Chapter Three.
Mike
I dropped the girls off at school and headed for the gym.
I was still pissed about what happened yesterday, and honestly, being a good Samaritan sucked.
Raven had woken me up screaming first, and no sooner had I settled her down, Robin followed suit.
It had been a long night, and I was tired and edgy.
Burning the tension off with exercise should help, and if not, then a jog was in my future.
So, I was even more annoyed when I pulled up and saw a Harley I recognised parked out front. Dynamo. This wasn’t her gym; there was only one reason she was here.
Me.
Grabbing my bag, I was determined to ignore her, which was fucking hard. Dynamo was a wet dream wrapped up in one neat package. Her personality turned me on like no other, and her looks didn’t hurt.
Long black hair, a heart-shaped face, pouty lips, high cheekbones, and she was just beautiful.
Dynamo stood five-six, with rounded hips, a fantastic ass and a great handful of tits.
Everything a man could desire, plus that attitude.
Usually, I had a permanent hard-on around her.
But she’d crossed the line last night. Dynamo had scared my girls, and that was unforgivable.
I headed into the gym and straight for the changing room. When I exited, I made for the treadmill; I was wound too tightly for anything else. Unfortunately for me, the treadmills looked out over a ring; normally that wasn’t an issue. Today it was.
In skintight shorts and a tank, black hair in a ponytail, sparring with Champ, was Dynamo. I tried to concentrate on the screen in front of me, but it didn’t work.
My gaze returned to the ring where Champ and Dynamo were trading punches.
Slightly horrified and more than a bit turned on, I watched Dynamo’s tight ass dance around Champ.
I wasn’t worried. If I knew anything, she wouldn’t be in there unless Champ had allowed it.
When she fought, Dynamo was poetry in motion.
I’d seen her at Fight Club, and she held an unbeaten record.
She’d disappeared for four months a while back, and rumours were she’d been pregnant, while others said that she’d been kidnapped.
Some even suggested she’d been trafficked.
Whatever had occurred had broken her. Any hint of warmth had fled, and she’d become a killing machine.
A few times she’d come close to putting her opponent in a wooden box.
Something really shitty had happened to Dynamo, and she was working through her demons.
The fact it was taking so long meant that it was bad.
The rumours of trafficking rose in my mind.
Since she’d returned, Dynamo had been blank—not that she’d been overly emotionally expressive to begin with.
But now nobody saw anything, not even when she fought.
Dynamo took her opponent apart and then waltzed off.
She’d earned a new moniker. The Ice Queen. It wasn’t wrong.
I watched her for a few more minutes before wrenching my gaze away. This was my gym, not hers, and I wouldn’t be chased from it.
Dynamo
Mike was here and watching me. I could feel his eyes boring into my back. I also felt his anger. Mike was pissed. It didn’t bother me; I wasn’t frightened of him. Mike was aware of my abilities and remained cautious around me—just as he should.
Finally, I wound down as I noticed Champ was panting.
“Thanks for the workout,” I said, stepping up and bumping fists.
“Anytime, girl. You’ve got an open invite here.” Champ grinned.
“Cheers,” I headed over to the corner where a teen waited to help me out of my gloves.
I didn’t miss the way he kept glancing at me, and I barely withheld a smirk.
Yeah, I saw interest in his eyes, but a pimply-faced kid didn’t appeal to me whatsoever.
I shook out my hands and rotated them through a few exercises, then walked to where Mike was finishing up some weightlifting.
“We gotta talk,” I said.
“Don’t need to do anything,” Mike retorted. He picked up a towel and wiped the sweat from his brow.
“Yeah, we do.”
Mike turned and stared at me. “Look at me, Dynamo. Notice anything?”
Shit, that was an invitation I didn’t need.
Mike was older than me; I reckoned in his forties and a seriously handsome guy.
He reminded me of a younger version of Gerard Butler, and that had once made my panties drip.
Mike’s shoulders were broad, his chest deep, his muscles and hips narrow, while his legs were corded with muscle.
Added to his good looks, Mike was a dangerous man to any woman’s sex drive.
“Finished checking me out?” Mike snarled, and I glowered.
He raised a hand and pointed at his face.
“Fuckin’ tired. Any idea why? Because my six-year-old daughter woke me screaming twice during the night.
Add to that, her five-year-old sister woke once but was so hysterical it took half an hour to calm her down.
