Reyes’s Raina Read online

  Reyes’s Raina

  Heroes for Hire, Book 17

  Dale Mayer

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  About This Book

  Complimentary Download

  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

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  About Dezi’s Diamond

  Author’s Note

  Complimentary Download

  About the Author

  Copyright Page

  About This Book

  He once picked the wrong woman… he won’t make that mistake again.

  Reyes Drere came from a long line of gardeners. He’d known since he was little which way his life was going to go and it had nothing to do with planting seasons. When he joined Legendary Securities after eight years as a Navy SEAL he’d been avoiding going home and joining the family business.

  The family business included an ex-fiancé he had no wish to see again. Her sister was a good friend but there was nothing more dead than a dead love – unless it was a dead ex-fiancé…

  Raina is reeling from the shock of seeing the only man she’s ever loved showing up at work one day, his new boss in tow. Ice is all about plants on a grand scale, whereas Reyes appears to be all about denial.

  Only the shocks continue as her twin and Reyes ex-fiancé show up dead… and he’s the one with a motive…

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  KILL OR BE KILLED

  Part of an elite SEAL team, Mason takes on the dangerous jobs no one else wants to do – or can do. When he’s on a mission, he’s focused and dedicated. When he’s not, he plays as hard as he fights.

  Until he meets a woman he can’t have but can’t forget. Software developer, Tesla lost her brother in combat and has no intention of getting close to someone else in the military. Determined to save other US soldiers from a similar fate, she’s created a program that could save lives. But other countries know about the program, and they won’t stop until they get it – and get her.

  Time is running out … For her … For him … For them …

  DOWNLOAD a complimentary copy of MASON? Just tell me where to send it!

  Prologue

  Reyes Drere stretched out his legs in his assigned seat.

  “So, who’s next?” Dezi asked Reyes.

  They sat beside each other in the commercial airplane. Harrison was two rows up, working on his laptop, and Anders had stayed behind in London for a few more days with Angelica.

  Reyes shrugged. “No clue, but I doubt it’ll be me.”

  “Yeah? Why’s that?” Dezi asked.

  “Not interested. I don’t think it’s fair to go off and leave somebody worrying if I’m ever coming home again.”

  “But we’re in a different life now,” Dezi said. “I might have agreed with you before, but we’re not in the same dangerous line of work.”

  “Yeah? Look at the last job. Bullets and accidents were all over the place.”

  “Sure,” Dezi agreed. “But that doesn’t mean it’ll continue. A lot of the jobs Levi’s company handles haven’t been dangerous at all. So, yes, on this London job, there were a couple accidents, a couple bullet wounds, but nothing terribly serious.”

  Reyes chuckled. “You realize, if anybody else heard us, they couldn’t possibly understand.”

  “I know, right? It’s a whole different world now.”

  “Besides, nobody’s in my life. Although I’m doing a lot of jobs for Levi these days, I can’t say I’ve met anybody in particular who appeals.”

  “That’s the weird thing about this,” Dezi said. “It’s almost like you go on a job, and it’s got your name written all over it.”

  “I’m traveling with Ice next week. She wants to get some special tropical plants for around the pool area at the compound.”

  “With the Texas heat, they’ll probably thrive.” He looked at Reyes. “Why you?” Dezi sat up straight in his seat at that thought. “Interesting.”

  “What’s interesting about it?”

  “That she asked for you. It’s not like we’re any different. I don’t know why the boss lady wants you to go with her,” Dezi said.

  “Don’t get your nose out of joint. It’s probably because of my family’s background.”

  “What background is that?”

  “Gardeners,” Reyes said succinctly. “We’ve got a large business, growing and importing plants for gardening stores.”

  “So your family grows the annuals shipped to those gardening places in time for spring and summer planting?”

  Reyes nodded.

  “Wow. Never occurred to me somebody would do that by hand.”

  “It’s hardly manual work anymore,” Reyes said. “My family’s business is pretty big. A lot of it is automated now.”

  “So Ice thinks you might know which ones to pick?”

  Reyes shrugged. He didn’t know how much to tell Dezi. Then he figured the truth was best. “It’s more a case of she asked about my family’s business, so I told her some things. Then I talked to my family, and now I’m taking her there. She’ll meet them. We’ll talk about what will work, what won’t work and will arrange for transport of whatever she buys.”

  “Okay, that’s a different story.” Dezi relaxed in his chair. “Transport? Are you guys flying or driving?”

  “We’ll probably both fly there together,” Reyes said. “She’ll fly back alone because I’m returning with the truckful of plants.”

  “That’s a lot of traveling.”

  “Sure, but we’ll keep them environmentally stable enough.”

  “Is she really buying a truckload?”

  Reyes looked at his buddy sideways and then chuckled. “I think she’s planning on bringing back a huge truckload.”

  “Like a three-ton truck?”

  “Like an eighteen-wheeler,” he said, laughing. “But I don’t know. We’ll see when we get there.”

