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  The Lucky Bullet

  (Intertwined Seduction #1)

  H.S. Strickland

  SMASHWORDS EDITION

  Copyright © 2014 H.S. Strickland

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  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 a written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  Cover Designed By: Book Covers by Kim

  Dedication

  Nanny, without your love this wouldn’t have been possible. Your love inspired my characters love. Thank you. I love you.

  07/18/1952 – 07/07/2013

  Your love will live on forever.

  Chapter 1

  Ray

  I had just finished putting the finishing touches on my makeup when I glanced at the time. “Shit, I’m late again!” I murmured to myself as I darted out of the bathroom and into my bedroom. Liam had kept me up all night and we were running behind. I grabbed my scrubs and quickly threw them on followed by my shoes. One down, one to go.

  I then scurried towards Liam’s room, trying not to trip over all the toys that cluttered the house. I found him drawing when I entered his room. He was almost ready with his blue and white striped shirt and black jeans but no shoes. He looked up at me and smiled, “Can we go now mommy?”

  “Yeah baby, we can go, grab your backpack and pack your toys.”

  He shot up from his drawing desk and hurried out of the room while I began the search for his shoes. God, there’s toys everywhere. It’s going to take a miracle to find these shoes. I started under his bed but had no luck. Frustrated, I started picking up his toys, searching under everything. After searching the room frantically for ten minutes, I finally found them in his toy box in the closet.

  “Bingo!” I yelled as I emerged from Liam’s closet with the shoes in hand, smiling from ear to ear. Liam came waltzing in a few seconds later with his backpack in hand, zipping it up and throwing it over his shoulder.

  “Did you get the toys you wanted to take with you? You’re going to be gone for two days at Nanny’s.” I asked him as ushered him to sit down so I could help him put on his shoes.

  He looked up at me and made a face as if I had asked the most ridiculous question he’d ever heard, “Duh mom, I’m not leaving without all of my favorite toys,” he responded.

  Finally leaving, we set out towards my beautiful candy apple red 1969 Ford Boss 429 Mustang. I loved my car almost as much as I loved my son. It was my second baby. I had always had a thing for muscle cars. I might be a woman but I could tell you a lot more about cars than most men.

  Liam got in the back seat and climbed into his car seat. I pulled my seat back so I could buckle him in. The one thing I disliked about my car was that it only had two doors instead of four, but I guess you have to deal with something you disliked to get what you want. And boy did I want this car.

  While driving down the highway that stretched for miles, my mind drifted to my mother. Why she came to mind, I couldn’t tell you but every so often she would make an appearance in my head.

  My mom had skipped out on my brothers and me a few years ago, not that I would complain since she was in fact a horrible mother. She never gave a rat’s ass about us. She never physically abused us, but physical abuse was not the only way to leave scars.

  My Nanny practically raised the four of us. She had always favored me, because I was the baby of her grandchildren and the only girl. I had three older brothers; Michael, Matthew, and Bryan. Michael is the oldest at 36, Matt at 34, Bryan at 32, and myself at 29 almost 30.

  Our dad was around till Michael turned two, but only ever came around if mom was looking for a booty call. That was how the rest of us were born. Michael doesn’t remember him. If he did, he had never talked about him before and none of us had asked. We all looked alike, with blonde hair which had a slight wave to it, and hazel eyes. Michael is a police officer. Matt is a boxer. Bryan is a defense attorney and I was a doctor at the local hospital. I guess you could say that the lifestyles we had when we were younger played a part in our jobs. Go figure.

  Mom never worried about putting food on the table for us, she was more concerned about where and how she was getting her next fix. None of us ever wanted to have to continue living like we had as children, so we shot high in our careers. I loved my job to death and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

  I pulled into my Nanny’s driveway and hurried Liam out of the car. My shift was just about to start and I still had to drive the hospital. When she opened the door Liam darted inside, nearly knocking over my Nanny. She was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. She had long black hair, and the warmest brown eyes that just invited you in. She had a little bit of weight to her but she didn’t let that stop her. She wore her weight well. She had laugh lines around the corner of her eyes and the corners of her mouth, giving away her age. She was an amazing woman and I loved her dearly.

  “Thanks so much for watching Liam for me. I’ll be sure to check in on you guys as much as I can,” I said to her before making my way towards my car. She nodded and waved as I jumped in and started the engine, which of course roared. Glancing at the dashboard, I noticed that I was now ten minutes late.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” I mumbled to myself as I peeled out of the driveway and headed off to work. It was going to be one hell of a day, especially since I was scheduled to work all night and half a shift tomorrow.

  Chapter 2

  Mace

  This was supposed to have been a normal hostage situation, nothing too dangerous, but did it turn out that way? Fuck no. Of course not, if anything could go wrong, I think it did. It was just my damn luck. My guys and I had got the lay of the land, we were confident that we had all entrances and exits blocked, just in case. My job didn’t have time for fuck ups.

