Delta: Rescue: A MacKenzie Family Novella (The MacKenzie Family) Read online

  Delta: Rescue

  By Cristin Harber

  A MacKenzie Family Novella

  Introduction by Liliana Hart

  Delta: Rescue

  A MacKenzie Family Novella

  Copyright 2016 Cristin Harber

  ISBN: 978-1-942299-34-9

  Introduction copyright 2016 Liliana Hart

  Published by Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.

  BOOK DESCRIPTION

  Delta: Rescue

  by Cristin Harber

  From Liliana Hart’s New York Times bestselling MacKenzie family comes a new story by New York Times bestselling author Cristin Harber…

  When Luke Brenner takes an off-the-books job on the MacKenzie-Delta joint task force, he has one goal: shut down sex traffickers on his personal hunt for retribution. This operation brings him closer than he’s ever been to avenge his first love, who was taken, sold, and likely dead.

  Madeleine Mercier is the daughter of an infamous cartel conglomerate. Their family bleeds money, they sell pleasure, they sell people. She knows no other life, sees no escape, except for one. Maddy is the only person who can take down Papa, when every branch of law enforcement in every country, is on her father’s payroll.

  It’s evil. To want to ruin, to murder, her family. But that’s what she is. Ruined for a life outside of destroying her father. She can’t feel arousal. Has never been kissed. Never felt anything other than disgust for the world that she perpetuates. Until she clashes with a possible mercenary who gives her hope.

  The hunter versus the virgin. The predator and his prey. When forced together, can enemies resist the urge to run away or destroy one another?

  ABOUT CRISTIN HARBER

  Cristin Harber is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author. She writes steamy new adult, romantic suspense, and military romance. Readers voted her onto Amazon’s Top Picks for Debut Romance Authors in 2013, and her debut Titan series was both a #1 romantic suspense and military romance bestseller.

  Stay in touch for new release and exclusive info:

  Newsletter: bit.ly/11aWFzM or text TITAN to 66866

  Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cristinharberauthor

  Team Titan Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1411308265771683/

  ALSO BY CRISTIN HARBER

  The Titan Series:

  Book 1: Winters Heat

  Book 1.5: Sweet Girl

  Book 2: Garrison’s Creed

  Book 3: Westin’s Chase

  Book 4: Gambled

  Book 5: Chased

  Book 6: Savage Secrets

  Book 7: Hart Attack

  Book 8: Black Dawn

  The Delta Series:

  Book 1: Delta: Retribution

  Book 2: Delta: Revenge

  The Only Series:

  Book 1: Only for Him

  Book 2: Only for Her

  Book 3: Only for Us

  Book 4: Only Forever

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  A huge shout out to Team Titan. Thanks for the energy and excitement. I love to chat with you every day. Tackle hugs all around.

  Thank you to Sharon Kay and JB Salsbury for the time spent on this project. You always find time to help and read. Love you forever.

  An Introduction to the MacKenzie Family World

  Dear Readers,

  I’m thrilled to be able to introduce the MacKenzie Family World to you. I asked five of my favorite authors to create their own characters and put them into the world you all know and love. These amazing authors revisited Surrender, Montana, and through their imagination you’ll get to meet new characters, while reuniting with some of your favorites.

  These stories are hot, hot, hot—exactly what you’d expect from a MacKenzie story—and it was pure pleasure for me to read each and every one of them and see my world through someone else’s eyes. They definitely did the series justice, and I hope you discover five new authors to put on your auto-buy list.

  Make sure you check out Troublemaker, a brand new, full-length MacKenzie novel written by me. And yes, you’ll get to see more glimpses of Shane before his book comes out next year.

  So grab a glass of wine, pour a bubble bath, and prepare to Surrender.

  Love Always,

  Liliana Hart

  Available now! Click to purchase.

  Trouble Maker by Liliana Hart

  Rush by Robin Covington

  Bullet Proof by Avery Flynn

  Delta: Rescue by Cristin Harber

  Deep Trouble by Kimberly Kincaid

  Desire & Ice by Christopher Rice

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Book Description

  About Cristin Harber

  Also by Cristin Harber

  Author Acknowledgments

  An introduction to the MacKenzie Family World by Liliana Hart

  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

  Epilogue

  Discover the Liliana Hart MacKenzie Family Collection

  Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights

  Delta: Retribution by Cristin Harber, Now Available

  Special Thanks

  CHAPTER ONE

  Luke Brenner lived for moments when he could crush his enemies, when he could see fear as their past caught up to the present. What he had learned over the last ten years in the military and law enforcement was that men who trafficked women and drugs tended to find God when they were caught. At each takedown and arrest, someone was always pleading, always “Oh God, no” or “Oh God, help.” Luke found it astonishing that just moments before, those same assholes hadn’t cared who the girls were sold to or whose lives the drugs ruined. They never thought about the pain of another life stolen or what the women would be subjected to.

