Assignment: Discovering Destiny [Hawt Men In and Out of Uniform 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  Hawt Men In and Out of Uniform 4

  Assignment: Discovering Destiny

  From the moment she spotted the two men, Patricia Bates knew they were going to cause waves in her life. But who could blame a girl for wanting such fine specimens of male physique? Unfortunately her life begins to take a turn for the worse, in the form of a creepy secret admirer who doesn’t like the fact she’s ignoring him.

  Slater Markham and Holden Connor have been through hell and back together. Not only are they the best of friends, but they also don’t mind sharing when it comes to the ladies. Patty Bates might put a test on their friendship, unless she comes clean in the most sensual of ways to them both.

  Kidnapped and held against her will by a man licensed with the safety of the general public, Patty understands her chances of getting away unscathed drop by the second. Slater and Holden aren’t giving up, though, not when they have a chance at discovering destiny.

  Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre

  Length: 36,190 words

  ASSIGNMENT: DISCOVERING DESTINY

  Hawt Men In and Out of Uniform 4

  Honor James

  MENAGE EVERLASTING

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

  ASSIGNMENT: DISCOVERING DESTINY

  Copyright © 2015 by Honor James

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-602-5

  First E-book Publication: April 2015

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

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  This is Honor James’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Honor James’s right to earn a living from her work.

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  DEDICATION

  To my readers, I love you all. I’m blessed to have you all as my fans.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  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

  About the Author

  ASSIGNMENT: DISCOVERING DESTINY

  Hawt Men In and Out of Uniform 4

  HONOR JAMES

  Copyright © 2015

  Prologue

  There was very little that could get under the skin of Patricia Anne Bates. One such thing, however, was when men behaved worse than three-year-old boys. She had enough. She simply couldn’t accept another second of watching the teasing, the ribbing and the boorishness of the so-called men that were picking on a young kid who was likely barely old enough to be in the bar.

  Stepping around the counter, she looked at the bouncer and for the hundredth time wished like hell that Piper was there to deal with these idiots. Tilting her head to the side, she heard the distinctive crack of her neck and put a hand on the men’s shoulders. “Now gentlemen.” The word was so not a word she would put with the two idiots that had dragged themselves into the bar. “How about I buy you boys a drink and then you head on home?”

  “Now why in the hell would we do that?” The lanky redhead asked, and then looked at her, really looked at her. “Now wait just a minute, you are a pretty little thing.” He smacked his lips and walked around her, appraisal in his gaze, which made Patty want to puke.

  “I might be a pretty little thing.” Gag. “But you are cut off,” she said with a chipper smile. “I suggest that the two of you go. I’ve withdrawn my offer for one more round. Now, out,” she stated bluntly.

  “And if we refuse?” the larger one said. He was the dangerous one, Patty knew it instinctively. He was older than the redhead, likely nearly her daddy’s age, god rest his soul. “Because I rather like it here. Especially now that you’ve finally stepped out from behind that bar. Who would have known that you were such a pretty little piece of work?”

  This was why she never stepped out from behind the bar. She hated the leering men that seemed to all but flock to this bar, she hated that these assholes came from the dry counties an hour or so away and worked their way through every bar in the state. “If you refuse then I will have no choice but to ask my boyfriends over there”—she pointed randomly, willy nilly toward where she had last seen the two massive bouncers—“to escort you out.” She knew these kinds of men. White supremacists had nothing on these assholes. The fact the the bouncers tonight were an African American and a very massive Native American only made it all the sweeter in Patty’s mind if she had to ask for their help in expelling the vermin from the bar.

  “Better not fucking touch me,” the older one said with deadpan eyes. “And you are fucking them? Both of them?” He growled and looked at her with disgust.

  “Yep.” She needed to tell the two men in question just what lies she was telling in case anyone began to ask about their relationship.

  “Y
ou will burn in hell for that. You are of the superior race. Why would you dare to stoop to fucking the vermin like that?”

