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By Lexi Blake
A Masters and Mercenaries Novel
Foreword by Rebecca Zanetti
Close Cover
A Masters and Mercenaries Novel
Copyright 2018 Lexi Blake
ISBN: 978-1-945920-85-1
Foreword copyright Rebecca Zanetti 2018
Published by Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.
Book Description
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by Lexi Blake
Remy Guidry doesn’t do relationships. He tried the marriage thing once, back in Louisiana, and learned the hard way that all he really needs in life is a cold beer, some good friends, and the occasional hookup. His job as a bodyguard with McKay-Taggart gives him purpose and lovely perks, like access to Sanctum. The last thing he needs in his life is a woman with stars in her eyes and babies in her future.
Lisa Daley’s life is finally going in the right direction. She has finally graduated from college after years of putting herself through school. She’s got a new job at an accounting firm and she’s finished her Sanctum training. Finally on her own and having fun, her life seems pretty perfect. Except she’s lonely and the one man she wants won’t give her a second look.
There is one other little glitch. Apparently, her new firm is really a front for the mob and now they want her dead. Assassins can really ruin a fun girls’ night out. Suddenly strapped to the very same six-foot-five-inch hunk of a bodyguard who makes her heart pound, Lisa can’t decide if this situation is a blessing or a curse.
As the mob closes in, Remy takes his tempting new charge back to the safest place he knows—his home in the bayou. Surrounded by his past, he can’t help wondering if Lisa is his future. To answer that question, he just has to keep her alive.
About Lexi Blake
Lexi Blake is the author of contemporary and urban fantasy romance. She started publishing in 2011 and has gone on to sell over two million copies of her books. Her books have appeared twenty-six times on the USA Today, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. She lives in North Texas with her husband, kids, and two rescue dogs.
Connect with Lexi online:
Facebook: Lexi Blake
Twitter: authorlexiblake
Sign up for Lexi's free newsletter here.
Also from Lexi Blake
Masters And Mercenaries
The Dom Who Loved Me
The Men With The Golden Cuffs
A Dom Is Forever
On Her Master’s Secret Service
Sanctum: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
Love and Let Die
Unconditional: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
Dungeon Royale
Dungeon Games: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
A View to a Thrill
Cherished: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
You Only Love Twice
Luscious: Masters and Mercenaries~Topped
Adored: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
Master No
Just One Taste: Masters and Mercenaries~Topped 2
From Sanctum with Love
Devoted: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
Dominance Never Dies
Submission is Not Enough
Master Bits and Mercenary Bites~The Secret Recipes of Topped
Perfectly Paired: Masters and Mercenaries~Topped 3
For His Eyes Only
Arranged: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
Love Another Day
At Your Service: Masters and Mercenaries~Topped 4
Master Bits and Mercenary Bites~Girls Night
Nobody Does It Better
Close Cover
Protected, Coming July 31, 2018
Masters and Mercenaries: The Forgotten
Momento Mori, Coming August 28, 2018
Lawless
Ruthless
Satisfaction
Revenge
Courting Justice
Order of Protection, Coming June 5, 2018
Masters Of Ménage (by Shayla Black and Lexi Blake)
Their Virgin Captive
Their Virgin’s Secret
Their Virgin Concubine
Their Virgin Princess
Their Virgin Hostage
Their Virgin Secretary
Their Virgin Mistress
The Perfect Gentlemen (by Shayla Black and Lexi Blake
Scandal Never Sleeps
Seduction in Session
Big Easy Temptation
Smoke and Sin
At the Pleasure of the President, Coming Fall 2018
URBAN FANTASY
Thieves
Steal the Light
Steal the Day
Steal the Moon
Steal the Sun
Steal the Night
Ripper
Addict
Sleeper
Outcast, Coming 2018
LEXI BLAKE WRITING AS SOPHIE OAK
Small Town Siren
Siren in the City
Away From Me
Three to Ride
Siren Enslaved, Coming April 24, 2018
Two to Love, Coming Spring 2018
Foreword from Rebecca Zanetti
Dear Reader,
I think one of the nicest things Lexi Blake has ever said to me was, “I think you could be Charlotte Taggart. Your cardigans are just a prop.” Since this happened after I’d chased Lexi around a book signing wearing a clown outfit (I was in the wig, not Lexi), I had to take this as genuine and incredibly kind. Charlotte, like the heroines in the Masters and Mercenaries series, is tough, authentic, and smart. I mean, who else would use a nail gun against terrorists and win? Plus, and this is a huge-assed plus in a world of plusses, Charlotte has Ian. I mean Ian Taggart! He’s one of those sexy, snarky, brilliant characters who becomes the glue in a series and the guy you can’t ever forget—nor would you want to.
