All Your Nights Read online

  Other Books by Shirleen Davies

  Historical Western Romance

  MacLarens of Fire Mountain Series

  Tougher than the Rest, Book One

  Faster than the Rest, Book Two

  Harder than the Rest, Book Three

  Stronger than the Rest, Book Four

  Deadlier than the Rest, Book Five

  Wilder than the Rest, Book Six

  Redemption Mountain

  Redemption’s Edge, Book One

  Wildfire Creek, Book Two, Releasing Winter 2015

  MacLarens of Boundary Mountain

  Colin’s Quest, Book One

  Coming in 2015

  Contemporary Romance

  MacLarens of Fire Mountain Contemporary Series

  Second Summer, Book One

  Hard Landing, Book Two

  One More Day, Book Three

  All Your Nights, Book Four

  Always Love You, Book Five, Releasing Winter 2015

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  All Your Nights

  MacLarens of Fire Mountain

  Contemporary Romance Series

  SHIRLEEN DAVIES

  Book Four in the MacLarens of Fire Mountain

  Contemporary Romance Series

  Copyright © 2014 by Shirleen Davies

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  For permission requests, contact the publisher.

  Avalanche Ranch Press, LLC

  PO Box 12618

  Prescott, AZ 86304

  All Your Nights is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used facetiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is wholly coincidental.

  Book design and conversions by Joseph Murray at 3rdplanetpublishing.com

  ISBN: 978-1-941786-09-3

  Description

  All Your Nights – Book Four

  MacLarens of Fire Mountain Contemporary Romance Series

  “Romance, adventure, cowboys, suspense—everything you want in a contemporary western romance novel.”

  Kade Taylor likes living on the edge. As an undercover agent for the DEA and a former Special Ops team member, his current assignment seems tame—keep tabs on a bookish Ph.D. candidate the agency believes is connected to a ruthless drug cartel.

  Brooke Sinclair is weeks away from obtaining her goal of a doctoral degree. She spends time finalizing her presentation and relaxing with another student who seems to want nothing more than her friendship. That’s fine with Brooke. Her last serious relationship ended in a broken engagement.

  Her future is set, safe and peaceful, just as she’s always planned—until Agent Taylor informs her she’s under suspicion for illegal drug activities.

  Kade and his DEA team obtain evidence which exonerates Brooke while placing her in danger from those who sought to use her. As Kade races to take down the drug cartel while protecting Brooke, he must also find common ground with the former suspect—a woman he desires with increasing intensity.

  At odds with her better judgment, Brooke finds the more time she spends with Kade, the more she’s attracted to the complex, multi-faceted agent. But Kade holds secrets he knows Brooke will never understand or accept.

  Can Kade keep Brooke safe while coming to terms with his past, or will he stay silent, ruining any future with the woman his heart can’t let go?

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to all my readers, friends, and family who have taken the time to read and send comments about my books. All your input and support has been invaluable.

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks also to my editor, Sue Hutchens, and all of my beta readers. Their insights and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

  As always, many thanks to my wonderful resources, including Diane Lebow, who has been a whiz at guiding my social media endeavors, my cover designer, Elle Designs, and Joseph Murray who is a whiz at formatting my books for both print and electronic versions.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Other Books by Shirleen Davies

  All Your Nights

  Prologue

  San Diego, California

  “I guess I’d better get going.” Brooke Sinclair checked her watch and slipped her handbag onto her shoulder. “Thanks so much for the movie and coffee. I had a great time.”

  “As always, it was my pleasure. Do you have time for dinner this weekend?” Paco Bujazan jumped from his seat to pull out her chair. “Perhaps Saturday?”

  Brooke hadn’t been dating. She didn’t define her lunches, study sessions, casual dinners, and late night meetings for coffee with Paco as dates. In her mind, they were two friends sharing time together—quite a bit of time over the last several weeks. She’d returned from a visit to see her mother and stepfather in Fire Mountain, Arizona, determined to break free of the safe cocoon she’d built around herself after the painful breakup with her fiancé over a year before. Paco approached her a couple of days after her return, inviting her to lunch. She’d accepted and had seen him on a regular basis for weeks—as friends and nothing more.

  “Saturday would be great.”

  “That’s wonderful. I’ll pick you up at seven.” Paco seemed surprised and pleased she accepted.

  They parted outside the café, Paco heading toward the house his family paid for overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and Brooke to her one bedroom apartment in a complex several blocks from campus. She looked around, feeling the damp, foggy air creeping over the bluffs. Considered a safe area, she nonetheless felt a strange sense of unease and searched for her car keys a block before the underground parking garage. She pulled her purse in front of her and rummaged inside, losing focus for a brief moment, slipping off a curb and stumbling into the busy street. She caught herself, turning her head a moment before being knocked to the ground. The image of a black rocket flashed through her mind a moment before she drifted into unconsciousness.

