Absolute Doubt (Fallen Agents of T-FLAC Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Absolute Doubt Cover

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Back Cover Copy

  Review Snips

  Cherry Adair's Book Store

  Acknowledgement

  PROLOGUE

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  About Cherry Adair

  Copyright

  Title Page

  Back Cover Copy

  In a situation this volatile, something is bound to blow!

  Three. . .

  T-FLAC operative Asher Daklin is running out of time in his race to end the production and sale of the word's most deadly explosive before a cataclysmic terrorist event occurs. This op isn't just his last chance at redemption, it’s deeply personal. Because of him, E-1x took his brother’s life and nearly incapacitated him. Now, with the timer counting down the remaining hours, he has to go deep under cover at the home of the mastermind producing the deadly explosive and stop him. Daklin can't allow anything, or anyone, to distract him from his mission.

  Two…

  Lingerie designer River Sullivan is on a mission of her own—to find her genius brother. When millions of dollars are inexplicably wired to her account she knows he's trouble. Traveling to the small mining town of Los Santos, situated in the mountainous jungles of Cosio, she accepts the hospitality of her brother’s employer and searches for clues as to Oliver whereabouts. If only she wasn’t overcome with inappropriate lust for one of the other houseguests- a gorgeous bishop with a warriors body and laser-sharp eyes that hint at deep, dark secrets.

  One!

  River and Daklin find themselves in a race against time, hampered by staggering odds and overwhelming desire. Daklin has one final, desperate chance to prove himself, keep River safe, and save the day. . .

  Review Snips

  GIDEON. Gritty and action-packed from beginning to end, this is a classic Adair tale, so readers can be sure that the sex is sizzling and the danger relentless! ~Jill M. Smith Romantic Times 4 1/2 * top pick

  Adair's BLUSH . . . sizzling chemistry adds to the heat of Bayou Cheniere, La., in Adair's knockout contemporary romantic thriller. ~Publishers Weekly starred review

  UNDERTOW is full of action and suspense! Cherry Adair did such a great job making the reader feel as if they were part of the experience. I felt like I was right there diving into the water looking for the buried treasure with Zane and Teal. ~Hanging With Bells 4 Bells

  HUSH Packed with plenty of unexpected plot twists and lots of sexy passion, Cherry's latest testosterone-rich, adrenaline-driven suspense novel is addictively readable. ~Chicago Tribune

  WHITE HEAT “Scorching passion, gritty danger, and testosterone-fueled action blend flawlessly together in the latest addition to Adair’s hot and suspenseful Men of T-FLAC series.” ~Booklist

  WHITE HEAT “…latest in Ms. Adair's T-FLAC series, roars out of the starting gate at a fast gallop and never breaks stride in a thrilling, no-holes-barred roller coaster ride of heart-pulsing suspense and hot romance featuring a delicious, to-die-for hunk…”

  “Ms. Adair skillfully weaves an exciting tale of explosive action sprinkled with twisty surprises around a sensual love story laced with gobs of fiery desire. A must for readers who like their romantic suspense hot... and the heroes even hotter!” ~Romance Reader At Heart

  HUSH delivers non-stop action, hair raising adventure, and titillating dialogue that will have readers poised on the edge of their seats waiting for what happens next. Ms. Adair has created a memorable couple whose antics are a pleasure to read about. Emotions run high in HUSH, making for an amazing read full of surprising twist and turns. ~ Fresh Fiction

  HOT ICE is a sure thing! Ms. Adair’s characters are well supported by the secondary T-FLAC operatives that assist in the mission. The villain is equally well developed as you come to learn how a man like Jose’ Morales became so twisted, that you almost feel sorry for him…almost! Ms. Adair weaves in clever tools and ingenious methods to solve this assignment. There has also been great detail given to the locations/settings, which span many continents. And the ability to bring it all together in a pulse-pounding climax will leave the reader breathless and well satisfied by the time you close this book. ~All About Romance

  ICE COLD Adair continues her wonderfully addictive series featuring the sexy men of T-FLAC with this fast paced and intricately plotted tale of danger, deception, and desire that is perfect for readers who like their romantic suspense adrenaline-rich and sizzlingly sexy. ~ Booklist

  WHITE HEAT “Your mission, should you decide to read it, is to have a few hours adrenaline pumped excitement and sizzling romance with the new T-FLAC suspense by Cherry Adair.”

