Vince's Vixen

  Vince’s Vixen

  Heroes for Hire, Book 19

  Dale Mayer

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  About This Book

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  About Ice’s Icing

  Author’s Note

  Complimentary Download

  About the Author

  Copyright Page

  About This Book

  Running away can often lead to the same thing you were trying to leave behind …

  Vince is not on board with the wave of romance happening at Legendary Security and so is happy to escape all that, but he soon finds himself aboard a research vessel off the coast of the Galapagos Islands, dealing with his own tide of emotions.

  Vanessa loves her research trips. This latest one is finally coming to a successful conclusion, as she completes their data collection, when their vessel is boarded by pirates. She’s knocked unconscious and moved to an old sinking tub and left adrift in the ocean. She wakes to find the only other female member of the team is missing …

  Worried, the team returns to shore, trying to sort out what happened. Vanessa insists on tracking her missing team member, even as the others vote to return home. Vanessa refuses. She’ll help or die trying. Vince can stay with her or go with the others—his choice—but no way is Vanessa’s lost researcher being left behind.

  And, one by one, the other members of the team go missing too …

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  Prologue

  On his way to buy steaks for dinner, Vince Manor had been stopped with a phone call. As he stood in the compound, he heard Dezi and Diamond in a corner of the room.

  He shook his head at Dezi. “Holy crap,” he said, watching the two. He knew it was serious, but he hadn’t realized just how serious.

  Levi walked in to stand beside him and said, “You’re next.”

  “That’s guaranteed to make me run,” Vince said. “This is freaking scary stuff.”

  “No,” Levi said. “It’s the best thing that can happen to any of us. Don’t be scared of it. When it’s your turn, you’ll know it.”

  “Nah,” Vince said, “everybody around me has all the good women. There isn’t another one left in the world, I’m sure. Knowing me, I’ll end up with some nutcase, a bitch, and I mean that in the nicest canine way.”

  Levi chuckled. “No, but maybe what you need is somebody with a bit of spirit, somebody to help you laugh.”

  “Oh, no,” he said. “No matchmaking.”

  “No matchmaking required,” Levi said. “I’m pretty sure the next job with your name on it will find you the perfect woman.”

  “Hell no. And, if her name starts with a V, I’m out of there. There will be no Victorias in my world or Valeries or Veras or anything else.”

  Levi chuckled, then burst into great big guffaws of laughter.

  “What are you laughing at?” Vince asked suspiciously.

  “I know exactly what it’ll be. It’ll be Vince’s Vixen.” Then he went off in a storm of laughter again.

  Vince stared at him. “Oh, hell no,” he said. The last thing he wanted was somebody who would argue all the time. He wanted spirit, yes, but he sure as hell didn’t want too much of it.

  And he had a sad feeling it was just too damn bad. Levi had already forecasted Vince’s future. Whether he liked it or not.

  Chapter 1

  The crackling static of the PA system shook Vince out of the computer work he was doing. He was in the office at the compound, handling some of the research he took over for Stone so he could upgrade the security system. With the advent of the completed swimming pool installation, they’d added in fences and made strategic use of plants from California in the yard too, so now they were taking a new look at security and who could see stuff going on in the pool area.

  Of course, Reyes and Raina were handling that part. It was always about security here. And Vince understood that. Often meetings were all about new ideas, new concepts they were sorting out through research. He was currently looking at a different kind of sensor to allow them to see if anybody moved within one hundred yards of the perimeter of the compound. The problem with that, given the countryside they lived in, was the animal wildlife. Levi could put up a sensor and set a target weight for detecting an intruder, so anybody moving in the two-hundred-pound category would set off the alarm, whereas anything small, like a coyote, wouldn’t. And, of course, that would help, but would it be effective? And an awful lot of crazy-ass men were out there who were in the 150-pound range. Women too…

  Vince continued going through the research, printing off and circling sections he thought should be reviewed.

  “Full staff meeting in the kitchen right now please,” said Ice, her voice coming across the PA system. “We have a call coming in. Attention, everyone. A team is going out immediately. All hands on deck.”

  Vince closed down what he was working on, stacked up the research paperwork and headed to the kitchen. Being on paperwork duty wasn’t his ideal task. He understood the necessity, but, if there was an op, he wanted in on it.

  He really enjoyed being here, loving the camaraderie of working for Levi and Ice. They were now engaged, with no wedding date planned yet, but Ice’s face always held a smile. For that, Vince had to give it hands down to Levi. He’d done a good thing when he had asked her to marry him. Levi probably didn’t know how much it meant to some people, and maybe Levi didn’t even think it was important to Ice. She always seemed so independent and so capable. But then Levi must have realized how much their lives were entwined and that a commitment mattered to her.

  And it had.

  As Vince walked into the kitchen, a good seven people already waited. That was reassuring. His odds of going out on the job just went up. He frowned. “Not many are here, huh?”

