Taken by Surprise

TAKEN BY SURPRISE

The Heroes of Silver Springs 7

Tonya Ramagos

EROTIC ROMANCE

Siren Publishing, Inc.

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Taken By Surprise
by Tonya Ramagos from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

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DEDICATION

To my loyal readers of Silver Springs, thanks for coming back! If this is your first visit, welcome! I hope you enjoy your time here as much as I always do.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Silver Springs, MS is a fictional city existing only in my imagination. Any liberties I have taken or mistakes I have made in regards to fire department, police, FBI, DEA and military procedures are my own for the sake of the story.

Copyright © 2010

Chapter One

Silver Springs, Mississippi

Michael Cosmos watched her step falter as her gaze locked with his. Lust kicked his pulse up a notch. A beauty like hers could bring a man to his knees. He nearly proved it as she started walking again, each step bringing her closer to him. Needs exploded in a flurry of heat. He wanted to touch the long, blonde hair hanging in natural spirals around her angelic face. He wanted to kiss her sultry lips, to lick a path over her high cheekbone to her ear. He wanted to stare into her large sapphire eyes as he sheathed his cock deep in her sodden pussy.

Her eyes flickered with surprise, then sparked with an interest he knew she couldn't act on. A mirroring awareness rode on a hot tide of need he knew he had to ignore. It washed over him, shorted out his senses.

He blinked, and the interest disappeared. So did the tormenting vision of Rhonda Ramsey, gorgeous and smart in a way that rocked his equilibrium, as she moved toward him that long-ago, fateful day. He peered through the windshield as he slowed his SUV. Rhonda, with her full breasts beneath a thin tank top, and the cock-teasing display of her shapely legs beneath short shorts, gave way to a view of the docks under a growing cloud of billowing smoke. Everything in the last two years seemed to lead him back here, back to a kingpin he had yet catch and a woman he still couldn't have.

"Catch the kingpin, and you can have the woman."

It worked well in theory, the prize of a lifetime in return for a painful sacrifice. Watching her walk away the first time tortured his mind, his body. Being the one to do the walking the second time ripped his heart from his chest. No man would ever call him a coward, but the thought of what could happen to Rhonda if Phay got wind of their association scared him to death.

"That's why you have to catch the bastard."

Michael pulled to a stop behind the emergency vehicles parked haphazardly near the woods to the left of the docks. One road, blocked by the responders already on scene, led to the cluster of beach houses hidden behind the trees. He would have to foot it the rest of the way.

Catching the kingpin proved to be one of those easier said than done statements. Veng Kim Phay managed to elude authorities at every turn. US Navy SEAL Team Six came the closest of anyone to taking down the Cambodian drug lord on his own turf four years ago. The mission, though unsuccessful in capture, sent the kingpin underground. Two years later, he resurfaced with a fury in the lands between Thailand and Cambodia.

Hell-bent on revenge against the SEALs, and with a new enterprise of liquid opium and narco-terrorism, Veng Kim Phay thrived stronger than ever, trading drugs for weapons and trafficking liquid opium by the boatload onto the coastal soil through the docks in Silver Springs. Michael had spent the last two years working in conjunction with the SSPD Narcotics Division and an elite team from the Waterston office of the FBI setting up sting operations. Together, they intercepted trafficking attempts by the Phay Cartel and traced the supplies that managed to make it on land. They discovered the Phay Cartel took to turning the liquid opium into tablets. More, the cartel manufactured them in locations throughout Silver Springs and surrounding areas rather than bringing them in, therefore lessening their risk of detection.

Lessening but not eliminating. The DEA, SSPD, and FBI had exposed three of those labs already, taking fourteen men into custody and effectively seizing more than seventy pounds of liquid opium and finished tablets. Those numbers didn't include the street pushers who they'd arrested and often flipped to gain the intel on the locations of the super-labs.

And with each bust, each takedown, each dealer you manage to flip, you move one step closer to capturing the man in charge
.

Michael cut the engine and got out, his attention focused on the rapidly darkening sky. He heard the call less than fifteen minutes ago over his radio scanner. The sheriff's department received a tip of a possible fire at an abandoned beach house near the docks. First responders noted the smell of toxins. SSFD HAZMAT on scene reported the findings of a methamphetamine laboratory.

One step closer indeed
.