  “You’ll not want to put this book down as the plot twists come together and explode into a fantastic ending. With the spine tingling danger, stomach churning suspense, bullets flying from every corner and red hot romance you get White Heat. Cherry Adair has once again created a heart pounding read with extraordinary characters in extraordinary circumstances that will leave the reader hungering for more. White Heat is an excellent novel and one that I recommend as a keeper.” ~ Night Owl Romance

  Cherry Adair’s Book Store

  Look For These Thrilling eBooks in the Cherry Adair Online Bookstore.

  http://www.shop.cherryadair.com

  Lodestone Series

  Hush - Book 1

  Gideon - Book 2

  T-FLAC/PSI

  Edge of Danger Enhanced

  Edge of Fear Enhanced

  Edge of Darkness Enhanced

  T-FLAC/WRIGHT FAMILY

  Kiss and Tell Enhanced

  Hide and Seek Enhanced

  In Too Deep Enhanced

  Out of Sight Enhanced

  On Thin Ice Enhanced

  T-FLAC/BLACK ROSE

  Hot Ice Enhanced

  White Heat Enhanced

  Ice Cold

  T-FLAC SHORT STORIES

  Playing for Keeps Enhanced

  Ricochet

  SHORT STORY

  Snowball’s Chance T-FLAC/PSI

  Paranormal

  Dark Prism

  Cherry Adairs’ Writers’ Bible

  Available Exclusively on the Cherry Adair Online Bookstore

  Acknowledgement

  To all my FTDB challenge acceptors - I knew you could do it.

  Can't wait to watch you soar.

  Prologue

  T-FLAC Compound

  Montana

  November

  "Ash? I--I'm in a shitload of trouble."

  Holding the cell phone to his ear, gritting his teeth against knifelike stabs biting along the nerves of his shattered tibia, T-FLAC operative Asher Daklin flung his bum leg off the coffee table. He'd never heard that tone in his brother's voice, and he went from stupor to full alert as his defense physiology kicked into high gear. As it did when he defused an explosive, his pulse slowed and his focus became pinpoint.

  Hyper-alert, his voice calm and even, he speed-limped to the front door. "Where are you?" Swinging his coat over his bare chest, he shoved his Gloc
k 41 Gen 5 in the back of his sweatpants, then thought better of it and stuck it one of his jacket pockets. "How bad?"

  By habit, his earpiece was in the bowl beside a full clip and his keys. He inserted the earpiece, then slipped the phone and clip into his other pocket. "Let me speak to your CO." Like himself, Josh was an operative, though still a rookie, with barely a year in the field.

  "I'm solo on this."

  Fuckit. A "shitload of trouble" could mean damn near anything when out in the field. Especially unsupervised. His brother could be anywhere. But he wouldn't be calling for help if he was in some shithole half way around the world, so he was somewhere here in Montana.

  Left leg in a cast from ankle to mid-thigh, titanium pins holding the bone together and five weeks into recovery, Ash was more than ready to get back into the field. But not like this, damn it. Leaning against the wall for balance, he rammed his bare foot into his right boot. Ignoring the galaxy of stars obscuring his vision, he held onto the wall for balance as he bent to tie the laces on his boot.

  Flickering light from the muted football game illuminated the bare walls, single bed, and sofa comprised by his crash pad, used only on the rare occasion he was between assignments. Or injured, as he was now. "Joshua? Where?"

  "Bomb lab." The tightness in his brother's voice indicated his stress level, which jacked up Ash's heart rate and answered his second question. How bad?

