Spirit of Danger Read online

  Spirit of Danger

  Body of Danger 2

  An Aegis Group Novella

  Sidney Bristol

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  Inked Press

  Spirit of Danger

  Body of Danger #2

  Merida just wants to get through Christmas this year, but after a disastrous day at work and her house flooding, it's not shaping up to be a great holiday. At least until her neighbor, best friend, and totally-off-limits crush comes to her rescue.

  Finley walks a fine line of respecting Merida's boundaries while lusting over her body. He should have never struck up a friendship with his sassy neighbor. He knew that the moment he first saw her. This Christmas he wants one thing he can't have: her.

  A home disaster quickly spins out of control when Merida is called into work for a strange emergency. Finley can't shake the feeling that something isn't right. He'll stick close to her until the lines are blurred because her body is his to protect.

  Explore the whole Aegis world in these series...

  It all began with the Aegis Group.

  Dangerous Attraction

  Dangerous in Training

  Dangerous Games

  Dangerous Assignment

  Dangerous Protector

  Dangerous Secrets

  Dangerous Betrayal

  Dangerous Heat

  Dangerous Connections (2020)

  Dangerous Exposure (2020)

  More Coming Soon!

  Within Aegis Group, special teams take on special jobs, beginning with the Alpha Team.

  Dangerous in Love

  Dangerous in Action

  Dangerous in Transit

  Dangerous in Motion

  Dangerous in Charge

  Other specialized teams exist under the Aegis Group umbrella, including Lepta Team.

  Dangerously Taken

  Dangerously Involved

  Dangerously Deceived

  Dangerously Broken

  Dangerously Entwined

  Troy Team has signed on to work an ultra-secret case in the Aegis Group Task Force series.

  (prequel) First Risk: a newsletter exclusive serial

  Stolen Risk

  Forged Risk

  Technical Risk (2020)

  More soon!

  In Dangerous Games it continued with the Gone Geek girls.

  Beauty and the Geek

  Mr. Purr-fect and the Geek

  The Jock and the Geek

  The Gamer and the Geek

  The Adorkable Girl and the Geek

  The Fake Boyfriend and the Geek

  When the Seattle office of Aegis Group opened the Twisted Royals took the stage.

  The Origin Story

  Alpha Prince

  Her Prince

  Bad Boy Prince

  Noble Prince

  Stay tuned for the appearance of the Omega Team.

  For short reads, tune in this December for the Body of Danger novella series kick-off.

  Heart of Danger

  Spirit of Danger

  Soul for Danger (2020)

  The other Smith brother takes us to the Texas SWAT series, a small town suspense series.

  Fighting Redemption

  Stolen Redemption

  Forbidden Redemption

  Reckless Redemption (coming soon)

  Thanks to the SWAT team, Ransom, Texas enjoys a slower pace of life beginning in The Love Barn.

  Give Me Back My Man

  Summer of Love

  Party out of Bounds

  To my family, who make me remember the joy of the holiday every year when I lose it in crazy baking..

  What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.

  ―AGNES M. PAHRO

  Table of Contents

  1.

  2.

  3.

  4.

  5.

  6.

  7.

  8.

  9.

  Epilogue.

  1.

  Wednesday. Merida’s Home, Seattle, Washington.

  Merida Dominguez trudged down the steep sidewalk lit by festive Christmas lights hung along the street. Her neighbors took the holiday decorating very seriously each year. It was one of the things that made her duplex bearable. Only, tonight she didn’t feel much of that festive cheer. Weariness weighed down her every step. She couldn’t wait to get home and sit in the silence of her own home with no phone to answer and no one rushing to her for answers on whatever emergency was going on in some far-flung corner of the globe.

  Playing the boss sucked.

  Tiny snowflakes swirled around her. It wasn’t cold enough for the white stuff to stick. As soon as it came into contact with her or the ground it melted, which meant her clothes were damp and she was freezing cold. She wished the weather would make up its mind. Was it going to snow or rain?

  Her phone vibrated with an incoming text. Under normal circumstances she’d ignore it until she got home, but until the first of the year she was running the show in the Seattle office. She didn’t get the luxury of not answering her phone.

  Merida paused there on the sidewalk and pulled her phone out of her pocket.

  The text was from her best friend, Melody, who also worked for Aegis Group.

  Merida’s heart leaped into her throat. Her best friend had gotten involved in some seriously bad jobs over the last year. Merida did her best to play it cool, but every time Melody messaged Merida at odd hours she got scared. She never wanted to get word that Melody was being medically evacuated ever again.

  The message opened up.

  No text.

  Just a picture.

  Of Melody’s shocked face, her almond eyes open wide and her hand covering her mouth.

  Her left hand.

  And there on her ring finger was the rock Grant, Melody’s boyfriend and co-worker, had asked Merida to help pick out months ago.

  Well, it had finally happened.

  Mixed feelings of jealousy and happiness warred inside of her.