  I went in the front, looking for the hostage. The police had given us a photo of the young girl while they were briefing us. I spotted her almost immediately in the corner toward my right, she was huddled together. Her knees to her chest, arms around her legs. I scanned the area looking for any movement in the dark, when I didn’t see any movement I put my gun back in its strap on my side. I started walking toward the woman I knew was kidnapped, beaten, and probably raped. I moved slowly trying to let her know I was here to save her, not harm her. Every step I had taken she seemed to cringe away, obviously very scared of me. She looked up at me and turned a sickly pale color. I knew I needed to get her and myself out of here as soon as possible. The man, who had kept her here in this waste of a warehouse, was going to come back soon. I really didn’t want to get into it with that piece of shit scum bag. I picked her up and cradled her to my chest, moving as quickly as possible to the door. Just as I was crossing the threshold I heard movement behind me. I set the girl down on her feet, and moved her behind me in a protective stance. I looked around but didn’t see anyone or anything. I started backing up, the girl moving with me, still looking around but not seeing anything.

  I got her out of the door, and turned around looked down at her and told her in a quiet but firm voice, “Run to the left side of the house, do not stop for anybody except a tall guy with brown hair and blue eyes, his name his Ryan, he will keep you safe and get you out of here.” She hesitated leaving my side, I could tell, but finally complied without an argument, thankfully.

  While she ran to Ryan, I kept an eye out for her assailan
t. If there was anyone in here they were not getting away. This girl was going to get her justice. I saw movement and quickly reached for my gun, turning in the direction I saw the movement, but before I could inspect more carefully, a gun went off and the bullet when straight in my thigh. I went down hard on my ass, and tried to shoot my gun in the direction of whoever shot me, but ended up hitting nothing but wall.

  Whoever hit me had moved already, more than likely when I fell on my ass. I scooted backwards out of the door, gun still aimed, eyes still trained. I got all the way out the door and around the side of the house before Ryan came charging toward the front of the house. His eyes were wild and he looked frantic, but who could blame him he just heard two gunshots and didn’t know who fired them.

  When he saw me he visibly relaxed, and I whisper-shouted, “Some fucker just shot me in the thigh; you and the boys get in there and see who the hell that was!” All he did was nod, and say something I couldn’t hear in the talkie he had on his wrist. After that he looked back at me for a second and then the other guys come around the side of the house and charged in, Ryan behind them a second later.

  While the guys were in there I went ahead and called the paramedics. Ryan came out a couple of minutes later shaking his head. He came over to me, squatted down and said, “All clear, nobody was in there. Don’t know where he went.”

  I simply replied, “He probably shot me to get y’all around this side of the house so he could get out of another exit. Fuck, he’s gone. Dammit this is bad!”

  Just then I could hear the ambulances in the distance. When Ryan heard he looked down at my leg, raised his brows and squinted his face like he had forgotten that I was injured, which he probably did.

  “Damn man, are you okay? Is it anything serious?” His genuine concern was evident on his face.

  I shook my head, “Nah man, I’ll probably go to the hospital for them to take the bullet out and stitch me up. I’ll be fine.”

  The paramedics came rushing over to me. I looked up at Ryan and asked, “Where’s the girl at? She needs to go the hospital too.” He looked up, just as Blake was coming over with the girl. I blew out a relieved breath, glad that the shit bag that shot me didn’t get her as well.

  As I was hopping into the ambulance I turned back to look at Ryan and he looked worried so I yelled out “Come on in here, pussy, I’m fine but you seem to be worried so you can ride with me.”

  He just jogs over, ignoring my pussy comment. I know he’s worried about me and though I would never admit it, I wanted him there.

  Ryan has been my best friend since grade school. We grew up in the same small town in Arizona. We went into the Marines together and when I built my company, Jones Security, I asked him to join me. He happily agreed. We’re all each other have, so I was not going to rib him too much about being worried about me.

  My parents and younger sister were killed when I was 16. After they died I went into the care of a dear friend of my mother’s. All I wanted to do was to protect my sister, and that was the only thing on my mind back then. Except I didn’t protect her, it was my fault she died.

  Shaking the thoughts from my head, I relax in the back of the ambulance, thinking this is really going to be a pain in the ass. I didn’t want to go to the damn hospital but fuck it. Have to get this damn bullet out.

  Chapter 3

  Ray

  I had been at work for a little over 3 hours when my pager started to go crazy. Looking down at it I saw we had some guy coming in with a gunshot wound. Wonderful, I thought. This was going to be so much fun. Tonight I had seen a broken arm, a flu patient, and several other broken body parts. It was not what I was thinking for tonight, but who was I to complain?

  I told a nurse, I think her name was Sarah, to get a room ready for an incoming patient with a gunshot wound. She looked up at me wide-eyed at the mention of a gunshot wound. I just chuckled and told her, “You’ll get used to it.”

