Deadly Target [IAD Agency 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (14 page)

“Thanks,” Dylan said with pride. “We really love this place.”

Dylan and Katie led them into the large, comfortable room that looked like a living room. “Dylan and I will go set everything up in the other building. Gage should be in soon, and we’ll be right back!” Katie said, already heading out the door as her brother followed at a more sedate pace.

Slade waited until the siblings left the room before speaking again. He pulled out his cell phone and tapped in a few keys. “We’re good to go. I’m picking up standard security. No listening devices or other markers except for basic cameras I’m guessing are set for safety more than anything.” He looked up to make eye contact with Mikayla. “Looks like this is just a legit day of kick-ass fun.”

“This is going to be fun,” Adrian said. “And boy, do I love to see Lynx packing heat.”

“Why does everything you say have to sound perverted?” Mikayla asked with a roll of her eyes, making the men laugh.

“Ah, you’re here,” Gage said as he walked into the room with Nick. He came to an abrupt stop, eyes narrowing as he took in the sight of the big men flanking her. “Mikayla.”

From that one simple word she could tell Gage was pissed. Well, too bad. These were her friends, her family. She stepped forward and was pleased when Gage also stepped forward to meet her halfway. Gage wrapped a possessive arm around her waist, pulling her tight into his side. She tried to ignore the smirking looks her friends shot her at the move. “Gage, Nick, these are my good friends, Adrian and Rock Savage.”

“Nice to meet you,” Gage said coolly as he eyed the twins. Mikayla pitched his thigh hard and watched as he tried to hold back a wince. He seemed to get the hint because he released her and moved forward to shake their hands.

When all the greetings were done Gage moved back to Mikayla’s side as Nick shook his head in amazement. “Gage, when you invited me out to join in today you didn’t tell me your lady called in some ringers. Jesus, these guys are big.” Both Nick and Gage were big, muscular men, but next to the IAD agents there was no comparison. “Well, at least we know you guys don’t have criminal records if you work for Mac Securities,” Nick groused as he eyed Mikayla and her friends.

“Don’t worry. We won’t hurt you, much,” Adrian said with a grin.

“Shit…”

“You’ve got a nice setup here,” Rock said as he studied Gage. “So, what do you do here, teach pampered actors how to fight without hurting themselves?”

“Something like that,” Gage replied, his voice cool. Mikayla pinched him again, harder this time so he did wince.

“Is it true…what they say about you doing your own stunts and shit in your movies? Or did you have someone else doing the heavy lifting?”

“Rock…” Mikayla warned.

“No, it’s okay. I get asked this a lot,” Gage assured her with a smile. “I did most of my own stunt work, but some of it wasn’t allowed due to insurance issues.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Nick cut in. “You did most of that crazy shit in the
Maximum Force
movies. Personally, I thought that director was trying to kill you.”

“All five of those movies were awesome,” Mikayla agreed. “Don’t let these guys fool you. They dragged me to the theater to see every one of them.”

Gage’s arm tightened around her waist. He didn’t like thinking about her going to the movies with any man but him. Even if it was his movie. Jealousy was eating away at him, searing into him and, damn them, Mikayla’s friends knew it by the smug looks on their faces. Gage knew that being with her was a mistake. She was forcing her way into his heart and he felt powerless to stop it.

But not being with her was worse.

He was damned either way.

Katie and Dylan came back into the room, both of them smiling. “Everything is set up in the other room. So, are we ready to begin?” Dylan asked.

“Before we start, I wouldn’t mind a brief tour of the place,” Slade said.

“Sure!” Dylan said, looking at Slade with no small amount of hero worship. “I’ll take you around. Everyone started for the door, but Gage held Mikayla back so they were behind the others.

There was a large workout room with various weigh machines and cardio equipment behind wide-paned windowed walls. It pleased her greatly that even though the gym itself was well kept, the new shine was no longer present, showing that the facilities were well used. Across the wide hallway was a large open room with a large boxing ring in the center and training mats perfect for sparring with partners on one end, while the other side had a glossy wooden floor.

As they walked through the large building, Gage stopped Mikayla in the hallway, brushing her hair out of her face with a gentle hand. “I missed you yesterday.”

She felt her heart flutter at his words. “Where is Wulf?”

“We left him at the house. He doesn’t like the noise.”

“Ah, gotcha. How did it go with the client?”

“It went well. All he really needed was a few pointers how to get him through his scenes for the pilot of this new series.” Gage grinned at her. “He’s the new Hercules.”

Mikayla’s eyes widened. “Chaz Phillips was here? That’s who you were with yesterday?”

Gage’s grin instantly turned to a frown. “He’s an old friend. How did you know I was talking about Chaz? Are you a fan?”

The accusation in his voice was enough to make her want to hit him. Instead, she simply rolled her eyes. “I’ve see the stupid updates about the new show every time I log onto the Internet. Get real, Gage. It’s not like I was going to run over here and beg him for an autograph.” Her eyes widened. “Is this why you didn’t want me coming over here yesterday?” The way Gage’s jaw clenched confirmed that she had hit it on the nose. “You are unbelievable.”

“I didn’t say that. Don’t put words in my mouth,” Gage snapped.

“Then tell me. When you called me yesterday you made it sound like your client was a pain in the ass. Now you’re telling me it was a friend.”

“I didn’t lie to you,” Gage said defensively. “I said I was busy and I was. Besides, you were the one who tried to put off seeing me again until your friends left.”

“Yes,” she said coolly. “Because I was worried they’d kill you.”

“Lynx has a point there,” Slade interjected from where he was standing with Adrian a few feet away from them.

“Do you mind?” Gage snapped at him.