  “Okay. So, considering you’re going home, and obviously that job has your name written all over it, have you got an ex-girlfriend back there who you’re planning on seeing, maybe falling in love with?”

  “Nope,” Reyes said. “My ex and I broke up a couple years ago.” He had said that in a light tone, but it didn’t stop the pain on the inside. It had been a long time, but still that betrayal ate at him. His family kept him up to date on her health and welfare mostly because he had never told them the truth.

  “What’s the former girlfriend’s name from back home?”

  Reyes looked at Dezi in surprise. “Why?”

  Dezi just shrugged with a grin. “Curious. So give. What’s her name?”

  “Her name is Reana. She has a twin sister, Raina.” He twisted in his seat on the plane, so he could look at Dezi, seeing the big grin on his friend’s face. Reyes growled. “What’s so funny?”

  “I’m just thinking about the way a lot of the names of the couples have worked out, as everyone paired up. Look at North and Nikki, Anders and Angelica.” Dezi settled into his seat. “Just saying, looks like you’re next.”

  Reyes shifted away and ignored his friend. Dezi didn’t know the truth. Reyes had no intention of ever getting back together with someone who had betrayed him. What was that saying? Fool me once, shame
on you; fool me twice, shame on me. And that was how Reyes felt about that relationship. It was over. It was dusted. It was done.

  Now the twin sister though …

  No, that was just asking for more trouble.

  Chapter 1

  Reyes got off the flight, walking at Ice’s side, heading to where their ride awaited them outside the San Diego International Airport. It would be a strange trip, coming back home.

  “Are you sure you’re up for this?” Ice murmured at his side.

  “Absolutely.” He gave her a bright smile. “At some point you have to face your past, whether you like it or not.”

  She nodded and said, “If I’d realized that your ex-fiancée was involved in the family business, I wouldn’t have asked.”

  “So it’s a good thing you didn’t know,” he said cheerfully. “She’s moved on. I’ve moved on. That’s life. Besides, she’s an accountant, and the gardening center is just one of her many clients.”

  “I had no clue your family was majorly in the greenhouse business.”

  “It’s been the family business for a long time,” he said. “I was always one of those kids getting my hands dirty in the gardens. My grandfather is just like me. We have tropicals we import from seedlings, but they’re really not profitable in the long run. A bunch of them we bring in just because they’re fun, just because they’re part of what makes up this gardening passion, something we want to keep doing. If you follow your passion into a big business, it’s important to keep feeding that part of you that started the whole thing.”

  “I totally agree,” Ice said. “It’s why Levi and I do what we do.”

  Reyes’s lips twitched. “I’m not trying to save the world. I was just happy to save one plant at a time.”

  Her laughter pealed out across the airport crowd. People turned to look. She was a stunning figure. With her long blond hair and that confident stride, she strode forward, like a Viking Valkyrie. Reyes never admired another woman quite as much. He loved her goal-oriented I can handle anything attitude.

  Outside the airport, he stopped and took a deep breath. Beside him, Ice murmured, “Far cry from Texas, isn’t it?”

  He nodded. “I suppose it has its own charm. I’ve been away from San Diego for just long enough now that the noise, the traffic, the pollution, the people …”

  She chuckled. “It’s one of the reasons why Texas was a good fit for us. We needed the space. The space and the privacy from the world at large. The land around us provided a bit of a buffer, a bit of a balance between what we do and where we live.”

  Reyes nodded. “That makes perfect sense to me. All the years in the military, … you see so much. Your life is ordered from one direction to another, from one moment to the next. When I started working for you, it was like being free again. Coming back here now, this almost feels like a jail cell.”

  “That’s just because it’s different, because you’re not used to it anymore,” Ice said. “Give it time. You’ll adjust.”

  He smiled. “Would you ever move back here? I know your father lives here.”

  “I come back and forth to visit him. But, with all the traveling I do, I’m happy to stay in Texas.”

  “What about your dad? Don’t you miss him?”

  “Of course I do,” she said with a bright smile. “But, if there was ever a man who was as busy as I am, it’s him. We’re both cut from the same cloth. The two of us have our passions, and we put 100 percent into them.”

  Reyes nodded. “I’d like to meet him,” he announced.

  “You will later tonight,” she said. “We’re staying with him.”

  He glanced her way. “I thought I was supposed to find my own accommodations.”

  She turned to him in surprise. “As far as you’re concerned, this is a job. All expenses are on us.”

  He frowned.

  She stopped and looked at him in understanding. “Unless you have friends you want to visit?”

  He shook his head. “Not yet. Maybe in a day or two but, right now, no. I don’t know what kind of reception I’ll get.”

  “From your mom? Surely she’ll be incredibly delighted to see you.”

  “True,” Reyes said. “So will my father. I always got along well with him. It’s just a little awkward.”

  “This is the first time you’ve been back since the breakup?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, it is. So, awkward times ahead.”