He double-timed it past the squad cars, ambulance, rescues, and fire trucks until he reached the edge of the clearing. It didn't surprise him to see a motorcycle strategically parked on the side and DEA Agent Adrien Bingham leaning against it watching the show. Adrien shot him a cocky grin and motioned him over.

"About time you got here, sweetie." Adrien wore leather pants and a tie-dye T-shirt. The look stood out in contrast to his usual suit-and-tie apparel. His blond hair, typically styled to perfection even after taking off his helmet, appeared to be purposely disheveled.

"Some of us drive vehicles that can't be squeezed through the cracks. What's with the look? Never took you for the leather-wearing alpha male biker. Planning on getting a tattoo next?"

Adrien scoffed. "You think I would mar this body with a tasteless tattoo?"

"I've seen some that were pretty tasteful." And one in particular he would love to taste in a variety of different ways.

Rhonda had shocked him several months back by presenting her right leg for his inspection. She'd gotten a half-moon flanked by a witch's broom and wine cup inked just above her ankle. His astonishment didn't come from the design. He knew about her Wiccan faith, understood the moon, besom, and chalice to symbolize the belief. The fact that he'd found the tattoo mouthwateringly sexy enough to ignite a fire in his tongue baffled him speechless.

"I bet you have." Adrien's smirk revealed his knowledge of Rhonda's tattoo and Michael's fascination, if not for the artwork, then for the woman who wore it. "Alas, I don't think one would look so yummy on me. I'm dressed this way tonight because I was heading back from the club when I got the call about this."

Michael lifted a brow. "Got the call?"

Adrien shot a telling glance at the fire engine closest to the blaze, his gaze lingering for a half second on the firefighter busily working the control panel on the side of the truck. "Thaddeus was one of the first on scene. He, umm, thought I might want to know what Max found inside."

Max Jasper, Silver Springs Fire Department B-shift lieutenant and HAZMAT engineer. Michael nodded. Max knew his stuff. Michael didn't doubt for an instant that the firefighter recognized the burning chemicals from the smell in the air before the HAZMAT truck rolled onto the fire scene.

"You're racking up more inside connections than I've got, Bingham, and here I am supposed to be team leader."

"Jealous?"

Michael chuckled at the teasing inflection in the agent's tone. "Not a bit. You can fill me in, though. What did Max find in there?" He indicated the burning structure with a lift of his chin.

The fire appeared to be almost under control. He saw two firefighters in full hazardous material protective suits lead a hose in through a side door, heard the warning over the crackle of several nearby radios to proceed with caution and watch for triggers. He counted four other firefighters tackling the blazes from the outside on the front and side of the house.

"High-tech equipment, vats, beakers, and other goodies used to turn out a sizeable amount of our deadly little tablets." Adrien paused, clucked his tongue. "On the flammable side, we have ether, iodine, and red phosphorus for sure. Exactly how much I don't know yet, but it's enough to raise some serious alarms."

"Any word on how the fire started?" Michael had attempted to check on the identity of the informant on his way over. So far, the sheriff's department had been unsuccessful in obtaining that information.

"Unofficial guess when I arrived is a match, but..." Adrien ended the sentence with a shrug.

Michael understood. In other words, Captain Dean Wolcott and Lieutenant Max Jasper, the commanders on scene, thought the fire had been intentionally set.

"SSFD encountered a nice little present waiting for them."

"Booby trap?" Hence the warning to watch for triggers that Michael had heard over the handhelds.

Adrien nodded. "With a sizeable boom. I don't know the specifics. It happened just before I got here."

That explained the enormity of the fire despite the quick response of the Silver Springs Fire Department.

"Apparently the very gorgeous and highly capable men and women of the SSFD were ready for it. They contained the flames before it could spread and catch the chemicals inside. If they hadn't, we would've seen one hell of an explosion tonight."

Michael didn't doubt that. The toxins in the air confirmed the presence of all three chemicals. The quantity inside determined the magnitude of the explosion, but he'd seen super-labs do everything from taking out a line of trees to leaving a crater in the earth where the house once stood.

Watching the beach house burn took him back to his early days on the DEA. He remembered one of his first meth lab takedowns and the dealer who turned confidential informant for the team in which Michael had been assigned. The CI's words as he walked into what little remained after a super-lab explosion had stayed with Michael throughout his career.

