HelenKay Dimon - The Big Guns

His orders were getting a bit out of hand, but she let it pass. He’d killed for her. When a guy took that step, you cut him some slack.

“I’m not getting into bed before I wash the dirt and blood and heaven only knows what else off me.”

His gaze wandered all over her, and the skin under his heated gaze tingled. “What about you? You can have half of the bed.”

“No. It’s not a good idea.”

“I was only talking about getting some rest. Nothing else.”

“You know, you’re a very attractive woman, Sela.”

“One with her own mind. I know who I’m attracted to and who I’m not.”

“And what type of guy are you attracted to?”

She debated playing it safe, then thought about how close she’d come to death over the last twenty-four hours, and skipped right over the games to the truth.

“You.”

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To Jill Shalvis for being a terrific conference roommate,

enthusiastic first reader and great friend.

Award-winning author HelenKay Dimon spent twelve years in the most unromantic career ever—divorce lawyer. After dedicating all that effort to helping people terminate relationships, she is thrilled to deal in happy endings and write romance novels for a living. Now her days are filled with gardening, writing, reading and spending time with her family in and around San Diego. HelenKay loves hearing from readers, so stop by her website at www.helenkaydimon.com and say hello.

Zach Bachman —This explosives and demolitions agent isn’t ready to give up. While the rest of the Recovery Project team switches to wait-and-see mode, Zach launches his own investigation into corruption in the Witness Security Program…and ends up in the middle of a kidnapping.

Sela Andrews —She is just trying to earn a living. She finally has a decent job and a safe place to live. It all seems perfect until she gets hit in the head and wakes up to see Zach in front of her. The question is whether he’s there to hurt her or to help.

Trevor Walters —He’s a powerful man with few weaknesses but his assistant Sela is one of them. When she’s taken he has to turn for help in the most unexpected place…but whether he can be trusted remains a question.

Rod Lehman —He worked as a handler in the Witness Security Program and retired to set up the Recovery Project. He’s a guy accustomed to finding people but now he’s the one who’s missing. His team worries he’s dead, but there are rumors he might be at the center of the murder conspiracy.

Vince Ritter —He is Rod’s former partner and a consultant to the Recovery Project…but no one on the team can tell which side he’s really on.

Luke Hathaway —As the interim head of the Recovery Project all the pressure is on him. He has to watch over Zach as he rescues the girl, protect the team and find the bad guy. Failing is not an option.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Sela Andrews was five minutes away from walking into an ambush. Slumped down in his Jeep on the street outside her apartment, Zach Bachman watched the setup unfold.

The small split-screen monitor on his watch showed Sela approaching the elevator on the floor five stories above.

That wasn’t the problem, except for how clueless she appeared to be to the danger around her. The other shot centered on the building’s underground garage. There, in stall seventeen, not far from where Zach sat, a man fiddled with something under the hood of her car.

And not just any man. A guy dressed in black, his gaze skipping around the garage as if looking for witnesses. He’d even taken the time to disable the security camera. He just didn’t know he’d missed one—Zach’s.

Thanks to this development, Zach knew he had to break his word. When he’d convinced Adam Wright, his fellow Recovery Project agent, to tap into the cameras in Sela’s building, Zach promised to watch but not get involved. That wasn’t possible now. He pressed the green button on the bottom of his watch and sent Adam an emergency pulse. Just in case.

That left Sela. Going through the garage door was the faster route to cutting her off, but also the most likely to give away his position and get shot. Not his favorite activity, certainly not at this painfully early time of day. No, he had to do this the long and hard way.

Out of the car, he hit the building’s lobby at a run, stopping only to use the master key Adam had made for just this type of problem. Zach’s sneakers squeaked against the tile floor as he crossed in front of the elevator bank. He knew the schematics without thinking and headed for the emergency stairwell in the back corner.

As he raced down the stairs two at a time to the underground garage, his palm slid against the metal railing. The stale hot air of the enclosed space filled his lungs, but he didn’t stop. As they passed, he ignored the man stumbling up the stairs from what looked like a hard night of drinking. None of that mattered because Zach had to get there before she did.

He hit the landing, stopping only when momentum slammed his shoulder against the stairwell door. His breathing stayed steady and strong, a testament to his former military career and good conditioning.

He pressed his hand against the door and waited for the ding of the elevator bell to signal Sela’s entry into the garage.

Only silence greeted him.

The door creaked as he pulled it open and peered into the dark garage through the tiny slit. Nothing. Too much nothing. Everything was quiet.

No squealing tires. No engines running. At just after four in the morning on a summer weekend, no one else was in the garage. Not even a security guard. That might be usual for some parts of the country, but not for a city. This area of D.C. buzzed with some level of activity most of the time, but not this morning.

The emergency cones set up at the garage’s entrance likely played a role in that. Looked like this guy had thought of everything to give him the precious time needed to get to Sela. The real concern centered on the guy knowing Sela would be on the move in the early-morning hours on a Sunday. Zach had watched her for weeks and hadn’t anticipated her going out now. But this guy knew.

Not wanting to be too many steps behind, Zach slipped into the garage, keeping his back flat against the concrete wall. With one hand he caught the door before it slammed shut behind him. With the other he reached for the gun tucked into the holder on his hip.

Then he saw it. Behind a row of cars, something flashed. Possibly nothing, but just as likely a reflection of the attacker from all the metal overhead. It gave Zach a place to focus.