On the Warpath Read online

  On the Warpath

  Imari Jade

  Copyright © September 2010, Imari Jade

  Cover art by Anastasia Rabiyah © September 2010

  ISBN 978-1-936110-83-4

  This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious or used fictitiously. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

  Sugar and Spice Press

  North Carolina, USA

  www.sugarnspicepress.com

  Chapter One

  “I don’t really think I need a new partner, Chief. I’ve been doing pretty well without one,” Hayden Mercier said to his boss, Dan Parker, late one afternoon in the parking lot outside the Secret Service building in Washington. Having a partner often caused too many problems, and when one died it fucked with his emotions.

  Dan watched him with keen brown eyes that had seen a lot over thirty years. “It’s been two years, Hayden. Time to get over the guilt.”

  “Aaron was my partner. I should have been there for him.”

  “As great as you are, even you can’t be in two places at one time. Your job is to protect the President first, and all others next.”

  Of course Hayden understood his job perfectly well, since he’d been doing it for the last ten years. That did not mean he liked choosing between the leader of the country and his best friend. Not having a partner meant never making that decision again.

  “You’ll like Harris,” Dan said after giving him time to accept that the choice wasn’t his. “The two of you have a lot in common.”

  Hayden doubted that. “Harris who? I don’t recall anyone in the agency by that name.”

  Dan shifted his hands into the pocket of his navy blue pants. “Well, Harris is new to the Secret Service.”

  Hayden raised a concerned eyebrow. “A rookie?”

  Dan nodded. “Technically yes, but she’s…”

  Hayden interrupted him. “She? A female rookie?” He started to pace. “This shit just keeps getting better. Not only are you trying to saddle me with a partner I know nothing about and don’t want, but you’re telling me that she’s a female rookie. Listen, I don’t have time to baby-sit, and skirts are nothing but trouble.”

  Dan pulled his hands out of his pocket. “I never pictured you as a chauvinist, Hayden, and please don’t refer to the female agents as ‘skirts.’ They have just as much right to serve in the Service as any male. If they’re good enough to give birth to a president, they're good enough to guard and protect him.”

  Hayden folded his arm and raised his chin defiantly. “Then you take her on as a partner.”

  Dan shook his head. “Can’t. Starting next month I’m giving up the field for a desk job.”

  “Huh?” Hayden relaxed his stance. “Are you sick? Are they forcing you to?”

  “No, I’m not sick, but I am nearly sixty-two years old. It’s my decision. I’m getting too old to be running around, and I sure as hell don’t want to cause a death because my reflexes are slowing down. This kind of work is a young man’s or young woman’s game, and retirement is just around the corner for me.”

  At thirty Hayden couldn’t fathom such a thing as retirement…maybe when he was the ripe old age of seventy…maybe.

  A black Chevy SUV pulled into the parking lot and a female exited, dressed in a navy blue suit and a white blouse. Hayden looked her over from head to toe and back down to her legs, which were muscular and curvy wrapped in coffee-colored hose.

  “Here’s Harris now,” Dan replied.

  Hayden watched her approach, checking out every detail from her jet-black hair color to the way she walked in high-heeled black pumps. Everything about her spoke class and perfection. Not one long dark hair stood out of place. Finally he’d met someone as particular as he was about their appearance.

  The young woman walked over to Dan and shook his hand. “Thank you for considering me for the job. I’ll try not to let you down.”

  She had a deep and throaty voice. Man oh man, I’m dead. Hey, what job? Had everything been arranged before his boss had confronted him?

  “Harris, I’d like to introduce you to your new partner, Hayden Mercier. Hayden, this is Agent Nevaeh Harris.”

  Nevaeh? Native-American Indian and African-American mixture. Damn, she’s stunning.

  Nevaeh extended her hand to him. “Nice to meet you, Agent Mercier. Agent Parker has told me so much about you.”

  A Cajun accent like his too. Hayden shook her hand out of politeness. “He hasn’t told me anything about you. I only learned of your existence right before you drove up.”

  Nevaeh smiled, revealing beautiful teeth and dimples. “Must have been a shock learning that your new partner is not only a rookie but a female too.”

  “Add the fact that you’re also beautiful and Cajun, and you can see my dilemma. I’ll be keeping male agents off of you and forgetting to protect the President.” Damn, she has some seriously long lashes too.

  Nevaeh didn’t blush. She just stood there staring blankly at him with those almond-shaped dark brown eyes.

  “Let me guess. You don’t want a partner.”

  “No, I don’t, but Dan knew it and still brought you here.”

  “Tough,” Nevaeh replied. “Now you’re trapped between a rock and a hard place.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Well, at least you’re honest about it and not trying to be nice to spare my feelings.”

  Hayden liked her bluntness. “I’m not that nice.”

  “I thought Agent Parker was nuts when he suggested that I pair up with you too. You’re not exactly known for your friendless.”

  Hayden balled his hands into fists. “You don’t know a thing about me, lady.”

  Nevaeh nodded. “I’ve done my research on you, and please refrain from calling me ‘lady.’ The name is Agent Harris or Nevaeh, if and when we become friends.”

