Lace & Lead (novella) Read online

  Lace & Lead

  M.A. Grant

  Lace & Lead

  M.A. Grant

  Breathtaking action, startling originality and polished story-telling combine in this futuristic Sci-Fi novella about a rough mercenary, a pampered daughter, and the lies they both believe.

  Blue-blood Emmaline Gregson survived one of the most brutal mining accidents ever recorded in the Republic, but she’s never been in a firefight. So when unknown assailants circle the family estate, the only man she can rely on is Peirce Taggart. A former Lawman turned mercenary, Peirce has a simple job: protect Emmaline until her father can collect her and sell her to sex trafficker Richard Stone to pay off his debts. But when Arthur Gregson tries to cheat his way out of the contract, Emmaline seizes the opportunity to hire Peirce for herself, regardless of how crude, dangerous, or appealing he may be. Given the chance for redemption, he promises to help her escape both her father and Stone. But Peirce soon realises that hiding her in his apartment until the storm has passed may be more dangerous than looking down the barrel of a gun...

  About the author

  Marion Audrey Grant is fortunate to live in the rugged beauty of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. She's believed in happy endings and true love since she was very young, when her parents would read her Mercer Meyer's Beauty and the Beast and East of the Sun, West of the Moon. At the time, she could only look at the pictures and pretend to understand the words. Later in life, the realisation that she had stories of her own to tell would lead her to graduate college with majors in Creative Writing and English.

  Thanks to her husband’s unending support, she now works as a scribe to the intelligent women and wounded heroes who need their stories told.

  Acknowledgements

  This story wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my amazing critique partner Maggie, and my beta readers Shellie and Jessica. You ladies rock!

  To my dear husband—I guess teaching me how to use the X-Box has finally paid off.

  Contents

  About the Author

  Acknowlegements

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Bestselling Titles by Escape Publishing…

  Chapter 1

  “Shit! Keep your head down!”

  Emmaline Gregson immediately followed the barked command, ducking behind the low stone wall surrounding the garden. The next shot passed overhead where she had been half a second earlier. Her heart was hammering, her palms sweaty and she thought she may lose her nerve completely as the exchange of gunfire rang out through the crisp morning air. “Wh—what should we do?”

  “Well, honey, at this point I’d be pretty damn pleased about not dying!”

  Emmaline gritted her teeth against the presumptuous endearment. Peirce Taggart had been hired to protect her. Right now clearly wasn’t the time to fire him.

  Instead she shot him a glare. Too bad the bullet-jockey was busy returning fire and didn’t even give her a sideways glance. Even now, with her life at risk and shots hammering the stone wall at her back, she couldn’t completely escape the fact that he was the most striking man she’d ever seen. For the past two weeks, he had been a welcoming distraction from her father’s controlling behaviour.

  She’d been smitten since the mercenary had waltzed into her comfortable ancestral summer home, all confident swagger and heady sexuality, carrying his security orders from her father. A former corporal, Taggart moved with the restrictive grace of an ex-Lawman despite his broad shoulders and muscular thighs. His blonde hair remained buzzed, although he’d relaxed his training enough to allow the most interesting shadow of stubble grace his strong jaw and chiselled lips. Even now, face smudged with dirt, blood rising up where he’d been hit by the spray of rock shrapnel, she couldn’t look away from the intent focus in those blue eyes, currently narrowed and focused on the unseen enemy. He’d be the perfect man to help her solve her little problem, if not for—

  “What the fuck are you doing sitting there?” he yelled at her as he ducked down behind the wall to reload. “I told you to get to the fucking house!”

  If not for his filthy mouth.

  Emmaline lifted her chin in defiance. “I can’t. They’re shooting at us—”

  “That’s why I’m trying to shoot back at them,” he retorted. “It’s called cover fire, sweet tits.”

  She slapped him.

  She probably shouldn’t have, judging by the way the muscle in his jaw ticked. But he didn’t raise a hand toward her. Instead, he just glowered at her until she was quailing and told her in a very low, very calm voice, “You have exactly three seconds to get your ass up and moving toward that house.”

  She swallowed. “I can’t.”

  His huge hand, one she knew was rough with calluses under his leather mechanic’s gloves, gripped her chin, forcing her to look him eye to eye. Her breath caught.

  “Kai and Douglass are moving in to cover us. We have to get inside before their positions are compromised. I’m going to tell you to go and you’re going to run. I’ll be right behind you.”

  Something inside her broke, maybe from fear, maybe from the knowledge that denial was no longer an option. Tears spilled over and she finally admitted, “I’m scared.”

  He looked at her for half a second and suddenly his mouth was on hers, harsh and unyielding. His tongue swept across the seam of her lips and she parted them on instinct, moaning against him when he deepened the kiss. He’d pulled away before she could fully come to her senses, leaving her dizzy and reeling, while he was returning fire again.

  When he turned back, he ordered, “Go!”

  And, to her brain’s surprise, her body obeyed.

  Shit, he shouldn’t have done that.

