Men-of-Action-Seres-03 -The McGregor Affair Read online

  By Capri Montgomery

  The McGregor Affair

  Dream Walker

  The Geneva Project

  The Admiral’s Daughter

  Dangerous Obsessions

  Watch Over Me

  Educating Australia

  Maid for Hire

  The Map Trilogy

  Sleeping Inn

  My Brother’s Wife

  The Bride Wore Black

  Murder Unveiled

  The Thirteenth Floor

  The Proposition

  Ride a Cowboy

  And Many Others…

  Coming Soon:

  Keep a lookout for Saints and Sinners, book four in the Men of Action Series.

  Special Thanks

  Thank you, Barb, for catching the mistakes I missed.

  Your assist with editing has been wonderful.

  Thank you to my friend, U.S. Air Force Colonel Susan Cardin-Hoffdahl, who entertained my questions about military men. Thanks for your expertise on special ops, and Navy S.E.A.L.S. I’m still using all the information you took the time to help me understand.

  And, last, but not least, thanks to all of my readers for showing your support for my work by buying and reading my books.

  Copyright © 2011 Shunta Montgomery

  All Rights Reserved

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  Publisher’s Note:

  The McGregor Affair is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, event or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The McGregor Affair

  Prologue

  “You can’t propose to a man on live television and then profess to be angry with him.” Gavin knew his words were aggravating the woman in front of him, but he didn’t care. He was more than willing to use her on air slip to meet his end goal. He would have to remember to thank Warren Applebee for demanding a live show be worked in this season. They had filmed the adventure treasure hunting segments early and then they pieced them in between live lead-in segments. At the time mostly everybody seemed to hate the idea, including him, but now…now he would gladly use it to his advantage.

  “I didn’t propose to you!” Her voice was a high pitch scream.

  “Sure you did. By the way, I think my last name suits you just fine.”

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  “That was an accident. I should have known you being the jerk that you are you wouldn’t know how to let it pass.” If it were at all possible he would say she was turning three shades of red. Her cheeks had flushed, and her hands had curled into tight balls. Did she intend to use those fists on him? He nearly laughed, but he didn’t. He knew just how far to push, and laughing wasn’t in his best interest right now.

  “And,” she stressed. “I’m keeping my last name anyway.”

  “Fine by me,” he shrugged. “So when do you want the wedding?”

  She gave another one of those high pitched screams before storming out the room and slamming the door behind her. She had walked away, nearly stomped away, from him. No matter. She would have to come back. In case she had forgotten, this was her room.

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  Chapter One

  Langston Riverdale pushed the top secret folder in front of Gavin McGregor. “You both know what’s at risk.” Gavin nodded. Of course he knew what was at risk. The secrets being sold posed a huge threat to national security. One agent had already been murdered while trying to crack this case wide open; it’s why they had called him in. It’s why Langston had left the comfort of his D.C. office to fly to Massachusetts and brief him on the new details in the case. If they didn’t find the who involved in this, and the how aspect, soon then America was in deeper trouble than it already was.

  They had a fair idea on how the secrets were getting out of D.C., but what they needed to know was who the buyer was. Which country now possessed secrets to the United States’ new weapons The McGregor Affair

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  technology? They also wanted all parties involved. They already had a guy on the inside at Ransom Global Industries. That guy was just as skilled, just as dedicated, and just as loyal to keeping Americans safe as Gavin was.

  Sully Masterson, a man who was better in the field than any man Gavin had ever met—including Drake Daniels, and there Sully was, sitting in Washington pretending to work as an independent contractor. From the case information Gavin had read, he realized Sully had been on the case for nearly two years now. He had come right out of the Middle East and landed in this mess. It took time to get him in the door at Ransom Global, but once he was in, that was it, there was no out. A year; that’s how long Sully had been inside the company. A year was a long time to wait to go home to his family.

  Langston, the silver haired, sharp tongued commander, had insisted on a conference meeting, despite knowing Sully might not be able to stay on the line. It was important for both men to connect via phone once more before Gavin went deep undercover. Once that happened he would virtually be cut off unless an emergency arose. He had his scheduled check-in times, but those check-ins didn’t connect him with Sully, just with Langston.

  “You have the tough job,” Sully reminded him. “What I’m doing here keeps me behind a desk all day…”

  “You can still catch a bullet behind a desk,” Langston reminded him. “Both of you need to be careful.” He admonished strongly. “I Capri Montgomery

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  won’t lose another operative.” The rage of his emotions was clear in Langston’s tone. “Sully won’t call in before his next check-in unless something comes up beforehand. I need to keep both of your covers safe…now more than ever.”

