Cara Summers - Come Toy with Me

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Cover Page

Title Page Come Toy with Me Cara Summers www.millsandboon.co.uk

About the Author CARA SUMMERS has written more than thirty stories, and this year she has been awarded the Romantic Times BOOKreviews Career Achievement Award for Series Storyteller of the Year. Come Toy with Me is her fifteenth Blaze ® novel, and she’s looking forward to writing many more. Her next project for Blaze will be a twobook WRONG BED mini-series, involving identical twin sisters. Look for it in July 2010. When Cara isn’t writing books, she teaches in the writing programme at Syracuse University.

Dedication To my sister Janet—my biggest fan and supporter. I love you and I wish you all the best as you begin a new chapter in your life. You go, girl!

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

Epilogue

Copyright

CARA SUMMERShas written more than thirty stories, and this year she has been awarded the Romantic Times BOOKreviews Career Achievement Award for Series Storyteller of the Year. Come Toy with Me is her fifteenth Blaze ®novel, and she’s looking forward to writing many more. Her next project for Blaze will be a twobook WRONG BED mini-series, involving identical twin sisters. Look for it in July 2010. When Cara isn’t writing books, she teaches in the writing programme at Syracuse University.

To my sister Janet—my biggest fan and supporter.

I love you and I wish you all the best as you

begin a new chapter in your life.

You go, girl!

“IF YOU HAVE PLANS for Christmas, cancel them.”

Retired Colonel James McGuire fired the order at him the moment Dino Angelis strolled into the office on the top floor of the Merceri Bank Building. Dino took his time walking across the expanse of Oriental carpet as he studied the tall, gruff-spoken man standing behind the carved oak desk.

Admiral Robert Maxwell, Dino’s boss, had described his oldest and dearest friend accurately. James McGuire was a tall, lean man in his early sixties who despite his white hair appeared to be several years younger. McGuire had retired from the army two years previously and married his second wife, Gianna Merceri, who would one day inherit the Merceri banking fortune. Since then he’d worked as a VP for the New York City branch. Though he was wearing an impeccably tailored business suit, the colonel’s bearing and tone of command marked him unmistakably as ex-military.

“Much as I hate to ruin anyone’s holiday, this job may take longer than either one of us would like,” McGuire continued.

Dino sighed inwardly. Okay, so his hunch that he wouldn’t make it home for Christmas had been right. Ninety percent of the time what his family referred to as his premonitions were extremely accurate. They’d saved his life on more than one occasion. But this would make three Christmases in a row he hadn’t been with his family, and his cousin Theo was getting married on December 27th.

Not for the first time, Dino asked himself if there’d been some way of getting out of this assignment that he’d overlooked. But Admiral Maxwell owed Colonel McGuire a favor, and Dino owed his admiral, big-time. For the last two years he’d worked in special operations under Maxwell’s command. Three months ago, he’d been shot on one of his missions. A bullet had come within an inch of his spine. Recuperating in hospitals in Germany and later in D.C. had given him time to reevaluate how he wanted to spend the rest of his life. He’d joined the navy because he loved the sea. He’d wanted adventure and to see the world. Plus, he’d sensed it was what he was supposed to do. Now, he wanted a job that wouldn’t isolate him so completely from his cousins, his uncle and his mother. He missed the closeness, the connectedness he always found with his family. Admiral Maxwell had not only understood his decision, but he’d worked hard to expedite Dino’s discharge, and Dino liked to repay his debts.

So he had committed to do a job that he knew nothing about—except that it involved McGuire’s family. Of course, Maxwell had used that information as part of the bait. He knew that for Dino, family was important, given it was one of the main reasons he wanted out of the navy. McGuire also knew Dino had expressed an interest in getting into some kind of investigative or security work when he returned to civilian life and that this assignment would be a good opportunity to give it a whirl.

To make the job even more tempting, the admiral had even given Dino the business card of an old navy buddy, Jase Campbell, who was now running his own security firm in Manhattan. Dino had done his first two special ops missions for Maxwell with Jase at his side, and they’d found their styles complementary. Jase was a meticulous planner, and Dino was good at improvising and going with his hunches.

McGuire made a stabbing motion with the unlit cigar he held in his hand. “The truth is this problem I want you to solve for me may stretch into the new year.”

Good thing he hadn’t promised his mother that he would make it home. Of course Cass Angelis probably already knew not to expect him. Psychic powers ran strong, especially in the women on his mother’s side of the family. His mother claimed the psychic abilities could be traced back to the Oracle at Delphi, and hers were particularly powerful.

When he’d been a kid, he’d been hard pressed to get away with anything. She’d always known what he was up to. But his own hunches had kept him out of scrapes on more than one occasion. Recalling that, Dino bit back a smile and refocused his attention on the colonel.

“Perhaps you could tell me exactly what kind of a job you’re offering. Admiral Maxwell said that it had something to do with a family problem, but he didn’t offer any details.”

Maxwell had been apologetic about that. He’d explained that his friend McGuire hadn’t been forthcoming. All he’d said was that he’d needed the best man Maxwell could come up with. Dino figured that whether or not he was Maxwell’s “best” man was debatable. What couldn’t be argued was that he was available. With his discharge papers from the navy due to come through within the next month, he’d just been pushing papers for Maxwell at the Pentagon.

Frowning, the colonel gave Dino a brief nod as he set the cigar down on the desk. “A family problem. I suppose that’s one way to describe it. My—”

The intercom on his phone interrupted him and a brisk female voice spoke. “Colonel, your daughter is returning your call. She’s on line three.”

“Thank you, Margie.” As he reached for the phone, McGuire met Dino’s eyes. “I have to take this.”

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Dino glanced around the room, absorbing the details. The wall behind him was made of glass and offered a view of the waiting area—a oneway view that allowed Colonel McGuire to see anyone who stepped into the lobby. He wondered how long the colonel had been studying him while he’d been cooling his heels in the lobby.