Into The Fury
BOSS, Inc. #1
BOSS, Inc. #1
By: Kat Martin
Releasing January
26, 2016
Zebra
Zebra
A bodyguard, a bounty hunter, a P.I.--the men of
Brodie Operations Security Service, Inc. are down for the job. . .
Sinners, whores, and sluts beware--your time is at hand:
a faceless menace is threatening lingerie models on a cross country tour, and
Ethan Brodie is there to defend and protect.
Ethan's learned the hard way that beauty is no
substitute for character. So even though Valentine Hart is one of the most breathtaking
women he's ever seen, he's keeping his hands off and his eyes open. Or that's
what he tells himself.
Then one of the models is murdered, and the closer
Ethan gets to the answers, the closer he finds himself to Valentine--and the
hotter the pressure feels. There's more to Val--more to the other girls--than
he could have guessed. But one is keeping a secret that could kill them all.
The only lights on in Val’s
Montlake duplex apartment were the lamp beside her bed and the screen on her
computer. She was up late studying, trying to catch up on the Internet courses
she was taking.
Snoozie,
her big gray cat, slept on his pillow on the back of the desk. Even asleep, he
was great company.
Val
sighed. With rehearsals, she wouldn’t be doing much studying this week. She’d
be getting home late and she needed her beauty rest, needed to look her
absolute best for the dress rehearsal, then the fashion show on Saturday night.
She owed it to the people who were counting on her.
The
Internet contest she’d won six months ago had secured her a place as a La Belle
Lingerie fashion model. Out of thousands of women, she was the lucky winner.
The
work was grueling. She’d never understood how hard a fashion model worked.
Though La Belle models weren’t half-starved, anorexic women like high-fashion,
couture design models, they had to be in top physical condition. The women were
expected to ooze sexuality. They’d been chosen for their full breasts, small
waists, and perfectly curving hips. La Belle models wore lingerie designed to
appeal to men—which was the reason women bought it.
A
strict diet regimen was required, along with the two to three hours a day she
spent with a trainer to ensure her body stayed perfectly toned and fit.
The
job had required her to drop out of school to train for the fashion show and do
PR work for the company, but La Belle was paying her a boatload of money,
enough that she’d be able to finish at the U of Washington next year with a
degree in veterinary medicine.
Val
loved animals and always had. Becoming a vet was a long-time dream, but her
scholarship had run out after she’d earned her bachelor’s degree. With her
parents’ help and working two part-time jobs, she’d managed to get through her
first year of vet school, but the tuition was nearly twelve thousand, with fees
on top of that, living expenses, food, and travel to and from campus.
On
a whim, she’d entered the modeling contest, and to her amazement, she’d won.
God
and the genes she’d inherited had blessed her with excellent bone structure, as
well as a really good body. Though a lot of women would think the high-paying,
seemingly glamorous life of a model was the job of a lifetime, running around
half-naked in sequins and feathers just wasn’t the life for her.
Instead,
she was using her physical assets to pursue the goals she had set for herself
when she was in high school. Val glanced at the clock, saw it was after
midnight, reached over and turned off her laptop. Tomorrow was another
rehearsal day. At the end of the summer, her contract with La Belle would be up
and she could finish her final term at school. Her job as a fashion model would
be over and she could return to a normal life again.
Val
smiled. After the whirlwind tour and her fifteen minutes of fame, it might take
a while to figure out exactly what normal was.
*
* *
Sitting
in front of his laptop on the desk in his bedroom, the man moved the mouse and
changed the font. He chose another font and typed the next word, then changed
the font again, continuing, one by one, until he finished the note. The printer
hummed as he printed the words on a plain white sheet of paper.
Sinners, SLUTS, and WHORES--BEWARE.
REPENT or you WILL be NEXT.
He
was proud of his handiwork. This note matched the first, its message more than
clear. When the note was found, there’d be no doubt who was responsible. And
he’d be careful to leave no clues that could be traced back to him. He just had
to work out the timing, then make sure everything went the way he planned.
As
he mentally went over his preparations, he began to look forward to the
encounter, always an adrenaline rush. He’d been missing that lately. He settled
back in his chair and studied the note.
Soon,
he’d deliver it.
He
smiled, anticipating the challenge, then the satisfaction of a job well done.
Ethan’s
second day at the theater was hectic. The women were busy rehearsing, and for
the first time, he began to see what a difficult job they had. Not just walking
out on the stage tossing their hair and smiling but placing each step exactly
right, moving in ways that best displayed the garments they were selling. They
had to learn dozens of different poses and cues from the choreographer, who was
constantly making changes and asking them to relearn something they had only
just learned a few minutes before.
Add
to that, the way they took care of their bodies required tremendous work. Ethan
regularly pumped weights and worked out in the gym in his apartment complex. It
was just part of his job. These women worked with trainers, dieted furiously,
limited their alcohol intake to practically zilch, and went to bed early. When
in the hell did they have any fun?