  But Luke had.

  Every day, he had. His nightmares were made of the traffickers he was about to bust. Eerily, his good dreams were quite similar—those where he escaped, where the MacKenzie Security–Delta Team joint taskforce was able to save women and sweep drugs off the Miami streets.

  Well, today he intended to save some more. It’d been too long since they’d walked out with salvageable lives.

  Stealthy boot steps sounded from behind, and Luke already sensed that Javier was on his six. The team was in place. This rescue op needed to be a quiet in and out, or at least an attempt to avoid mass chaos and destruction.

  “We’re a go,” their joint-endeavor team leader, Cade MacKenzie, ordered in Luke’s earpiece comm. “Execute.”

  “All right, all right. Let’s do this.” Luke nodded across the hotel hall to Grayson, who warily watched his every move.

  Delta team danced on eggshells around Luke and Javier when the job dealt with traffickers. Brock Gamble, their Delta team leader, almost hadn’t let Luke on this op. He could feel their concerned looks, but they needed to chill. He hadn�
�t lost control that many times, and when he had, it’d been deserved. Still, the scrutiny was there.

  “Damn. I’m good.” More or less. “Calm down,” he grumbled.

  Gray nodded his disbelieving, pretty-boy face—as much a pretty boy as anyone could be in this type of gig. But his face was trustworthy enough that he was tasked with a simple door knock at the hotel room. They didn’t want to kick down the door, and if Grayson’s all-American looks kept them from doing that, fine.

  Luke’s face wouldn’t get a door opened. Hell, if he mugged for the peephole, angry and aggressive as he was, they’d likely get into a shootout with the traffickers on the other side. Which would be fine. But Cade’s orders were to take their subjects alive—not Luke’s prerogative.

  His blood thumped too hard. His mind raced. After today, they would be that much closer to bringing down the traffickers who had stolen and sold his girlfriend so many years ago. He wanted the Mercier cartel more than he wanted to breathe.

  Knock, knock.

  “We’ve got movement,” Ryder said in the earpiece. Their sniper was in the hotel across the street with his .50 cal on point, keeping eyes on the hotel suite. “I see four women. Two men, their weapons holstered.”

  “Let’s keep the body count down,” Cade snapped.

  Fuck it. Luke didn’t care. If he had his way, they’d snipe the shit out of the two armed men and call the day a success. He could have a beer and disappear off the grid.

  That was the advantage of being on the task force. Some higher-up bureaucrat wanted a job done and didn’t mind if the rules were bent. Cade had major sway with the DEA, and Delta team, which worked under Titan Group’s command, didn’t mind pressing their luck with the boundaries of the law. Titan was elite. They had the know-how and reputation that put them years ahead of any other private security force. Their teams lived in a gray area that couldn’t be called right or wrong—only justified.

  Luke didn’t mind either. He wanted to hunt. To fight. To search and investigate. He wanted to be a vigilante asshole with one purpose in life—to scour the earth for traffickers and eradicate their despicable existence.

  Grayson knocked and called, “Maintenance.”

  A few seconds ticked by.

  “No one called maintenance.” The man inside sounded inherently distrustful, and that seemed about right for someone Luke wanted to kill. Their prey seemed to know his own self-preservation was in jeopardy.

  Grayson chuckled in his maintenance-man character. “CO2 leak reported, buddy. Let me check before you fall asleep and die… Or not. I get paid regardless.”

  “Looks like they’re conferring.” Ryder paused from his sniper report. “Second man’s picking up the phone.”

  “In-house call to front desk,” Parker, the task force’s expert IT guy, reported in their comm pieces from their offsite war room. “We’re intercepting. Hang tight. Front desk, can I help you?”

  Luke bounced on his toes, waiting for Parker to give the traffickers false confirmation.

  “Yes, sir.” Parker continued the front desk routine. “There was an issue with a faulty condenser. We’re just making the rounds.”

  “One man heading toward the door,” Ryder reported. “Second man speaking with a woman. They’re all pushing into a bedroom.”

  The door cracked open. “Come in.”

  “Thanks. Figured you didn’t want to die today, but what do I know?” Grayson chuckled.

  As the trafficker stepped forward to check the hall, Gray grabbed his face, wrapping a hand over his mouth, then subdued him. Quickly, Javier, Grayson, and Luke entered the room, bringing the unconscious man with them.

  “You’re all good,” Ryder said. “Three ladies on the bed. One standing. Only hostile is still unaware.”

  Inside the hotel room suite, Javier and Gray took both sides of the double French door leading to the bedroom, and Luke took the middle. His left hand rested on the fancy knob, his right holding the weight of his sidearm. He pushed quietly into the room and caught the eye of the standing woman. He pursed his lips together, shushing her quiet, and stuck the business end of his 9mm against the base of the man’s skull. Javier and Gray went wide.

