Smoke & Fire - Adult Paranormal Romance Series, Book #1 Read online

  Smoke & Fire

  Paranormal Romance Series

  Second Edition

  Book #1

  Michele Wesley

  Copyright © 2015 by Michele Wesley.

  Library of Congress Control Number:2015910101

  ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-5035-8081-7

  Softcover 978-1-5035-8080-0

  eBook 978-1-5035-8079-4

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

  Warning: This book contains strong sexual content and scenes of violence that are not suitable for persons under eighteen years old. This book also contains multicultural sexual and romantic content. “If your mind is as open as mine, prepare to be written.”

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

  Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

  Rev. date: 09/23/2015

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  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1Men in Black

  Chapter 2The Recruit

  Chapter 3Tits and Ass

  Chapter 4Spooning with Death

  Chapter 5Drake and Damon

  Chapter 6Beam me up, Scotty!

  Chapter 7Mycale

  Chapter 8Distracted

  Chapter 9Slithering Bastard

  Chapter 10Operation FOSM

  Chapter 11Commander in Chief

  Chapter 12Preparing for Battle

  Chapter 13Code Names

  Chapter 14Shit Just Got Real

  Chapter 15You Scare Me

  Chapter 16The Perks in Life

  Chapter 17Emotional Outlets

  Chapter 18Body Buffet

  Chapter 19Razor-Sharp Thorns

  Chapter 20Perfect Escape

  Chapter 21Sori’s Thoughts

  Chapter 22Mycale’s Thoughts

  Chapter 23Emotional Warriors

  Chapter 24Date Night

  Chapter 25Kill or Be Killed

  Chapter 26Enough is Enough

  Chapter 27Smoke and Fire

  Epilogue

  Author Thank-You

  Dedicated to my sisters,

  Cheryl Bell and Tamaneka Turner.

  Like the strong female character in this book,

  these are two of the strongest,

  most awesome and beautiful women I know.

  I love you.

  Smoke & Fire is the first release from this series. But. Start reading the series at any of the first six books, time-lined to be read in any order.

  Coming soon in the Smoke & Fire Series

  Body Box

  Anger & Arrogance

  Syven

  Dreams Whisper

  Guardian Sixx

  CHAPTER 1

  Men in Black

  Lost in thought, Sori propelled her body aimlessly towards her barracks. Boring and routine days of working behind a desk did nothing to quell her need for something more exciting. Now back at Camp Pendleton, she had just returned from a deployment in Afghanistan and felt like a drop of water lost in a sea of monotony.

  Adjusting to being back stateside was proving to be difficult, but she was muddling through. People were rude, plain and simple. Not one person raised a hand in greeting or acknowledged her presence as she walked her familiar path. She acknowledged officers with a salute; they’d return the gesture with no enthusiasm. Some didn’t bother looking in her direction as their hands traveled absently to their foreheads.

  She frowned at her surroundings of perfectly cut shrubs and perfectly manicured grass. Even the temperature seemed to project an air of perfection as waning beams of sun bounced off cars and nearby buildings. This world was all about appearance. Was she the only one that thought about the dirty brutality of what lay just below the surface of all this perfection? She would gladly trade this scene for the far off sound of gunfire or the flea infested sands of the stifling desert. Being in a combat environment, with the possibility of being killed at any given moment, made living and coexisting among others more tolerable. The harsh realness of a deployment made people embrace their humanity.

  Two weeks. Two was all it had taken for Sori to crave being surrounded by death. Doctors labelled it posttraumatic stress disorder, but Sori feared she had a disorder much worse.

  As she took in people wandering around in this perfectly crafted world, she also noticed two men watching her. As a matter of fact, they had been watching since her return. It was an interesting revelation that provided an air of intrigue. She pondered the mystery of who was watching her, but oddly, it made her feel important. Knowing that someone would find her interesting enough to devote the time to keep tabs on her was almost a compliment.

  As she continued her walk, Sori made a logical decision. She wasn’t going to run or fight her watchers if they approached. There was no use. She was outnumbered, and from what she could gather, they were armed and looked well trained. The fact that they had access to a military installation meant that they were probably a faction of the government. Since they’d invested two weeks to watching her, the least she could do was see why. Right?

  After recovering from a gunshot to the head as a teen, Sori discovered she’d inherited the ability to switch off her emotions. It was a secret she shared with no one. She had suffered a traumatic brain injury and was told fragments of the bullet couldn’t be removed. Having the ability to flip a metaphysical switch and not feel the cold harshness of her surroundings was a blessing to her. Turning off all emotion, Sori became an empty vessel with concise patterns of thought that didn’t measure levels of danger or fear. Without a conscious, feelings became choices to her and choosing not to feel anything made her lethal. Had the bullet been a blessing or had it unstrapped a monster she would lose control of someday? As much as she would have liked to remain in a constant emotionless state, Sori learned to flip her switch when it was necessary.

