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  Shielding Josie (Special Forces: Operation Alpha)

  Casey Hagen

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Books by Susan Stoker

  More Special Forces: Operation Alpha World Books

  A huge shout-out to my best friend and critique partner, Jen Talty, for pushing me to do better, go harder, and demand more of myself with every word.

  This story wouldn’t have happened without you!

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  © 2018 ACES PRESS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  No part of this work may be used, stored, reproduced or transmitted without written permission from the publisher except for brief quotations for review purposes as permitted by law.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy.

  Blurb

  Cole Hackett, retired SEAL, reluctant civilian has one desire—a life without complications. So when Josie McLean, unpredictable hellcat daughter of police chief McLean and freshly licensed PI keeps sniffing around his cases, he’s determined to steer clear. She has trouble written all over her and the last thing he needs is to babysit a woman hell bent on getting killed in the pursuit of glory.

  Josie McLean spent two decades trying to gain a glimmer of attention from her father. Even a lucrative career as a private investigators isn’t enough to make him overlook the fact that she’d been born with the wrong parts. Despite his disinterest, she’s determined to be the best at her job, while keeping her butt on the straight and narrow to avoid his wrath. That is, until her case takes a life or death turn and everyone is a suspect.

  Attitude and attraction collide when Cole and Josie’s cases intersect forcing them to band together to seek a dangerous enemy. When the mortal danger turns its sights on Josie, can both Josie and Cole step out from behind the shadows of the past and lean one another to find a killer before it’s too late?

  Chapter 1

  “This chick again,” Cole muttered with a slap of his palm against the steering wheel.

  Josie McLean.

  Pain in the ass daughter to Long Beach’s revered and formidable police chief, Bruce McLean.

  She climbed out of her car from where she parked just beyond the glow of the street lamp and shot a long glance down both ends of the road as she adjusted her fitted, leather jacket.

  He’d give his left nut to know what she was doing here.

  She’d demand both nuts, and his cock, and still that would only give him a fifty-fifty shot at convincing her to talk about what business she had with the house he had been watching so long that his ass had fallen asleep.

  Josie didn’t share information. She tricked the people around her until she extracted it and then took off, barreling through clue after clue, collecting one puzzle piece at a time and hoarding them in the corner, snarling at anyone who tried to see her snapping them together.

  Okay, snarling might be a bit strong. But she didn’t share, which was why he constantly had to bungle his way through their databases to find details on her and what she was up to, something he told himself he needed to know since her cases continued to cross with his in weird ways.

  Not at all because she interested him. Nope.

  Josie had become known for her fearlessness, smart mouth, and lately, her ability to hover at the edges of every case Cole took on, that is, until she barreled in, riding on the confidence of having a badass father and her very own concealed and carry permit.

  But hey, what did he know? She managed to get her PI license and pass a psychiatric evaluation so maybe she was on the up and up.

  Or she’d managed to conceal her reckless need to save the world for the time it took to pass the exam.

  And now, by virtue of the state of California, she’d been granted the right to forever be a thorn in his side, while she played private investigator in the same fifty-one square miles as him, and by her dismissive glances with those stormy-blue eyes of hers, she didn’t have a single clue how much of an irritant she’d become.

  As for his attraction to her, well, that’s one detail he’d be keeping to himself.

  He’d lived through his twenties, half-erect, and ready to roll at the slightest nod of a pretty head. He’d taken those offered pleasures for nothing more than what they were, a few hours of fun with a friendly goodbye.

  Now, in his thirties, he exercised restraint. And he’d been mostly successful, but hell if Josie with her curves and barbed-wire attitude didn’t test his resolve.

  His phone vibrated from the center console and Dylan’s name popped up on the screen. He raised his window, cutting off the cool breeze moving through his front seat.

  “Yeah, Boss?” Cole answered.

  “Cut that boss shit out,” Dylan said with a grunt. “We’re all equals in this business and you damn well know it.”

  “Yeah, but you are the oldest. And the dad. Plus, you’re the one holding us up on adopting the name Fierce as the name for this right-hand-man business we’re running. Sounds like the boss to me,” Cole said with a smile.

  Sitting in a car, in the dark, on a stakeout, nine times out of ten had the power to bore Cole to tears. It was his least favorite task, and Dylan knew it. Hence the way he grinned when he laid out the assignment. So, Cole would grab at any opportunity for entertainment, even if it was at Dylan’s expense.

  “So let’s name it Right Hand Man,” Dylan said.

  “Really?” Cole asked.

  “Sure,” Dylan said.

  “I don’t know if I like the sound of that,” Cole said with a sigh, dropping his head back against the headrest.

  “Yeah, so who’s the one holding us up on getting signage on our office window?” Dylan asked.