  Stone looked up. “Two headed out last night. We’re down to a skeleton crew. Instead of wondering when we’ll have some work, we’re in a constant state of not having enough men.” He wore a hard smile. “The world is in a sucky spot right now.”

  “Isn’t that the truth.” Vince headed to the sideboard, poured himself a fresh cup of coffee, grinned when he saw the massive chocolate chip cookies and snagged two. As Vince sat, Stone munched away too. “I gotta say one thing.” Vince’s mouth was half full of cookie. “Bailey and Albert are one dynamite duo.”

  Stone, his mouth too full to talk, just nodded.

  Ice walked in toward the large screen, clicked on several buttons and picked up the remote. She stepped back and brought it online. The face of an older man appeared. “George, you’re live. Go ahead,” Ice said.

  George’s eyebrows lifted as he surveyed the table. “This darn technology.” He shook his head. “I never would have figured this was possible. I’m sitting in my place, and you’re sitting all the way over in Texas.”

  “For those of you who don’t know, George is a scientist working in the Arctic.”

  Vince nodded. “Interesting place to be.”

  George nodded. “My life’s work is here. If this global warming doesn’t stop, we’ll all be in trouble.”

  Vince didn’t have anything to add to that because George was right. The world was in a crazy place right now. “I gather you have a problem there?”
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  “Not here,” he said. “My daughter is currently working in the Galápagos Islands.”

  Vince sat up straighter, a grim look on his face. “Galápagos Islands? What is she doing there?”

  “She’s working on a government-funded study to assess the ecological damage of the tourist industry,” he said heavily. “And I’m sure you can imagine her results will impact a lot of lives. It’s a protected area, and only specific tours are allowed in and out. The local officials do what they can to control the damage, but there’s been recent poaching.”

  “And what does poaching have to do with tourism?” Stone asked.

  Vince had to admit he didn’t quite understand himself.

  “We’re not sure that one has anything to do with the other.” Then George stopped, frowned and shook his head. “No, that’s not quite true. We were considering they were connected. Until recently. Two tour guides had been left behind, to help with turtle counts. Both men turned up dead. It was thought they got in the poachers’ way.”

  Slowly everybody in the room straightened. “Dead?” Ice asked. “How were they killed?”

  “They were both shot in the head,” George said. “I’m sure you can see why I’m a little concerned about my daughter.”

  “Have you spoken with her?” Levi asked.

  “And have you talked to her about these concerns?” Vince was sure George had done that, but it still needed to be asked because why else was he calling Levi’s team?

  “I would if I could,” he said. “I have spoken to her almost every day, but, for the last twenty-four hours, she’s not answering her phone.”

  “Is she there with a team, or is she on her own?” Vince asked.

  “A team,” George said. “A very experienced team. So, as you can see I might be a little concerned.”

  “And because of the two tour guides being shot, you’re assuming the worst, is that it?” Ice asked, her pencil moving rapidly on a scratch pad in front of her. “Do you have any visuals on her team? Anybody else answering their phones? Anybody else popping up at the local hotels? I presume she and her team are not staying on the island?”

  “No, they stay on board the research ship. By a special dispensation, they were allowed to spend four days there while counting the turtle population. And that went off well. They’ve done this every year for several years to see the impact to the turtle numbers. This year was no different. It went off without a hitch. She was due to come back in another week. She did send me a weird email not too long ago.” His voice was heavy. “In it she intimated this might be her last trip there. As she was struggling with some of the team members. Maybe it was nothing, I don’t know. It just seemed an odd thing for her to say as she’s not one to complain. She loves her work. She loves these animals. Normally she’d ignore everything else in order to help them.”

  “Meaning, one of her team might have been involved in poaching?” Vince frowned. “It would certainly be easy for the team to be involved in illegal operations when they’re there and have such good connections.”

  “Exactly,” George said. “But, like I said, the team is experienced, if not in the field then through their studies and their areas of expertise. She’s worked with them many times. So I’m not sure if she’s talking about poaching or something else.”

  “Sure, but maybe one person on that team is not quite as experienced,” Levi said. “We’ve seen it time and time again, George. A team is only as good as its weakest link.”

  “I know,” he said. “I’ve spoken to the local government. As far as they’re concerned, there’s absolutely nothing to worry about. I’ve spoken to other family members of the team, and again they all believe there’s nothing to worry about. It’s just something to do with me being me.” He wrinkled up his face. “Yes, I’m a father, and all my instincts say something bad has happened.”

  “But there’s been no contact, like from kidnappers? No requests for ransom? No blackmail of any kind?” Vince asked. He hated to bring it up, but it was certainly one of the things first on his mind.

  George shook his head violently. “No.” Then he added slowly, “Not yet. There is still time, if they’ve been taken captive somewhere.”

  “And when you say somewhere,” Stone said, “what do you mean?”