As it turns out, I’m not the only reader obsessed with this series. Or the only author. Lexi has created a crossover opportunity for several awesome authors (you’re probably already fans of them and I know I am), and how fun is that? Crossing these mercenaries into the Demonica Underworld is just fascinating and creates an amazing escape from reality for a while. All of the crossover authors have such terrific worlds set up to combine. Adding two worlds together and letting authors go wild with their imaginations is terrific fun for us. I’m sure it’ll be a wonderful adventure for readers as well.
I’m excited to read all of the crossover books, and I know that you will enjoy your adventures in those worlds as well.
Happy Reading!
Rebecca Zanetti
Available now! Click to purchase.
Close Cover by Lexi Blake
Her Guardian Angel by Larissa Ione
Justify Me by Julie Kenner
Say You Won’t Let Go by Corinne Michaels
His to Protect by Carly Phillips
Rescuing Sadie by Susan Stoker
Acknowledgments from the Author
This is a project I’ve had in my head for years. You see I started out in comic books and fantasy and science fiction. At heart I’m a true geek, and one of the things a geek loves is when worlds collide. They do it in comics all the time. Batman vs. Superman. The Avengers is the perfect crossover.
There are several ways to do this in the book world. I could have written in another author’s world, but I wanted something more interactive. Something we as romance authors haven’t done before. I wanted to get five or six of the best in the business together, form a plan, and roll out the characters before the audience even knew what we were doing. This was a crazy idea that would play out over the course of a year and a half and required a lot of work and a huge leap of faith.
I still have trouble believing these amazing authors said yes to me. Carly Phillips is a legend. Corinne Michaels is the brilliant new star. Susan Stoker can’t write a book that doesn’t succeed wildly. J. Kenner has the kind of career we all aspire to. And Larissa Ione writes the best paranormal around. I don’t know why you said yes to me, ladies, but I’m so glad you did.
There was only one publishing house for this project and that was Evil Eye. I can’t thank Liz Berry and MJ Rose enough for building a house where artists can bring their big ideas and know we’re safe in your hands. Thanks to the entire crew at Evil Eye—Kim, Fedora, Kasi, Jessica, Asha, and Dylan. (I gave birth to the last one. Proud of you, baby boy!)
But this one is for the fans. I hope you enjoy this crazy crossover and maybe find some new writers to love!
Lexi
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Table of Contents
Book Description
About Lexi Blake
Also by Lexi Blake
Foreword by Rebecca Zanetti
Author Acknowledgments
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
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
Discover the Lexi Blake Crossover Collection
Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights
Protected by Lexi Blake, Coming Soon
Momento Mori by Lexi Blake, Coming Soon
Special Thanks
Prologue
The light in his face blocked out the view of the man interrogating him. Remy blinked in the glare and sighed. He should have known this wouldn’t go the way he’d hoped it would. He’d come back to Dallas as a courtesy and now he had to worry that maybe he wouldn’t make it out of this office again.
He should have filed his report and run the other way, but the truth was this had been his team and it was in ruins now. Well, what some would call ruins. They had been a fully cohesive unit and then the last few weeks had played out the way they had and their ranks had been decimated.
One by one they’d fallen…
The team he’d known so well these last few years was gone and it wouldn’t be the same again.
“I want to know what happened,” a deep voice said.
Remy sat back. He wasn’t about to let that bastard know for a second that he was mildly intimidated. Besides, after everything that had happened in the past few weeks, the asshole probably had a right to take a chunk out of his hide. “It’s all in my report.”
