SocialPreyAllRomance

By

By Trista Ann Michaels

Social Prey

Copyright © 2013 by Trista Ann Michaels

Thank you for purchasing this ebook. This book is the copyrighted property of the
author and many not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed for any commercial or non-commercial
use without expressed written permission by the author. Quotes used in reviews are
the exception.

No alteration of the content is allowed. If you enjoyed this book please encourage
your friends to purchase their own copy.

Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or
places, events or locales are purely coincidental.

Adult Reading Material: Story contains violence, graphic language, sexual toys, spanking,
and bondage.

Author Note

First off, I want to thank all the wonderful Beta readers who helped me with this
story. You guys are the best.

Second, I want to let the readers know the Paula in this story is based on a real
person. A friend of ours met up with a man on Facebook who turned out to be someone
other than he claimed.

She’ll probably spend the rest of her life in a Turkish prison, all because she believed
a man she’d never met in person loved her. And she believed it strong enough that
she turned her back on everyone who tried to help her.

The danger is still out there. The threat is very real, and despite all our best efforts,
James and his cartel are still in business. Be careful, ladies, because you just never
know who’s really on the other side of that keyboard.

The story begins with a young woman, Paula, who falls in love with a man online. But,
James is not the
man he claims to be. All her friends try to warn her, Kiley being the most vocal.
Unfortunately, the young
woman doesn’t listen and ends up shutting out all her friends over a man she’s never
met in person.

He proposes marriage, but first she must fly to Peru to sign papers for him and cash
in some bonds—a
marriage gift given to them by James’ grandfather. James, who supposedly works in
military intelligence,
plans to meet her in London where they will marry. Paula leaves, excited about her
new life.

Unfortunately, she tells no one, including Kiley.

While in Peru, Paula is given a new laptop and case—a wedding gift from her fiancé’s
uncle. She was
also informed that there had been a change of plans. She was no longer going to London.
Now she was
going to meet James in Istanbul.

Paula expresses concern with this and states she wishes to meet up with James at another
location. His
uncle assures her that things will be fine, but a new location isn’t possible…it’s
James’ job that’s insisting
on the new assignment.

Once she has expressed her reservations, her flight is moved up, and she’s never left
alone. She now feels
as though something is up—that maybe she was foolish for not telling Kiley—for not
listening to her.

Sneaking her international phone with her to the bathroom, she shoots off a quick
email to Kiley telling
her about the situation, the changes to her itinerary, naming names, giving descriptions,
and anything
else she can think of that might help Kiley if anything were to happen to her.

All the warning bells Kiley had tried to make her see were suddenly ringing loud in
her ears.

Paula is escorted to the airport and introduced to her traveling companion—a man there
for what she is
told is her safety, but Paula believes otherwise. She tries twice to leave the new
laptop behind, although
truthfully, she can’t explain why—just a sixth sense that something wasn’t right.
Both times it was given
back to her, nicely, but no doubt firmly.

“You don’t want to leave this behind, Paula,” he said with a smile, but his eyes narrowed
in warning.

Once she arrives in Istanbul, the authorities find the well hidden drugs inside the
new laptop James’

uncle had given her. She was arrested and taken immediately to prison. She now understands
fully what
has happened.

She’d been played. Paula knew how much Turkey hates drug traffickers. They show no
mercy. What’s
worse they hated Americans even more. Also bring in questioning tactics Paula believed
didn’t come
anywhere close to following the Geneva Convention and her fears increased tenfold.

Paula had no doubt…her life was now over.

Chapter One

Kiley Tipton was going to kill Paula…If she made it out of this nightmare alive that
is. She’d been concerned ever since she hadn’t been able to reach Paula on the phone
for several days.

She thought maybe her friend was just ignoring her; that maybe Paula was still angry
with her for not trusting James, for believing her friend was walking into a scam.
She never imagined Paula would up and leave the country without telling anyone.

Paula knew how stupid and dangerous it was to meet up with someone in a foreign country
she’d never met in person.

Kiley rushed into her brother’s office without knocking. She didn’t have time to knock.
Keith looked up from the map spread out before him. He sat back in the chair and narrowed
his brown eyes. The look that normally sent everyone else running didn’t faze her
in the least. Her brother might come across to other people as a scary, hard core
alpha, but Kiley knew him as the big loveable bear.

Speaking of alpha bears…next to Keith stood Scott Devo, her brother’s right hand and
commanding officer of their band of mercenaries for hire. She’d known Scott since
they were kids, but that didn’t stop the flutter in her stomach every time he looked
at her with those gorgeous baby blues.

She tried to ignore the very amused look on his rugged, whisker covered face as she
stomped over to her brother’s desk. “You really need to shave, Scott,” she grumbled.

Scott rubbed his hand over his jaw. “It’s not as bad as it usually is.”

Kiley rolled her eyes and turned her attention to her brother. “You’re not going to
believe this.”

“After everything I’ve seen, there’s not a whole lot I don’t believe.”

Kiley slammed the printout down on top of the map covering her brother’s desk. “Paula
left the country, despite everything I told her and got herself arrested.”

“Well, you tried to warn her there was something off about James,” Keith said as he
reached for the paperwork. “Let me guess. Trafficking? London will let her out--“Keith
stared at the paper, and Kiley waited for the blowup. “Son of a bitch! Turkey?” He
dropped the paper and stared up at Kiley in surprise. “How the hell did she end up
in Turkey? What the hell was she thinking?”

Scott quickly grabbed the paper and scanned the printout. “Looks like she’s being
held as a remanded prisoner. In Turkey the minimum for trafficking is ten years and
that’s only once she’s been convicted.” He looked at Kiley with an apologetic tilt
to his mouth. “She’s American, Kiley. She won’t get bail and it will probably be years
before this actually goes to trial.”

