Nico's Heart (RARE Book 1) Read online

  Nico’s Heart

  Dawn Sullivan

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by means mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission from the author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events or persons, living or dead are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names or featured names are assumed to be the property of their respective owners and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or in part, mechanically or electronically, constitutes a copyright violation. Published in the United States of American in July 2014; Copyright 2014 by Dawn Sullivan. The right of the Authors Name to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by them in accordance with The Copyright, Designs and Patent Act of 1988.

  Published by Dawn Sullivan

  Cover Design: Kari Ayasha-Cover to Cover Designs

  Photographer: Shauna Kruse-Kruse Images & Photography

  Model: Bryan Monville

  Copyright 2014 © Author Dawn Sullivan

  Language: English

  Dedication

  I want to thank all of my family and friends for their support throughout this new journey.

  A big thank you to Angie for inspiring me and encouraging me to actually start my journey to become the author I want to be. And to Kathy and Jaeka for staying up all night letting me bounce ideas off of them.

  I hope everyone enjoys reading Nico’s Heart as much as I enjoyed writing it.

  CHAPTER 1

  Angel was sitting on the covered back porch watching the rain fall. She had always loved the rain. It gave her a feeling of peace and comfort in a world where she normally had none. As she listened to the sounds of her team in the kitchen, she thought about the mission they had just returned from. Four and a half weeks long this time. It wouldn’t have taken so long, but the cartel had been paranoid and kept moving their hostage constantly. Even with all of their “gifts”, it took them awhile to track down the cartel and steal back the senator’s son. Angel’s team never gave up, though. And after weeks of traipsing through the jungle, they needed some major downtime.

  Angel smiled as she listened to Nico giving Rikki a hard time about missing a shot out in the jungle. Everyone knew he was teasing. Rikki never missed. She always hit her target no matter what the conditions. Rikki and Trace were a couple of the best snipers Angel had ever seen and she was glad they were on her team. Angel and her crew were in the “search and retrieval” business. They called themselves RARE (Rescue and Retrieval Extractions) and contracted out to several different agencies when they were needed. RARE did jobs no one else wanted. Each member of her team had a special ability that helped them become the best extraction team out there. Most had more than one, like Angel. No one outside of their circle needed to know what those abilities were, unless for some reason the team members chose to share certain information. Otherwise, as far as Angel was concerned, it was confidential. And by confidential she meant the ‘I could tell you but then I would have to kill you’ kind. All anyone else needed to know was that RARE did not stop until the job was done.

  “Phone’s ringing, boss,” Nico hollered right before Angel’s phone went off. Not recognizing the number, Angel thought about letting the call go to voice mail. “Answer it,” she heard Nico say right behind her. Well shit, this couldn’t be good if Nico was telling her to take the call. Damn him and his premonitions. As she put the phone to her ear, she turned towards Nico and flipped him off with a grin. “Angel here,” she said.

  “This is Jenna Montgomery,” a soft voice said. “I need your help. Please.” Angel watched as Nico’s hands curled into fists at his sides and a low growl came out of his throat. Well double shit, now what?

  Angel switched the phone to speaker and waited until her team surrounded her so they could all hear the conversation. “Jenna, tell me what you need. What’s going on?”

  “She’s gone,” Jenna cried. “She’s gone and no one can find her. They’ve tried. They have done everything that they can think of, but they can’t find her. God, please, you have to help me. You have to get my daughter back!” Daughter? Angel felt the familiar pain hit her but pushed it aside. There wasn’t room for her ghosts in this conversation. “Have you contacted the appropriate authorities, Ms. Montgomery? How did you get my number?” Angel asked. Not very many people had her direct number. All calls went into a voice mail that was kicked to Angel’s phone. The only people that had her direct line were the ones that needed it.

  “I got it from Jeremiah Black. He said you would be able to help me. Please, Lily was taken over 48 hours ago. I overheard them saying the trail has gone cold. I need you. Please help me.” Jeremiah Black, huh? RARE had actually worked with him a number of times and her team both liked and respected him. Jeremiah was also a grizzly bear shifter, which meant this call was shifter related. But Jenna was right, the first 48 hours were the most critical. “What do the authorities say?” Angel tried once again.

  Jenna didn’t respond for a moment, and then she said “I’m a wolf shifter with the White River pack. My brother, Chase Montgomery, is the alpha. I haven’t told him that I am contacting you, yet. He doesn’t know about you and your team, and until you promise me you will help, he won’t. Chase and his enforcers have tried everything that they can think of, and still they cannot find Lily. Will you come?”

  Angel sat there for a moment before responding, listening to Nico growling low in his throat the whole time. What the hell was his problem? They had dealt with child kidnappings numerous times and he had never acted like this. He needed to get control of his wolf and fast. They didn’t have time for this.

  Technically, something like this was shifter business, not hers. They had a shifter council that was to be contacted and informed regarding everything before Angel and her team could be called in. Angel had actually worked with them in the past on a couple of cases, so she knew what hoops she would have to jump through. But there was a child involved and there was no way in hell RARE would stand down at this point knowing that. Angel would jump through as many hoops as she needed to, but they were going after that little girl.

