed along
information that a tribe of people in the north were quietly gathering
resources to reclaim their land and power. And planning to eliminate all the
coalition forces that got in their way. This meant great danger for Grainger
Caldwell’s contracts, as some of their projects were scheduled for that area.
He’d hinted that these small thefts might be nothing more than a test of the
security at the GC compound.

Damn! As if he didn’t have enough on his plate already.

He’d told his contact he’d be back in about a week and made
arrangements to meet with him again. These meetings had to be carefully
planned. If the man’s associates had any idea he was feeding information to an
American, he’d be killed in a slow and painful way and his family destroyed. He
wouldn’t even let Rick see his face, always wearing a hood pulled over it.

Not to mention the fact that on the long trip back Rick’d
been trying to dig out of his mind some shadowy fact that insisted in hiding
away from him. Something someone had said. Or something he’d seen. The harder
he tried, the more elusive it became.

“Welcome back to Maryland,” Mike told him, as he set the
bird on the ground. “Next stop the office where everyone’s waiting. I guess we
need to see how we can pull our irons out of the fire and handle this operation
properly.”

“You got that right, Ace.” Rick unstrapped himself and
pushed open the door to the helo’s cabin. As he hopped down to the ground, his
eye was caught by a blue pickup truck at the far end of the area. “Who the hell
is here? Harry knows we don’t allow strangers here.”

The field with its three large hangars was home to the two
helicopters and three private jets Phoenix Agency owned. The nature of their
work made them prime targets for every kind of nut. They had a state-of-the-art
security system and no one came or went unless they had agency approval.

“Relax.” Mike finished shutting down the machine and doing
his post-flight cabin check. “That’s Harry’s granddaughter. She’s been visiting
for a few days on her way back from Florida. He wanted to show her around and I
gave the okay.”

Then Rick took a good look at the female standing beside the
truck and his heart nearly stopped. Holy hell! Why didn’t Harry tell them he
had a granddaughter who was every man’s dream? She was tall and slim, with long
red hair the color of burnished sunlight. She was in earnest conversation with
Harry their caretaker-cum-maintenance man. As she talked she gestured so gracefully
with her hands she could have been an artist sketching a picture in the air.
Rick could take or leave his women but this one, with just one look, reached a
place inside him he’d had closed off forever.

Then he blinked as the object in the back of the pickup came
into better view. “What the hell is that in her truck bed? A horse?”

Mike chuckled. “Close. It’s a Caucasian Ovcharka. A dog.”

Rick stared. The dog looked to be half as tall as he was,
with a large head and mostly black fur. Only part of its hindquarters and its
forelegs were whitish gray. Its jaws looked as if they could clamp onto a small
animal with no problem.

“Isn’t he a little much for her to handle?”

“She, you chauvinist. The dog’s a female. I understand the
males weigh a good twenty pounds more.”

“So doesn’t
she
overpower her?”

“Nah. They follow hand signals and voice commands almost
like a machine. You know, those dogs are rumored to have Psi abilities.”

“No kidding. A psychic animal? Well, I don’t discount
anything these days. Maybe we should look into working with them.”

“Talk to Mia and Faith. That’s their department,” Mike
reminded him. “Come on. I’ll introduce you.”

Rick hitched the strap of his duffel over his shoulder and
followed Mike to where Harry and the woman were standing. Up close she was even
more striking. Her hair was wound into a thick braid that fell halfway down her
back. Curls escaping at the sides framed a classic face with alabaster skin, a
tiny spray of freckles on her nose and eyes that flashed like emeralds in the
sunlight.

She turned in his direction as he walked up to her and the
smile she flashed nearly brought him to his knees. This was Harry’s
granddaughter? Good thing he was so tired or he’d be in big trouble here.

“Hey, guys,” Harry greeted them. “Honey, you’ve met Mike.
This is Rick Latrobe, one of the other partners. Rick, this is my
granddaughter, Kelly Monroe.”

She held out a slim hand. When Rick wrapped his larger one
around it flashes of heat shot through his body like flames dancing through his
blood. Good god. What was going on here? Maybe he’d been without a woman too
long.

“Nice to meet you.” Her voice was low and soft, the kind
that made his body vibrate. She nodded at the dog, who looked even larger up
close. Her eyes were fixed on Rick like twin lasers.“This is Xena. She doesn’t
take too well to strangers, I’m afraid.”

But the dog, standing motionless in the truck bed, suddenly
leaped to the ground and sat at Rick’s feet, almost knocking him over. She
looked up, her eyes telegraphing some kind of message.

Kelly frowned. “That’s strange. She’s never done that
before. She almost never goes near anyone but me.”

Rick reached out a tentative hand to pet the dog.

“Be careful,” Kelly warned.

But the animal sat without moving, accepting the caress. Her
eyes never moved from Rick’s face.

Kelly did her best to control her shock at Xena’s actions.
The dog never, never ever, did this with anyone but her. Kelly knew how the dog
felt. She had an uncontrollable urge to throw herself at Rick Latrobe’s feet
too. Why didn’t her grandfather tell her all these men were so good-looking?

She looked at the dog and frowned.

“Xena? What’s going on here, girl?”

“Maybe I do better with animals than I do with people,” Rick
joked. “She’s magnificent, by the way.”

“Thank you.” She snapped her fingers once. “Xena. Truck.
Now.” For emphasis, she opened the passenger door and gestured emphatically.

The dog looked up at Rick, then at Kelly and almost
reluctantly stood up and began to amble toward the truck. As she passed Kelly
she shifted her weight and nudged her owner with her massive hindquarters.
Kelly pitched forward toward Rick, saved from falling only by six foot two of
hard, muscular body and a pair of strong arms catching her. She found herself
pressed against his chest and when she looked up he was grinning at her.
Ohmigod! His face was etched with heavy lines of fatigue but his penetrating
electric blue eyes danced with mischief.

“Nothing to spice up the day like having a beautiful woman
fall into your arms.” He winked at her.

For a moment she was tempted to wrap her arms around him and
press herself even closer. Her nipples hardened instantly and every nerve in
her body woke up. Then reality hit, heat flamed her cheeks and she pushed
herself away.

“I am so sorry. I don’t know what’s come over that dog.” She
turned her head toward Xena who was sitting beside her now. Kelly could have
sworn the dog was grinning.

“Please. Don’t apologize.” He grinned again and a dimple
winked at the corner of his mouth. “The pleasure was all mine.”

Kelly labored to maintain some semblance of dignity. Looking
into Xena’s eyes, she was sure she could hear the dog thinking, “You need a man
and this one’s A-plus. It’s my job to help it along.”

She wiped a hand over her face. Impossible. She and Xena got
into each other’s minds but this was beyond ridiculous. She snapped her fingers
and pointed. “Xena. Truck. Now.”

She swore the dog sighed as she lifted herself, then
obediently jumped into the cab and took her place on the passenger seat.