LITMIR.BIZ

       1

      “IF YOU HAVE PLANS for Christmas, cancel them.”

      Retired Colonel James McGuire fired the order at him the moment Dino Angelis strolled into the office on the top floor of the Merceri Bank Building. Dino took his time walking across the expanse of Oriental carpet as he studied the tall, gruff-spoken man standing behind the carved oak desk.

      Admiral Robert Maxwell, Dino’s boss, had described his oldest and dearest friend accurately. James McGuire was a tall, lean man in his early sixties who despite his white hair appeared to be several years younger. McGuire had retired from the army two years previously and married his second wife, Gianna Merceri, who would one day inherit the Merceri banking fortune. Since then he’d worked as a VP for the New York City branch. Though he was wearing an impeccably tailored business suit, the colonel’s bearing and tone of command marked him unmistakably as ex-military.

      “Much as I hate to ruin anyone’s holiday, this job may take longer than either one of us would like,” McGuire continued.

      Dino sighed inwardly. Okay, so his hunch that he wouldn’t make it home for Christmas had been right. Ninety percent of the time what his family referred to as his premonitions were extremely accurate. They’d saved his life on more than one occasion. But this would make three Christmases in a row he hadn’t been with his family, and his cousin Theo was getting married on December 27th.

      Not for the first time, Dino asked himself if there’d been some way of getting out of this assignment that he’d overlooked. But Admiral Maxwell owed Colonel McGuire a favor, and Dino owed his admiral, big-time. For the last two years he’d worked in special operations under Maxwell’s command. Three months ago, he’d been shot on one of his missions. A bullet had come within an inch of his spine. Recuperating in hospitals in Germany and later in D.C. had given him time to reevaluate how he wanted to spend the rest of his life. He’d joined the navy because he loved the sea. He’d wanted adventure and to see the world. Plus, he’d sensed it was what he was supposed to do. Now, he wanted a job that wouldn’t isolate him so completely from his cousins, his uncle and his mother. He missed the closeness, the connectedness he always found with his family. Admiral Maxwell had not only understood his decision, but he’d worked hard to expedite Dino’s discharge, and Dino liked to repay his debts.

      So he had committed to do a job that he knew nothing about—except that it involved McGuire’s family. Of course, Maxwell had used that information as part of the bait. He knew that for Dino, family was important, given it was one of the main reasons he wanted out of the navy. McGuire also knew Dino had expressed an interest in getting into some kind of investigative or security work when he returned to civilian life and that this assignment would be a good opportunity to give it a whirl.

      To make the job even more tempting, the admiral had even given Dino the business card of an old navy buddy, Jase Campbell, who was now running his own security firm in Manhattan. Dino had done his first two special ops missions for Maxwell with Jase at his side, and they’d found their styles complementary. Jase was a meticulous planner, and Dino was good at improvising and going with his hunches.

      McGuire

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