Aegis 01 - First Exposure

FIRST EXPOSURE

ELISABETH NAUGHTON

Copyright 2013 by Elisabeth Naughton

Cover art and design by Patricia Schmitt/Pickyme

Copy editing by Linda Ingmanson

This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locations are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.

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 encouraging piracy of copyrighted materials in violation with the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Chapter One

F
ame always came with a price. Avery Scott knew that better than anyone.

Climbing out of the rental car, she drew in a deep breath that did little to settle her churning stomach and glanced around the quiet parking lot. A gardener trimmed shrubbery off to her left. The sound of a mower echoed from somewhere beyond the palatial main house. There were no other businesses out here in the middle of Kentucky horse country. Just miles of rolling green hills, old knotted trees, and pristine white fences. No other people that Avery could see besides the man and woman standing in the shade of a giant oak at least two hundred yards out, gazing at a possible Triple Crown winner.

No one noticed her. No one seemed the least bit interested in what America’s sweetheart was up to. Relaxing just a bit, she closed the car door and crossed the circular drive toward her destination. If Jake Ryder couldn’t help her…

She pushed the thought aside and pressed the intercom button near the massive double doors. When a voice echoed asking her business, she gave her name and waited.

Please let this work…

One side of the door pulled open, and an attractive brunette with large brown eyes and a warm smile greeted her. “Welcome, Ms. Stone. I’m Brandi. Mr. Ryder is running a tad behind. Can I get you anything while you wait? Tea? Coffee?”

Avery forced a smile and stepped into the cool entry, relieved the receptionist showed no spark of recognition. “No, thank you. I’m fine.”

The woman closed the door at her back. “Then please, have a seat. It’ll be just a moment.”

Soaring pillars opened to a living room that had been transformed into a reception area. Leather furnishings, burgundy walls, and rich slate floors gave the room a cozy yet trendy feeling. Expensive artwork by well-known artists screamed both attention to detail and professionalism, but it was the large, chrome letters mounted on the wall above the receptionist’s immaculate marble counter that gave her hope. The ones that spelled out the words
Aegis Security
.

Nerves strung tight, Avery crossed to the leather couches. She hated waiting. A perk to having your face splashed across every tabloid was that she rarely had to wait for anything anymore, but for anonymity today, she was willing to wait as long as it took.

A collection of magazines littered the coffee table. Seeing a picture of herself on the cover of one, she quickly pushed it under the rest. She didn’t need the distraction of Hollywood today. And after what had happened to Melody, she didn’t care what the gossip magazines were saying about her. Couldn’t believe she ever had.

Voices echoed from a hallway to her left. To keep from jumping to her feet, she smoothed the pencil skirt against her legs. Deep laughter met her ears, followed by heavy footsteps.

Two men rounded the corner. The first was light—sandy-blond hair cut short, soft blue eyes, wearing a white dress shirt and khaki pants. The other was tall, with piercing dark eyes, sun-kissed skin tanned from hours outdoors, and short black hair. His shoulders were broad and muscular beneath the black button-down he wore rolled up to his forearms, and the faded denim hanging low at his hips…wow…fit him to perfection. But it was the scar on the right side of his face that caused her to suck in a breath. A jagged, diagonal line across his cheekbone that ended in the scruff along his jaw. A scar a lot like the one she’d traced with her fingertips, her lips…a scar she knew as well as the marks on her own skin.

Her pulse picked up as the two spoke in quiet voices on their way toward the receptionist’s counter. The sandy-haired one didn’t bother to look Avery’s way. Instead, he leaned his forearms against the marble and smiled down at the brunette in clear flirtation mode. But the other—the dark one—scanned the room, and the moment his searching gaze landed on Avery, every cell in her body jerked to life.

No.
No, no, no. It wasn’t him. It couldn’t be. Not here of all places. That would just be one wicked twist of fate she did not need right now.