  No part of her wanted Grant. If the man were a candy bar, he’d be the bitterest dark chocolate. An acquired taste, but not for Merida.

  Since she’d already stopped her walk home to check the text she tapped out a congratulatory message full of exclamation marks and appropriate emojis. No doubt when the happy couple got back into down Merida would get the full story and she’d be happy to listen. She just wished things between her and Melody hadn’t changed as much as they had in the last few months since her relationship with Grant became public knowledge. Merida hadn’t exactly lost Melody as a friend, but Merida knew she didn’t rate as high as she used to.

  It stung.

  She shoved her phone and frozen hands into her pockets and started walking again.

  Ahead of her, a truck lumbered into view.

  Oh, no...

  It turned into the cul-de-sac, the bright lights momentarily blinding her.

  Watching the truck was her first mistake.

  Her foot slid and she stuck out her arms, wobbling precariously all while mentally cursing her landlord’s name.

  That was her second mistake.

  Never spare a thought for something you can’t control while in a crisis.

  Merida sat down hard there on the pavement, water soaking into her slacks and chilling her skin. Her tailbone ached and her pride stung.

  Her best friend was getting romanced while here she was rolling around in the mud. Life was so fair.

  This was a rotten week. The sooner Christmas was over the quicker her life could get back to normal. What had she been thinking to tell her boss she could hold down the fort while he got to take a real holiday?

  Clearly she
was crazy.

  Merida picked herself up. She didn’t bother brushing the mud or leaves off herself. Instead she stood there and drew in a deep breath.

  Things weren’t that bad. It had just been one of those days. The sooner she got home the sooner she could get out of these wet clothes and do something about her poor attitude. At least she hadn’t hurt anything except her pride in the fall.

  Tonight called for fuzzy pajamas and a movie she could lose herself in. Something that had lots of explosions, no Christmas and no romance.

  She cut through the grass rather than brave the sidewalk. Not that there was much grass. It was mostly mud and in her current condition a little more wasn’t going to hurt anything.

  At the corner of the duplex she paused to peer at the driveway she shared with the other occupant.

  Shit.

  Of course she couldn’t catch a break today.

  The headlights that had surprised her belonged to the one man she just didn’t have it in her to see today.

  Finley MacLeod.

  He made her think of milk chocolate and salted caramel. Sweet with a little surprise, not that many saw that sweet side of his. No, just stalker neighbors like her.

  His dark brown hair still had some of the paler streaks from the summer sun in it, but not for much longer. His pale green eyes always made her think of the outdoors. He wasn’t a man who smiled often, but she’d received more of those than anyone else alive. At least she liked to think so.

  When she’d first moved in, they hadn’t spoken much. Oh, she’d drooled over him. He was her favorite type of man. Gruff and rough around the edges, but under that she knew he was gold. Like caramel. That was something she knew courtesy of another Aegis Group friend who’d hooked her up with this rental in the first place. He’d told her one of his retired Marine friends had the other half of the duplex. Finley had transitioned into civilian life well enough and worked at an auto-body shop owned by another friend of the company.

  Pretty much every connection she had in her civilian life went back to either the Navy or Aegis Group.

  She’d been outside changing her own oil when Finley first spoke to her in something that wasn’t a grunt or monosyllabic. Oh, she’d watched him and fallen for him long before then, but it had taken the oil change for them to connect. And that was the day she’d had to stop drooling over him and treat him like a friend. Along the way he’d become one of her very best friends, something she both cherished and hated. How could she drool over her best friend?

  It wasn’t fair.

  He sat in the driver’s seat of his truck, the door open and looking at something. Probably his phone. He didn’t touch his phone during the day. She’d often laughed at him. During his off-hours he was glued to the damn thing. He had family spread all over the globe and he could spend hours just keeping tabs on all of them.

  That rough exterior of his hid a sweet side. She cringed at the way her stomach flipped and flopped.

  Why did one of the world’s hottest men have to be her next-door neighbor and best friend?

  Most of the time Merida was able to shove her attraction down deep and just enjoy his company, but she was reveling in self-pity tonight. She couldn’t make small talk with him. Not when she was already having to pretend that she was excited Melody was getting engaged.

  He hadn’t glanced up from his phone.

  This was likely her best chance to make it inside without having to talk to him.

  Merida stepped as quickly as she dared through the soggy lawn, focusing on her front door on the off chance Finley saw her.

  Her feet swished and squished through the grass and mud.

  The truck door shut.

  Invisible fingers crept up her back.

  He had to have seen her.

  She shoved her key into her lock and twisted it.

  If she got inside, she could shut the door, come up with a reason to blow him off. Tonight of all nights she just couldn’t share her sofa with him. Not even to hang out in silence. She just wanted a moment to recover.

  Merida kicked her front door shut and sloshed a step before stopping.

  Why were her feet wet inside her house?