  Now that just went and pissed her off. Her grandfather had fought in World War I and had been sent behind enemy lines as a spy because of being a blond hair, blue-eyed male. Her father fought in Vietnam and both of her brothers died in some sand-filled land because of assholes like this. People that couldn’t seem to figure out that how a person looked on the outside was only a shell, it was the insides that made everyone the same. She took a deep and calming breath. Closing her baby-blue eyes, she pushed a lock of blonde hair back and then opened to look at them once more. “Leave.”

  “You will pay for this,” one of them said, the redhead, she thought. They both shot another look, not at the bouncers, but the local cops that all seemed to come in at once for a bachelor party. “Mark our words, blondy, you will pay,” was the last thing she heard from the yokels as they all but ran out of the bar.

  “Fucking idiots.” She grumbled and began to bus the table. “Likely have warrants out for their arrests or something.” She would never see them again. No, men like them didn’t surface once they had been shown up by a woman who was just over five feet in her tennis shoes. Nope, they tended to blend into the walls and scuttle away like the little bugs that they were.

  That thought had her giggling, shaking her head, and then smiling as she walked back behind the bar, stepping up onto the raised floor and once more serving drinks to the laughing patrons of the bar.

  Chapter One

  “Jesus. Again?” Patty looked at her little Prius and rubbed her temples. Whoever and whatever was doing this seriously had gone too far this time. This time the profanity that was scrawled across her door, hood, and windows were things she couldn’t just ignore like she had been able to everything else.

  “Wow, who the hell did you piss off?” Piper asked as she walked out into the employee parking with her fiancé on her arm.

  Patty saw the looks on the man’s face, watched as he gritted his teeth and clenched his jaw. “I have no idea, but this has gone too far.” Before she had easily been able to laugh off the eggs, the baby oil, but this was too much. Between this and the things being left on her stoop at her apartment, it was actually too much. She should have gone to the cops well before now. She should have, but she hadn’t because she was certain it was just some kids pulling pranks because of how close to Halloween it was.

  “Do you need us to call the cops?” Piper asked with a frown, looking up at Aeron as if silently communicating with him.

  “No, I got this. I know that the two of you have plans. Go. Enjoy!” Patty told her boss with a smile. “I’m just going to head back in and sit with the guys while I wait for the cops to get here. Don’t worry. I’m good.” She was scared shitless was what she was, but she was a master at hiding the emotions that were inside of her.

  “Yeah. Okay.” Piper looked up at Aeron and sighed. “Okay, mister, we have an engagement to go to. Ours.” She was laughing as she said it.

  Patty just shook her head. She adored Piper and she was the best boss that anyone could ever dream of having, but the woman was seriously dragging her feet on the whole wedding planning thing. “I told you, I know someone who's a wedding planner. She and I went to college together, and before you give me shit, yes, I did attend.” Okay, so it might have only been for two semesters, but she did! “Her father and mine both served together. They were thick as thieves, so I’ve known her all my life. I swear she would do a great job for you.”

  “Nah, I like making Aeron look like he’s going to abduct me and make me run off to Vegas with him. Now if only the stubborn man would actually make good on those looks and do it.” Piper hated to be in front of massive crowds, but with what the woman went through nearly two months earlier, Patty couldn’t blame her at all.

  Patty just laughed and said, “Yeah, don’t think that one’s going to happen. I think that your uncle would have your then-husband’s balls bronzed if he did.”

  Piper snorted, “True. Okay, put her number on my desk. I will call her tomorrow. For now we really have to go. Time’s running out right now.”

  Patty watched as they got into Aeron’s large SUV and drove out of the fenced-in employee lot. When the gate closed, Patty looked at her car once more and then headed inside. Christ, she so didn’t want to do this. Mostly because her ex was now on the police force as a detective, and he would likely hear her name and come running. Nope, too little way too damn late. Besides, he should know she didn’t want him simply because she had caught him in bed with her roommate. Ah, happy times. Not.

  * * * *

  “What do you mean that the cameras are blank?” Piper asked several days later as she looked over the footage from the night that Patty’s car had been vandalized.

  “I mean just that. There is nothing on them. It’s like they were turned off that night. I don’t fucking get it,” one of her security team told her. “I’m sorry. Damn, I’m sorry.”

  “What about Patty? Does she know?”

