Deadly Target [IAD Agency 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (2 page)

Early on in her career Mikayla had taken her share of suicide missions. Going into hostile territory alone to complete a task had become a norm for her, and she hadn’t always been lucky. No, she had her share of scars, both on the inside and out. Some thought she had a death wish, but she scoffed at that. It was simply her job as a sniper, and it was her job…no, her duty to protect those in need.

Born overseas, Mikayla was the daughter of a Greek heiress and a US ambassador. For the first twelve years of her life Mikayla had been blessed. She had traveled the world with her parents and lived a life that few could even dream about. But all of that had changed the day a bomb had killed everyone at the embassy while she was away at school.

Mikayla had suffered a shocking blow at the death of her parents. For two weeks she wouldn’t speak to anyone and she fell into a pit of despair where no one could reach her. Her mother’s Greek relatives had no clue what to do to aid her and simply left her alone with her grief. When her uncle Ethan, a general in the US Army, had arrived to take her home to the States with him she was practically catatonic, hiding inside herself to escape her pain.

Mikayla’s uncle had whisked her back to the US, raising her as his own beloved child. Slowly, she began to find her way back as her uncle pushed her into activities with him like shooting and messing around on the obstacle courses at the Army base.

That was when she discovered her talent for death.

She had slowly recovered, but a piece of her heart had died along with her parents on that dark day long ago. She had learned to live again, to function day by day. To the outside world, Mikayla seemed like a “normal” teenage girl, but deep inside she knew that she had changed. She had the unique ability to distance herself from her emotions, closing herself off from the pain she felt, and had finally understood why she had been given her macabre talent.

It was her duty to ensure that no one suffered a loss as she had by senseless violence.

Mikayla excelled at the war games her uncle Ethan played with her. So much so that Mikayla enlisted as soon as she was old enough, even though her uncle didn’t want the life of a solider for her. She was good at it, so good that there were very few that could beat her on the range. That was when she began her career of killing, becoming one of the best long-range snipers the Army had ever seen.

She worked without a spotter, partly because she didn’t need one, but the other part was that she couldn’t ask someone else to take the chances that she did on a regular basis. She didn’t take the dangerous assignment because she wanted to build a name for herself or because she had a death wish like some people thought. The truth was that she was just that good and she didn’t want someone else at risk when she knew she could make a shot. But all that changed when she was transferred into a special ops unit with the Savage twins, as well as Marco “Slade” Sladerman, and Brett “Bishop” Michaels.

Overnight Mikayla had gotten four brothers. Used to working alone, it was almost comical how the men in her new unit would never let her go on assignment without at least one of them along for the ride. Together, they had covered each other’s backs for years, doing what was necessary to save each other.

Just like their last mission…

Mikayla was currently taking some time off to recover from an injury. Well, it wasn’t a choice. She had been ordered on this little R&R sabbatical by Brett “Bishop” Michaels, who was one of the directors of IAD, and her uncle. Mikayla’s uncle was now commander of the allied forces, making him technically their boss as one of the founders of IAD. He and Brett were worried about her and wanted her to get some rest, ensuring that she did so by sticking her out in the middle of nowhere to do it.

Brett owned over a hundred acres of prime land in Colorado and had built a cabin on the property a few years back. The cabin wasn’t one of those ramshackle places. It was pure comfort and utility built into a massive log estate, reinforced with steel walls and a hidden escape route off of the property.

It was a beautiful house, with two stories above ground and three below that no one outside their agency would ever know about. Brett had fitted his place with the latest technology and could sleep the entire team in its eight bedrooms, but the truth was that he only made use of the place a few times a year. A few weeks ago Brett had spoken to her about moving to the cabin and opening a training facility for IAD agents that could also be used as a retreat and safe house for their agents. She was intrigued by the idea, but it was a difficult decision to pull herself off of active status. Besides, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to make a permanent move to Colorado.

Mikayla had been out to stay at the cabin a couple of times, but only in the summer. Cold and snow did not equal a vacation to her and they sure as hell weren’t helping at the moment. She knew she was due for some time off, but this was sure as hell not what she’d had in mind.

When the SUV slid on the icy road again, Mikayla pressed her feet down onto the floor in reaction to the movement, then cursed herself and bit her lip to hold back a wince as a searing pain shot up her leg. Damn it, she’d really be pissed if she’d lived through another bullet wound to die in a fucking car crash.

On their last mission, Mikayla had taken a bullet high up on the outside of her right thigh. It had been a bullet that had been aimed at her best friend’s heart. With no time to warn him, Mikayla had thrown herself at Brett and had gladly taken the bullet that had been meant for him.

It wasn’t her first injury in the line of duty, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

In fact, her last two active missions had been brutal. A few months ago, Mikayla and Brett had both taken fire on a mission in Malaysia. She had prepped her shot, leaving it to Brett to take the heat off of both of them. Things had gone fubar pretty damn quick when they realized the terrorists they had been sent to take out already knew they were there.

Brett and Mikayla had received a coded message from the notorious hacker, only known as the Phoenix, telling them they had been made and to get the hell out of dodge. As they were deciding whether or not to believe the message, the militia had converged on them. Mikayla was able to take out the leader and they had hauled ass, but both had taken hits before they made it to their extraction point.

Her hit to the leg wasn’t that bad, but before it could fully heal she had flown out to Las Vegas to help her team take down a black market dealer and three terrorists before they could purchase a biological weapon that could wipe out millions.

The mission had been successful, thank god.

Mikayla had assisted Tara Toshi, her friend and fellow agent, in taking down the first terrorist by playing on his obsession with beautiful women. They had rid the world of a drug dealer and human trafficker. It was safe to say no one would miss that asshole. Next, the team took down the black market dealer and then the second terrorist had done himself in by sheer stupidity.