  Bomb lab bad. A jolt of adrenaline surged. No. No. Fucking no. "What did you do?"

  "Peeled away some of the coating from the Nut. You said—"

  "I said it's fucking unstable, and the only goddamn thing preventing it from going off is that protective barrier." Skinning the thick outer layers off the explosive device was still just a test. A controlled—by himself—fucking test. "How long ago?" How long to detonation?

  Pause. "Four minutes."

  Even at a flat out run, his brother couldn't clear the blast zone in time. "What the fuck are you doing talking to me? Haul ass!"

  "You know I won't make it."

  No correct answer to that one. Ash's heart did a double tap as he looked around for his crutches in the blue glow of the T.V. The light passed through the almost empty bottle of Tovaritch Premium Russian Vodka on the coffee table next to an empty bag of Oreos. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

  He had no goddamn business driving, let alone trying to save his idiot brother. Still, he considered grabbing the bottle to take with him, and then remembered he already had one in the truck. "Fuck, Josh—"

  "Ream me out later, 'k?"

  Rhetorical. There'd be no fucking later and they both knew it, but that didn't mean Ash wasn't going to move heaven and earth to reach him in time. "Damn straight I will." He hooked the lightweight crutches under his arms only because he could move faster with them than without. The apartment building was on T-FLAC property, isolated, private, off the grid. The lab was a ten-minute drive in this weather.

  "I'll be there in three." Only if he teleported. Fuck, fuck, fuck. "Don't touch anything else until I get there, dipshit." Letting himself out of his apartment, Ash speed-hopped down the hallway to the elevator. "Which lab?" Keep him talking, keep him calm. He jabbed the button for the underground parking garage.

  "B."

  The dimly lit area was full. Operatives out on various assignments trusted their rides to T-FLAC's high-end security. "Breathe. It's small, so it might not detonate at all." The device, in this case the size of a pea, had an unknown blast field. However, it would detonate. "Get the fuck out of there. I'll meet you on the road. Go now, Joshua"

  Ash unlocked his four-wheel-drive truck and climbed, crutches first, into the icy seat. The engine started with a roar. No time to warm up. Years of training and live combat kept him in control as he wheeled through the garage, then into the snowy street at eighty miles per.

  "Don't come, Ash." Fear thickened Josh's voice. "Fucking hell. Sorry. I shouldn't've called you. This is my--"

  "Who else would you call? What the hell were you thinking, numbnuts?" Snow collected on the rapidly swiping wipers, and his breath fogged the windows. Frigid air blasted through the vents, pebbling his skin. But he was reacting more to the imminent peril his brother was in than to the winter weather.

  "I was thinking I could help you crack this one."

  "Alone?" A mental countdown timer urged more speed. Go go go! Pedal to the metal, Ash ran the compound's lone stop sign. Not another vehicle in sight, just open fields of crisp white snow on either side of the road, only visible because he had his headlights on bright. In the high beams, rapidly falling snow looked like heavy confetti as it came down in a slanted curtain. He might as well be the only man on the planet tonight. He passed the sign for Honey Winston's ranch where he'd spent a month after surgery, recuperating and going insane from sheer boredom.

  Tire chains gripped the snowy road, but he felt as though he were going slo-mo. Fuck it. "On a Sunday at seven at fucking night?" He pushed the vehicle up to a hundred on the slick road. "Jesus, Josh,"

  "Had nothing better to do."

  "I'm the only person with access to that lab, Joshua. How'd you get in?" Since he didn't hear the distinctive beeps of the security locks on each door as his brother exited the lab, Ash knew he was staying put. Goddamn it.

  Goddamn him for allowing Josh to see how he accessed the lab.

  "My keen powers of observation, bro. I watched when you keyed the code a couple of weeks ago."

  The kid was too damn smart and observant for his own good. Of he always did shit like that. Had from the time he was old enough to toddle after his older brother, following him, imitating Ash's signature moves, joining T-FLAC.