His gaze narrowed on her, and she froze. Something hot flashed in the depths of his way-too-familiar eyes. Not recognition like she expected, but something primal. Something possessive. Something so intense it sent a wicked shot of heat straight to her center and ignited a buzzing in her ears.

Then he looked away like he hadn’t even noticed her. Muscles flexed beneath his thin black shirt as he rounded the counter, moved behind the receptionist’s desk, pushed open a door Avery hadn’t noticed before, and disappeared.

The door whisked closed with a clap.

Avery’s skin blazed, and her mind tumbled. Placing a hand against her belly, she tried to settle her quaking stomach and focused on breathing. It wasn’t him. It couldn’t be him. She hadn’t even thought about him in years.

Liar.

“Ms. Stone?”

Avery jerked and looked up. An attractive blonde in gray slacks and a red blouse stood feet away, holding a folder against her chest as she stared down at Avery expectantly through wire-rimmed glasses.

Pull it together, Avery
. “Yes.”

“Mr. Ryder’s ready for you.”

Avery nodded, but the fine hairs along her neck stood at attention. Mr. Dark and Dangerous was long gone, yet the prickly fingers of heat rushing up and down her spine made her feel like he was still watching. She glanced up and around as she followed the blonde out of the reception area and into a hall, searching for cameras. This was a security company. They had to monitor visitors, right?

Her imagination was getting away from her. It wasn’t him. It couldn’t be him. Aegis recruited from the best of the best. He’d been special to her, but to everyone else he was…a rebel. The kid from the wrong side of the tracks who always managed to find trouble. And boy, had he found it with her.

“Ms. Stone?”

Startled from the memories suddenly rushing in, Avery looked to her right. The blonde was once again watching her with curiosity. Somehow they’d gotten into the elevator. “Um, yes?”

“Your flight? It was good?”

Her head felt as if it were in a fog, but Avery quickly realized the blonde had been chattering the entire time she’d been stressing over the guy in the lobby. Giving herself a mental slap, she straightened her spine. “Oh, yes. Fine. Thank you for asking.”

“Good.” The blonde looked toward the opening elevator doors. “Mr. Ryder will be happy to hear that. We have clients from all over the world. Most have never been to Kentucky before.”

Avery stepped off the elevator into another well-decorated waiting room. A large desk sat to the right. To the left, floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over the rolling green hills, white fences, and horse farms in the distance. “Wow. It’s…beautiful.”

“It is.” The blonde dropped the folder on her desk, then stepped toward double doors on the far side of the room. “Mr. Ryder’s family has been breeding and racing horses for generations. I don’t think many were thrilled when he decided to set up Aegis on the family estate, but he’s a man who does what he wants, when he wants. And he’s been very successful at everything he’s put his mind to.”

She pushed the door open. A huge office filled Avery’s line of sight. A bar sat to her left. Ahead, a rock fireplace anchored the room with a gigantic flat-screen TV mounted above the mantel. On both sides, six, eight…nine more TVs took up the rest of the wall space, each channel tuned to a different news station, the sound muted. Several leather couches were positioned in front of the TVs in conversational seating, and to her right, a large mahogany desk sat in front of a wall of windows that looked out over the rolling fields.

“Ms. Stone is here to see you,” the blonde said.

The leather chair swiveled, and a dark-haired man wearing a crisp dress shirt and slacks pushed to his feet and rounded the desk. He offered his hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Ms. Stone. I take it your trip in was good?”

“Yes. Thank you.” His fingers were warm, his grip solid. He was everything the guy in the lobby was not—polished, professional, not familiar in the least. Feeling marginally better, Avery sat when he gestured toward the chair opposite his desk.

“Thanks, Marley,” he said to the blonde. “That’ll be all for now.”

Marley smiled. “If you need anything else, I’ll be right outside.”