  She linked her arm through his. “Nonsense. It will be fine,” she said, looking at her watch. “Once our driver arrives, we’ll be at the garden center for about four hours this afternoon. Then my dad will pick us up, and we’ll have dinner with him. Is that okay with you?”

  He smiled. “Absolutely.”

  Together they meandered through the crowds, looking for the vehicle that would pick them up. Behind him, Reyes heard a voice call out his name. He turned to search in that direction and saw his brother. Immediately his arm shot up in greeting. He and Ice made their way toward him.

  As soon as Reyes was face-to-face with his brother, all his fears and worries fell away. Their arms opened, and the two hugged each other with the same warmth they’d always had.

  Then his brother stepped back and gave him a clap on the shoulder. “Damn, it’s good to see you.”

  Reyes nodded. “Right back at you.” He studied his brother, the older brother who he’d spent so much of his time chasing, trying to be just like him. “You don’t look like you’ve aged a day.”

  “Oh, I’ve aged a lot of days,” Ron said. He turned to look at Ice, and his eyes opened in appreciation. Immediately he had her hand in his. “I’m Ron Drere, Reyes’s older brother.”

  Ice shook his hand. “I’m Ice. Nice to meet you.”

  Ron chuckled. “My mom’s talked about nothing else since she heard you were coming. We’re supposed to be very nice to you because you’re Reyes’s new boss.”

  Reyes rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to be very nice to her. She’s a sweetheart, so you’ll be nice just because she is a person you want to be nice to,” he said gently.

  Ron laughed, peals of joy ringing out over the crowds. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. The traffic at this airport seems to get worse every year.”

  “I’m surprised you’re the one who came to pick us up. No employees free to come?”

  “Hey! I volunteered for the job,” Ron said. “If you were still living at home and took off for a week or two, maybe not, but I haven’t seen you in two years. So I wanted to see you again. Besides, it’s time.”

  Reyes had to agree. It was time. He slapped his brother on the back. “You’re right. It is.”

  They ambled toward the closest parking area and, sure enough, found one of the pickups that belonged to the center. “I see we don’t get any fancy treatment while we’re here,” he said with a chuckle.

  “Wanted to make you feel at home,” Ron said. “No point in beating around the bush. We are who we are.” With Ice sitting between them on the bench seat, he pulled out of the airport and onto the highway headed toward the family’s gardening center.

  Reyes stared out at the traffic and shook his head. “I’d forgotten,” he said.

  “How could you? It hasn’t been that long.”

  “But the last year plus,” Ice said, “you’ve been traveling for us. And, when you returned, it was to the wide open spaces to help you rest and recuperate.”

  At her wording, Ron turned to look at her. Reyes understood his brother really didn’t know what kind of work he’d always done, the stress on the body and the mind from seeing so much devastation. “True enough,” he said to Ice. “And I think that part has been one of the biggest benefits.”

  “Not to mention the rest of it,” she said with a big smirk.

  He chuckled, thinking about the food, the friends, … the family. “Isn’t that the truth?”

  Ron picked up the conversation, asking Ice, “So, you’re part of Legendary Security?”

  “Levi
and I started the company,” Ice said comfortably, then added thoughtfully, “along with two of our best friends, Rhodes and Merk. They’ve been with us since the beginning.”

  “And Stone?” Reyes asked. “Wasn’t Stone there in the beginning?”

  She laughed out loud. “Well, he was, and he wasn’t. Stone is missing a leg,” she said by way of explanation for Ron. “He was a bit of a bugger for not listening to us about getting off his leg, so he was assigned to office duty more often than not as a punishment when he overdid things. But, yeah, he’s been at the core since the beginning. Now we’re like eighteen strong, maybe even twenty.”

  “And that’s just the men,” Reyes said, smiling. “I highly doubt any of the women would consider they weren’t part of it. They don’t all work for the company, but, with all the apartments and the families, it certainly feels like they are part of it.”

  “Not too many of you aren’t paired up now,” Ice added thoughtfully. “You and Dezi are it, now that Anders and North both bit the dust …”

  Ron looked over at Reyes. “Really? You don’t have a girlfriend?”

  There was silence in the truck for a long moment, then Reyes said smoothly, “No, no one full-time.”

  Ron didn’t say anything to that, which was a good thing. Reyes didn’t want to get into a discussion as to whether he was still pining for his ex-fiancée. The answer to that was a flat-out no. He wasn’t. But she was a very close friend of the family, and he didn’t want to get in the middle of the old arguments again. It had been one of the hardest things when they’d split. How did you explain to everyone why you split when they all loved her, when nobody could see anything wrong? And, even if some had seen the cracks, they didn’t say anything to him about it. Of course what was wrong within a relationship wasn’t always obvious from the outside. He’d found it easy to just walk away and to leave her to give whatever explanations she wanted.

  Ron then said something that made Reyes wonder exactly what Reana had said. “She said she didn’t think you’d still be carrying on with the same girlfriend.”