Taking down the third terrorist had been a little more tricky. The terrorist had been Hassan Sharif, a man who’d had a particularly disturbing history with a few of the IAD agents. They had set a trap to capture Sharif, but before the agents had gotten into place, he had taken Tara hostage. That was when the confrontation turned bloody and Mikayla had taken the bullet meant for Brett.

Again.

When Mikayla got out of the hospital she had taken a couple of days to recuperate at the Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas at Tara’s insistence. During the chaos of the terrorist threats, tough agent Tara had fallen in love with the owner of the luxurious hotel chain, Julian King. Tara and Julian were now engaged and Mikayla could practically see the hearts flittering over their heads whenever they were within fifty feet of one another.

That is, when they weren’t fighting about something.

Mikayla was happy that her friend Tara had found love. Tara, or “T-rex” as the other agents called her, was one of the best field agents IAD had, but Mikayla knew that kind of dedication had a price. Tara had almost been to the point of burning out after back-to-back missions when she had met Julian. Now, Mikayla knew that Julian would ensure that he pulled Tara back before she reached her breaking point. It was comforting to know that Tara had someone to take care of her just like their other commanding officer Jason MacBain did with his wife, Bella.

Mikayla’s gaze tracked down to her hands to find they had clenched into fists in her lap. She had calluses on both of her hands, on her trigger fingers. Being ambidextrous was a plus when it came to shooting, but very few people knew what it cost her soul to do what she did.

What man could ever understand or accept who she truly was?

It wasn’t easy to find someone outside the life that understood what she did. To actually have him know the real her and not the person she had to pretend to be as a cover. For years Mikayla had firmly believed that romance and being a spy did not mix, but she had been proved wrong in the last six months as she had watched her friends fall in love. Still, that didn’t mean it would ever happen for her.

No matter how entertaining it was, it was also exhausting to watch Tara and Julian together so Mikayla thought it was best for her to check out and spend the rest of her time recovering somewhere else. When her commander, Brett Michaels, had offered up his sanctuary in Colorado, Mikayla had resisted, wanting to head back to her apartment in Chicago where she could sneak in some work while she healed. That was when she got the call from her uncle, telling her to take Brett up on his offer. Mikayla hated saying no to her uncle Ethan, but she did on occasion.

Getting around Brett wasn’t as easy.

Never one to take no for an answer, he had simply issued a command for the twins to take Mikayla out to Colorado and said he would be there the following week. He also made it clear that she better be there when he arrived. She knew he wouldn’t really do anything to her, but the guilt was weighing heavily on Brett since she had saved his life twice in the last few months. Honestly, it had been pure luck that she had done so, but Brett had forced this time out in Colorado so she could take the necessary steps to heal and make sure that she was one hundred percent before she got back in the game.

Of course, the plan had been better in theory. It would all depend on making it to the freakin’ cabin alive, which, at this point, was highly doubtful. Plus, who in their right mind wanted to spend time out in the middle of nowhere, Mikayla thought as the white blur outside her window seemed to grow thicker.

Now if they could only find the damn place somewhere in all this damned snow…

Shaking off the memories, Mikayla turned her attention back to the present and tuned back in to hear the twins continuing their verbal battle. Both men in the car with her were dangerously handsome, but Mikayla had stopped looking at them like that years ago. Mikayla thought of them like brothers. At thirty-five they were a few years older than her thirty-two, but she felt light years ahead of them when they started bickering like they were now.

Relaxing, my ass. Freezing to death is not my idea of a fucking vacation.

Instead, they were probably going to end up popsicles. On that cheerful thought, Mikayla squinted against the white and wanted to cheer at the sign proclaiming welcome to Serenity.

“I see a sign!”

“About damn time!” Adrian gritted through clenched teeth as he continued to push the SUV slowly into the small town blanketed in white. Faint halos of light appeared in the distance, lighting their way down the snow-covered streets. They drove through the small town and once again found themselves on an empty stretch of road. Someone above must have taken pity on them because the snow let up long enough for them to follow the markers that Brett had told them to reach the cabin.

They drove down a dangerous snow-covered road, through dense trees toward a large dark mass in the swirling white. As they got closer, the dark mass became clearer and Adrian pulled the SUV in front of the large wooden cabin. The SUV skidded again as Adrian miscalculated, hitting a sold mass under the snow that brought the vehicle to a hard stop.

A low rumble came from the backseat. “What the hell, asshole. You drive us through a goddamn snowstorm and crash once we get to the cabin? You’re fired.”

“I quit, fucker,” Adrian muttered back.

Mika chuckled. “Okay, kids. This has been fun, but I’m done and need a damn beer. I want out of this car, guys.”

“We’ll get your bags, Lynx,” Rock stated. “Do you have the keys?”

“Yep.”

Adrian turned to stare at her, his dark-green eyes filled with concern. “Can you make it up to the door?”

“Yes.” Adrian opened his mouth, but Mikayla was quick to cut him off. “If you think you’re going to carry me, you are sadly mistaken. I can make it just fine.”

He nodded and watched as Mikayla shouldered her door open against the driving wind and snow. She cursed her independent nature under her breath as she slowly trudged through the snow, up the front stone steps. By the time she made it there she was breathing heavy and her leg burned like the fires of hell.

“Stubborn fuckin’ woman,” Rock muttered a second before he scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the front door.

Mikayla rolled her eyes, shoved the key into the lock of the door and opened it. A swirl of snow followed them inside as she quickly took off her glove and pressed her palm down onto an innocuous looking panel on the wall next to the door. The panel turned green and the security system disengaged. Rock quickly carried her over to the couch and unceremoniously dumped her on it before turning around to head back out for their bags.