  He should've known better than to show Josh what he was working on. "When I was showing off, you mean?" The windshield wipers, now moving sluggishly, pushed a mountain of snow from side to side. Thump-hurry-thump-hurry-thump-hurry.

  Not Josh. Please God. Not the only person on the planet I love, hell the only person on the planet who loves me back.

  "You weren’t showing off. I asked. Okay, I fucking begged. I want to learn from the best. You're the best. You'd be the best bomb disposal expert even if you weren't my favorite brother."

  "I'm your only brother, dickhead." Maybe a miracle would occur and there'd be time to save Josh’s ass. "Stick it in those white beads in the lead-lined box." The Upsalite was a promising, but as yet unproven, method of defusing a bomb. Just not this bomb. Not at this time.

  "Does it work?"

  "Do it, and we'll both find out." It fucking hadn't worked a few weeks ago, but if ever a miracle was needed, that time was now.

  The tires slithered and slid as he rounded the corner and passed the nondescript single-story T-FLAC headquarters building where a few lights shone. The place looked empty on this snowy Sunday night.

  Deceptive. All the action, the very heart of T-FLAC, was managed and run like a finely tuned Swiss watch, by the people manning the twelve floors underground. The hub of their telecommunication systems, computers, arsenals of weapons, satellites, and the ability to manage operatives worldwide were there, hidden from sight. He considered, and dismissed, calling in reinforcements. If he couldn't get there in time, they sure as shit wouldn't.

  "Okay. It's in."

  "Leave anyway."

  Pause. "At least it's warm in here. You know I fucking hate the cold."

  Better than being dead. “Get out! Now!”

  The truck screamed past the hangars where planes, helicopters, and various vehicles were tucked behind an innocuous-looking forested berm behind the main building. HQ housed not only everything the operatives needed in the field, but also had a fully staffed hospital, with medical personal on duty 24/7, and temporary housing for personnel or government officials. It even held a safe room for the President of the United States, should the need arise.

  T-FLAC HQ was as impenetrable as Fort Knox, which was why the bomb lab was in a satellite facility, five clicks away, surrounded by mile-thick berms covere
d with trees and dense vegetation.

  "How's the leg?" Josh's voice shook, the sound putting the fear of God into Asher.

  Ash got it. His brother needed to anchor himself to his voice. "Still broken." Pins held his femur together, the cast chafed his inner thigh, and his fucking skin itched. But those were the least of his problems.

  Josh in the lab with quarter of a gram of the most powerful and volatile explosive in the world? That was a fucking problem.

  "Tell me about E-1x."

  "Already told you." Jesus, had it always taken this fucking long to get from point A to point B?

  "Tell me again. Or regale me with the gory details of your love life."

  He hadn’t had a love life in three years. "We were called in to defuse an unfamiliar explosive device in Ben Talha, Algeria six months ago." Josh knew this. He’d avidly listened to the retelling of the discovery of E-1x several times. Ash had fuck-all to add to it. Still, he retold the events in a calm, unemotional voice, hoping Josh couldn't hear his own fear.

  "We searched high and low for the device. We knew the explosive was located on the second floor of an abandoned building on the outskirts of the city. I saw, and dismissed, a misplaced Hawaiian kukui nut, not a bomb. Bad. Fucking. Mistake."

  "How big a bang?"

  "Hell, Joshua--"

  "Tell me again. After all, it’s no big whoop at this point, right?"

  Yeah, no big whoop. Ash's chest hurt as the pressure inside built. He was always in control. Always able to function under pressure. Not this time. Please, not Josh... That one ounce of explosive, wrapped in its hard coating, had been responsible for taking out twenty city blocks, three schools, a hospital, a dozen office buildings, and almost six thousand men, women, and children. It had also killed eleven of T-FLAC's finest bomb disposal operatives, and shattered Ash's leg. "It was a big fucking bang. Happy now?"