LITMIR.BIZ

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coiled her muscles as the footsteps drew nearer. Target practice had nothing on real-world situations.

      Another door snapped shut. Click, click. Dull clicks, not women’s high heels but a man’s dress shoes or some kind of heavy heels. Not the soft soles of a security guard or cop. Secret Service?

      Her legs ached with tension, trembling with the effort to stay poised for action. Click, click. Pause. The handle of the door turned.

      Raven flattened her feet against the door and coiled her thigh muscles. A slice of light appeared, and she shoved her legs forward. The door hit resistance. Raven sprang to her feet and charged out of the closet, clutching the gun in front of her.

      A man in a dark suit staggered back, cursing and reaching beneath his jacket.

      Raven steadied her weapon and took up a shooting stance, just like Buzz had taught her. “Don’t move or I’ll blow a hole in your gut.”

      The man dropped his hands and jerked his head up. A slow smile spread across his handsome face.

      “If it isn’t Raven Pierre—city girl turned…guntotin’ vigilante. And you already blew a hole in my gut, girl.”

      Raven choked as she scanned the tall figure in front of her dressed in a tailored suit and…cowboy boots. Her gaze traveled back up, all six feet three inches, until she met the blue eyes, brimming with laughter, of her ex-fiancé and former weapons instructor, Buzz Richardson.

       Chapter Two

      Damn, his ex-fiancée looked better than ever with her black hair slightly askew, her expensive silk suit wrinkled and a Colt .45 clutched in her manicured hands.

      But what the hell was she doing hiding in a closet?

      “What are you doing in there? U.N. security already has the two shooters in custody, or at least one’s in custody. The other’s dead. They nailed the two guys right in the General Assembly.”

      The news did nothing to unfurl the frown creasing her beautiful features. Her hand tightened on the weapon as she narrowed her dark eyes. “They didn’t nail all of them.”

      His pulse ticked up several notches. “What are you talking about? You weren’t even with the Burumandan contingent.”

      “I was with one part of that contingent. One very important part.” She stepped to the side and swung open the closet door behind her.

      Buzz raised his brows at the girl huddled in the closet, her chin balanced on her knees. President Okeke’s daughter. He should have figured Raven’s boss had assigned her to the First Daughter. Security was going nuts looking for the girl after finding her bodyguards and the Secret Service agent conked out in the anteroom where she’d been stashed.

      Still didn’t explain why Raven had been ensconced in a dark closet with the girl. Raven didn’t even like kids. He knew all about that firsthand.

      Buzz smiled and waved at the girl. “How you doin’, sweetheart? Excitement’s all over. Your daddy’s A-OK.”

      Her big brown eyes got bigger. She dropped her gaze to his boots and then sent a beseeching look toward Raven.

      “Does she speak English?”

      Raven snorted and finally lowered her weapon. “She speaks better English than you, Buzz.”

      Extending a hand to the girl, she said, “It’s all right, Malika. I know this man. He’s…safe.”

      Buzz cocked an eyebrow at Raven. She’d never called him safe before.

      As the girl scrambled out of the closet and grabbed Raven’s hand, Buzz folded his arms and squared his shoulders. “What did you mean about not nailing all of them?”

      “When Garrett and then the bodyguards lost consciousness and we saw the shooting erupt on the closed-circuit TV, I didn’t want to take any chances.” She dipped into the closet, grabbed her handbag and tucked the gun away in it. “I mean, why incapacitate Malika’s security if you’re just shooting at President Okeke?”

      Buzz’s mouth went dry and he ran his tongue along his teeth. “Your time with Prospero paid off. Go on.”

      “So I locked the door of the anteroom, grabbed Garrett’s gun and headed for the secret exit.”

      “There’s a secret exit in the anteroom?”

      She nodded, and her dark hair swept across one shoulder. “I know all the ins and outs in this building.”

      “And the secret exit led you here?”

      “Not before I heard two men in the anteroom desperate to find the president’s daughter.” Raven rested a hand on the girl’s shoulder.

      Buzz tightened his jaw. President Okeke had been whisked away to a secure hotel room, frantic over his daughter’s disappearance. Shortly after the shooting, the CIA had gotten word that rebel forces had attacked the capital of Burumanda. And now the First Daughter was in danger.

      “We need to keep her safe.” He crouched in front of the girl. “What’s your name, darlin’?”

      Again, her gaze slid to Raven, who inclined her head.

      “Malika.”

      “A lot of people are very worried about you, Malika, including your daddy. But we’re going to take good care of you.”

      The girl inched closer to Raven and clutched her hand, still resting on Malika’s shoulder. Must have been the fear that had drawn these two together. He’d never seen Raven close to a child before.

      He liked it.

      “What next, Buzz? Are we going to bring Malika to her father?”

      “Not so fast, Raven.” He ran a finger along the seam of his lips. Truth was President Okeke didn’t want his daughter anywhere near him. He didn’t want his proximity to put her in danger. And neither one of them could go home right now with trouble brewing.

      Raven dug into her suitcase-sized handbag and pulled out a pair of shoes—high heels with lethal-looking points on the ends. She slipped her feet into them and grew four inches in stature. “What is your involvement, anyway? I thought you’d retired from Prospero and were flying the friendly skies for a living. What are you doing here?”

      “Special assignment.” A special assignment that had everything to do with Prospero. Jack Coburn, the former team leader of Prospero, was missing and his disappearance had been linked to the upheaval in Burumanda. Buzz needed to stay involved in this investigation and follow the trail that had begun with his former Prospero team members, Riley Hammond and Ian Dempsey.

      “So I repeat—” Raven tugged at the hem of her jacket “—what next?”

      Buzz studied the toes of his boots. “We’re going to let President Okeke know his daughter is safe and take our cue from him.”

      “Hold it. Put your hands out where I can see them.”

      Buzz raised his head to see two cops at the end of the hallway…both pointing guns. He held his hands out in front of him and told Raven to do the same.

      Raven coughed as she shook her hand loose from Malika’s. “Can’t they see we have a child here? They shouldn’t be pointing their weapons at us.”

      Buzz murmured under his breath. “Unless they think we’re in the process of kidnapping her.”

      Raven called out to the approaching cops. “This is President Okeke’s daughter. I’m a U.N. translator. I was with her when the shots were fired in the General Assembly.”

      One of the cops spoke into the radio on his shoulder. Then he tightened the grip on his gun. “Until we can verify that, get on the ground.”

      As Raven grumbled about the general condition of her silk suit and dropped to her knees, Malika screamed and threw her

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