  Dan stifled a laugh. “Told you the two of you have a lot in common. Must be something in the water in Louisiana.”

  Hayden frowned. “Oil jokes not appreciated.” In April a major oil company’s ship exploded near his hometown and contaminated the water. Several lives were lost, and for months fishermen and shrimpers worried about their futures. “You from Louisiana too?”

  “Lafayette,” she replied. “And you?”

  “Plaquemine Parish.”

  “See, the two of you are practically neighbors.”

  Nevaeh shook her head. “That does not change the fact that he does not want a female as a partner.”

  “I never said that. Your sex has nothing to do with it. I just prefer to work alone.”

  “Most renegades do.”

  The more she spoke the more he felt like taking her over his knees and paddling the hell out of her. This generation of young people was a bunch of smartasses. “I’m no renegade.”

  “But you don’t do things exactly by the book.”

  Hayden hovered over her. “Sometimes you need to deviate from the norm to get the job done.”

  “I’ll remember that at your trial.” She turned her attention back to Dan. “I’ll take the job.”

  “Over my dead body,” Hayden muttered. “I did not agree to take you on as a partner.”

  “Since you don’t own or run Homeland Security, you don’t get a say so,” Nevaeh reminded him. “You’ll accept me as your partner and like it.”

  The smug look on Dan’s face angered him. “Why don’t you say something?”

  “What do you want me to say? It’s a free world, and she has opinions.”

  “Damn skirt,” Hayden mumbled as he walked away from them. He’d be damned if he’d be bossed around by this arrogant woman. Under no circumstances would she be his partner. He
didn’t care how beautiful she was, or how fine she was, or how horny she made him just standing there looking at her. Nevaeh Harris was not going to be his partner. He sighed. If he stayed around her all the time he’d keep a permanent erection, and the next thing he’d knew he’d do something stupid like try to fuck her.

  * * * *

  “Is that your new partner?” Agent Sergio Alvarado asked as they sparred together in the gym a couple of days later.

  “Yeah,” Hayden replied. “That’s her.”

  “She’s kind of pretty. What is she? Indian?”

  “The term is Native American, and yes, she’s half that and half African-American on her mother’s side.” He’d done his research on her too.

  “Is she married?”

  “No, she’s single and barely out of college and the academy. She’s in her mid-twenties and she graduated at the top of her class.”

  “Yummy, beautiful and intelligent.”

  Nevaeh raised her leg and kicked at the bag that hung from the ceiling.

  Hayden watched. Very nimble.

  “She moves like a martial artist,” Sergio observed.

  “Black belt.”

  “Damn, I bet she can probably kick your butt, and you’re the best martial artist on the team.”

  Hayden smirked. “There is no way that young lady can do me any damage. I’m still bigger and taller than her.”

  “I wouldn’t mind hooking up with her,” Sergio said as he swung at the punching bag. “We’d make beautiful babies. They’d be African-American, Native-American Indian and Mexican.”

  Hayden chuckled as he hit the other punching bag. “She wouldn’t give you the time of day. She’s too stuck up.”

  “I don’t know. I’m pretty suave.”

  Hayden’s gaze drifted over to Nevaeh again, taking in her sleek form, her subtle curves and her killer rack. She had a perfectly proportioned body with muscular thighs and forearms. The creaminess of her complexion and long black hair made him weak with desire. Damn, he couldn’t remember how long it’d been since he’d had sex.

  “If she’s so stuck up, why are you watching her?”

  Hayden drew his attention away from her and put it back on Sergio. “I am not.”

  Sergio chuckled. “Okay man, if you say so.”

  Hayden hit the bag forcefully. Sergio was crazy if he thought he had any interest in Nevaeh. His only interest was in her skills as an agent…nothing else.

  Another female agent entered the gym. It was Carina Morrisat, who worked with the Emergency Response Team and not the uniformed division like him and Sergio. Carina had been an agent for nearly two years and had an exemplary record as far as he knew. She was partnered with another female agent named Tiffany Brown, who was a power-builder. Rumor had it that the two of them were lovers, but he didn’t know or care if it was true or not. As far as he knew, Carina was just another skirt, and she had apparently come to the gym to practice martial arts with Nevaeh.

  Before long every able-bodied male in the gym had stopped what he was doing to watch them. Carina was good but no match for Nevaeh’s form. Nevaeh’s made short work of her, knocking her to the mat a couple of times before Carina finally gave up, bowed politely and surrendered. The two women left the gym laughing and talking and ignoring the stares of the men.

  Hayden didn’t know about the rest of them, but he couldn’t say the sight of two women fighting didn’t affect him. He said goodbye to Sergio and trotted off to the men’s locker room for a cold shower.

  * * * *

  Nevaeh stepped out of the shower, dressed in shorts and hurried out of the locker room, nearly running over someone coming out of the male shower.

  “Whoa, little lady, what’s the big hurry?”

  Nevaeh looked up into the hazel eyes of Hayden Mercier. He was dressed in a pair of warm-up pants and sandals. Her eyes automatically roamed over his naked torso, checking out the sprinkling of dark hair on his massive chest and the sculpted cut of his stomach and waist. She pushed her hair out of her eyes. “Sorry, I left my hair band in the office.” She bet she looked like a mess with her damp hair drying around her face and down her back.