  ******

  “What the hell happened?” Dennis Johnson, Kade’s boss and DEA Special Agent in Charge, stormed toward Kade and glared at the undercover agent who stood toe to toe with him.

  “She stepped right in front of me. I’d missed the light and had to circle around a different way. When I caught sight of her, she was no more than a block from her car. It happened so fast I couldn’t swerve out of the way.” Kade Taylor had been following Brooke for weeks, ever since she had begun spending an inordinate amount of time with Francisco “Paco” Bujazan, heir apparent to one of the largest drug cartels in Mexico.

  “We need to speak with her. What did the doctors say?” Dennis let out a deep breath. He needed to speak with this witness now, not a few days from now.

 
“Concussion, scrapes, bruises. No broken bones but they want to keep her overnight.” Kade paced a few feet to the end of the hall, looking out the window to the freeway below. She’d been out of emergency a couple of hours and transferred into her own room. In her wallet, Kade found a driver’s license with California address, health insurance card, student identification, one credit card, and a few dollars. Nothing to tell anyone who should be called in case of emergency, for which Kade had been grateful. The agency wanted her for as long as possible.

  “What did you tell them?”

  “The truth. I showed them my badge and told them I’d contact her family. They know I’ll be taking her with us as soon as she’s released.”

  “Agent Taylor?”

  The two agents broke eye contact and looked down the hall toward a short, spectacled man who emerged from Brooke’s room.

  “I’m Special Agent Taylor. This is Special Agent in Charge Johnson. How is she? What can you tell us?”

  “I’m Doctor Ahmed. Miss Sinclair has suffered a severe concussion. I’ve ordered a CT scan and MRI to rule out any internal bleeding. If all checks out well, I expect she’ll be released tomorrow.” Dr. Ahmed removed his glasses before looking directly at Kade. “She does have someone to watch over her for a few days, correct?”

  “Yes, sir, she does.”

  The doctor’s face revealed his reservations as he gazed at the disheveled agent whose long hair had been secured with a leather cord at the back of his neck, his leathers sporting patches representative of his biker status.

  “All right, just be certain she has someone nearby at all times. I want to see her immediately if anything worsens within the first seventy-two hours after her release.” He shook both men’s hands and turned toward the long hallway behind him.

  Johnson’s fisted hands settled on his waist. “I’ll get someone to watch her tonight.”

  “No. I’m staying.”

  “You’ve been on this nonstop for two days already. Give yourself a break tonight. We’ll call you when she’s released.”

  “I’m staying. You can get a second agent if it makes you feel better, but I’m not leaving.”

  Dennis Johnson shook his head, not surprised by Kade’s reaction. The ex-Special Ops soldier never backed down until a job had been completed. Johnson didn’t know why he expected it would change tonight.

  “All right, but I want her brought to headquarters the minute she’s released. You understand?”

  “Yes, sir.” There was no trace of triumph in Kade’s voice, just a bone-tired automatic response to the order of a superior.

  Johnson took one more look at one of his best agents. “Get some rest.”

  Kade slumped into a chair and watched as Dennis walked toward the outside doors. Once closed, he rested his elbows on his knees and gripped his head with both hands.

  How had tonight’s surveillance of a bookish college student gone so wrong?

  Chapter One

  “If you’ll sign here, we’ll get Miss Sinclair ready.” The young nursing unit clerk smiled at the handsome man who’d spent the night outside of the injured woman’s room. She’d spotted him the moment she’d come on duty and hadn’t been able to keep her eyes off him.

  Kade signed the documents and passed them back across the counter, having no idea of the thoughts flashing through the hospital clerk’s mind. “How long?”

  She smiled up at him, hoping he’d note the interest in her eyes. “Not long, Mr. Taylor.”

  “Special Agent Taylor.” Kade saw her welcoming smile, but didn’t reciprocate. He’d seen the look all too often, knowing it for the trouble it was, and this young woman was none too subtle.

  She nodded, scribbled on a piece of paper and folded it within the copies she handed back to Kade.

  “I’ll go check on her right now, Special Agent Taylor,” she called over her shoulder as she walked toward Brooke’s room. Within minutes she’d returned to her desk and her ongoing, not too subtle glances at Kade.

  He paced toward the front windows, ready to get out of this place and start questioning Paco’s girlfriend. She tried to play the serious graduate student but Kade suspected she knew quite a bit about her boyfriend’s activities. With luck, they’d get the information needed for their investigation today and arrest her boyfriend before nightfall.

  Kade looked outside and thought of Miss Sinclair’s new, bright red SUV being searched by the tech team. No one else had been available, so he’d picked it up last night, parking his motorcycle at a friend’s house. Vivian had been more than a little pissed when he’d shown up in the middle of the night, asking for a lift to the parking garage, then asking her to follow him to the impound garage. He’d have to make it up to her later.