  He shouldn’t have kissed her. Felt her lips soften under his. Felt her body become pliant. Seen those dark eyes look at him with the confused haze of passion.

  What a cluster.

  But he didn’t have time to berate himself. Not now, not when he was popping up from behind that wall to shoot off a few more rounds in the direction of the mercs who’d surrounded the front half of the house. At least Emmaline wasn’t arguing with him.

  Instead, she was sprinting up to the house, the light skin of her shapely calves flashing at him from underneath her prim and proper skirt. The woman was a helluva distraction. Had been since the moment he’d set eyes on her.

  He was right behind her, shielding her as best he could with his body, firing blindly behind him, knowing Kai and Douglass were keeping the mercs off their asses until he and Emmaline were safe inside the ancestral stronghold of the Gregson family.

  She tripped, her boot turning under just metres from the door. He immediately adjusted, holstering his gun and reaching down to scoop her up in his arms without pausing. Unfortunately, the burn in his shoulder told him he hadn’t pulled the move off unscathed.

  Douglass was at the door, slamming it shut with a resounding thud behind them. Peirce didn’t have to look to know both his men were already moving furniture in front of the door.

  He slowly came to a stop and looked down to realise he was still carrying Emmaline in his arms, pressing her against his armoured chest. She was blinking up at him with a strange expression on her face. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “Yeah, whatever.” He put her down a bit more roughly than she probably deserved, but his shoulder was aching like a bitch. There was no time to fix it. That would have to come later, once they were safe.

&nbs
p; “We’ve got the east wing sealed off,” his engineer Kai informed.

  “I’m guessing they still don’t know about the passage?”

  “Nope,” chimed in Douglass, communications man, with a grin. “Good news for us.”

  But he motioned Peirce off to the side and it wasn’t until Emmaline couldn’t see that his grin dropped. “I’ve been picking up some chatter, sir. The boys outside were sent by Gregson.”

  “Aw, dammit.”

  “They were mostly speaking Témocan. Talking shit about how it didn’t matter how expensive we were, we’d still die.”

  He wasn’t sure what pissed him off more: Gregson’s assassination attempt or his using mercs who were probably former child-soldiers. “Nice move on his part. Kill us off before he finishes paying us.”

  “He’s a pleasure to work with, right, sir?”

  “Right,” Peirce deadpanned, “can’t you see how fucking ecstatic I am?”

  He couldn’t avoid it forever. Emmaline was still standing there, watching him quietly. Hopefully she hadn’t overheard them. “Time to go, honey.”

  She stiffened slightly. “I’m not your honey.”

  He shrugged. “Suit yourself. We’re still going.”

  “But what about the house?”

  Peirce looked around. The place was dripping wealth, but he sure as hell wouldn’t want it to be his home. All he could see was blood money, a desperate attempt to create an illusion of grandeur. After the Republic was formed, warring countries united under a common flag to stop the bloodshed. Those with money earned from the wars’ gun-running, human trafficking and political sway had become the new aristocracy. Those without did the best they could—indentured servitude or enlisting with the Lawmen. Not that he was bitter. “You want to save any of it, you lug it yourself.”

  Okay, maybe a little bitter.

  She scowled at him and he was almost amused at the way her cute little nose wrinkled. Almost. But the burn in his shoulder was getting stronger and the sooner he got her out of here, the sooner he could take care of it.

  “Move,” he ordered, motioning her to follow Kai.

  “Gods, you’re such a jerk,” she muttered as she brushed past him.

  He ignored her comment. It was his job to be a controlling asshole, especially if it meant he was able to keep her alive. He took up the rear position as they moved their way through the house. The servants’ tunnel waited for them beneath the floor of one of the many sitting rooms. Kai had already shifted the massive couch off the rug that covered the trapdoor.

  Emmaline paused at the entrance and Peirce wondered if he’d actually seen a flicker of fear on her face before she took a deep breath and descended into the tunnel. He followed her, flipping the rug as best he could over the trapdoor before closing it behind them. A mine set by Kai would slow the progress of any merc who figured out where they’d gone, although Peirce hoped they’d be long gone before that happened.

  They’d been moving for almost half an hour when Peirce felt the rumble behind them. The mine had gone off, which meant they’d have company very soon. “Shit,” he growled under his breath. “Douglass, how far are we from the river?”

  The blue light of the holomap lit up the tunnel and disappeared moments later. “Less than three hundred metres,” Douglass said quietly back to him.

  “Move,” Peirce said, making them pick up the pace.

  He was surprised Emmaline was keeping up with them so well in the claustrophobic darkness where the only light came from the occasional checks of their holomaps. Her pretty clothes had to be getting in the way of her progress, yet she didn’t complain. Peirce snorted; just a matter of time until she really let him have it.

  That was always the way it worked with the aristocracy. Frigging cry-babies.

  Until then, all he was doing was appreciating the strawberry scent of her light brown hair and the warmth seeping through her thin jacket when he closed in on her, forcing her to move faster to avoid his proximity. After all, nothing would be happening between him and Her Primness.