There was the sound of shuffling and then his report slid across the desk and bounced into his lap.
“You mean this? This tells me nothing.”
“It tells you everything you need to know about what happened in Papillon. I’ve documented everything thoroughly, including all the bloody parts and where I buried the bodies in case you need them for anything. Of course, given where I was at the time, those bodies might not last long. The bayou tends to take everything it can from a man if he’s not moving. Sometimes even when he is.”
As his brother had learned. God, he hoped his brother forgave him one day. Of everything that had happened in Louisiana, his brother’s pain was the one thing he truly regretted.
Remy picked up the report he’d submitted only last week when he’d done all his exit paperwork. He thought he’d been extremely thorough in his mission report. His final report.
“Tell me what else you need from me, Tag.”
It was his last report because he wouldn’t be back here again. Not to work. After what had happened that wasn’t possible. He was needed somewhere else.
Of course, given the fact that this dramatic interrogation scene was how Ian Taggart handled his exit interviews, maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to change careers.
He suspected the real problem was so damn many of them were doing the exact same thing. If it had only been him, Taggart would have crowned a new head of the personal security division, tried like hell to not give the sucker a raise, and gone about his business.
But that wasn’t what had happened. Over the course of a few brief weeks, each man on the team had taken a case that had changed his life. And it couldn’t help that Ian’s own niece, Sadie, had left the company, too.
“I need answers. This was your team. How did they fall like a line of dominoes? Was it something in the water? Do you think the Agency did something to the team? We’re still not on good terms. This would be a good way to fuck with me.” The light winked out and Taggart stood up after pressing the button that opened the curtains. “Damn it, Guidry. I want to know what happened.”
“It’s complex and the truth is I can only tell you my side of it. We’ve all been through some crazy stuff in the last couple of weeks. You’ll have to get the rest of the stories from Declan, Riley, Shane, Wade, and Sadie.” It had been a busy few weeks. The truth was he was still reeling from all the changes, too. He thought about the last time the whole team had been together. It had been the night it all started for him. He’d thought he would be the only one leaving, but fate had different ideas. He was happy for that last night together. The next day was when their roads had split, taking them each in separate directions. He hoped it wasn’t forever because he would miss those bastards.
Taggart turned on him. This afternoon the big boss was wearing slacks and a button-down shirt. Remy had rarely seen him in a suit. Taggart was far more comfortable in fatigues, even all these years after he’d left the military. Of course sometimes Remy wondered if Big Tag had really left the Army or merely started his own. “Do you understand the chaos I have to deal with?”
“You’ve known I was going to leave for a long time,” he replied softly, because he did understand the last month had been hard on Taggart. The man hated change and he’d had a ton of it. “I let you know I was buying my family business back last year.”
“I didn’t realize you were going to spark a revolution,” Tag shot back. “Look at what’s happened. Declan gone. He’s run off after some chick who can cook, and I think she put some crazy ideas in his head. Sadie’s traded us in for some group of misfits at Fort Hood. Just good-bye, Uncle Ian. Gotta go break up some criminals, run from a crazy stalker, and find true love. Riley quit via text because he can’t leave his lady love in LA. I built this division from scratch over years, finding the absolute best and brightest.”
“You call us the full douche when we’re all together,” Remy pointed out.
Taggart waved that off. “An affectionate term. I built this all up and it fell apart over the course of a month. Of course I want to know what happened. I’m left with Shane, who smiles too much now. Does he honestly think smiling is going to stop a bullet? I get it. He’s getting laid regularly by his very own smarty pants, but the happy thing is getting to me. And on the other end of the spectrum there’s Wade. He got left out of the grand exit. He spent too much time with that country-western singer. He acts like he’s in one of those songs. You know the ones I’m talking about. Someone cheats and drinks and someone’s dog dies. What I’m saying is, Wade mopes. A lot. Now, personally I think moping will play way better on the bullet front, but it’s annoying. This was a great team. I fed you all. I watered you. What did I do wrong?”
Oh, he was going to miss that jerk. He found himself smiling because apparently the team’s happiness and joy was cause for Big Tag’s fit. “You want to know the true story, Tag? At least my story. Like I said, you’ll have to ask the others.”