  “Does the council know what’s going on?” she asked.

  “They know that Lily was taken and have been actively involved in the search for her. They sent two of their own enforcers to help.”

  “Ok,” Angel decided, “I will get in touch with them and let them know of my intentions to assist your pack. As long as they give their permission, I will help. Where do we meet your alpha?”

  “Come to the compound. I will let the guards at the gate know to let you right in. Please hurry.” Jenna said. The compound was about five miles outside of Boulder, a good 40 minutes from Angel’s place. It was where the local wolf pack lived on acres and acres of land where they could shift and run without fear of being hunted. Well, until now it would seem.

  “Jenna, make sure the guards know that we will be coming fully armed and we will not leave our weapons at the gate. If you want our help, they will let us through. Also, everyone needs to understand, once we take over the case, it is ours. No one can interfere. I know they will want to keep looking, but it is not an option. They will all stand down or we will walk.” Angel said.

  There was complete silence on the other end of the line for a minute and then Jenna replied, “It won’t be a problem. When you come in the compound, take a left and go to the very first building. The enforcers are meeting in a conference room on the second fl
oor down at the end of the hall. They will get you all of the information that you will need. And I’ll talk to my brother before you get here so he knows I hired you. Money is not an issue. You will be paid whatever your standard fee is.”

  As Angel ended the call, she wondered what she had gotten her team into. It was obvious by Jenna’s hesitant response that she had no idea how she was going to get her brother to back off while RARE stepped in and took over. Chase Montgomery was an alpha. Alpha males did not just give up and step aside. Especially in something like this that involved family and pack. In this case, he was not going to have a choice, though. After Angel’s team took over, anything Chase and his enforcers did could negatively affect the final outcome, and Angel was not willing to let that happen. It didn’t matter, though. None of them would leave a child out there. They would hunt her down and bring her home no matter what it took. As she looked around at her team, she did not say a word. One nod was all it took and they all left to pack their bags and collect their gear. There was not going to be any rest tonight for them, but they didn’t care. A child was way more important. As far as they were concerned, they could rest when they were dead.

  CHAPTER 2

  Chase stared out of the window at the beautiful landscaping in the back of his office building seeing nothing. All he could think about was Lily. She was the princess of the wolf pack, born to his sister five years ago. No one knew who the father was, and Jenna was not telling. He’d asked many times, just so he could hunt the bastard down and kill him slowly. All he knew was that Jenna had been out with some friends at a club one night and had decided to leave early. Instead of having someone walk her to her car, she left on her own and was jumped in the parking lot. Nine months later, Lily was born. Jenna refused to talk about it. She was afraid if the man somehow found out about Lily, he would come after both of them. Had he somehow found out anyway and grabbed Lily? Chase had no idea. None of their leads had panned out. His best trackers had not been able to find her. He had no idea where to go from here, but there was no way he was going to give up. His niece was out there, probably hurt and scared to death. He would hunt for her with his last breath. It was time to make Jenna come clean about that night. He didn’t want to hurt her, but anything she might remember could possibly help them find Lily.

  Chase turned at the knock on his open door. His sister, Jenna, stood there hesitantly with her hand raised to knock again. Absently, he wondered how many times she had knocked and he hadn’t heard. “Chase, I need to talk to you about something and I need you to have an open mind. It’s about Lily. I have a way to get her back and I need you to listen,” Jenna said.

  Great, Chase thought. He loved his sister, but sometimes she came up with some schemes that really drove him crazy. But he was willing to listen to anything that could help find Lily. “Go on,” he said.

  “Jeremiah Black told me about an extraction team that he has worked with in the past. He says they are the best of the best. They can find anyone anywhere. He has no idea how they do it, but when they have nowhere else to turn, they call in RARE. He thinks they might have some special abilities that help them.” The last was said very softly with Jenna staring at his feet. “Abilities?” he asked. “Psychic abilities,” she rushed out. “Jeremiah said there isn’t any other explanation, but the group is very closed-mouthed about it, so he has no idea for sure. “

  “I don’t give a fuck how they do what they do. If they can find my niece, bring them here,” Chase demanded.

  “There is one more thing,” Jenna said. “If they do decide to look for Lily, you and all of your enforcers have to back off, Chase. You can’t be involved. Angel, she’s in charge, she said that if you are not willing to back off and let them do their jobs, then they will walk. You have to let them try, Chase. For me, for Lily.”

  Chase stood there watching Jenna for a moment taking everything in and then decided “Fine. I am willing to give them 48 hours to do what they can do without any involvement on our end. If they have gotten further than us after that time is up, then they can continue. If not, I start looking again.” Jenna looked up at him in surprise. “I don’t know what else to do, sis”, he whispered. “We have exhausted all of our leads. We have to find her, and I will use any means necessary to do that. But you need to understand something, Jenna. They are going to need to know everything, and I mean everything, if they are going to be able to help.”