  “I mean, taken to a second ship. So much of the work down there is done on ships. My daughter’s team was on a big research vessel where they worked most of the time. It’s quite possible somebody has taken over the research vessel or alternatively just took off some of the crew.”

  “To what purpose?”

  “It’s hard to say. The government contracts alone are worth millions,” George said. “So who knows what kind of influence the team has, on both who gets the contracts and on whether the tourism dollars will get cut in order to allow the area to recover. There was open tourism until the government slapped those doors closed, and then installed just a few tours to bring some control back to the area. But, if that’s not enough to bring the animal numbers back up and to stop further damage to the ecosystem, then the government will do more. Maybe the Galápagos Islands are closed for ten years. In a way, I’d like to see that. But it’s very hard to determine what way they’ll go. I don’t have the data.”

  Ice, as if sensing he was heading off into research mode, brought the conversation back on topic.

  George hesitated and then said, “I have to admit. I’m really worried about pirates.”

  There was silence in the kitchen.

  Vince was the first to speak. “Okay, that’s a word to make every father’s heart crash.”

  “Exactly,” George said heavily. “She’s very much like me. We both went after our passions, and, because of that, we’re often at opposite ends of the planet. I wasn’t there a ton while she was growing up, but, since her mother died, we’ve become closer. I don’t want to lose her. And if she’s suffering at the hands of anybody …” His face twisted up with anger. “Please make sure they pay for it.”

  Ice looked up from her notes. “I need her full name, contact information for the entire team, anybody you know in the government—ours and the local authorities—who have given the okay for her team to work there, and whoever you spoke with to date. The more names and contact info you can give us, the more chances we have of tracking down somebody who is there on the spot and who knows something.”

  “I’ll email them to you.” George smiled. “My daughter’s name is Vanessa, and she has three more researchers with her, so four total on the team.”

  Stone chuckled. And then his face grew serious as George looked at him inquiringly. “The name,” Stone said. “It’s a great name for a woman.”

  George smiled wistfully. “It is, indeed. She was named after her grandmother. And that woman was a hell of a vixen,” he said affectionately.

  Ice turned to Vince, a smile on her face when she said, “Vince will head the mission to look into your daughter’s disappearance. Send me that information, George, and we’ll arrange flights to get him there as soon as we can.”

  “You’re not sending him alone though, right?” George asked in alarm. “He’ll need a team.”

  Ice smiled and nodded. “Not an issue. I’ve got one or two more guys we can send out.”

  “I can go,” Stone said with a big grin. “I’ve never been there. I’d love to go.” He looked up to see the screen was black. “I guess it’s a good thing he was gone before I said that, huh?”

  “You think?” Ice asked, raising her eyebrow. “But I get what you’re saying. I haven’t been either.” She looked like she was figuring out the schedule, who she could juggle to add to this op. She looked at Vince. “You don’t have any problem with that, do you?”

  No,” he said. “I don’t. I can’t say I’ve been to Galápagos either.”

  “You won’t go alone,” Levi said. “Give us a little bit, and we’ll figure out who’s going with you.”

  Ice looked at Levi. “Not many are here to choose
from, and I think you said you always need to have, what? Four on hand here at all times?”

  Levi nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I said. We’ve got six now, but Merk is heading out tomorrow for California.”

  “Anybody new coming in?” Stone asked. “Didn’t Ice say you had a transfer from Bullard’s side coming?”

  “Johan Wagner,” Levi said slowly. “He is coming. I know the man from our visits over there. He was part of Bullard’s security team for the new settlement on the Tunisia border. So he’s got a lot of rough-and-ready and maybe even pirate experience.” Levi stayed calm. “I should give him a go.”

  “We weren’t expecting him until next week though,” Ice interjected. “We’ll have to see what his schedule looks like.” She stood up. “I’ll start on this. I’ll let you know when and who and where.” And she disappeared around the corner, the hard clip of her footsteps fading down the hall.

  Stone looked at Vince. “This one is yours.”

  “Why is that?” Vince asked absentmindedly, his mind already considering the Galápagos Islands and pirates. He loved sailing. He loved the water. The Galápagos archipelago was on his list of places to see. He didn’t really want to do a lame civilian tour though. And, as luck would have it—something very nice for a change—this job had just dropped in his lap.

  “Starts with a V,” Stone said with a smirk.

  Vince stared at him in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

  “The woman you’ll rescue,” he said. “Her name starts with a V.”

  Vince laughed. “So?”

  “And named after her grandmother who was a vixen. So, she likely is too,” Stone said with a head nod. “And that’s a V. That makes her Vince’s Vixen.” He laughed. Standing up, he refilled his coffee, grabbed two more cookies and headed back to the security room. He was still laughing as he went down the hallway.

  “Didn’t you say something similar earlier?” Vince frowned at Levi who had half a smile playing at the corner of his mouth. “That really isn’t working for me.”