  “You’re very good. I mean at martial arts. I’m impressed.”

  “For a female, you mean?” She didn’t know why everything he said to her rubbed her the wrong way, and what was that delightful scent he wore? Kind of spicy sweet. It reminded her of the cane fields back home.

  “No, I don’t mean that at all. Why are you so defensive?”

  “I’m not defensive. I’m just not used to compliments.”

  Hayden lifted a hand and moved her bangs away from her eyes. “There, you can see better that way.” His fingers lingered a little too long in her hair and made her body feel tingly. “You have lovely hair. It’s soft like silk.”

  Nevaeh took a step back so she could breathe. Hayden’s body heat took up most of her comfort zone. “Thank you.” His earthy cologne was so intoxicating it made her senseless. “I need to go get that band.”

  Hayden stepped back. His gaze roamed over her body. “Don’t rush on my account.” The look he gave her made her shiver. All she could do was smile like a little idiot and walk past him. What was it about him that made her heart race every time she saw him?

  Nevaeh hurried back to the office and found the band, securing her hair in place with pins so it rested in a nice tight bun at the nape of her neck.

  Hayden entered a few minutes later with a shirt on covering those abs. “Your training begins tomorrow at zero six hundred.”

  “What training? I’ve already been through the academy.”

  “I’m not talking about that crap. That place only teaches you the basics. In order to hang out with me, you have to prove to me you know what you’re doing and show me you can defend yourself, as well as me and the President if the situation arises.”

  “Why do I have the feeling this is more for your benefit than mine?”

  “Now why would you think something like that? I’m just trying to make sure you pull your weight around here. I can’t do anything about having you as a partner, but I’m going to make damn sure you’re the best agent to have at my back.”

  Ego much? God, she hated men like him who thought they owned the world just because they had a penis. It was the same type of shit she despised growing up on the reservation. It wasn’t her fault he was still upset over the death of his previous partner. Shit happened. That was one of the first things she learned when she entered the academy. Emotional baggage had no place in the agency. One small misjudgment could get you killed or the President assassinated. “Okay, so what do I have to do?”

  “Physical training, which involves upper and lower body exercise, hand-to-hand combat and shooting practice at the range.”

  “Will you be the target?” she asked.

  He smirked. “Cute.”

  So he wanted to see what she was made of—and she didn’t plan to disappoint him. “Where?”

  “On the field behind this building.”

  Nevaeh rose. “I’ll be there.”

  “Where are you going?”

  Nevaeh looked at her watch. “Home. It’s seventeen hundred, and I have plans.”

  “A date?”

  “That’s none of your business, Agent Mercier.” Boy, that felt good, she thought as she walked out of the door. She didn’t have a date, unless she counted the cute male cashier at the grocery where she was headed.

  Chapter Two

  So this is what five o’clock in the morning looks like, Nevaeh mused as she got into her car and drove to Washington. There was lots of traffic, which surprised her since it wasn’t rush hour. But she refused to be late and give Hayden more ammunition to use against her.

  The compound where she worked consisted of three six-story white office buildings, a gymnasium, a uniform shop and a restaurant. Heavily armed security agents manned the entry gates. Nevaeh drove up to the main gate and showed one of the guards her identification card. />
  He studied the picture, looked at her to confirm her identity and then waved her on.

  Nevaeh drove the rest of the way to the building where she worked and parked in the lot out front, noticing that Hayden’s car was also there. She got out with her gear and headed inside to drop it off on her desk, and then she left the building and headed for the field. Hayden was there doing pull-ups. He had great form, at least from where she stood, and he did a series of repetitions without seeming to be tired. He dropped down to the ground the moment he spotted her and jogged over effortlessly in dark blue shorts that showed off his muscular thighs and calves, and a white tee-shirt.

  “You’re right on time.”

  “Good morning to you too, Agent Mercier. What time did you get here?”

  He looked at his watch. “About five. I ran a couple of laps and had just made it to the pull-up bar when you arrived.”

  “So you’re a morning person?”

  He shook his head. “Naturally. I was the one who had to get up at the crack of dawn and collect the eggs from the hens and feed the chickens as a child.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  He walked her over toward the track. “Unfortunately, no. There were seven of us, and we all had chores to do around the farm.”

  “My mother believed a child should sleep as long as they wanted to so their bodies could regenerate and grow strong.”

  “Is that an old Indian tradition?”

  “No, just a smart tactic not to deal with all four children at one time in the morning.”

  Hayden laughed for the first time and hopefully not the last. It softened his face and made him seem less stressed.

  “We’re going to start with a couple of stretching exercises to warm up, followed with two laps around the track.”

  The old Hayden had returned. Nevaeh got through the exercise well enough, even though she now had a headache after doing fifty sit-ups. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and her heart beat quickly from the extra exertion.

  Hayden, on the other hand, did not appear to be winded or sweaty. Nevaeh smirked. He’s probably too ornery to show any weakness in front of me.