“That’s provided she survives the questioning. You know how they are over there,”
Keith added quietly to Scott.

Scott nodded sadly.

Kiley crossed her arms angrily over her chest. “Thanks so much for that.”

“Come on, Kiley. You’ve got to be realistic,” Keith cautioned. “Has the Consulate
been contacted yet?”

Letting out a calming breath, Kiley nodded. “I shot them an email before I came in
here. I ran across the alert when I was trying to research some of the stuff she sent
me. I know it’s the Duty Officer’s job to contact them when an American citizen is
taken into custody, I just didn’t trust them.”

Scott snorted. “What did she send you? And why? I thought she’d pretty much disowned
all of you.”

“Something happened in Peru that made her panic. I can forward all the stuff to you
if you want to see it.”

Scott’s lips twisted as he set the paper back down on Keith’s desk. “Paperwork and
research is your forte, gorgeous. Not mine.”

Kiley’s heart always skipped a beat whenever Scott called her gorgeous. She knew he
mostly did it to push her buttons, like a brother to a younger sister, but it still
didn’t stop the little thrill of excitement from traveling up her spine.

Scott was gorgeous, muscular, tall, but he was also an arrogant ass. Had been ever
since Kiley knew him but that asshole side had seemed to increase about the time she
turned eighteen.

Unable to stop herself, Kiley snorted. “Yeah. We all know what your forte is.”

Keith sighed and raised a hand. “Let’s not get into a squabble in the middle of my
office. Kiley, what is you want us to do? We can find her an attorney, but—“

“I want you to go get her.”

Keith and Scott both stared at her in shock. “Excuse me?” Keith murmured.

“She’s in Silivri Penitentiaries Campus,” Scott began. “That’s the largest, most modern
prison in Istanbul. That would be like trying to infiltrate a military base.”

Kiley shrugged one shoulder in indifference. “A task you guys have pulled off three
times now.”

Scott stepped around the desk and walked toward Kiley. As always, her heart sped up
as he got closer, but she’d become very good at masking her emotions where Scott was
concerned. She crossed her arms over her chest and stood her ground. She wasn’t about
to let them talk her out of this. She wanted Paula out of there and the sooner the
better.

“Kiley, there’s a big difference between pulling someone from a terrorist group, or
rescuing someone from a third world military camp, and trying to extract someone from
a highly sophisticated prison. Something like this would take weeks, possibly even
months to plan. We would need blueprints, history, personnel, watch schedules.”

Kiley pulled a jump drive from her pocket and held it out to Scott.

Scott raised an eyebrow. “Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.”

“It’s everything you asked for plus a little more.”

Scott sighed and took the jump drive from her hand. “Keith, you trained your sister
way too damn well.”

“This is what people pay you guys hundreds of thousands of dollars to pull off. If
I were a paying customer would you voice the same objections?”

Keith stood to his full six foot three height and frowned. “Come on, Kiley. That’s
not fair. We always turn down jobs that are impossible to pull off successfully. This
is one of them.”

Scott leaned his hips on the desk with his back to Keith and leveled his gaze onto
Kiley. “He’s right, sweetheart, and you know it.”

Kiley scowled. “I know no such thing. I do know what you guys are capable of.”

Scott sighed and turned his head to look at Keith. “How about we do this?” He turned
back to Kiley. “We’ll take a look at what you’ve got; see if it’s even possible. Do
you know where she is inside the prison?”

“Based on my research, I know where she will probably be, but I’ll have to wait until
she’s processed to find her exact location.”

Keith nodded. “We’ll need that before we can proceed.”

“You’ll have it.” Kiley turned to leave, but then stopped. She spun back around. The
tears she’d been fighting since reading that report threatened to spill over. “I can’t
believe she did this. If I had known she was going, I would’ve stopped her before
she even got on the plane.”

“She’s an adult,” Keith replied. “You can’t stop her from doing stupid things. She
would’ve hated you forever and left anyway when your back was turned. At that point,
she wouldn’t have even contacted you about any of this. At least she sent you this
intel so we can work towards getting the men responsible.”

Kiley’s whole body deflated in disappointment as she thought about all the stuff her
friend had sent and how, unfortunately, none of it would help.

“They paid for everything in cash, so there is no way to trace them. Hotel room, airline
tickets, everything. Even the travel agent they used was fake. I checked with the
hotel she stayed at. It’s an older hotel. No video cameras or surveillance, which
is probably why they used it. Other than actually going down there and trying to bribe
the desk clerk to give us a description, I’ve got nothing. The only other alternative
is to hack James’ Facebook page and see where that leads us.”

Keith shrugged. “You don’t need my okay to hack anything. What are you waiting for?”

“I’m waiting for you to say you’ll go get her,” Kiley countered sarcastically.

Scott moved toward her, a look of sympathy on his handsome face that Kiley couldn’t
take right now. She knew the second he touched her, she’d be in his arms, crying her
eyes out. And that was the last thing she wanted to do. It was hard enough to keep
her hands off her brother’s best friend and business partner. As part owner of the
company he was her business partner as well.

Business and personal did not mix, especially not with their history. Scott had been
around her family since both he and her brother were six years old. They’d gone to
college together, joined the military together and became Navy Seals together. They
did everything together. She would never come between them by starting a relationship
that had no chance of going anywhere.

Scott was too much of a player. Not to mention the fact her brother would tan her
hide.

“I need to get to work,” Kiley mumbled just as Scott reached for her.

As quickly as possible, without appearing to run like a scared rabbit, she left the
office and headed to her own.

Scott watched her go and sighed heavily. He hated to see Kiley upset. He wanted to
run to her, hold her, tell her everything would be okay even if it wouldn’t.

“Are you insane?” Keith snapped.