  The sudden feel of ice crystallizing up her back pulled her out of her thoughts. The looming presence of her watchers hovered at her back. Two well-fit white males who towered over her like two mountains, stood silently. Taking a deep breath, Sori turned and faced them. Both men wore nice dark suits and looked to be in their early thirties. One was dark haired with a non-threatening gaze pouring from an average face. The other was completely bald and could have made a deal to double as Howie Mandel. Calm filled both men as they stepped within Sori’s personal space, “Ms. Knight, we need you to follow us, please.”

  They said please.

  Figuring it was pointless to fight or argue, Sori followed the men. She probably weighed as much as one of the men’s legs and was without weapons or friends to call upon for help. What could she possibly do besides cause a scene? Sure she’d be seen as just another loud mouthed black woman trying to get ten seconds of fame on the local news; she kept quiet.

  Following the men back to a black-tinted SUV, she climbed in. Glancing
her surroundings, she was sure no one paid attention to her or the men.

  When both men climbed into the front, she visibly relaxed. Them putting their backs to her as a sign that their intent was not to do harm. They hadn’t locked the doors, so she didn’t feel taken. Fear never surfaced, she ensured the overbearing emotion stayed at bay. As a Marine, she was taught not to fear anything and having the ability to switch off her emotions made tough and harsh choices easy.

  Neither she nor the men spoke a word during the thirty minute drive. Sori took in her new surroundings with the emptiness of a zombie. They had left the military installation and driven into the Badlands, a neighborhood that only produced crime. Although she felt nothing, her mind tried to force-feed her concern along with evil thoughts. She reminded herself that if the men wanted her dead or hurt, it would have happened already.

  Having the ability to shut down her emotions was the best tool she possessed, at least that’s what she believed. The gunshot cast other lasting side effects she learned to live with. A loner mentality usually made her an outcast of sorts, but she learned to embrace being different. An aggressive nature usually showcased her anger, but she learned to tame it. Not knowing how to foster and maintain healthy relationships and friendships were on her list of things to work on. At twenty-one she often felt repulsed by the opposite sex and didn’t know if it was a result of her injury or her nature.

  Upon reaching their destination, the mountain-sized men exited the SUV and led Sori toward a building that appeared abandoned. The neighborhood was its own entity of chaos with trashy streets, thugs mingling about, and buildings that stood on crumbling foundations.

  If the big guys she was following didn’t kill her first, she was sure a stray bullet or gang rape were on the short list. She didn’t know what to expect inside the building, but she kept following. Entering the lobby, she stared around the abandoned and dusty interior. All furnishings had been removed and nothing but dust, walls, and stale air remained.

  They walked within the depths of the dark and dusty interior turning several corners before approaching an area where one of the men punched in a code and swiped an ID across a scanner that she couldn’t see; if you didn’t know it was there, you would never find it.

  Doors opened and Sori was gestured into the elevator first. After she stepped in, the two men followed along with a tomb-like silence that filled the now cramped space. She hadn’t spoken a word, and it wasn’t lost on her that the elevator was traveling down instead of up.

  The view that smacked her in the face as she followed the men off the elevator was surprising. She felt like she’d stepped through a rip in time. The change in scenery was a surreal scene of high-profile decor with stylish and contemporary furnishing.

  Although the elevator hadn’t displayed numbers or floor markings, she guessed they were at least seven floors underground.

  If I have to make a run for it, it won’t be out of a window.

  The atmosphere reminded Sori of the scene when Agents J and K went out of the elevators and walked into the headquarters on the Men in Black movies. Sori was ushered to a small office that she knew from experience to be a holding room, given a paper cup of water, and told to wait. She had learned a lot about surveillance and security as a Marine, and was able to scan the entire room in a matter of seconds.

  A small pan-tilt-zoom camera in the far corner behind her head kept watch, a standard-sized one-way mirrored window stood guard, and a book-sized air vent that she bet had a camera inside peeked silently. She sat in one of the two white plastic chairs in the room, and not only did she know she was being watched, she felt it. The emotion of fear remained elusive as she projected calm.

  CHAPTER 2

  The Recruit

  Agents had been watching Sori long enough to know that no one would miss her if she suddenly disappeared. She had no family or ties and had an immaculate military record—the perfect candidate. Super Agents or SA’s were what the government called them, but others called them mercenaries, spies, and assassins. This particular sector of the agent-spy world, Top, was so secret that its secrets had secrets.

  Agent Torres pensively watched Sori on the monitor, while Agent Fuentes stared at her through the window and flipped through her military record. Fuentes noted, “She looks calm for someone we pulled off the streets. She doesn’t look afraid at all, doesn’t appear nervous, and if she is, she is hiding it well.”

  As Agent Torres spoke, Sori stared back at him through the screen like she could hear and see him. Absently, he waved his hand in front of the monitor.