  Today, another tech team would be searching her apartment, checking for anything connecting her to the Bujazan family business. Between the two searches, he felt confident connecting evidence would turn up.

  Kade turned to see a familiar figure walk through the double doors.

  “Marshal Salgado. You here to help?”

  “Moral support, my man.” Ernesto Salgado held his hand out to his good friend. “But if you need back up…”

  They turned at the sound of commotion coming from Brooke’s room.

  “What’s going on?” Kade strolled into the room, stopping at the edge of the bed, in time to see a long, firm leg, before Brooke glanced up, saw him, and pulled the cover back over her semi-clothed body.

  “Who are you?” She glared at him, folding her arms over her chest.

  “I’m Agent Taylor with the DEA, and this is U.S. Marshal Salgado. We’ll be taking you out of here.”

  “The hell you will. I’m not going anywhere with you.” She turned her attention to the nurse. “Where are my clothes and belongings?”

  “Agent Taylor signed for your belongings. Your clothes are right here.” The nurse picked up a clear plastic zip bag and pulled out the contents before casting a sympathetic glance at Kade.

  “I told her she’d be leaving with a Federal Agent. She didn’t respond too well.” The nurse glanced back at Brooke with a stern gaze.

  “Nurse, if you’d give us a minute, please?” Kade asked, stepping aside as the nurse left the room.

  “Miss Sinclair, you’re part of an ongoing investigation and I’m requesting you accompany me to headquarters for questioning.”

  “What on earth are you talking about? Questioning about what?” Brooke sat up and swung her legs off the bed, immediately regretting it. She gripped the rolling table for support, but it slid from her grasp. Kade instinctively grabbed her arm to keep her from falling.

  “Take it easy. You suffered a concussion in the accident last night.” He steeled himself from glancing down at the long, shapely legs he’d only had a glimpse of when he’d entered the room.

  “What accident?” This time her eyes searched his, a confused and painful look causing an immediate impact on Kade. He stared for an instant before reclaiming his composure.

  Kade glanced at Marshal Salgado, who tried to hide a grin as he lowered his gaze.

  “You walked into my motorcycle and fell, bumping your head on the pavement, then passing out.”

  “You? You’re the one on the big black rocket who ran into me?” She reached for the phone. “I’m calling the police. You’re the one who should be arrested.”

  Kade reached out and stilled her hand.

  “Miss Sinclair, the questions won’t take long and your input may help us to put some bad guys behind bars. You’ll understand everything during questioning. Unless of course you’d rather we obtain a warrant for your arrest.” Brooke shook her head enough to let Kade know a warrant wouldn’t be necessary. He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing he’d never be able to get one given the lack of evidence. “The nurse will help you dress and we’ll get out of here.” Brooke started to protest before Kade held up his hand. “Miss Sinclair, it will be over before you know it.”

  Brooke assessed the
situation. She had no one in San Diego she could call, but she did have her mother and stepfather in Arizona. “All right, but I want to make a phone call.”

  Kade and Ernesto shared a look.

  “We need to get you out of this room, but you will have access to a phone at headquarters.”

  Kade’s hard stare told Brooke the discussion had ended. She didn’t like it but knew when to stay silent. She’d call her stepfather, Heath MacLaren, and figure a way out of this horrible situation.

  ******

  “Follow me, Miss Sinclair. I’ll be taking you to see Senior Agent in Charge Dennis Johnson. He’ll be questioning you.” Kade placed his hand on her elbow, guiding her through the maze of hallways to an outside door, then led her into an open patio area. He’d provided a small amount of information to her on the ride over about the Bujazan cartel and Paco’s connection to it. “We’ll go to the building over there, where he’ll meet you.” He pointed to another building on the other side of a large patio.

  “Wait, don’t I get to make a phone call?” She moved away from Kade, still confused by the entire situation.

  He glanced at his watch and led her back inside before grabbing her cell phone from the bag holding her belongings. “Here you go.”

  Brooke took the phone and dialed.

  “Phyllis? Yes, it’s Brooke. Is Heath available?”

  Kade could see the look of disappointment on his Brooke’s face.

  “I see. Look, this is kind of an emergency. Let him know I need to speak with him right away.” She looked at Kade. “Should he call me back on my phone?”

  Kade provided his cell number, which she repeated to Phyllis. He wanted to know who she’d called.

  “All right. Thanks, Phyllis, I really appreciate it.”

  She started to hand the phone to Kade, then pulled it back, looking at him. “Can I try one more number?”

  “Make it quick.”

  She speed dialed a number and waited, praying it wouldn’t go to voicemail.

  “Cam, please just listen a moment and don’t interrupt me. I was sideswiped by a motorcycle last night. They took me to the hospital, ran some tests, determined I was fine, and released me early this morning. The problem is a DEA agent brought me to their headquarters for questioning on a case they’re investigating. They want to discuss what I might have seen, and question me about my friend. They think he’s connected to some drug lord.”