  “Gavin, be careful,” Sully said. “I have to disconnect, the location is no longer secure for this conversation.” Before either man could say anything the line went dead.

  “He’ll call in when he can,” Langston said. “Keep your head in the game. Sully will be fine. He’s tough…less trusting now than he was before his wife…well, you know.

  Gavin knew Sully’s marriage had been shaky, that he would have preferred to be in Connecticut with his daughter, that he had nearly walked on the case when his wife turned up dead in some Vegas Motel with a needle stuck in her arm and his daughter went missing.

  Sully had nearly walked on a year of hard labor. He had just acquired the job at Ransom Global. He was set to start within the week and then his personal life went to crap. He had left, briefly, took care of his home and came back on assignment. The bastards in Washington had at least afforded him that ability.

  Gavin doubted Sully would have put up with it if he hadn’t been so close to retirement. Now, more than ever, he needed to retire with full benefits.

  While Sully was safely tucked away in Washington, working and waiting for his year and a half to be up so he could pull out, Gavin The McGregor Affair

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  was taking one for the team and heading into the trenches. Although in his outlook he had gotten the better end of the deal. He hated D.C., and hadn’t stepped foot into that cesspool in nearly eight years. He had no plans to ever visit Slime Town again, not without a gun for the
bastard who had set his brother up and nearly got him killed. “Proof,” was what his superiors said they needed. He had brought them all the proof they needed and they had conveniently lost it. That day is when he promised himself two things. One, it would be a cold day in the figurative hell before he went to D.C., and two, he would track down the bastard shadow agent who nearly took away his little brother, and he would kill him, without doubt, without hesitation, he would pull the trigger in a nanosecond.

  Right now he had to focus on his current mission. This case, this treason for hire meets Hollywood glitz, case was coming to a close.

  One way or the other things were going to end soon and either they would be the victors, or America would be on the loosing end of a deadly battle.

  “Don’t get distracted. She’s attractive, but she could be our terrorist.” Langston slid a picture of a very beautiful, very sexy, woman in front of him. He knew the stats already. He watched the show, catching up on where they had been, what they had done, who they were. He read the files already on the crew, and even on her. A picture didn’t do her justice. The view on the theater sized television screen at his home made her look even more delectable. He could imagine in Capri Montgomery

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  person she would look just as good. But Langston was right. This woman could be their traitor. He wouldn’t get side-tracked with lust.

  “So far we don’t know who the contact is. At last check-in, Grant said he might have something. He was going to follow up on a hunch. Next thing I know he’s washing up, half eaten by a shark and a bullet in his skull. We’re almost back at square one McGregor. If we don’t get these bastards then it’s not just our soldiers who will be on the front line. It’s all of us; everybody wanting freedom will be in danger.

  America’s my primary concern, but I don’t need to tell you if these secrets get out…Europe, Russia, every nation on this planet will be in danger.”

  Gavin nodded. It was just like the U.S. to create something so deadly that even they were afraid of it.

  “Senator McKinney is breathing down my neck on this one. He wants step by step details. He wants to know how close we are and when we’re getting the bastards.” He exhaled sharply. “I really can’t stand that man. I’ve been keeping him in the dark just to piss him off, but soon I’m going to have to start sharing more information with him.

  I keep things covert—as covert as I can. Nobody knows Sully is on the inside of Ransom Global and nobody will know that you’re undercover on the set. Just stay off camera and you’ll be fine. I can’t take any chances somebody might see you on television and word gets out as to who you are.”

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  Gavin had worked most of his missions under deep cover, but he knew there was a risk that somebody out there might see him, recognize him, and know that he wasn’t exactly the travel show kind.

  He closed the file folder and slid it back over to Langston.

  “When do I board the plane?”

  “Tonight. You fly into LAX. We need you to stay a couple days, make a face meeting appearance with Warren Applebee, the producer and creator of the show, and then you’ll board a plane to Hawaii. Godspeed my good man.”

  Langston tucked his files back in his briefcase, closed it and walked out the room where they had securely met.

  “One of these days, McGregor,” Gavin mumbled. “One of these days your life is going to get a little less complicated.” One of these days he was going to find a good woman, settle down, raise some children, be a better man than his father was, and enjoy the good life.

  He shrugged. “Who am I kidding? Men like me don’t retire. We lie in wait for the next global disaster.” He rose from his seated position, glanced at his watch and left.