  “Law enforcement. Hands in the air.” Luke took the weapon from the hostile’s waist and tucked it into his own. “Walk to the wall, asshole.”

  The man’s head pivoted and lingered on the woman, then the three ladies in the bed.

  “Move it.” Luke’s molars gnashed as irritation mixed with his adrenaline.

  He grumbled but wisely relented and moved. A few steps later, he was face-first against the wall. Luke patted him down and removed an ankle-holstered .22, then bound his wrists. As planned, Javier took the man out of the bedroom, Mirandizing him as they moved him for the task force to interrogate him.

  With Grayson at Luke’s side, they carefully approached the women. The three on the bed were trembling as they looked at the other woman. She was dressed differently. If he knew the Mercier cartel, that woman had been cleaned up and was about to hit the market. She was wearing a dress and had on makeup. The joint team had arrived in time to save her. One more life they’d been able to salvage.

  “Relax.” He approached cautiously. “We’re the good guys. We’re getting you out of here.”

  None of them spoke, and he could almost smell their fear and distrust.

  “It’s okay,” Grayson tried. His voice offered a reassurance that Luke’s couldn’t.

  “How did you find us?” asked the standing woman with a hint of an unfamiliar accent and a confidence that didn’t match the situation. Her soft features stood out against the aged years in her eyes. Who knew who she was in real life—traffickers didn’t care who they stole, college students or CEOs—and who knew what she had seen while they had her, but it had to have been a lot. This woman—nearly his age, maybe—had witnessed hell. But her shoulders were back, and she had the distrusting spirit of a fighter, which Luke admired.

  “We’re help,” he offered.

  A woman on the bed shifted. “But—” Then she cut herself off as the three others turned toward her in harsh surprise—or fear. What didn’t the task force know? What couldn’t they see?

  “You’re letting us go?” The standing woman stepped closer to the bed.

  “Not immediately.” Luke shook his head briefly. “It’s best if you come with us first.”

  She pursed her full lips. “I don’t want to.”

  “Ladies?” Grayson ignored her and spoke to the three on the bed. “We’ll get you safe.”

  As they eagerly nodded their heads, Luke could’ve sworn a flicker of uncertainty and curiosity darkened the woman’s face. He stepped closer to her, noting that the three on the bed looked well taken care of, considering. “What’s your name?”

  “What’s yours?” she countered.

  “Brenner.” His eyes narrowed, and surprisingly, he had to bite down a smile because while she was feisty, she was also in danger. Amusement was poor form given the circumstances, and she was a victim. “Luke Brenner. What do you say we get you out of here? We’ll deal with the men who took you.”

  Her flat lips pursed. “I don’t need your help. If I’m free to go—”

  “Easy. Promise, we’ll take care of you.”

  Her eyes flared, and color hit her cheeks. “I don’t need it.”

  Grayson cleared his throat. “We doing this?”

  “Yeah.” Luke moved forward, ushering the girls off the bed. “Let’s move before someone else arrives.”

  “Where are you from?” the woman asked again, this time with more strength.

  “Nowhere.” No need to get into the politics of where everyone was recruited for the task force.

  “No,” she pressed him. “You’re not local.”

  “And you’re from here?”

  Her accent was nothing he was familiar with. Javier’s Brazilian accent and Ryder’s Aussie drawl were easy to decipher. Not so hers, which sounded smooth, almost like hidd
en elegance, and the cadence made him pay closer attention.

  “I asked you first,” she said.

  He turned back toward her. “I have a job to do. Let’s move boots.”

  “Same. Let me walk away. I want to go home and forget about all of this.”

  He lowered his voice. “Did they touch you? Hurt you?”

  Her chin jutted up. “No. Not all of them are like that.”

  “Yeah, I’ll bet. What’s your name?”

  She tilted her head toward him, then caught the eyes of the other girls. “If we talk to you, they’ll find us. They’ll kill us. That’s the truth. Better to know that now than regret it later.”

  Luke stepped between her and the other women. “Come in to headquarters. We’ll work it out.”

  The women shifted uneasily. The tension in the room crept higher, and the reasons were unclear.

  “What?” he asked.

  She pivoted her gaze around him to the bed. “You don’t know them like I do. If we talk, we will die.”

  “Take it easy,” Grayson broke in. “Let’s get out of here. We’ll figure out how to keep everyone safe.”

  “They’ll never forget.” Her dark hair fell over her shoulders as she shook her head. “Never. Not if we talk. Let everyone leave. That’s best. Like we escaped.”

  Luke took a step forward. “What I’m telling you is that we need to go, and eventually, you’ll be able to trust me.”

  She leveled him with a stare so cold, so hot, so absurdly confusing, that he took a step back. “I trust no one.”

  “We’re out.” Grayson guided the other girls from the hotel room. “Get a move on, buddy.”