  Agent Fuentes stepped closer to the monitor to get a better look. “We have been watching her for weeks. It’s peculiar, isn’t it? She is always calm.” Fuentes handed Torres her file. “Flip midway through her records. Two military psychologists notated concern, saying she exhibited behavior that would imply that she may not be completely in touch with her emotions, mainly fear. They think she is detached from reality or somehow desensitized to things that should frighten her.”

  Torres nodded his head. “I read it several times. She was also shot in the back saving a fellow soldier. She placed her body in front of incoming gunfire to save him. If it hadn’t been for the Kevlar she was wearing, she would be dead. Records say she played dead, waited until the enemy approached, and took out three combatants. The soldier she saved started calling her Smoke. He said she killed the enemy combatants so fast it was as if she were moving like smoke. The injured soldier insisted that she was moving smoke, but doctors were sure he was delirious or suffering the effects of his wound.”

  Torres continued, “When she was interviewed about the incident, her lack of emotion concerned the doctors, but the military deemed her a hero. When one of the doctors asked her why she believed the soldier described her as moving smoke, she shrugged her shoulders and gave no verbal response.”

  Intrigued, Fuentes stared down at the folder. “Damn, smoke huh? I also see she suffered a brain injury at fourteen. Was shot in the head as she slept. Maybe the gunshot has something to do with her fearlessness? According to her medical records, the bullet should have killed her instantly. Cheat death once and maybe it does something to a person.” Torres zoomed in on her face. “Her calm is unnerving. She knows I am watching her.”

  Staring at her for a few seconds, Torres said, “She is one tough nut to crack, that’s for sure. I can’t get a read on her.”

  Fuentes hit his partner playfully on the back. “Isn’t that one of the qualities we look for when recruiting new agents? Now, let’s get cracking!”

  Sori hardly heard a thing the agents were explaining to her. After she heard the words, government, secret, and agent, all she could think was: The government wants me to join one of their secret spy organizations? Holy shit!

  CHAPTER 3

  Tits and Ass

  Four years later, Sori’s newest assignment sent her to New York where she will essentially be forced to depend on her emotions more than her ability to shoot a fast-moving target. She was set to pose as an FBI agent, and thanks to her Top status, the transition would be easy.

  She was set to pose as Agent N, short for Nora Nelson.

  Top, her agency sector, didn’t pursue simple cases. The in brief on this particular case gave details that led her to believe it might be her toughest assignment yet. Tasked with joining a team of ten FBI agents, their assignment entailed tracking down and gathering intel on a high-profile subject known as Micky Banks.

  Micky’s involvement with one of the most deadly cartels in the nation is what prompted Top to go after him. He was embedded with the deadly Truleta Cartel and apprehension of the drug kingpin was imperative. Footprints of the Truleta Cartel had been popping up in so many cases, law agencies simply referred to them as the TC. Agencies had been after the elusive head of the Truleta Cartel for nearly a decade, and they believed Micky maybe the gateway to the infamous leader.

>   The team of FBI agents Sori was joining were unaware that her assignment was to engage and take out Micky. She was essentially working an assignment within an assignment; being a double agent wasn’t unusual in her line of work. She was one of a very few agents with knowledge that Micky was on Top’s kill list. She had received his kill file, named Archer Santos, supposedly Micky’s real name. Based on the intel she had gotten so far, Micky had left a trail of more than twenty bodies across the United States and was also implicated in international crimes.

  Top had one of their best agents following the bodies to stay on Micky’s elusive trail. Many of the cases Micky had been involved in fell into the HTE (Hard-To-Explain) category. The category is self-explanatory. When agents stumbled into murder scenes and bizarre crimes that couldn’t be explained with logic, Top stamps the case HTE. Some of the cases had been so baffling that Top started recruiting doctors and scientists. Their sole purpose is to explain with science and medicine what agents couldn’t figure out with logic and investigation. It was noted that the Hard-To-Explain cases started showing up around the time the Truleta Cartel became known, but only recently had the number of HTE cases increased.

  Agents laughed and rumored that the Truleta Cartel was ran by a team of witches and vampires who used spells and powers to stay cloaked behind constant smoke screens. The rumors seemed far-fetched, but after some of the gruesome and unusual cases Sori had seen over the years, she kept an open mind and wasn’t so willing to rule out the supernatural.

  There were so many deaths associated with the TC that high-level government officials were reluctant to let go of good criminal prospects for more intel. The government was willing to take out the worst criminals on radar, even if it meant killing a viable lead. Their perspective: it would take the criminals just as much, if not more time, to train and replace lead criminals than it would take agents to track and kill them. There were too many loopholes and rules that protected criminals, and in Sori’s world, logic dictated a swift death. Where traditional agencies tried to flip and milk criminals for leads, Top hunted them down and killed them.