The door closed behind her. Jake Ryder leaned back against his massive desk and folded his arms over his chest. His shirtsleeves were rolled up to his forearms, revealing tanned, muscular arms that obviously did more than just sit behind a desk all day. Arms that were tattooless beneath the sleeves, unlike the guy in the lobby.

Stop thinking about him… It’s not him.

“So,” Mr. Ryder said, “we spoke over the phone, and I know what you’re looking for, but I’d like to get a few more details from you, if that’s all right.”

Avery’s nerves kicked in again. “Sure. I expected as much.”

“You said you were an author? And that this…excursion…for which you’re hiring security is…research?”

She could play this one of two ways. Either she could keep up the ruse or she could be honest. She figured being honest about what she was getting his men into was the safer bet.

“Actually, I’m not an author, I’m an actress. I apologize for misleading you, Mr. Ryder, but I didn’t want to set off the paparazzi. You have no idea how hard it is to do anything private when the whole world is watching.”

“I have no doubt, Ms. Scott.”

Ms. Scott
. He knew. The wig and glasses obviously hadn’t done much to conceal her identity.

Surprise must have registered on her face, because he quickly added, “We research all potential clients thoroughly. We knew who you were when we got your first email inquiring about our services. I don’t want you to worry, though. No paparazzi followed you here. That I can guarantee.”

Avery wished that would help her breathe easier, but it didn’t. The only time she’d breathe easier was when she found Melody. “Thank you, Mr. Ryder.”

“You’re welcome. And call me Jake. Now.” He settled back against the desk. “Tell me a little more about your friend. She’s been missing for three weeks?”

A first-name basis didn’t ease her anxiety any, but she liked this guy so far, and she’d only heard good things about his company. “Over the last couple of months, I’ve been researching an upcoming role. Have you heard of the best-selling book,
The Sacrifice
? It’s being made into a film, and I’m one of the actresses up for the lead. The book deals with some dark subject matter, specifically underground sex clubs and the seedy, dark underworld of the kinky rich and famous. I’d done about as much research as I could on my own without visiting one of these…establishments, but I was considering it. The problem is the media. I’ve got paparazzi following me most days. I mean, just getting here without anyone knowing was a major feat.”

“I can only imagine.”

Avery drew in a breath. “Yes, well…about three weeks ago, my assistant, Melody Carmichael, offered to visit one for me. It’s an estate on an island in the Caribbean. Indulgence is marketed as a couples resort, but really it’s more like a swingers club. I tried to talk Melody out of going, but she was insistent that this was what I needed to nail the role. She occasionally does research for me, but this was more than the usual. She talked her ex-boyfriend, Dominic Ellis, into going with her. They split months ago but have stayed on friendly terms, and she felt safe going with him because Ellis is ex-military. I wasn’t supportive of it, but once Melody gets something in her head, it’s hard to change her mind. Whether I’d agreed or not, she would have gone.”

Avery paused and looked toward Ryder, but the man showed no reaction, so she went on. “She was only supposed to be gone three days. I was at my house in Florida at the time. She called the first day to tell me about the resort, and she was supposed to call again the next day to let me know how it was going, but I never heard from her. That was three weeks ago. I flew to Jamaica and filed a missing persons report. The police there told me they’d investigate, but when they got back to me, they claimed they’d found no evidence indicating foul play. No evidence even that Melody had ever been at Indulgence. That struck me as odd. I mean, she called me from that location, so I know she was there. But they found no evidence Dominic had been there either, and their answer was that she and Dominic just ran off together. Now, granted, Dominic Ellis is the kind of guy who comes and goes. He does contract work for some overseas security firm, so he has long breaks between assignments, and he and Melody have had an on-again, off-again relationship. But that explanation just doesn’t add up for me. Melody wouldn’t run off like this. And she wouldn’t do it knowing I was waiting for her. Indulgence refused to let me on the property since I wasn’t a registered guest, so I hired a private investigator, but he came up empty-handed as well. And when Indulgence found out someone was asking questions about their resort, they refused to answer anything else.”