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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. No part of this work may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. Published by Kindle Press, Seattle, 2017 Amazon, the Amazon logo, Kindle Scout, and Kindle Press are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

  To Josh Felker, handgun instructor extraordinaire and former Army Ranger, who helped me bring this book to life. There would be no Phoenix without you. It is often said that writing is a solitary job, but that’s not really true. This book, like so many others I have written, could not have come to life without the love and support of some really great people. You are always there when I need you and support me even when I hit the proverbial wall. So Margie Hager, Kate Richards, Janet Rodman, and Brenna Zinn, and of course my wonderful children—Amy, Steven, and Suzanne—this is for you. And to everyone else, the Belles Femmes Authors, all my wonderful friends in the writing world, and my incredible readers, Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  Contents The Phoenix Agency Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Epilogue About the Author

  The Phoenix Agency They served their country in every branch of the military—Army Delta Force, SEALs, air force, marines. They are pilots, snipers, medics—whatever the job calls for. And now as private citizens they serve in other capacities as private consultants training security for defense contractors, as black ops combatants eradicating drug dealers, as trained operatives ferreting out traitors. Along with the women in their lives, each of whom have a unique psychic ability, they are a force to be reckoned with. Risen from the ashes of war, they continue to fight the battle on all fronts. They are Phoenix.

  Prologue Present day In the quiet of the morning, Cole Martin sat astride his big Appaloosa, shielded by a heavy copse of trees. With him were a couple of men from The Phoenix Agency, two of his own men, and Phoenix Agency partner Rick Latrobe. They all sat on their horses as quietly as Cole did. All the men were experienced horsemen, who knew how to move with stealth and take down tangos. Additionally, in the military they specialized in hostage-and-kidnap rescue, which was why cole had chosen them. All eyes were fixed on the cabin deep in the woods where someone was holding J. L. Mitchell captive. Cole had to reach for sniper mode, forcing himself to breathe evenly and blanking everything from his mind except the task at hand. He wouldn’t do JL any good if he couldn’t keep his shit together. He’d done it for people he barely knew; now he needed to do it for the most important person in his life. He had promised her, this woman who owned his heart, that he would keep her safe from tho

  Chapter One Three months earlier J. L. Mitchell took a nervous sip of her drink and looked around at the people relaxing on the large patio. This dinner at Dan and Mia Romeo’s house in San Antonio was to celebrate Cole’s agreement to join the Phoenix Agency as a partner. Rarely were all the original partners available in one place at the same time, unless on a critical mission. But tonight they had gathered to meet him and JL. Five archetypal alpha males—the partners in the Phoenix Agency—and their extraordinary wives. She was impressed with the effort the women as well as the men made to make them feel comfortable and part of the group. Cole had given her the whole scoop on the agency. After building their reputation slowly, Phoenix was now known for providing security and training in the private sector, and for executing ops for the government that had to fly way, way below the radar. JL had heard the details of their hostage rescue of Kat D’Antoni’s sister and the people she worked

  Chapter Two JL was unexpectedly quiet on the drive home. Cole expected her to be peppering him with questions since she’d met everyone, but she seemed lost in her own thoughts. He also wanted to ask her about the little bombshell she’d dropped into the conversation, the psychic gift she’d never mentioned to him. He wondered why she didn’t bring it up. Did she think him angry? Upset? He really wanted to tell her he was excited about it. Suggest she should fully explore her ability. Maybe even work with the Psi Department at Phoenix. He turned on the radio, leaving the volume low, just to fill the SUV with some kind of sound. Her silence made him uneasy. Finally he couldn’t stand it anymore. “Did you feel uncomfortable tonight? Are you thinking maybe this is something I shouldn’t do? Your thoughts are really important to me.” “What?” She cleared her throat. “Oh no. I’m sorry if I gave you that impression, Cole. I loved everyone. They were really great. And they certainly are excited to h

  Chapter Three Damon Horner sat behind his massive desk in the chair specially built to fit his oversize personality perfectly. From here, he conducted all the business of Horner International. He was an imposing figure, tall and thickly muscled, with iron-gray hair, icy-blue eyes, and a fuck-you look permanently etched on his face. The oak gloss of the desk was disturbed only by a stack of files and a picture of his fourth wife, Angelica. Twenty years his junior, she was of all his wives the one who came closest to him in a hunger for ever-increasing success. Smart, savvy, and able to hold her own in any environment, she was also the first of his wives he felt true affection for. And respect. As his staunchest supporter in his continued crusade for more and more acquisitions, she might actually be his secret weapon in his latest stumbling block. Two walls of his corner office consisted of floor-to-ceiling windows offering him an unobstructed view of downtown San Antonio and many of its