  Cole scrubbed a hand over his face and the stubble there, just long enough that it had started to itch. Attempt five hundred and forty-seven at growing a beard for looks rather than because he was stuck in some third-world, war-torn country, and he still hadn’t successfully made it past day four. “Listen, was there a reason you called? I mean, you have that beautiful wife of yours who’s probably naked and waiting in your bed right now, yet you’re on the phone with me,” Cole said.

  “Business never sleeps, and she gets the job. She’ll wait. I just called to give you a heads up about Eric Statler. We have his background information, and it’s clean. Squeaky clean. Between his picture and his record, it’s like he’s an unsuspecting nerd who doesn’t realize quite what he’s done. Or he knows, he just doesn’t realize the ramifications of the technology he’s created.”

  “Or he’s one hell of an actor,” Cole pointed out.

  “You don’t trust anyone, do you?”

  “I don’t trust civilians. I trust military.”

  Usually.

  Hard lessons still haunted him. No matter how the memories faded, the sting of betrayal never seemed to disappear.

  “Cole—”<
br />
  “Moving on. Anything else?”

  “Yeah…his best friend since kindergarten,” Dylan said with a heavy sigh.

  “Yeeeesssss?” Cole said, drawing the word out and wondering what the big mystery was.

  “It’s Josie McLean,” Dylan said.

  Cole’s gaze shot to where Josie stood at the back of her car, staring at the house, her cell pressed to her ear. “Well, son of a bitch. I guess that explains—”

  The ground shook, fire flashed, and windows shattered, the shards becoming sharp projectiles launching through the air like missiles raining over the street.

  And on Josie.

  Adrenaline spiked through his blood, his cell clattering to the floor as he shoved out his door and took off at a run for her.

  Her feet stuck out from behind her car where she had either dropped to the ground…

  Or she’d been struck down.

  His heart thundered in his chest, the breath tearing through his lungs with the burn of the sprint and the harsh smoke already engulfing the crisp California air. His feet pounded the pavement, that familiar helpless feeling of not running fast enough despite his agility and speed, creeping into his throat as he raced for her.

  Flames shot up into the star-filled sky, the heat blasting against his skin where sweat broke out along his temple.

  Finding her still form, he reached for the pulse in her neck, and exhaled in relief when her strong and stubborn heart knocked hard against her soft skin.

  She let out a groan, her palms flattening on the street beneath her, and grunted as she tried to push herself up.

  “Hang on, Josie,” Cole said, holding her still.

  She shook her head, her movements more forceful as though the fog of the explosion retreated and instead panic filled her. “Oh, God. Eric!” She tried to scramble to her feet, her neat nails scraping against the asphalt as she pushed herself up to her knees. Glass fell from her mussed, shoulder-length hair to the ground around her.

  Cole glanced back at the house, the sizzle and pop of flames eating away at the three-bedroom home swallowing it whole.

  Pajama-clad neighbors had begun pouring out their front doors and filling the sidewalk as their eyes held fixed on the flames climbing high into the sky, singing the palm trees.

  A robust woman holding a cell phone, with a hot-pink robe, slippers with fuzzy dice hanging off the front, curlers in her hair, and some weird, green shit crackling on her face, spoke into her cell, her frantic, shrill tone the only sound penetrating the snap and sizzle of the house.

  “I have to get to him!” she cried.

  The ground shook again with an explosion almost as powerful as the first, and Cole dropped down on top of Josie as coals and ash rained over them. Hot embers burned into his jeans and through the back of his t-shirt to his damp skin, the sting a welcome reminder that he was alive and as long as he breathed, so was Josie.

  She sent a sharp elbow into his abdomen, just inches away from his groin, making him grunt out a breath.

  “Get off me, damn you!” she yelled as she struggled below him.

  “Easy, dammit. I’m protecting you.”

  “But Eric?”

  “Is dead if he was inside that house,” he said quietly into her ear as he wrapped his hand around her biceps to hold her steady so he could rise off her without hurting her.

  Pressing his hands flat to the street, he pushed up to his feet. Catching his balance with a hand to the trunk of her car, he braced his legs and reached for her, scooping her up and steadying her as she stood.

  With a sharp glare over her shoulder, she bolted from him and ran toward the flames.

  “Stupid,” he bit out, reaching her in four strides, snagging her wrist, spinning her toward him, and tossing her over his shoulder.

  “Put me down!” she screamed as she pounded his back with surprisingly strong hits, the knuckles of her fists making connections with a few of those burns.

  “If I do, you’ll run right for that fire,” he said, holding her tighter as she squirmed and fought him.

  Sirens blared in the distance and a few people held up their cell phones to record as the flames devoured the wooden frame of the house.

  The two-by-fours splintered and cracked as the front and right sides of the structure caved inward, sending sparks into the sky.