That’s on your head. We’ve got no shit to say to each other. ”
Mike grabbed his water bottle and towel and stormed off before I could answer. Fuck, just as he said, his girls had nightmares.
I wondered why. Mike had mentioned they’d been suffering from them and they’d just stopped. Why? What crap had happened to his family?
Mike had no intention of talking to me, and I don’t know why that was so important.
I’d seen him in the ring at Fight Club and at the hotel where Vogue ran the brothel.
Once he’d called me because there’d been trouble there and he’d taken my back.
Mike had deferred to me then, and I’d wondered why he’d been there.
I dug my phone out and dialled.
“Dynamo,” Cipher answered.
“You got anything on Mike Adams?” I asked.
“Yeah. Interesting man, and a concern. We should have known he was in our area,” Cipher replied.
“I’m coming in.”
“Meet me at Warden’s office. I’m waiting for something,” Cipher said, yawning and cutting the call. I sensed he had spent the entire night on this.
Cipher looked a mess with bags under his eyes and his clothes in disarray. He slumped in his chair in Warden’s office, a file in front of him. Cipher passed it to me and sat back.
“We should have known this fucker was in our area,” Cipher repeated his words to me.
Warden tapped his desk. “Talk.”
“Michael Liam Adams. Parents were Irish, but he was born here. Got good grades in school, and then Mom and Dad died. He joined the army after their deaths. During that time, he met and married Isla Monroe. He left after fifteen years, citing his desire to start a family. Mike was thirty-three, and a highly decorated officer. But Mike didn’t leave the life behind.
He joined his former captain, who’d formed a mercenary group. AlCorp International.”
Warden and I sat up straight. We’d heard of them.
“Mike works for them?” I demanded.
ACI were well known for their hostage rescues.
You want your loved one back alive? You send in ACI, if you could afford them.
Composed of special forces soldiers, they were as good as SEAL Team Six or the SAS.
Where governments feared to tread, ACI stomped.
Their success rate was extreme. Out of all the clients they’d been sent to bring home, they’d lost five. That was it.
In addition, they were well known for apprehending traffickers.
In fact, they seemed to have a personal grudge against them.
Nobody had any idea why, but ACI went after them hard and without remorse.
They brought down anyone connected to them and had exposed some very rich assholes who now sat in a cell.
“He was vital to them, as he was a former member of SEAL Team Six.”
The bombshell dropped, landed, and exploded.
“What the fuck is Mike doing here?” Warden demanded.
“Isla got pregnant, and Raven was born when Mike was thirty-six.
Robin came along a year later. By all accounts, the family was overjoyed, but that was only on the surface.
While Mike did missions, Isla fell back in with her ex-boyfriend, an addict, Larry.
Mike remained unaware until two years ago.
He returned from a mission to find a bloodbath at his home.
“Larry got in with some bad people. He’d run up six figures in debt and then robbed a dealer, a punk called Diamond.
That asshole came after him and found Larry with Isla and the kids.
Diamond killed Isla in front of the kids and Larry, and then Larry.
But he didn’t just kill them; he slaughtered and butchered them as a warning to everyone else.
Diamond took the girls as payment, intending to sell them,” Cipher said.
“Shit,” I exclaimed.
“Mike lost control, and he and his team pursued Diamond. Diamond had no idea what he’d woken.
ACI chased Diamond’s dealers with a fury while they tracked where Diamond was hiding.
The rest is supposition. Rumour has it Mike gutted Diamond alive and tore him apart.
ACI dismantled the drug trade in their area.
The children were unharmed but severely traumatised.
Mike left ACI, took the girls, packed shit up, and moved here two years ago. ”
Cipher yawned and scratched his stomach.
“How the hell did we miss this?” I asked.
“Because we weren’t looking, and Mike kept under the radar. But that looks to change. Mike took a phone call from Jude Allard last night. Rumours are ACI is searching for a permanent base,” Cipher added.
“They don’t have one?” Warden frowned.
“They rent a warehouse for now, but it’s not big enough for what Allard wants. I hear he’s got a high-end shopping list and they’re looking here for land.”
“Mike still has a connection to them?” I asked.
“Yes. A strong one. Mike’s forty-three years old; he could easily rejoin them. Something tells me he won’t because of his girls, but yeah. Seal Team Six…” Cipher whistled.
“The baddest assholes in the entire fuckin’ forces. They’re on level with Delta Force, and we know those fuckers are lunatics.” Warden shook his head.