  He had just enough time to make contact with his little brother, let him know he would be gone for a while. He wouldn’t give him details, although he trusted Thomas with his life he was still a government agent who divulged information on a need to know basis. Thomas didn’t need to know the details, not right now. He would reserve that bit of information until he needed an assist. Drake would be his first Capri Montgomery

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  call, Thomas his second. His brother was out of the government game, and Gavin was planning to keep it that way.

  “Hollywood, here I come.” He placed his sleek black shades on his face and headed toward his truck. America, the land of the free—he intended to be sure it stayed that way.

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  Chapter Two

  London McGowan pulled her sandy-brown, almost black, hair back into a ponytail at the top of her head. She loved her hair color, even though sometimes she wished it were more like her mother’s hair.

  Her hair looked nearly black until the sun, or the right lighting, hit it and then the red undertones were highly pronounced. Her mother, on the other hand, had black hair, so when her silver strands grew in she had what people called “salt and pepper” hair. London had a few strands of silver growing in herself, but it wasn’t going to look anything like the beautiful locks her mother had. Right now her silver wasn’t too noticeable. The hair stylist continually complained about having to try to cover them, despite the fact that it really wasn’t that difficult to hide the few strands underneath other sections of her hair.

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  London shrugged. She had told Warren Applebee, the show’s producer and over all decision maker, that she would not let one hint of color anywhere near her hair. It wasn’t that she was a purist. She did have a relaxer that she put in to tame her curly locks. At least with the relaxer she could go straight or curly. Her hair never let her forget which of them was in control. If she let her hair dry naturally it still curled, fortunately just a little. If she used the blow dryer with the comb attachment, or used the flat irons after it dried she could have it straight.

  She had the best of both worlds.

  Obviously it wasn’t a desire to have completely natural hair that prevented her from using color. Her past experience was. She had put highlights in before. The guy was supposed to be a professional.

  Instead of giving her the Vanessa Williams look he turned her hair an unsightly shade of burgundy. She then had to find another stylist to try to fix it. Of course permanent color wasn’t something she could just color over and not expect her hair to fall out, so she had to sit through another session getting the strands that weren’t highlighted colored.

  She got the color she wanted—almost. The new highlights were what she’d been looking for, but now she had three colors in her hair. She had her natural color, the messed up highlights, and the new highlights.

  Once it grew out enough to cut off the last of the mess that was her new hair color she decided she would never do that again. There was nothing wrong with her natural hair color…gray and all.

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  In this business she thought maybe it would be a problem, but fortunately for her she was a thirty year old woman who looked as if she were just barely pushing twenty. Her mother had good genes. All the women in her family looked so much younger than they actually were. Even now people thought she and her mother were sisters instead of mother and daughter.

  London took care of herself. She worked out, doing the fun things that she loved to do. She had to keep in shape, not just for this show, but for her previous job as well. She wrangled snakes for a living up until two years ago when she caught Warren’s eye. She had been removing a python that had found its way into his office, she wondered if somebody had intentionally put it there, but her job wasn’t solving the how, just getting rid of the problem. She relocated the python to a wildlife preserve and she went on with her day. Then she got another call from Warren. She thought he had another snake problem when he asked her to come back
to the office. Instead he had asked her back to offer the position of host on his new travel adventure show, In Your Backyard: Treasure Hunting in America.

  She had declined first off, but he had insisted she was perfect.

  “What do I know about acting?” She tried to warn him.

  “That’s what makes you perfect,” he had said. “You’re an adventurer. You’re a woman not afraid to get in there and get your hands dirty. I need you.”

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  He was right on several counts. She was an adventurer. When she wasn’t wrangling snakes she was rock climbing in the stateside national parks, hiking, white water rafting…she was a tomboy, as her father had said, without the tomboy looks. She could dress up just as well as she could dress down. While her hands were calloused from her work, they weren’t in anyway manly. They were small and moderately soft.

  She didn’t take too long to think over the offer before accepting.

  She was going to get paid to travel the United States hunting for local treasures. That meant getting down and dirty, climbing to the top of peaks, kayaking in the pacific. They even changed the title to In Your Backyard: Treasure Hunting with London McGowan. She had her own show! Every show was a new adventure. While they only aired about six shows a season she worked nearly the year. There was research, then filming. Warren had wanted her there from start to finish. She had a feeling he was trying to groom her for something, what that something was she wasn’t sure. They had meetings on what the next set of shows should be, where they should film, how dangerous she would allow it to be. She was thankful for the say on just how far she’d go for this job. While she loved adventure she also had her head on her shoulders just fine and she wanted to keep it there. Her father and mother had raised her well.

  They too had been adventurers. Her mother was Egyptian, a Nubian princess if ever there was one. She had gorgeous caramel The McGregor Affair

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