“At least let me understand one of you.”
He leaned forward. “I’m going to warn you, it’s got some parts you might not like. There’s kissing in this story. And I do a small amount of groveling.”
“You can skip those parts. Get to the bloody parts. Did anyone get eaten by a gator? That happened to Alex once. Not him, but to some bad people chasing him. I always miss the gator attacks.” He frowned. “And I don’t like any of this. I hate hiring people. It means I have to talk to them and I fucking hate talking to new people. Everything is changing and I don’t like that either. I want to know who to blame. How the hell did this nightmare start?”
Remy sat back, ready to begin his tale. “Well, boss, like almost all really good stories, it started with a woman…”
Chapter One
Dallas, TX
One month earlier
Remy Guidry sat back in the comfortable chair he’d claimed only moments ago in the main conference room of McKay-Taggart. He wasn’t sure why they were having this very normal weekly briefing in the main office instead of their man cave, but when the big guy called, he moved his team into place—whether that meant moving them into sniper positions or hauling them up a floor and making sure they weren’t in work-out clothes.
His team. It was weird to think of them that way and to think about a potential future where they weren’t around. He would miss them. He hadn’t expected that when he’d taken the job a few years ago. He’d merely planned to use this time to his betterment. McKay-Taggart paid well and he didn’t spend much. He’d figured a few years of putting his body on the line and he could buy his cousin’s bar back in Papillon. It was a piece-of-shit nothing hole-in-the-wall, but once it had been Remy’s whole damn world, that bar. He’d grown up watching his pop-pop mix drinks and sell bait out the back. He would sit on that dock and watch the boats go by and wonder when it would be him on that boat, heading out.
Now all he wanted to do was go home.
Except he’d been surprised to find a group of friends here. He hadn’t meant to make them. They’d been like barnacles, slow growing and when not cut off, somehow becoming a part of him.
“Any idea why we’re here?” Declan asked, sitting his massive frame in one of the chairs. “New assignments?”
Declan was one of those barnacles. Remy was pretty sure the ex-Air Force pararescue hadn’t meant to find a bunch of brothers either. Of all Remy’s men, Dec was the most secretive, the one he worried about. There was something…almost unworldly about the man. Like the stories his mom-mom would tell about the old ones still walking the earth. He came from a pretty crazy bunch of people, but Declan sometimes made him wonder if his mom-mom hadn’t been right. “Big Tag sent me a nice note stating the whole group needed to be here at ten and ready for a meeting.”
Riley Blade and Shane Landon strode in, both looking tan and fit from their time in LA. Dec had been on assignment with them, but somehow he’d managed to come back without a tan. Apparently when he hadn’t been watching over superstar Joshua Hunt and getting his ass shot at, he’d stayed in his room, avoiding the beauty of Malibu.
“Nice note? Then it wasn’t Tag, this is a trap, and we’re all about to be brutally murdered,” Riley said.
“What did it actually say?” Shane asked with a sort of detached curiosity.
“It said get the full douche down to the real world because I can’t take clients into that sweat-soaked man cave you call an office. And dress like men.” That was the boss.
Wade strode in, his boots ringing along the hardwood floors. “How exactly do we not dress like men, and I take offense to the group of us being described as a douche. What the hell does he mean by that?”
“It’s like a gaggle of geese,” Shane offered. “Or a pack of wolves.”
“Or a murder of crows,” Declan continued, his eyes dark. “Which is what I think about doing to Tag every time he calls us the full douche. I’m not a douche. Blade’s a douche, but I’m not.”
Riley sent Dec his happy middle finger. “Fuck you and your sad-sack jeans. Did anyone tell you the nineties are over?”
Sometimes they were a bit like bickering siblings, their camaraderie manifesting itself in manly insults and the rare but always fun blowup that resulted in wagering, someone getting his ass kicked, and then beers all around. Big Tag was an asshole, but he understood his employees. When he’d given the bodyguards their own office, he’d installed both a gym and a fridge that he’d filled with beer.
It wasn’t the worst way to live, though sometimes it felt like he’d never actually left the military.
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