  Emmaline’s nerves were screaming at her, not because of the unexpected exercise or the threat of the pursuers behind them, but because Taggart was directly behind her. With the darkness of the tunnel, he kept running into her and it was getting old.

  Every misstep let her feel the thick vest that covered his broad chest, his height and width enveloping her. He absolutely dwarfed her and it felt delicious. Each time he pressed against her, she found herself breathing in deeply, trying to capture that combination of dirt and sweat and sulphur and man.

  This was crazy. There was no way she could be falling for a man like Peirce Taggart. As if he knew the thoughts running through her head, he bumped into her again. “Knock it off,” she snapped.

  “So sorry, honey,” he said, although he didn’t move away from her.

  “Get off,” she said again, stopping suddenly, hoping it would force him off her back.

  Instead he ran into her and for a moment her body moulded to his. Goosebumps rose on her arms and a shiver of awareness shot through her. He felt good.

  “Fuck,” he snarled under his breath, against her hair. His hand shot out, gripping her waist. His fingers tightened, pulling her back against him...

  And then he pushed her forward, sending her stumbling toward Douglass.

  “Whoa,” Douglass said, catching her before she hit the ground.

  She spun back to Taggart, aware he couldn’t see her well in the darkness. But she was still able to make out the darkened outline of his hulking body. “What was that for?” she demanded.

  He didn’t respond, so she closed the distance between them and pushed him in the chest. “Hey, I’m talking to you!”

  Pushing against him was like pushing against a mountain: utterly futile. She prepared to push him again, planning to put more weight into it, but he caught her hand before it connected with his body armour. “You need to stop doing that,” he said conversationally.

  “Let go!” She fought him, but his huge hand was gripping her tiny wrist lightly, just enough to prevent her from getting out of his grasp.

  “River’s coming up,” he continued, as if she weren’t struggling. “That means we’re almost out of this hell hole. I’d prefer that those assholes who are following us don’t know where we’ve gone.”

  Now he released her and she stumbled back a few steps. “Kai, leave a present for our friends. Make sure it throws them off.”

  She could hear someone move past her in the dark and knew Kai was working his way back down the tunnel to lay the trap.

  “Douglass, let’s see if the rafts are still there.”

  Taggart brushed against her as he moved away. She shifted awkwardly in the dark. “What should I do?”

  “You really want to help?”

  “Well...yes.”

  “Stay here until I yell for you, shut the hell up and stop being such a goddamn distraction.”

  She listened to him move off in the darkness, toward the faint sound of water. She felt appropriately cowed, but was reeling even more from his unintentional admission. He thought she was a distraction.

  “You shouldn’t be so hard on her,” Douglass admonished him.

  Peirce muttered something foul under his breath. But Douglass didn’t let it go.

  “It’s not her fault.”

  “I know that,” Peirce agreed, pissed that he was so irrationally irritated. “It’s her old man’s fault but it’s our job to get her out and deliver her back to him. Besides, it’ll be nice to see his face when I tell him our price has gone up.”

  The river was nearby. Peirce could hear the water lapping against the limestone, hoping that the emergency rafts he’d put down there would be enough to get them all out.

  “Have you told her yet?”

  He stiffened at Douglass’s question. Gritted his teeth. “No. I haven’t told her.”

  “Why not?”

  He unstrapped his light from its leg holster and
took a quick look around the small cavern. The rafts were still there. He started to unpack them, prepare them for inflation, but Douglass hadn’t moved. He just stood there like a dark cloud with crossed arms, watching Peirce avoid the real issue.

  Peirce sighed and focused on undoing the straps. “What’s the point in telling her that her old man sold her to some Traverian sex trader to pay off a debt?”

  He heard Douglass’s low oath. Peirce’s back straightened and he closed his eyes. “She didn’t follow orders, did she?”

  “No.” Emmaline’s voice was quavering but clear. “She didn’t.”

  Chapter 2

  He steeled himself to turn around and see the shock and sadness on her face. But when he did, there was something worse there: resignation. Her reaction was a punch to the gut. “You knew?”

  She managed a weak smile at him. “You didn’t know my father very well, did you Mr. Taggart? There weren’t a lot of reasons for him to want me safe.” She took a shuddering breath and crossed her arms over her chest. She continued to meet his gaze, her own eyes defiant. “I’m not stupid. I knew you were my best bet to get out of there.”

  Douglass chuckled and Kai, who’d just joined them, asked, “What’s going on?”

  Peirce couldn’t look away from her. In the two weeks he’d been around her, she’d driven him absolutely insane. She never thought ahead, she always acted on some kind of empathetic instinct that was someday going to get her killed and she was the most passive-aggressively stubborn person he’d ever had to interact with. This new knowledge that she’d played him like a fiddle wasn’t helping either.

  Peirce stepped closer to Emmaline. She didn’t move, although he could see the way she was gnawing at her lower lip. “What do you propose we do about this then, Miss Gregson?”

  “I have money. I can pay you—”

  “You have ten thousand credits lying around?”