  Chapter Four JL settled herself in the passenger seat and slid a sideways glance at Cole. “How was your lunch meeting today?” “Actually, it went real well.” He pulled out into the flow of traffic. “I’ll have to thank Jace for the recommendation.” “Jace?” “Jace Whitney. Former Border Patrol. I recruited him for my team, and he suggested this other guy, Mitch Parker.” “Tell me about him,” JL urged. “In a nutshell, I need a helicopter pilot, and Mitch has all the right creds.” Cole turned off the highway onto a two-lane country road. “He flew with Naval Special Warfare, and they don’t come much better than that.” “What’s he been doing since then?” she asked. “Working for a private flying service. Said he thought about training for Search and Rescue, but this is more what he wants. He can come on as a full-time agent, with use of his piloting skills being the first priority.” “And you like him?” “I do. And since he and Jace already know each other, it makes for a good blend.” He’d told her

  Chapter Five Cole was already up, showered, and wearing nothing but jeans when JL made her way into the kitchen in the morning. She wore one of his T-shirts, hanging halfway down her thighs, her sun-streaked blonde hair a tangled fall of gold, eyes the blue of a summer sky and still heavy-lidded from sleep. He got out a mug and filled it for her from the machine, and she took it with a grateful smile. “We slept late,” she pointed out. He nodded. “We did.” A tiny smile tweaked the corners of her mouth. “Someone wore me out last night.” “Someone got a little worn out himself.” He chuckled. “I know you must be chomping at the bit to get to the lab. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll run you in.” She glanced at the clock on the stove. “I texted Miles when I got up. He’s already there, as usual. Lordy, the kid must never sleep. Anyway, I told him what I needed him to do before I got there, so he’s good to go for the moment.” “He certainly seems eager,” Cole commented and took a sip of coffee. “He

  Chapter Six “Looking good.” Dan Romeo stood with his hands in the po
ckets of his jeans, surveying the interior of the huge steel building. “We’re about done with this area.” Cole pointed to the electronics setup at one end. “They have a little left on the security system here. The entire perimeter is lined with sensors, the concertina’s electrified, and we have electronic eyes—a lot of the same stuff you’re installing at the lab. When they finish here, they’ll move to the setup at the house. Once that’s done, we can test everything out.” “I saw the piles of paving materials out there ready for the workmen. You getting ready to put in the runway?” Cole nodded. “By the end of next week, all the work inside and out for this part of the project will be done, and we’ll be fully operational. All that’s left is to set up the firing range.” “You’ve got the perfect setup for that, too,” Dan commented. “All that land you said is unusable for cattle.” “Yeah. When my grandfather bought all this ac

  Chapter Seven Cole stripped off his shirt and tossed it in the hamper in his closet. He’d already removed his boots and socks. Today had been productive. The hangar stood ready for the new helo, and Abe was adjusting to his new situation. Once the security system had been installed and tested at the lab, he’d felt easier about JL being there every day. The danger still lurked out there—he could feel it—but he was taking every possible precaution to keep her safe. But it was time to put all that aside for a moment and focus just on the two of them. Tonight, he planned to take both of their minds off everything except right now. When the two of them reconnected months ago, he wasn’t looking for anything more than a nice but casual relationship. Still restless after two tours in Afghanistan and trying to settle in at the ranch, he hadn’t exactly figured out his future. Then he ran into JL, and as their relationship grew and developed, his life seemed to settle around him. She centered him

  Chapter Eight Cassandra Grigsby lifted her gaze as Gene Dempsey walked into her office. “Lock the door.” He raised an eyebrow but did as she asked before settling in one of the chairs in front of her desk. He watched while she pressed the intercom button. “Hold my calls, Stacey. I’ll be in a meeting for a while.” She turned to Gene. “I read what you emailed me. Do we have a tiger by the tail here?” “That remains to be seen. But I can tell you these aren’t the kind of people you want to mess around with.” She pulled up his email on her computer, as irritated now as when she’d first read it. It seemed they no longer dealt with a little scientist who might possibly be tempted by a big payday or easily pushed around. What she had in her corner was more formidable than a private army. “The Phoenix Agency,” she mused. “They sound like something in covert ops.” “They could be,” Gene told her. “The partners are all former military.” “So what on earth are they doing in Clayton? Surely Grant Sum

  Chapter Nine Thiago stared at the cell phone in his hand, frowning. Five days ago, he had arrived in San Antonio after a long flight, checked into his hotel room, ordered some food, and taken time to organize his thoughts. He’d given himself a couple of hours for a power nap, then called two of the men he planned to meet with. The time since then had been only marginally fruitful—ranch tours, dinners, cordial meetings. But over drinks he had been able to introduce the subject of the lab again, and fortunately alcohol loosened tongues. He had learned one important thing: security at the lab had been stepped up in his absence. “The wife and I were in town a couple of Saturdays ago,” one of the men had told him, “and saw a bunch of activity at the building. Stuff mounted on the roof I promise you are cameras, even though they have them camouflaged. Men carrying equipment in. And Cole Martin and another lethal-looking guy supervising every bit of it. He sure hangs out with some strange peo

