Shielding Kinley, page 1
Shielding Kinley
Delta Team Two, Book 2
Susan Stoker
Contents
Blurb
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
Also by Susan Stoker
About the Author
Being raised in the foster system has made Kinley Taylor feel like a lifelong outcast, but it’s witnessing a young girl’s last few minutes on Earth that proves just how alone she truly is. Kinley has no one to turn to, no family, no friends…except perhaps the gorgeous Delta Force soldier she met months ago. The one she ignored when he’d tried to keep in touch, convinced he couldn’t really be interested in a relationship.
* * *
When Kinley ghosts him not once, but twice, Gage “Lefty” Haskins takes the hint. Clearly the pretty personal assistant didn’t feel the same connection he did. Or so he assumes…until she shows up in Texas, on the run for her life after already surviving an assassination attempt. Lefty couldn’t turn her away even if he wanted to—and he doesn’t. The longer he knows her, the greater the connection he feels. He just has to keep Kinley alive long enough to convince her she’s The One.
* * *
Easier said than done, when the man who wants her dead has friends in high places…and a very patient hitman on retainer.
* * *
** Shielding Kinley is the 2nd book in the Delta Team Two Series. Each book is a stand-alone, with no cliffhanger endings.
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.
Copyright © 2020 by Susan Stoker
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.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Edited by Kelli Collins
Cover Design by AURA Design Group
Manufactured in the United States
For Shawn
You never know how strong you are, until being strong is the only choice you have.
Chapter One
“You seen her yet?” Trigger asked Lefty as they leaned against the wall and watched the politicians entering the large room being used that morning as a meeting place.
“No,” Lefty said without elaborating. He knew who his friend was talking about. Kinley Taylor. She was the assistant to Walter Brown, the Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs.
As part of their job, the Delta Force team was sometimes sent overseas to protect important political and military figures. They’d even been sent to the last Olympic Games to help make sure the American athletes were safe. Babysitting political figures wasn’t their favorite assignment, but Lefty was more than happy to be in Paris, France, today.
There was a large gathering of officials from around the world. Lefty wasn’t exactly sure what they were discussing, and honestly, he didn’t really care. He wasn’t a political man, which some people might think was odd, considering the President of the United States could ultimately decide his fate, but he simply didn’t care. Whatever job he was assigned, he did the best he could. Period.
But this mission felt different. He was antsy and fidgety and for the second morning in a row, he was hyper alert—and it wasn’t because of any danger the man they were tasked to protect, Johnathan Winkler, the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, might be in.
“Maybe she didn’t come with Brown this time.”
“She came,” Lefty replied. He knew Brown wouldn’t go anywhere without Kinley. Even though Lefty had only been around her for a few days all those months ago when they’d met in Africa, he knew she was vitally important to the politician. She was smart and organized. She did what Brown asked her to without complaint and without hesitation. Even if that meant putting herself in danger…as it had back in Africa.
Brown had insisted he didn’t like the coffee at the government building where he was attending meetings, and had sent Kinley back to the café at their hotel to get him another. At the time, however, there’d been a protest forming, and Kinley had found herself right in the middle of it. Luckily, Lefty had seen her slip out of the building. He’d followed her and prevented her from being harassed and abused at the hands of the revved-up natives.
Lefty knew from talking to Kinley that she frequently went above and beyond for her boss. She never questioned Brown when he asked her to do things that might be outside the realm of her job duties. Because of that, Lefty was fairly sure Brown would take Kinley with him everywhere he went.
Also…at the moment, the hair on the back of his neck was standing straight up, a reaction he’d had around her back in Africa too. It was as if his body knew she was close and acted accordingly.
“You took guard duty last night,” Trigger said. “I’ve already talked to Grover and Doc…they’re ready to take over for us while the meetings are in session so you can concentrate on finding and talking to her rather than worrying about protecting Winkler.”
Lefty looked over at his friend in surprise. He’d thought he’d done a pretty good job in hiding how much he wanted to talk to Kinley. How much he wanted—no, needed—to find out why she hadn’t kept in contact with him after Africa. He’d thought they’d connected, and when she hadn’t answered any of his emails or texts, he’d been disappointed.
He had the best friends anyone could ask for. He’d known some Deltas who didn’t really get along with their teammates. Luckily, Lefty knew he could count on Trigger, Brain, Oz, Lucky, Doc, and Grover for anything, no matter what time of day, no matter what it was. They’d worked together so long they could almost read each other’s minds as well. Which was both a blessing and a pain in the ass.