"Smell that?"
The CI had thrown his head back and taken a deep breath.
"The sick, sweet aroma that stays in the air?"
He’d sighed as if he loved what he smelled.
"That's the smell of production, boys
.
That's the smell of money
.
Remember that the next time
.
Maybe you'll catch it before it gets to this state
.
"

Michael smelled it then as he did now, and he remembered. He associated it not only with production and money, but with addiction and death. "Phay's cartel wanted this place found."

"And they wanted to take out as many emergency personnel as they could," Adrien agreed. "It's retaliation. Do you think they got wind of the sting?"

Michael studied the burning structure for a long moment, choosing his answer carefully. Finally, he shook his head. "No, I'd put my bet on this being a message to us."

"Leave us alone or we'll take you down instead?" Adrien guessed.

Michael nodded. Rayne Jasper had relayed a similar message to him through her battered lips last year. Boran Roumduol, one of Veng Kim Phay's most trusted, promised to come after him if he didn't stay out of the Phay cartel's way.

Michael hadn’t listened then any more than he planned to listen now. He turned his back on the fire, confident the SSFD had the situation under control and knowing he could do little more than stand here until the fire department completely extinguished the flames.

"Anything new at the club?" They were investigating another angle in their coastal-wide war against the Phay Cartel and his horrific drug. This one pointed them to Club Vixen, a popular BDSM club across the bridge from Silver Sprigs in the city of Billings. Nicknamed Mini Las Vegas due to the neon lights of its many casinos, Billings proved to be the perfect hot spot for fetish clubs and dangerous drugs.

"You mean besides the creepy?" Adrien shuddered. "I don't understand how Christa stands it."

"From what I hear, the club is right up her alley."

Christa Hutchens joined the DEA a few scant weeks before all hell broke loose during Hurricane Emilio two years ago, during the time when the Phay Cartel first made their presence known in Silver Springs. A coastal resident since birth, she knew her way around. Her hard-edge reputation enabled her to weasel into virtually any crowd despite the DEA badge she carried with pride. Her status as a regular at Club Vixen, a known player in the BDSM lifestyle, a respected dominatrix made her the perfect agent for the case.

"She can have it. I can play the straight guy with the best of them, but pretending to be a woman's boy toy is stretching it a bit too far, boss."

Michael barely suppressed a chuckle. "You don't have to, Bingham. According to Stone, the feds are sending one of their men to play Christa's toy. He'll fit right in with the cover she's already got in the works about looking for fresh meat."

"You know who they're sending, right?" Adrien looked skeptical. When Michael simply nodded, he said, "And you think he can handle Christa? From what I hear, the guy is pretty straitlaced." He chuckled and shook his head. "Club Vixen will rip a guy like that by the balls and send him running home to Mommy."

"Stone thinks he can handle it." Michael saw it again, that telltale flicker in Adrien's eyes when he mentioned the FBI agent in charge of the elite team working with the DEA and SSPD. He knew Adrien spent a lot of time talking with Cameron Stone. Michael had been the one to introduce the men.

That fateful day at this freaking dock,
Michael thought sardonically.
And around and around we go back to the beginning again
.

"Stone isn't giving you trouble, is he?" Michael watched Adrien for any indication that the other agent might not tell him the truth. Being a gay man, no matter his skill and intelligence, often brought Adrien unwarranted problems when working with those outside their own office. He didn't think that had been the case with Adrien and Stone. He thought the two agents came to an instant understanding. Maybe he had been wrong.

Adrien sighed, but when he answered, Michael didn't detect any hint of lie. "About me being gay? No. About the agent we know the feds have inside the Phay Cartel? Yes. He won't tell me jack."

"Last I heard, he doesn't know jack. The coordinates of Phay's compound in the jungles of Cambodia somewhere near the Thailand border is the last communication received from his inside agent." Michael didn't even know the guy's name who infiltrated the Phay Cartel shortly after the kingpin resurfaced.

"Operation Liquid Tab is set to go down in, what, a little over a month? Half of our team, Stone and his men, and Team Six are preparing to go in, and you don't even know what you're facing."

"Team Six will be there for their own agenda, on their own orders. It's connected to OLT, but they won't be working directly with the DEA or FBI." Michael wished the SEALs were slated to be involved in the takedown. He would much rather the badasses he knew at his side than men of the Royal Cambodian and Thai armed forces.