  “Yeah, the cops wanted to look at the video feeds that night when they were called, by the way, the lead on her case? Asshole to the extreme. Anyway, when I pulled them up they were blank. Fucking crazy shit, I’m telling you.”

  “How long have they been blank and not recording?”

  “Two days,” she was told.

  “Are you kidding me right now?” Piper demanded and stood, beginning to pace as she did so. “What the hell? Why didn’t we know about it? What happened? Who dropped the ball?”

  “All of us. We didn’t even realize that they weren’t recording, but it’s been more than just the employee lot. It’s all over. Nothings recorded.”

  Piper began to run her hands through her hair in agitation. “Fuck,” she swore and pulled out her phone. “Aeron?” she said when he picked up. “Hey, I need you to hopefully spare someone to come to the bar to check the security out please. The camera feeds haven’t recorded for the past several nights.” She listened and nodded. Sighing, she snorted.

  “Jesus. I can’t believe you kiss me with that mouth. Yes, Daddy, I will go to my office, lock the door and bring out the gun you gave me.” She rolled her eyes. “I think that maybe the feeds have been loosened or cut or something with the restoration that we are doing in the hidden tunnels.” She sighed and rolled her eyes again. “Damn good thing I love you, Aeron Cutter,” she grumbled, but hung up after he did.

  She looked to her guards and said, “I suggest you are all on your toes. Aeron’s seriously not happy right now. At all. He’s sending a team and he’s coming by to ensure that you all get the message about taking care of me or something like that.” She loved Aeron and understood why he was the way he was, but good lord. “For now I’m going to my office like a good girl. I’m going to look at bridal magazines and wait for my soon-to-be husband.” She saw them pale and nodded. Good. Dammit. Patty could have been hurt, or any of the waitresses or staff. That pissed her off. A lot. She liked Patty a great deal. They were good friends and this was just completely unacceptable to her.

  Walking out of the office, she went to her own office and threw the lock like Aeron had demanded. She did put the weapon onto the desk and settled down with a bridal magazine to wait for him to come and raise some hell.

  Chapter Two

  “Markham! Connor!”

  “Uh-oh, someone’s got a bee in his bonnet,” Connor muttered.

  Snorting softly, he didn’t bother looking up from what he was doing. Sighting through the barrel of the .50 caliber sniper rifle, he squinted slightly. There was something in there, he knew it. He might not be able to see it, but he could feel it in his gut. When it came to his weapons, he listened to his gut.

  “There you are,” Cutter growled. “Didn’t you hear me calling you two?”

  “All nine times,” he said. Setting the barrel down, he picked up a cloth and wiped his hands as he leaned back in his chair. “I figured you’d eventuall
y find us, and tell us what’s got your panties in a twist.”

  The low growl was the only warning before Cutter came at him. Up on his feet, he twisted out of Cutter’s path. “What the fuck?” he demanded.

  Even Connor was up on his feet, staring at the other man. “Cutter, deep breath, bro. What’s going on?”

  He could practically hear Cutter grinding his teeth. “Someone’s fucking around at Piper’s bar. They’ve cut the feed, and my gut tells me it isn’t a fucking accident caused by one of the contractors. It seems a little too deliberate.”

  “Okay,” Connor said, easing around Cutter’s side slowly, his hands up. “What’s the big deal? We get some gear tomorrow, and rewire the entire place in a way that there can’t be any more accidents, or non-accidents.”

  “Because one of her bartenders is getting harassed in the process. Patty’s car has been vandalized, and on top of that, in her dealings with the cops, she’s had to deal with her ass fuck of an ex-boyfriend who mysteriously got the case. So she’s dealing with two fuckers messing up her life.”

  “The short blonde with the big blue eyes?” Connor asked.

  “Yes, Patricia Bates,” Cutter practically snarled. “Besides all of that, my fiancée is working there, without overwatch.”

  “She has a fucking platoon on her ass day in, and day out, Cutter. It’s not like she’s there all on her own.”

  Connor had a point, but he knew that Cutter wasn’t thinking very logically at the moment. The glower Connor earned pretty much reinforced that assessment.