Slade shrugged his shoulders then went back to listening to Dylan talk about their facility. Adrian, however, continued watching them, fascinated by the conversation between the two lovers. Gage glared at the other man and took hold of her arm and pulled her further down the hall, away from the others.

Mikayla pulled her arm away. “I told you they were my friends and that I worked with them. Have I given you any reason to believe that I would hit on one of your friends or act inappropriately? Can’t you see how insulting that is? Are you trying to piss me off?”

“No…I, no. Jesus, I just didn’t want you to meet him, okay?” Gage huffed out as he raked a hand through his thick black hair. “I knew he’d flirt with you and then I’d have to punch him. Chaz is a fucking lothario.”

Mikayla tried to rein in her temper. “Do you see them?” She waved a hand at her friends. “These are the men I work with on a daily basis, and they aren’t even the best looking of the group.”

“I heard that,” Adrian growled from where he was standing. “Damn, Lynx. That’s cold, woman.”

“Shut it,” Mikayla ordered without even looking away from Gage. “Contrary to what you may think, I don’t cream my pants every time I see a hot guy.”

Gage winced. “Christ, Mikayla. I didn’t think that.”

“Didn’t you?”

“No, I just… Damn it.” Gage lowered his voice so only she could hear him. “I never thought you’d go for Chaz or anything like that. Hell, can’t you understand that I want you all to myself and it’s driving me crazy having all these fucking men around you all the time? And now you show up with your own harem of them.”

She simply stared back at him, wishing her icy stare could freeze his balls. Stupid man. “You really need to get a handle on this jealousy of yours. I think it’s time for you to work off a little of your testosterone before it chokes you…or I do.” She turned from him and joined the rest of her friends on the tour.

“What’s up?” Rock shot her a questioning look as she stopped beside him.

“He’s having a stupid male moment.”

Rock let out a snort. “Hon, we all have those according to you.”

“Yeah, but this was stupider than most.”

Rock studied her then turned hard eyes over to where Gage stood watching them. Something akin to anticipation lit Rock’s gaze. “Want me to hurt him for you?”

“Naw, I’ll just give him a few minutes to air some of the stupid out of him,” Mikayla replied as Gage all but threw up his hands.

“Let’s head into the range,” Gage called out, stomping ahead of the group.

To her surprise, this time Nick held back to speak to her as they took a shortcut to the other building through a covered walkway. He looked at her with serious eyes. “Go easy on him, Mikayla. The poor guy is completely gone over you. I’ve never seen him like this with a woman before and I can tell you with absolute honesty that this is the first time he has ever invited a woman over to spend the day with his family. They’re too important to him to just have anyone over. Gage really is a good guy. Hell, he’s one of the best men I know.”

“I know Gage is a good man, Nick. I’m…” She sighed. “There are just issues that he and I have to deal with before this can go anywhere.”

“Gage has been my best friend all my life,” Nick said carefully. “And I’ve been in law enforcement since I was old enough to pick up my shield. Serenity may be a small town, but my instincts are good enough to know that there is more to the four of you than meets the eye. Sure, you may be security consultants, but there is more to you than just glorified bodyguards.”

Mikayla studied him in silence for a moment. “What are you asking, Nick?”

“Nothing, yet. It’s not my place, unless you break the law.”

She laughed softly. “Trust me when I say you won’t have to worry about arresting any of us.”

“Good. But I will ask you this, if you aren’t serious about making this work with Gage then walk away now before he gets any more attached. He’s been hurt enough in his life.” Nick walked away before she could answer.

Mikayla slowly followed behind the others, watching as Gage turned around as if checking to see she was still there. As she looked at the man who had her emotions tied into complicated knots she knew that Nick was right. She had to decide if she was all in or she needed to walk away before things got any more serious.

Who the hell was she kidding?

If she was honest with herself, she was already serious about Gage. So much so that she feared he had the ability to hurt her if he walked away from her if he found out who she really was. Gage saw too much when he looked at her. Even though she had only known him for a short time there was a connection between them that left her exposed when she had always been so careful to protect herself.

Now, she just had to figure out if having Gage was worth the risk to her heart.

The group entered the smaller building and Mikayla was pleased to see a very sweet setup inside the shooting range. There were basic target practice lanes in the first part of the building, but further back was an interesting obstacle course set up that looked exactly like the IAD agents’ idea of fun.

The first section of the obstacle course was eight metal targets on hinges that would fall when hit with a bullet. The targets were on different levels to make it more difficult to hit each of them. Next was a narrow beam of wood with three metal targets on each side of the beam. The shooter would have to cross the beam and stop to hit each of the six targets, using both skill and agility. The final round was a large cargo net they would have to climb to reach the top of a platform.

Gage waited until everyone had taken off their coats and gotten comfortable to explain the phases of the obstacle course. “There are going to be four parts to this event today. Once we start the timer you will have to hit each target to move on to the next. When everyone has had their turn the winner will be the person with the best time.”

“We’ve already put two rifles on top of the platform so you won’t have to worry about bringing something up with you,” Dylan added. “But you can pick whatever handgun works for you in the first two stages from the selection here.” He pointed to a long table off to the side where several guns were laid out.

“What’s the third and fourth part?” Slade asked, intrigued.

“Outside there are targets set up about a quarter mile away. There is a rope with a tag in the center, weighted down by a sandbag. You have to hit the tag so the sandbag breaks,” Katie explained. “The fourth is a target about a half mile away. It’s a target that you can get different points depending on what circle you hit. It’s really hard. It’s a good thing Sebastian isn’t here yet. He usually beats us,” Katie said with a pout.

“That’s okay, honey. I’m sure you’re good at a lot of other things,” Adrian said with a wink, making Gage and Nick frown at him then at Katie as she blushed.