Deep Trouble: A MacKenzie Family Novella (The MacKenzie Family)
Read Deep Trouble: A MacKenzie Family Novella (The MacKenzie Family) Online
Authors: Kimberly Kincaid
Deep Trouble
By Kimberly Kincaid
A MacKenzie Family Novella
Introduction by Liliana Hart
Deep Trouble
A MacKenzie Family Novella
Copyright 2016 Kimberly Kincaid
ISBN: 978-1-942299-36-3
Introduction copyright 2016 Liliana Hart
Published by Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.
Deep Trouble
by Kimberly Kincaid
From Liliana Hart’s
New York Times
bestselling MacKenzie family comes a new story by bestselling author Kimberly Kincaid...
Bartender Kylie Walker went into the basement of The Corner Tavern for a box of cocktail napkins, but what she got was an eyeful of murder. Now she’s on the run from a killer with connections, and one wrong step could be her last. Desperate to stay safe, Kylie calls the only person she trusts—her ex-Army Ranger brother. The only problem? He’s two thousand miles away, and trouble is right outside her door.
Security specialist Devon Randolph might be rough and gruff, but he’ll never turn down a friend in need, especially when that friend is the fellow Ranger who once saved his life. Devon may have secrets, but he’s nearby, and he’s got the skills to keep his buddy’s sister safe…even if one look at brash, beautiful, Kylie makes him want to break all the rules.
Forced on the run, Kylie and Devon dodge bullets and bad guys, but they cannot fight the attraction burning between them. Yet the closer they grow, the higher the stakes become. Will they be able to outrun a brutal killer? Or will Devon’s secrets tear them apart first?
Kimberly Kincaid writes contemporary romance novels that split the difference between sexy and sweet. When she’s not sitting cross-legged in an ancient desk chair known as “The Pleather Bomber”, she can be found practicing obscene amounts of yoga, whipping up anything from enchiladas to eclairs in her kitchen, or curled up with her nose in a book. Kimberly is a
USA Today
best-selling author and a 2015 RWA RITA finalist who lives (and writes!) by the mantra that food is love. She is the author of over a dozen books, and she resides in Virginia with her wildly patient husband and their three daughters.
Want the scoop on the sizzling heroes and sassy heroines of Station Seventeen, plus the chance to win five free books every month? Sign up for Kimberly Kincaid’s
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The Line series:
The Pine Mountain Series:
The Sugar Cookie Sweetheart Swap, with Donna Kauffman and Kate Angell
Rescue Squad:
I often say that writing a book is a team effort, but it’s never been more true than with this project. First and foremost, I’ve got to thank Liliana Hart for letting me come play in the MacKenzie world. Liz Berry, M.J. Rose, and Jillian Stein, you made the project not only a breeze, but crazy fun. To Alyssa Alexander, Tracy Brogan, and Jennifer McQuiston, for being my cheekas, I love you guys. Robin Covington, Avery Flynn, Cristin Harber, and Christopher Rice, I cannot think of more talented and or more fun people with whom to share this wild, wild ride. And to my daughters and husband, thank you for once again understanding when I jumped up from the dinner table yelling, “Wait, just let me write this idea down!”
Lastly, to my readers. I am so very excited to be starting this sexy new Station Seventeen series, and I’m thrilled to have you on the first leg of the journey with me. Buckle up, y’all! It’s gonna get hot in here…
An Introduction to the MacKenzie Family World
Dear Readers,
I’m thrilled to be able to introduce the MacKenzie Family World to you. I asked five of my favorite authors to create their own characters and put them into the world you all know and love. These amazing authors revisited Surrender, Montana, and through their imagination you’ll get to meet new characters, while reuniting with some of your favorites.
These stories are hot, hot, hot—exactly what you’d expect from a MacKenzie story—and it was pure pleasure for me to read each and every one of them and see my world through someone else’s eyes. They definitely did the series justice, and I hope you discover five new authors to put on your auto-buy list.
Make sure you check out
Troublemaker,
a brand new, full-length MacKenzie novel written by me.
And yes, you’ll get to see more glimpses of Shane before his book comes out next year.
So grab a glass of wine, pour a bubble bath, and prepare to Surrender.
Love Always,
Liliana Hart
* * * *
Available now! Click to purchase.
Trouble Maker
by Liliana Hart
Rush
by Robin Covington
Bullet Proof
by Avery Flynn
Delta Rescue
by Cristin Harber
Deep Trouble
by Kimberly Kincaid
Desire & Ice
by Christopher Rice
Table Of Contents
An introduction to the MacKenzie Family World by Liliana Hart
Discover the Liliana Hart MacKenzie Family Collection
Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights
Kylie Walker had seen a lot of bad days in her twenty-five years, some of them more foul than others. But the chest-twisting sight of two bullets being fired into her boss’s head at point-blank range?
