Hot Ice (A Hostile Operations Team Novel - Book 7) Read Free Page A

it from happening when it came right down to it.
    “Is there a connection between her father and the assault? Or her research and the assault?”
    Mendez lifted both eyebrows as if he was surprised Garrett had gotten that far on his own. Jesus, he was really going to have to stop being such a moody dick and start acting like he had a brain. Fighting with middies wasn’t helping him impress his commanding officer in the brain department, that was for sure.
    “Good questions. No one knows the answer to that. Yet. But the senator has… requested protection for his daughter, especially since she’s due to make a speech at a WHO conference in Rome next week.”
    “Wise of him.”
    “This is where you come in, Ice.”
    Garrett blinked. “Me?”
    He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like this. At all.
    Mendez’s gaze slid between Garrett and his team leader. “HOT’s missions have changed as we’ve gone deep black. We have money and access we didn’t have before. We also have a reputation—and there are certain members of Congress who have been made aware of our existence, because without them we have no funding. Senator Campbell is one of these men. He has personally requested HOT to provide protection for his daughter.”
    “Sir, wouldn’t the Secret Service be better suited for the task?”
    “The senator doesn’t think so. He wants us. And I am in no position to refuse.” Mendez straightened and walked over to the window. “Nor do I want to. There’s something going on over there”—he was looking west, toward DC—“and I’d really like to know what it is.”
    He turned back to them.
    “Ian Black disappeared without a trace. And he shouldn’t have. We should have been able to track him at the very least. But we couldn’t. Explain that one.”
    Garrett didn’t say a word. Neither did Richie. The colonel was talking about the mercenary they’d gone after in Qu’rim recently when Nick “Brandy” Brandon had gone undercover and tried to ferret out the secrets of Black Security. Brandy hadn’t found any secrets, but he had found a girlfriend. Victoria Royal was now a contract sniper for HOT, her Army record cleared, her sister rescued from terrorists and rebuilding her life here in the States. A fucking beautiful story, except for the fact Black had gotten away.
    “And then there’s still the fact that someone protected Stavros Metaxas when he turned up in DC and almost killed Hawk. I want to know who is leaking information to terrorists and who is protecting arms dealers. If I have to fucking send my guys to guard an entire stadium full of heiresses, I will.”
    Mendez’s dark eyes flashed, and Garrett knew he was screwed.
    “Brush up on your table manners, Ice, because you’re about to become arm candy for a senator’s daughter. Do what you have to do keep her safe. You don’t need to be her lapdog or take any bullshit if she tries to give it to you. Charm her if you have to. And above all, don’t fucking touch her for anything other than her safety, you got that?”
    Garrett snapped to attention. “Sir, yes, sir!”

CHAPTER TWO

    GRACE STOOD IN HER FATHER’S OFFICE in the Senate building and gaped at him. Through the window, she could see the Capitol dome. It always looked so stately, so surreal. It made her throat tighten up when she thought of what it stood for. And it made her proud that her father—her family—had served this nation for so many centuries, all the way back to her Revolutionary War ancestors who’d persevered against what must have seemed insurmountable odds.
    But right now her throat was tight for a different reason.
    “I’m sorry—did you say security detail ?”
    Her father was a tall man, robust, and deadly serious. He loved his family with all his heart, of that she had no doubt. But he was just so… so much larger than life and so forceful that he sometimes terrified her.
    Right now, he was looking at her from across his desk—the desk that had been his