After
watching them a while, when a woman he’d dubbed Heather-with-the-silver hair
strutted down the runway in her sky-high heels, stepped wrong and went down
hard, he was only a little surprised.
Being
close to the stage, he jumped up on the runway and walked over to help. Her
nails dug into his arm as she took hold and tried to stand, released a grimace
of pain.
“Take
it easy.” Crouching beside her, he urged her to lie back down.
“Don’t
move her!” Daniel Clemens and his young assistant rushed forward. “Someone call
Dr. Harrison!”
“I’m
okay,” the blonde said, but he could hear the anxiety in her voice.
“Please—just give me a minute, Daniel. I’ll be fine.”
Clemens
was tall and slender, with light brown hair moussed into some kind of bed-head
style. Ethan had a
hunch he was gay, but he wasn’t
flamboyant. And as Matt Carlyle had said, he was clearly good at his job.
The
choreographer knelt next to Ethan. “We can’t stop rehearsal. We need to get her
off the stage, but she can’t walk on that ankle. Do you think you could carry
her back to one of the dressing rooms?”
“Not
a problem.” Bending, Ethan scooped the girl up in his arms and started striding
toward the back of the stage.
Heather
slid her arms around his neck. “Wow. If my ankle wasn’t hurting so damn much,
I’d be impressed.”
His
mouth edged up. “You aren’t that heavy.”
“Oh,
you are a sweet talker.” Heather flashed him a pain-filled smile, then returned
her attention to Clemens, who hurried along beside them. “I’ll be okay, Daniel,
really. It only hurts a little. I’ll be fine by tomorrow.”
“Sorry,
dear girl. You know show policy. We’ll have to see what the doctor says. I’ll
go make sure he’s on his way.”
Daniel
hurried off as Ethan carried Heather into one of the dressing rooms. He tried
not to notice the array of hot-pink panties, skimpy lace bras, feather boas,
sequined thongs, and God-only-knew what else. Gently, he settled Heather on the
sofa against the wall and stood up just as another woman pushed her way into
the already cramped quarters.
Though
her dimples weren’t showing, he recognized the blonde.Valentine.
She
reached down and gently caught hold of the injured woman’s hand. “How are you
doing, Heather?”
At
the contact, the girl fought not to cry. “Oh, God, Val, I can’t believe this.”
“You’re
going to be okay. Just lie back and let me take a look, all right?” Valentine
knelt next to the platinum blonde.“Somebody get an ice pack. We need to keep
the swelling down.”
She
glanced over, spotted him standing in the doorway, and seemed to remember who
he was. “Ethan, can you find someone to get an ice pack for us?”
He
nodded. “I’ll take care of it.” His last glimpse as he walked out of the
dressing room was Valentine moving the ankle. He heard Heather’s hiss of pain,
and then she started to cry.
“I’ve
got the ice coming,” Daniel told him when he reached the open area behind the
stage. “We keep a couple of physicians on our payroll, on call for emergencies
like these. It shouldn’t take Dr. Harrison long to get here.”
“Will
she be able to do the show?” Ethan asked.
Daniel
shook his head. “From the looks of that sprain, it isn’t likely. La Belle has
liability concerns when it comes to job-related injuries. Besides, I don’t
think she’d be able to walk the runway in a pair of spike heels.”
Ethan
didn’t think so either. But then, he couldn’t figure out how the models managed
to do it when there was nothing wrong with them.
Kat Martin is the author
of twenty-one Historical and Contemporary Romance novels. She tackles many
different aspects of her genre with settings ranging from the rugged West to
the Antebellum South, Regency, Georgian, and Medieval England. Not one to shy
away from change, she also tackles Contemporary Romantic Suspense novels which
involve the paranormal. Some of her titles include Nothing But Velvet, Sweet
Vengeance, and Dangerous Passions. These works have won a bevy of awards
including a recent Romantic Times Magazine nomination for Best Historical
Romance of 1998 for her latest release, Wicked Promise. She is also published
in, among others, Germany, Norway, Sweden, China, Russia, and Spain.
Before starting her writing career in 1985, Kat was a real estate
broker. During that time, she met her husband, Larry Jay Martin, also a
Kensington author. After double majoring in Anthropology and History at the
University of California at Santa Barbara, she found herself incredibly
interested in the past. In fact, she and Larry often do research in the areas
where their books take place. She remarks, "We like to stay in out-of-the-way
inns and houses built in times past. It's fun and it gives a wonderful sense of
a bygone era."
In May, Kat will
release her next Historical Romance, Night Secrets. Following that is an
upcoming Zebra release, a Contemporary Romantic Suspense entitled The Silent
Rose, which will be out in August. "It's a ghostly tale of romance and
intrigue that was based on a real life incident," says Kat. "It's a
little bit scary, a whole lot sexy, and hopefully lots of fun to read."
Thank you for hosting INTO THE FURY today!
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