“Come on,” Trigger said with a chuckle. “You think it’s not obvious that you’re chomping at the bit to pull her aside and talk to her?”
Lefty’s lips quirked upward. He should’ve known his friends would see through his bullshit. “I am, you’re right. But I won’t put the mission in jeopardy to do so.”
Trigger shook his head. “You know that none of us would, either. We might not like bodyguard duty but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to give it one hundred percent.”
Lefty nodded. He did know that. “I’d appreciate it. I think she’s avoiding me, honestly.”
“She knows how protection duty works. Brown has his own team on him, right?” Trigger asked.
“Yeah. Merlin’s team is on him.”
Trigger nodded. Merlin and his four teammates were stationed out of Washington, DC, so they were frequently used for these kinds of missions. “They know about what happened in Africa?” he asked.
“Yeah. And they weren’t happy,” Lefty said. Assistants weren’t officially included in protection details, but most of the teams sent on these jobs did their best to protect everyone traveling with the person they were sent to guard. In Africa, the Delta teams had been spread pretty thin because of the unrest outside the building where the meetings were taking place, and Kinley had been able to sneak out almost undetected.
Not for the first time, Lefty was very glad he’d seen her at the last second and had followed.
“Right. Anyway, I’m just letting you know that when you do catch up with her, we’re willing to give you some time and space to talk,” Trigger said.
Lefty knew his friend truly meant that, and there would be no hard feelings about it picking up his slack. Now that Trigger was living blissfully with Gillian, a woman he’d met while on a mission, Trigger wanted everyone to be as happy as he was.
“Thanks,” Lefty told him. He was pretty sure he and Kinley weren’t meant to be, not with the way she’d ghosted him, but he did want to find out why. Find out what he’d done to turn her off so completely.
Ten minutes later, the woman he’d been thinking about nonstop ever since he’d heard Walter Brown would be at the conference walked around a corner in the hall. She came to a halt when she saw Lefty and Trigger standing against the wall.
She quickly regained her composure and continued walking toward them. She had a handful of folders in her arms and looked delightfully disheveled.
Her shoulder-length black hair was a bit mussed, as if she’d been running her hand through it in vexation. She never wore much makeup, and this morning was no exception. Lefty thought she had on lip gloss and a bit of mascara, but that was it. She was petite, only standing at around five and a half feet tall. He felt as if he towered over her, and he’d never been so glad for her slight stature as he’d been that day in Africa.
Today, she had on a pair of small heels that gave her a bit of height. She also wore black slacks and a short-sleeve heather-red blouse. A pair of gold hoops adorned her ears, the only other jewelry a watch on her left wrist. Lefty silently approved; it was never a good idea to wear a lot of flashy jewelry when overseas, even in Paris…a city that had a higher-than-average percentage of expensive stores for its citizens to shop in.
Kinley refused to meet his gaze, which frustrated Lefty. He had a million questions for her, but here in the hall, when she was obviously in a rush, wasn’t the place or time. He really didn’t like that she couldn’t even bring herself to say hello to him. He wracked his brain trying to figure out what it was he’d done or said that had made her want nothing to do with him, but couldn’t come up with one damn thing.
She slipped inside the meeting room without even once looking up at him.
Sighing, Lefty’s jaw tightened. Ignoring him wouldn’t make him go away. She was going to have to talk to him sooner or later.
“Wow,” Trigger said under his breath. “That was the coldest cold shoulder I’ve seen in a very long time.”
“I’m going to take you up on your earlier offer,” Lefty told his friend. “I swear to God, I didn’t say or do anything to warrant her acting so skittish around me.”
“I know you didn’t,” Trigger said, putting his hand on Lefty’s shoulder in a gesture of support and understanding. “Out of all of us, you’re the most congenial.”
Lefty nodded, his determination rising. If Kinley thought she could ignore him and pretend they hadn’t shared a connection in Africa, she was sorely mistaken.
He hadn’t been able to forget her. She was pretty, soft-spoken, hadn’t treated him deferentially just because he was a Delta Force operative. He’d had more than his fair share of women throw themselves at him after they’d learned what he did in the Army. He liked that she treated him as a “normal person,” that she wasn’t impressed by his job. He felt protective of her because of her size, and because she literally didn’t hesitate to do whatever was asked of her.
Her vulnerability also struck a chord in him. Made him want to hold her in his arms and protect her from the big bad world.
