Hero At Large

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Prologue

Regrets were a waste of time. Keshon Gray had lived as a criminal long enough to know that much.

Stepping onto the rooftop, he took a pack of cigarettes out of his breast pocket. Gray only had a minute or two before he had to go back to the pretense of being a bouncer for L.A.’s trendy nightspot Ocean. But this time, as he struck a match and held it to the end of his cigarette, a strange sensation washed over him.

Before his break he’d helped move a shipment of cocaine, but that wasn’t what was pushing against the edges of his conscience. Nor was it the crates of semiautomatic Street Sweeper shotguns stacked in the storeroom beside the paper cups. He released a short puff, and as he watched the blue smoke curl and blend with the cool November air, it hit him.

Once he’d hated cigarettes…and smoking. At the back of his mind lived the memory of a time when he’d sworn the habit would never touch him.

Gray’s first toke on a cigarette had been to prove himself to his boys. And even after he’d long outgrown that need, the habit remained, like sooty residue in the wake of a fire.

Each guise he’d taken on over the years—and there had been many—left a new layer of grime clinging to his soul. But he had no more choice now than he’d had thirteen years ago.

He may not have chosen the right path in life, but he’d done it for survival—not his own, someone else’s. He’d made up his mind to do whatever he had to, but he hadn’t been quick enough or strong enough then, and someone he’d loved like a brother had died.

Suddenly Gray’s throat constricted and he felt as if he was choking. His cough was rough as he struggled to clear his throat, his eyes watering with the effort.

Even now, he couldn’t think of that episode in his life with the numbing cool he was able to apply to everything else. For that reason, Gray had never failed again—at anything. He approached each new challenge as though someone’s life depended upon his success—and more often than not, it did.

Since he’d returned to L.A., he’d reconnected with the remains of the gang he had belonged to. Those who weren’t dead or in prison had been floundering on the edges of the L.A. drug trade and getting nowhere fast.

He herded them off street corners where they’d been hustling, and yanked them out of basements where they wasted their days getting high. It was time for them to move from petty street dealing into the big time. Making real money in this business required contacts, which he’d been cultivating carefully. Add a little weapons brokering into the mix, and they had an organized operation with the flashy L.A. club scene as the perfect cover.

The secret agency Gray worked for, SPEAR (Stealth, Perseverance, Endeavor, Attack and Rescue) was on the trail of a traitor—not a small problem since most government organizations didn’t even know that SPEAR existed. Those that did know of SPEAR recognized them as a group of the most elite, well-trained operatives in the world. A fact that made this turncoat’s threat to the agency all the more menacing.

He was willing to do whatever he had to do to bring down the enemy, but the fact was, he’d been hiding in shadows for so long, he no longer knew what he looked like in the light.

Gray stared at the cigarette burning between his fingers. Reflexively, he spread his index and middle finger and watched the cigarette fall over the edge of the roof and into the darkness below.

The time for mourning lost opportunities had passed. He’d made his choices and now he had to play them out. It didn’t matter that he’d never based those choices on his own needs. Trying to find the man he’d lost so many years ago was pointless. In fact, that man had never existed. Gray had only been sixteen when his identity had begun to slip away.

He took a step back, straightening the collar on his black blazer, which he wore over jeans and a T-shirt, both black. His break was over. And so was the bittersweet glimpse of his past.

As Gray hurried down the stairs, he couldn’t know that after nine years, he was about to look into the eyes of the only person who had ever known the real Keshon Gray.

Chapter 1

Even small victories deserved to be celebrated. Rennie Williams had been a psychologist long enough to appreciate that fact.

She smiled across the table at her two best friends. Their busy schedules had prevented them from having a girls’ night out for quite a while, and now they were making up for lost time.

“We have a lot to celebrate tonight.” As she reached for her margarita, Rennie’s gaze shifted to the first person she’d met when she moved back to L.A.—a corporate attorney she’d picked out of the phone book to help her sort through the legal details of setting up a private practice. “To Marlena, the only woman to be made a partner at Loudon, Crosby and Wade.”

Then Rennie turned to the second woman at the table, a nurse at the Family Planning Clinic, which was located in the L.A. Help Center on the same floor as Rennie’s office. “To Alise, after two years with a man who didn’t deserve you, you’re finally free. And to me, for making it through my first year on my own as a counselor for women.”

The women started to raise their glasses in salute, but Rennie held them off. “I’m almost done. To feminine energy, wisdom and strength,” Rennie said, finishing her toast. “We’ve proven we can do anything.”

Marlena and Alise cheered, clinking their glasses against hers.

The past year hadn’t been easy for Rennie, but that only made her small successes more meaningful. Tonight one of her clients, Sarita Juarez, was making her singing debut in Ocean nightclub’s Sand Castle Lounge, which featured salsa music. It was the perfect opportunity for Rennie to have a well-deserved good time with her friends and to show support for the client Rennie had struggled hardest to reach over the last few months.

When Rennie’s mind drifted back from her reverie, she noticed that Alise and Marlena were having a spirited discussion on their favorite topic—men.

Marlena shot Rennie one of her world-famous probing looks. “You’re the shrink, Ren. Why are women so attracted to bad boys?”

Caught off guard, Rennie looked from one woman to the other. “How did you two get onto this topic?”

Alise grinned. “Marlena has a theory that certain types of men are like irresistible poison. She thinks if we compare notes, we can come up with an antidote.”

“Yeah. There must be some psychological concept to back my theory, right, Rennie?”

She took a long sip from her drink, enjoying the tangy lime taste. “I’m off the clock, guys. You’re on your own.” The spicy salsa tempo was working its way down her spine. She was having too much fun to get into a heavy discussion about men.

Marlena threw a twenty on the table. “There. That should cover fifteen minutes of your time. Go,” she ordered, snapping her fingers.

Laughing, Rennie threw the money at her friend. Marlena was the type who expected to get her way and it was useless to fight it. “Fine. It’s really not that complicated. A woman has an inherent need to tame the wild beast. We’re attracted to bad boys because they’re sexy and dangerous, and we secretly believe that we can change them.”

“Yeah, but we all know that’s a crock of—”

“Marlena.” Alise cut her off. “Don’t try to pretend you’ve never gotten taken in by a bad boy. What about Troy Hopkins in college?”

The smug lawyer blushed. “I was young. I didn’t know better, and besides, it’s hard to resist a guy who looks that good in a pair of jeans.”

Alise giggled. “Apparently, half the girls on campus felt the same way. He had so many girlfriends Marlena had to book her dates three weeks in advance.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Enough about me,” Marlena said, draining her glass.

“Well, everybody already knows my story.” Alise rolled the edge of her cocktail napkin between two fingers. “I’m lucky I finally got rid of Ron before he spent what was left of my 401K. What about you, Rennie? Have you ever dated a bad boy?”

“No,” she answered without thinking as she scanned the dance floor.