  Josie craned her neck, her body stiffening in his arms, her eyes wet with tears.

  A pinch of sympathy snuck up on him and had him turning so she could see the house, see what he was talking about, and finally accept what had happened.

  She slumped a fraction in his arms as the reflection of the flames licking into the night shone in her eyes. “I promised I would protect him,” she choked out.

  “Protect him from what?” he asked.

  Her gaze snapped to his, and she narrowed her eyes. “That’s none of your business.”

  He let her slide down to her own two feet, but held her in his arms. “You were protecting him, I had him under surveillance, and now nothing is left but ashes, and we’re the only witnesses. It’s my business just as much as it’s yours,” Cole said.

  “Why were you watching him?” she demanded.

  “Why were you protecting him?” he shot back.

  “Leave me alone,” she said, pushing him away. She tripped over the curb and lost her balance.

  He snaked a hand out and grabbed the lapel of her jacket with his fist before her heart-shaped ass could kiss sidewalk. “You need a goddammed babysitter.”

  “Fuck you,” she bit out.

  “Classy,” he muttered.

  Fire trucks careened about the corner. Police cars skidded before stopping in diagonals across the suburban street. Two ambulances rolled up to the curb just beyond them, close enough to treat the injured, but safe from the inferno lighting up the night.

  She yanked her jacket out of his grasp. “I don’t answer to you,” she said.

  Cole bit back his retort. They’d have this out, but not in front of the police.

  “Cole Hackett. Interesting finding you here,” Officer Bruns said as he approached them. “You on a case?”

  Josie leveled a hard stare at Cole with pleading eyes.

  Normal protocol? Don’t fucking lie to the police. Slyder, Dylan, and Evan, at times, worked beyond the boundaries of the law. The local law enforcement suspected, but didn’t ask. As long as bodies didn’t start piling up, and the guys were careful about whose toes they stepped on, the local police force were willing to look the other way.

  But by the look in Josie’s eyes, she didn’t want something about this getting back to her dad.

  Interesting leverage.

  Cole reached out a hand to the officer and gave it a firm shake. “No case. Just happened to pull over to take a call from Dylan, and the house blew. Found Josie crouching behind her car. Out of respect for her dad, I stuck around to watch over her,” he said, catching the way her eyes narrowed and her lips pinched at his suggestion that she needed someone to supervise her.

  Officer Bruns glanced between the two of them and pulled out a notepad. He scribbled a few lines and glanced back up. “Dylan can confirm that, right? Not that I don’t believe you,” his gaze shot to the fire. “But with this explosion, I need to make sure all the details are right. Just in case. I’m sure you understand.”

  “Just doing your job. I expect no less. My cell is on my floorboard somewhere. I’d be more than happy to show you my call log,” Cole said.

  “I’d appreciate it,” Officer Bruns nodded. He turned to Josie then and unclipped his radio. “Josie…you know I have to tell your dad. Otherwise, he’d have my ass.”

  “I know,” she glanced to the house as the back frame, the only thing left standing, caved in with the force of the water coming from three hoses aimed at the rubble.

  “And when he asks, what were you doing here?” Officer Bruns said.

  “Visiting my friend, Eric,” she said with a hitch in her breath.

  “I’ll
need to interview him, too.”

  “It was his house,” she said.

  Chapter 2

  Cole climbed into his car two hours later and searched the floor for his cell. Officer Bruns had taken his word for it that he had been on a call with Dylan, not that it mattered…the phone logs weren’t going anywhere.

  When he woke the screen, he had several missed texts and calls. All from Dylan.

  With a flick of his thumb, he dialed his partner’s cell.

  “About damned time!” Dylan bellowed from Cole’s phone.

  “Something came up,” Cole said. Dylan, Cole, Evan, and Slyder had a code. No one went off the grid, because when you did, your team suited up and they came after you. Cole had been out of pocket for a couple hours…enough time for his team to have been alerted and start mobilizing to step in.

  “Really? I hadn’t noticed. I’ve been pacing a hole in the floor wondering what the hell happened to you.”

  “Gotta level with you, Dylan, this new fretful side of you is starting to creep me out,” Cole said as he ignored the twitch in his nose that told him a sneeze wasn’t far behind.

  “Cut your shit. I heard the explosion. Evan’s been trying to get into the development for an hour to see if you’re okay, but they’ve got it all blocked off,” Dylan said, some of the bluster slipping from his harsh voice.

  “Sorry about that. The damn fool woman was standing front and center when the explosion—”

  “A woman? I’m at the office pacing a hole in the floor, Slyder’s on his way in, Evan’s there checking on you, and you’re fucking dating. Is that what I’m hearing right now?”

  “Nope,” Cole said, pinching the bridge of his nose, trying to get the visual of Josie’s plump lips out of his head.