  Chapter Ten “I don’t know whether I could have handled another lunch like these.” JL leaned back in the passenger’s seat of Cole’s truck and rubbed her temples. “I think I have a permanent headache.” The lunch with Damon Horner had been the final one for the week. For JL, each meeting had been more stressful than the previous one. “These people are bloodsuckers,” she groaned. “They want it all, and they don’t care how they get it.” “What kind of reading did you get from Horner?” Cole pulled onto the interstate to head for Clayton. “Blacker than the other two combined.” She uncapped the bottle of water Cole had placed in the cup holder for her and took a long swallow. “Cassandra Grigsby and Thiago Cervantes had other colors at the edges of their electric fields. I wanted to wait until we’d met with all three before giving you my final analysis.” “Okay. I can understand that. So what did you see?” “Cassandra Grigsby has a faint tinge of red bleeding off the edges. People with a lot of re

  Chapter Eleven Cole lay in bed, JL nestled against him, both of them basking in the warm afterglow of some extremely erotic and outstanding sex. After their interlude at the B&B, she had thrown herself back into her work, determined to block out everything to do with people after her formula and speed up the results. When Cole wasn’t with her, one of the men living in Clayton stuck to her like glue, but Cole always took her home. The past two nights it had been to his house, a habit she was finding it hard to break. Tonight, he’d brought sandwiches to the lab when she wouldn’t leave to eat. Then he’d coaxed her out of there, at last insisting she take a break, and once again had taken her mind off the situation in the way he did best. The ringing of the phone created an unwelcome intrusion, startling them out of the period just before sleep. “I may have to kill whoever this is,” Cole grumbled. “I might be right there with you,” she sighed. He groaned as he eased his arm out from beneat

  Chapter Twelve The present JL watched the men sitting around Cole’s dining room table. All the partners except Rick Latrobe had choppered in for this meeting, bringing with them the results of the week’s investigation. She wondered how she’d ever be able to repay all of them for what they’d done. Vestiges of her ordeal still clung to the edges of her life. Even though she slept securely in Cole’s arms every night, the nightmares still intruded, waking her and causing fear to slice through her. She could still hear the grinding, screaming sound of metal on metal from when the huge garbage truck smashed into them. Still feel the impact of the double collision as it shoved them into the trail car. Still hear the sound of breaking glass, feel the pinch of the tranq dart in her neck, and then the nauseating fall into darkness. The hours in that cabin, the shock of finding a fully outfitted lab and assistants who had been paid huge sums to assist her, and the fear of the guards with their om

  Epilogue JL pushed back from the table and ran her fingers through her hair. “I think I’ve looked over these plans so many times all the drawings seem the same. When Grant signs off on them, you should be ready to start building.” Cole set a mug of fresh tea in front of her. “We want to be sure everything you need is included.” “Are you sure about all this? It’s a huge expense.” No lie. After all the disasters, and the awareness the formula could continue to be a target for greedy people, she had agreed to have a facility built on Cole’s property near the Lone Star Phoenix site. “We salvaged most of the equipment from the lab,” he reminded her. “Horner wasn’t interested in any of that because he’d outfitted his own. This won’t be the last project you work on, and all of them may require security in some form or other. It’s a win/win situation.” “I do like your idea about taking half an acre in the corner of that area to plant the test seeds.” He nodded and dropped into the chair across

  Other romantic suspense by Desiree Holt: The Phoenix Agency Jungle Inferno Extrasensory Scent of Danger Freeze Frame (Preorder August 2017) Feel the Heat (Preorder August 2017) Vigilance Hide and Seek (Available October 2017) Without Warning (Available 2018) Hostage (Available 2018) Strike Force Unconditional Surrender Lock and Load (Available November 2017) Retreat to the Rear (Available 2018) Take No Quarter (Available 2018) Corporate Heat Where Danger Hides Double Deception (Available Fall 2017) Book #3 (Available 2018) Book #4 (Available 2018)

  About the Author USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Desiree Holt writes everything from romantic suspense and
paranormal romance to erotic romance, a genre in which she is the oldest living author. She has been referred to by USA Today as “the Nora Roberts of erotic romance,” and is a winner of the EPIC E-Book Award and the Holt Medallion, as well as a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice nominee. She is a USA Today bestselling author, has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, and profiled in the Village Voice, The Daily Beast, USA Today, the (London) Daily Mail, the New Delhi Times, and numerous other national and international publications. Desiree Holt has produced more than two hundred titles in nearly every subgenre of romance fiction. Her stories are enriched by her personal experiences, her characters by the people she meets. After fifteen years in the great state of Texas, she relocated back to Florida to be closer to members of her family and a large collection of frien

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  No part of this work may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Kindle Press, Seattle, 2017

  Amazon, the Amazon logo, Kindle Scout, and Kindle Press are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

  To Josh Felker, handgun instructor extraordinaire and former Army Ranger, who helped me bring this book to life. There would be no Phoenix without you.

  It is often said that writing is a solitary job, but that’s not really true. This book, like so many others I have written, could not have come to life without the love and support of some really great people. You are always there when I need you and support me even when I hit the proverbial wall. So Margie Hager, Kate Richards, Janet Rodman, and Brenna Zinn, and of course my wonderful children—Amy, Steven, and Suzanne—this is for you. And to everyone else, the Belles Femmes Authors, all my wonderful friends in the writing world, and my incredible readers,