  Jenna nodded and grabbed his arm. “I know. I will do anything for my daughter. I only want to tell the story once, though, so I will tell everyone at the same time. Angel and her team are meeting us in the conference room as soon as they can get here. Let’s go tell everyone what’s going on so it doesn’t come as a surprise to the pack when RARE shows up.”

  Chapter 3

  Nico Marx tried to get his emotions under control as they pulled up to the guard station at the compound, but it was hard. His wolf wanted get to Jenna now. Jenna and Lily were his, dammit. And while they were sitting here playing patty cake with the fucking guards, his Jenna was somewhere in the compound in pain. He could not stop the low growl as he watched the guards. Angel glared at him, “Nico, what the hell is your problem? Knock your shit off!” Nico glared right back. “Get us in there now,” he growled. Angel watched him for a moment, then turned back to the guards, smiled sweetly and blew them a kiss as she drove through the gates.

  Nico jumped out of the SUV as soon as it stopped in front of the office building. “Not so fast, Turbo,” Angel yelled. “Get your ass over here.” Nico swore under his breath as he walked around the vehicle to his boss. “Look, I’m sorry,” he started to say, but Angel stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Talk to me, Nico,” she said. “Who is she to you?”

  “Mine,” was all he said. “She and Lily are mine.” Angel was used to his premonitions, so she only eyed him for a moment and then turned away as she said, “Come on, Caveman, let’s go get back what’s yours.”

  The conference room was huge and held over 20 people already. Angel and her team walked right in and over to a table that was in one corner. Jaxson, their resident tech geek, pulled out his laptop and geared it up so it was ready as Angel clapped her hands loudly and yelled, “Listen up everyone. I’m Angel, this is my team. As of right now, this case is ours. I need everything ya got on it and I need it yesterday. I need to know where, when, why and how. Exactly where and when was Lily taken? Do you have any ideas on who could have taken her and why? How the hell did they get to her? What guards were asleep on the fucking job that day, because you can’t tell me that the Alpha’s niece doesn’t have enforcers watching her every move. I want to talk to them. If she was taken from within the compound, then you have a traitor and we will find that person. If you have questions for me, they can wait. I want mine answered first. As everyone knows, the first 48 hours are the most critical. It’s been over that and we do not have time to sit and play nice right now.”

  As all talking ceased and everyone stared at her, there was movement at the door. A large man standing well over six feet with short black hair and the clearest blue eyes she had ever seen stood at the doorway with a beautiful petite woman by his side. Wow, Angel thought, yum. This was definitely the Alpha, Chase. She could tell by the power that surrounded him, and by the pain in his eyes. Pain that she would do whatever it took to erase. And just where had that thought come from? The woman with him was obviously Jenna. She had long black hair that touched the middle of her back, and blue eyes that matched her brother’s.

  “Angel,” he said nodding his head to her, “I’m Chase Montgomery and this is my sister, Jenna. Please forgive my people, they haven’t been told yet of this new development. Everyone will give you their complete cooperation. I have been informed of your requirements regarding taking our case and I agree to give you 48 hours to see what you can do without any involvement on our end and then go from there.”

  Nico spoke up at that, “You’ll give us the time we need. We will find Lily no matter how long i
t takes and you will not interfere.” Well isn’t this craptastic, Angel thought? Let’s challenge an alpha and see where that gets us. As Chase’s eyes narrowed on Nico, Angel hissed out of the side of her mouth to him, “Back off asshat.” Jenna gasped as she moved slowly into the room watching Nico. “Mate,” she whispered. Oh great, it just kept getting better and better.

  Chapter 4

  Oh God, Jenna thought, my mate is here. He is really here. He was gorgeous, with short dark hair, captivating green eyes, and muscles she wanted to reach out and trace with her fingertips. Jenna closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath, taking in the delicious spicy scent that was all him. That was how she knew he was hers. Her wolf has been pushing at her to get to him since the first whiff. Before that she had barely moved since the first 24 hours after Lily was taken. At first she was mad as hell and had went crazy trying to find her, but the longer Jenna had been without Lily, the more withdrawn and depressed her wolf had become. How could he be here now? Now, when her daughter was missing and they didn’t have time to enjoy the knowledge that they had really found each other. Some people searched their whole lives for their true mate and never found them. Some mated others that were not their true mate because being alone was just too hard. But her mate was here, right now, within reach. He was here and was going to help find Lily. As happy as she was, she dreaded it too, because now, in front of everyone, she would have to talk about that night. The night her precious little girl was conceived.

  As Jenna and Nico watched each other, Angel took control of the situation diverting the attention away from them. “Come on people, get me that info now!”

  One enforcer spoke up, “Lily was taken from inside the compound around 10am on Monday. She was at the playground playing with friends. Jenna was working, so one of the older pups had Lily that day. There were the standard two guards at the gate and two female enforcers were at the playground watching over the children. “