  She was new here so she hasn’t seen some of the stuff that some of us had. As I was putting my lab coat back on, Sarah went in and took the guy’s vitals. I had just gotten my coat on as she was coming out of the exam room. Looking up at her, I noticed that she seemed extremely flustered. I assumed it was because of the gunshot, but as she walked past me, she whispered, “Good luck!”

  I had no idea what she meant, why would I need good luck?

  I had dealt with gunshot wounds before, nothing new to me. I wasn’t squeamish with blood or anything really. I mean come on, I’m a mom, there’s not much you can be afraid of if you’re a mother.

  Giving her a slight eye roll, I went on to knock on the patient’s door. A deep voice yelled from the other side, “Come in.”

  As I turned the cold door knob and pushed into the exam room preparing to see just what Sarah met and I was instantly stunned. Holy Shit, I thought.

  There sat, on the edge of the hospital bed, the most stunning man I had ever seen. From what I could tell, he was around my age. He was tall, like extremely tall compared to me, although he wasn’t standing up so it was hard to tell. I believe his hair was black, maybe brown with a slight wave, and that just got fucked look to it. He had the brightest green eyes I had ever seen. They were almost an emerald color, with a little bit of moss on the outsides. In attempt to tear my eyes away from his, I lowered my gaze and noticed his chest which was broad and huge. Good God! His biceps looked bigger than both of my thighs put together.

  He cleared his throat loudly, grimacing in pain. Oh shit that’s right; he has a bullet in his thigh. I almost didn’t notice the other man in the room but as I willed myself to focus on the task at hand, I spotted him sitting on the chair across the room. He was pretty hot too, with light brown hair, so light it was almost a caramel color, and really nice blue eyes. Realizing that I was standing there checking both guys out I blushed a little.

  “So Mr...” I waited for him to fill in the blanks and he didn’t disappoint.

  “Just call me Mason.” He said in the deep, sexy voice of his.

  “Well, Mr. Mason, I’m going to need you to take your pants off for me,” I said before realizing my mistake and blushed at what my statement probably sound like to him.

  I tried to correct myself, “Uh…. I mean….uh I need you to, uh take your pants off so I can see the gunshot wound...” Shit, get it together, Ray!

  My face still hot, I waited for him to comply. He stood up with the help of his friend who rushed to his side, and began unbuttoning and unzipping his pants. He pulled his pants down quite a ways then sat down on the hospital bed once again. I moved to the other side of the room, grabbed a pair of gloves and then bent down at the waist to look at his wound. After inspecting it, I stood up and realized that my face was right in his crotch. The evidence of my face being in his junk was obvious, he was hard. And from what I could tell he was huge.

  I cleared my throat as I slowly yet painfully moved away from his center, wanting to stay as professional as possible.

  “I’ll be right back,” I said before swiftly moving out of the room like it was on fire.

  I couldn’t believe he had gotten hard. I guess I was an attractive woman. I had light blonde hair that fell between my shoulders. I had hazel eyes, which changed color depending on what I was wearing that day. I was about 5'4, kind of short. I had gained weight while I was carrying Liam. I was proud of that weight though, it showed that I carried my baby boy. Anyway, I couldn’t believe that I would have evoked that kind of reaction out of him, especially considering I was poking and prodding his leg where he got shot.

  I set out to find the supplies that I needed to get the bullet out of his leg, and pushed his reaction to me out of my head.

  Chapter 4

  Mace

  “Dude, I cannot believe you just got a hard-on right in front of that hot doctor's face! Holy shit that's hilarious!” Ryan was laughing his ass off at me. Honestly I couldn’t believe it either. You would think I could control myself around her? But nope, I got hard right in he
r face. She must think I’m a perv.

  “Man, will you shut the hell up? I really don't need a reminder that I pretty much just disrespected her. She's still got to get this bullet out of my leg; she's probably going to purposely hurt me because of that!” I yelled at him.

  I was starting to get angry, I was in pain, tired, and irritated. Ryan really wasn't helping me right now.

  “I can't help it though, man. You opened the door; I'm just walking through it. Seriously though, I can't blame you for getting hard in her face. I would have done the same thing; did you see her ass when she bent over you to look at your leg? Fucking hot as hell,” he continued

  He was getting a starry look in his eyes. I'd say it was about time for him to get laid. I don't know why but at that moment I felt protective over the hot doctor. I looked toward Ryan and gave him my meanest glare and growled at him.

  “Shut it Ryan.” I warned while glaring at him.

  He held up his hands in surrender. It did no good though; he was still chuckling but also trying to hide it for my benefit.

  Thank God, I really don't like getting into it with him. He's my best friend, might as well be my brother. I love him like one.

  My hot as hell doctor came back in; she was flustered by my presence. She acted as professional as one could, with just having a hard dick in her face. I let her do her business; I didn’t want to embarrass myself further.

  My hot doctor wanted me to stay overnight for observation or something. I really didn't want to stay; I had a lot to do. Paper work needed to be done for work and a lot more. After they shot me up with some drugs, I started to feel loopy. So I didn't complain about staying overnight. The drugs took the fight out of me.