Yeah, that officially made today the most terrifying day of her life.
Kylie dropped the box of cocktail napkins in her grasp, her heart going ballistic against every last one of her ribs. Fear cemented her in front of the dry storage shelves outside the open door to The Corner Tavern’s basement office, her limbs locking barely ten feet from whoever had just shot her boss as if her joints had been filled with high-powered Epoxy.
Even as her brain screamed at her to run.
Kylie’s legs got the message on a five-second delay, and she spun on her boot heels. But in her desperate attempt to launch herself at the stairs leading back to the kitchen, she kicked the box of spilled napkins with a dull thump, and shit—shitshitshittyshit! She needed to get out of here before the guy with the gun saw her, or worse yet,
found
her.
Two seconds later, the rough palm on her shoulder and the cold, unforgiving press of a gun to her ribs told her she was too late.
“Let’s see those hands, little girl. Nice and slow.”
Kylie’s breath turned to dust in her lungs as the man pulled her in from behind with a molar-rattling yank. His free hand slid from her shoulder, knotting hard enough at the base of her ponytail to make her scalp sting and her eyes water, and he pressed the gun against her body with steady, horrific pressure.
“Oh! What… I don’t...” Oh God. Oh God, oh
God
. Kylie’s words crashed together in her throat, tangling in razor-sharp fear. Adrenaline punched through her veins, freezing her boots to the musty concrete floor. But the man poked the gun harder against the flimsy Corner Tavern T-shirt that doubled as her work uniform, and she raised her hands to shoulder level like a puppet on sloppy strings.
“Bartender Kylie. You’re quite a surprise,” the man said, his voice spilling like ice water over Kylie’s spine, and—wait, she knew that voice. “I thought that moron Vince had sent your pretty ass home already. Could’ve sworn he and I were conducting business in private.”
And didn’t that just make perfect sense? Her boss had closed the bar twenty minutes ago, and on a Tuesday night? They’d been dead for hours.
So to speak.
“I…I’ve been doing inventory in the walk-in upstairs,” Kylie managed, her knees beginning to shake beneath her jeans. The surprise was mutual—she’d had no clue anyone was here other than her and Vince, and he always locked the deadbolt right at closing time.
Oh God. Vince.
“Yeah, well not anymore,” the man bit out, yanking her back to the harsh glare of the here and now, and God, she wished she hadn’t been so frozen in fear that she hadn’t gotten a good look at him before she’d tried to run. “Now start walking toward the office. And unless you’re bulletproof, I’d shut up if I were you.”
Without waiting for her to comply—not that her legs were on board with anything other than going on lockdown—the guy swung Kylie away from the stairs leading back up to the bar and forced her farther into the dingy basement.
Stop. You have to be tough and make him stop
. “I just…I don’t want any trouble,” she blurted, stabbing her feet into the floor beneath her. “I only came down here to get some cocktail napkins out of the storage pantry before I clocked out to go home.”
Of course, she’d had the spectacularly bad timing of hitting up the dry storage at the exact moment the man had been putting two rapid-fire bullets into her boss’s skull. Oh God, this lunatic was going to kill her. She had to stop all of this idiot shaking, get tough, and
think
.
The man’s grip tightened hard enough to force a cry past Kylie’s lips. “Figures I’d have to deal with the one bitch in all of bum fuck Montana who doesn’t know the meaning of the words ‘start walking’ and ‘shut up.’ Maybe you need a lesson.”
Kylie’s heart beat so fast she grew dizzy. Pressing her lips into a hard seal, she shook her head…or at least, she tried to, but his fingers were like titanium digging into her hair.
Thank God, the man eased up a fraction at her compliance. “That’s a good girl. Now get in the office so I can figure out what the fuck I’m going to do with you.”
Although every last one of her hard-as-nails instincts screamed at her not to trade the narrow hallway for the deeper belly of the basement, she knew she didn’t have any choice. The man clearly out-gunned and out-muscled her, and he just as clearly knew she’d seen him shoot Vince. Kylie had known when she’d taken the job that The Corner Tavern was more shady than squeaky clean and that her boss had a lot to do with the place’s reputation, but he’d always been decent to her, and she needed the money. Just because he’d told her on day one to keep her eyes on the liquor and her nose out of the office didn’t necessarily make him a bad guy.