Bound to Danger: A Deadly Ops Novel Read Free Page A

taking the job.

Chapter 1
    Soft target: undefended target, such as a person or place that is vulnerable to a military or terrorist attack.
    M aria Cervantes grasped the interior door handle of the SUV limo as her family’s regular driver took what would hopefully be the last sharp turn of the night. Either he’d forgotten how to drive or she was sicker than she’d realized. Every little bump in the road made her afraid she’d puke. After being laid up in bed with flulike symptoms for five days and missing work for a week straight—something she’d never done before—she was positive she’d kicked the nasty stomach bug this morning. Now she wasn’t so sure.
    Nausea roiled in her stomach and she swallowed hard, forcing the sickness back down.
Just a few hours
, she reminded herself. That was all she had to get through, and then she could go back home and pass out.
    As the vehicle straightened and slowed, she peered through the divider. At her request she’d asked the driver to keep the partition down. In case she got so sick he needed to pull over, she didn’t want to waste precious seconds buzzing him. Either way she was clutching oneof the empty silver ice buckets she’d snagged from the minibar in case she didn’t have time to warn him.
    “We’re almost there, Ms. Cervantes.” His voice was ridiculously polite despite the fact that she and Nash had known each other for two years.
    She knew why, though. He was annoyed with her for going to this party when she was sick. “I swear to God if you call me Ms. Cervantes again I’m going to crawl up there and puke on you. We’re the same age, Nash.”
    “Damn it, Maria—”
    She let out a raspy laugh, loving that she’d gotten Nash Larson to curse since it was a rarity. He’d been working for her parents for two years. Before he started working for the Cervantes family, he had done private security work for a year, and for eight years before that he’d been in the Army. Her father, Riel, had needed an outside security company to oversee one of his projects in Mexico two years ago and Nash had been assigned. After witnessing the man at work, her father had snatched Nash away with a hefty pay raise and better benefits. Now he was more or less a personal bodyguard/driver/fix-all man for her parents. While her dad often used Nash when traveling on business as extra security, he hadn’t for his current trip since it was so short.
    Nash let out a growl of frustration as the vehicle slowed to stop. Maria barely paid attention as she heard him talking to one of the security personnel outside the gated mansion where a very exclusive party was going on. She didn’t need to listen, because she knew he was showing offher elegant gold-and-cream-embossed invitation. If it was any other event she would have bailed, but Bayside Community Center, where she worked, needed the donations that would come in from tonight. And there was one potential donor in particular Maria desperately wanted to talk to.
    Maria had grown up with incredibly wealthy parents and they’d taught her to give back. They weren’t exactly happy with her chosen profession, but they supported her career as a counselor. After getting a bachelor’s degree in behavioral psychology and a master’s in counseling, she couldn’t imagine doing anything else. She was also the current acting director since her predecessor had suddenly died a couple of months ago. Until they found a replacement, she was in charge of the center. She’d thought the added responsibility would be overwhelming, but Maria found she liked the challenge.
    Since her parents wouldn’t let her arrive at the Westwood gala driving her Prius, she had a chauffeur. Any other night it would have been annoying, but there was no way she could operate heavy machinery right now. She’d stopped taking her over-the-counter anti-nausea medicine so she wouldn’t be drowsy, but the side effect was that she was now nauseated. She was just impressed