  She peered down at the water standing in the entry and her jaw dropped.

  For a moment she could only stare. Her hand lifted to the light switch before stopping. She was standing in water wearing suede boots that wouldn’t protect her if she were electrocuted.

  A wail bubbled up in her throat, but she swallowed it down. Now was not the time to have a moment. Her ship was taking on water, literally, and that had to be fixed.

  Snap out of it, sailor.

  She’d spent her adult life as the right hand to one of the most powerful men in the Navy. She knew how to deal with water and problems. Just because things weren’t going her way didn’t mean she could give up, sit down and cry about it. That would solve nothing, and she knew her landlord wasn’t going to inconvenience himself either.

  Merida trudged into her kitchen, set her things down and began investigating the pipes under the sink and to the fridge.

  Everything was in working order.

  Her stomach sank.

  If it wasn’t the sink or appliances, that only left one thing.

  She opened what should have been a coat closet and stared at her water heater. A fountain of water sprayed the door.

  So much for a hot shower.

  Merida bit her lower lip and kneeled to get a hold on the valve.

  It was such a minor thing, warm showers, and yet she sniffled a little as she fought with the shut-off valve. This wasn’t the end of the world, it was just highly inconvenient.

  Why wasn’t the darn thing turning?

  She bent farther, grit her teeth and gave the thing a twist.

  With a pop the handle to the valve came off and she sat down in the rising water of her entry.

  Merida’s lower lip quivered.

  I’m stronger than this.

  Fat tears still rolled down her cheek.

  Today was not her day. Not at all.

  FINLEY MACLEOD FROWNED at the other front door of the duplex.

  He had just seen Merida. He knew it.

  It wasn’t his imagination.

  She was avoiding him.

  Why?

  He rolled the tree ornament he’d been working on in his hand. At first it had started as a bit of garage boredom. The holidays were a slow time between waiting for parts to come in so he’d been tinkering with various old parts, trying to recycle them into something new when he’d figured out what the spark plugs next life would be.

  It was supposed to be a gift for Merida.

  In the few years they’d been neighbors and friends they’d never traded presents. Surely an ornament he’d made didn’t break that unspoken rule. Did it?

  Finley leaned back in the front seat of his truck and scowled at Merida’s front door.

  He should have asked her out the first time he saw her, before he knew she was his neighbor. If he’d done that, maybe he wouldn’t be trapped in this hell.

  No, being friends with Merida wasn’t hell. It was great to have a friend that wasn’t attached to the garage. She even understood him, what with being in the Navy herself. She never blanched at his language or humor. Most of the time she shared it. He liked how they could sit in perfect silence, not saying or doing much of anything, and be content.

  He just wished he wasn’t attracted to her. Or that there was some way past being friends to being something else. Something more.

  It was one barrier he didn’t know how to overcome. In the beginning it hadn’t been that bad. Sure, he’d thought his neighbor was hot, but it hadn’t stopped his dating life. But then he’d come home to find her under her little hatchback changing the oil and his whole view of her had changed. They’d connected working on his muscle car after he’d learned that she’d grown up with grease monkeys in her family.

  From that day on she’d slowly pulled him further into
her orbit.

  The last date he’d had with another woman was six months ago.

  It had been longer than that since he’d been laid. At least ten months, maybe a year?

  The truth was the only woman he wanted was his best friend. And therein lay the problem.

  She was his friend. She trusted him to be a friend. To try to turn that relationship around and change things after all this time seemed wrong. But he felt the way he felt about her. Trying to change or stop that wasn’t working. So what did he do?

  Maybe he needed to move. Get away from her orbit.

  Just the thought of not popping over with beer or pizza to hang out and watch a movie made his gut churn. Who would look out for her if he wasn’t there?

  Finley snorted.

  If Merida heard him ask that question she’d likely kick his ass. Or try to. She was more than capable of handling herself against an average opponent, but he wasn’t average.

  He tucked the ornament in his pocket and got out of his truck.

  This whole avoiding him had to stop. It had started about a week ago. At first he’d thought it was work. She was the acting boss right now and he knew that came with a lot of responsibility, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that wasn’t all there was behind this. He hadn’t done anything. Sure, he’d thought about doing a few things, but he wouldn’t act on that. Not without some sign from her that was never coming.

  He approached the front door. Most of the time he didn’t need a reason to stop by. Being home was good enough. But lately it seemed like he needed one.

  The splash of water underfoot broke his train of thought. He glanced down and frowned at the water.

  The water coming from under Merida’s front door.

  Fucking landlord. What now?

  He beat on the door with his fist. “Merida?”

  Satisfied he’d announced himself he opened the front door. The porch light glinted off the lake of water covering the laminate flooring of the entry and stretching into the kitchen. Sitting in that water was Merida, phone in one hand and what looked like a hydrant twist knob in the other.

  She stared up at him with wide eyes and tears streaking her cheeks.