Kinley Taylor breathed a sigh of relief when she’d managed to slip inside the meeting room without having to talk to Gage Haskins.
Lefty.
She knew he’d received the nickname in basic training when one of the drill sergeants found out he was left-handed. It seemed rather discriminatory to her, but he’d reassured her that he’d been relieved to get such an innocuous nickname.
But she couldn’t imagine calling him Lefty. As far as she was concerned, it didn’t fit. He’d always be Gage to her.
She remembered everything about him, from the second she’d first seen the man. They’d been in Africa, and he was standing against a wall, his eyes constantly roaming the room, looking for danger. He hadn’t noticed her, as he was too focused on any possible threats, but Kinley had sure seen him.
He hadn’t shaved in a while, and the stubble on his face was a bit too long to be considered appropriate for a regular soldier, but from everything she’d read and seen on TV, she assumed special forces guys were allowed a little more leeway in their grooming standards. His dark brown hair was kept short on the sides and a little longer on top in a typical military haircut. He had thick eyebrows, and the intense look of concentration he usually wore made her shiver…with excitement. He’d looked completely badass in his black cargo pants and shirt, and for some reason, Kinley had felt safer just because he was in the room.
The second time she’d seen him had been just after she’d been grabbed on the street by one of the men who’d shown up to protest the summit her boss had been participating in. Walter Brown had been pissed—which wasn’t exactly a rare thing—when she’d brought him coffee that wasn’t up to his exacting standards. He’d sent her back to their hotel to bring him a cup of coffee from the little café inside, as he’d fallen in love with it after their first morning.
Their hotel was about four blocks away. She’d gone out a side door, but the protesters seemed to be everywhere. She’d done her best to ignore them, to try to stay on the peripheral of the crowd, but that hadn’t worked very well. The moment a small group of men saw her, they’d followed, verbally harassing her and scaring her to death.
Then they’d escalated from cat-calling. One of them suddenly grabbed her, attempting to drag her into an alley. She’d fought the man and his friends as hard as she could, but she was no match for their size, strength, and numbers.
But then Gage had shown up out of nowhere. He’d taken out the two men who were doing their best to undo the button on her pants, and when the two others backed off, he put an arm around her waist and physically carried her out of danger.
They’d spent the next four days talking whenever their schedules allowed—and the crush she’d felt the first time she’d seen him had only grown.
But when she got back to Washington, DC, she began to doubt herself. Why would Gage be interested in her? She wasn’t the kind of person anyone really wanted to get close to. She’d had lesson after lesson in that fact, starting with her birth mom, who’d abandoned her when she was two. Not one of the foster parents she’d had over the years had expressed any interest in adopting her. She’d had a best friend in junior high, but even that girl had moved on after a while, deciding Kinley was too peculiar to hang around with.
Kinley was used to being alone. She’d worked her ass off in high school and got good grades and went to college on scholarships. She hadn’t made any close friendships in college, either; she’d been too preoccupied with studying and working. She’d interned in DC, and simply stayed after accepting her first job there.
Somehow, she’d gotten to the ripe old age of twenty-nine without falling in love and without having even one person she could call a true friend.
Most of the time, neither bothered her, but when she’d gotten back to her lonely apartment after returning from Africa, she’d let her insecurities get the better of her.
There was no way Gage wanted to be her friend. Why would he want to befriend her when it was obvious he had a close-knit group of teammates already? Besides, they lived halfway across the country from each other.
She’d talked herself into believing that he was just being polite when he’d said he wanted to keep in touch.
But even when she didn’t return his initial texts or calls, he kept on reaching out to her. She wanted to believe his interest was genuine, but she was too wary to take a chance. She’d had other people who’d shown an interest in getting to know her, and she’d jumped at the chance, only to be disappointed when they’d eventually drifted away.
But it was hard to keep telling herself that he wasn’t really interested in getting to know her when he kept texting.
Kinley had finally convinced herself to pull her head out of her ass and reply—and he’d stopped writing. She’d missed her chance.
She knew she could reach out to him, tell him her phone had been broken or that she’d been busy, or make up some other excuse as to why she hadn’t responded, but then she felt stupid.
Her problem was that she overthought everything. If she could be more spontaneous and go with the flow, she’d probably have more friends, be less lonely.
After Gage had stopped contacting her, even though it had broken her heart, Kinley had tried to tell herself that it would’ve happened eventually, even if she’d written him back. How would things work out between them? They didn’t even live in the same state.
