Inferno : Ensenada Heat Book 1 Read online

  Inferno

  Ensenada Heat, Book One

  Tess Summers

  Seasons Press LLC

  Copyright 2018 Tess Summers

  Published: 2018

  Published by Seasons Press LLC.

  Copyright © 2018, Tess Summers.

  Edited by Elayne Morgan, Serenity Editing Services.

  Cover by OliviaProDesign.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations within critical reviews and otherwise as permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  This book is for mature readers. It contains sexually explicit scenes and graphic language that may be considered offensive by some.

  All sexually active characters in this work are eighteen years of age or older.

  Inferno

  Kennedy Jones

  I’m a special agent with the CIA, and I’m good at what I do. In fact, I’m considered one of the best. I can play the role of anyone and eliminating bad guys without them seeing me coming is my forte—which is why I was chosen to take down the head of the Guzman family.

  Dante Guzman is a ruthless, sexy, cold-hearted cartel money-man. And now it’s my job to study him, learn his likes and dislikes—in and out of the bedroom—so I can gain his trust and access to his uncle, the head of the Ensenada cartel.

  I just didn’t count on falling into Dante’s clutches.

  Every second I spend with him he manages to pull me further and further into his world. And the more time I spend there, the deeper I slip into the darkness with him, the more I realize…

  I like it.

  Dante Guzman

  Don’t let my good manners fool you—I’m one cold-hearted SOB, and I control the family’s monetary affairs with an iron fist. There’s no place for weakness in my world. Show weakness, and you die. As simple as that.

  So when a petite, feisty, hot-as-hell bombshell storms into my life, I didn’t stop to think about the consequences of keeping her. I wanted her, and I always get what I want. Period.

  Turns out, the stakes were too high…for the both of us. And there’s going to be hell to pay if we’re going to be together, to one form of the devil or another.

  Dedication

  To my readers, especially the ones who reached out asking for this book. You compelled me to keep writing, even on days when I didn’t feel like it, and I thank you.

  Acknowledgements

  Mr. Summers—thanks for breaking down all the boxes from my online shopping when I was too busy writing to go to the store.

  Summers Children—I appreciate everything you do to try and make my life easier.

  Janece Ellers—thank you for being the best beta reader ev-ah! Your feedback is invaluable, and you always, always find time to read and give a quick turnaround. I so appreciate it.

  JM—thanks for always encouraging me and making me feel like I’m the best writer in the world.

  Darla Edison—thank you for being so supportive as my writing career takes off. I can’t tell you how much it means.

  Heidi Jo, Holli Ann, Heather Ann, and Sonni Marie—you’re infamous now. I love you all.

  My mom, aunties, grandma, and cousins—thank you for always, always, always showing up and having my back. I’m so lucky you’re part of my tribe.

  Elayne Morgan—thank you for making this book better and making me look good.

  To the writing community—you continue to amaze me with your support and generosity. Thank you for everything.

  OliviaProDesigns—thank you for another amazing cover.

  Everyone I should be acknowledging but am forgetting—it’s not intentional. I’ll remember once this book goes to print. Thank you for not taking it personally. xoxo

  Table of Contents

  Copyright 2018 Tess Summers

  Inferno

  Dedication/Acknowledgements

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Epilogue One—Slow Burn

  Epilogue Two—Combustion

  Coming in 2019

  Other Works by Tess Summers

  Free Book! The Playboy and the SWAT Princess

  Operation Sex Kitten

  The General’s Desire

  Playing Dirty

  Cinderella and the Marine

  About the Author/Contact Me!

  Prologue

  Kennedy Jones/Ruby Rhodes

  The moonlight from the ten-foot windows was the only light in the room. The petite redhead stood hidden in a shadowed corner of the ornate guest suite, still wearing her dress and heels from dinner. She loved dinners on Dante’s estate; they were always an event, and usually lasted for hours. Tonight had been no exception. El Jefe Enrique Guzman, Dante’s uncle, was visiting, and his nephew had made sure to go all-out to show the leader of the cartel a nice evening.

  She took a deep breath. This was it—the reason she had gone so deeply undercover, becoming the girlfriend and submissive of Dante, El Jefe’s nephew and main money ‘advisor.’ All so she could get access to the Mexican capo himself—and an opportunity to kill him. No one else in the CIA had even come close, but she was moments away from pulling it off.

  So why the fuck was she hesitating?

  An image of Dante’s handsome face flashed in her mind. His crooked smile when he looked at her, warm and tender. How he’d stroke her cheek with the knuckle of his index finger while looking into her eyes, murmuring words of adoration in Spanish.

  Contemplating what killing Enrique was going to mean—never again seeing the man she had accidentally fallen in love with—she almost slipped out the way she had come. Not being with Dante was going to gut her—figuratively, of course. Although if she got caught tonight, it would most likely also be literally, and probably only after she’d been tortured.

  Then Enrique entered the suite and caught sight of her, and there was no turning back. He thought she was there to seduce him, which explained why he didn’t shout for his guards on the other side of the door when he noticed her.

  His grin was sleazy as he looked her up and down and began to unbuckle his belt. “Ah, an ambitious whore, trying to trade up. I like it, although I must admit, I’m surprised.”

  She raised the pistol from her side, the silencer already attached. The memories of her last night with Dante were going to have to be enough.

  ****

  Dante Guzm
an

  He looked around his bedroom suite with sadness—he missed her presence in this room already. His little assassin was gone.

  He’d known she would be after tonight. He knew his time with his sexy CIA operative was going to end the minute he’d announced his uncle was coming for a short visit. A small part of him had held out hope: hope that she wouldn’t go through with her plan. That their time together had actually meant something to her, and she’d choose him.

  The only thing he could do was wait and see what she decided.

  Dante had found her note—which said simply, It was real—before he heard the shouts of his uncle’s guards when they’d found him dead. He had purposefully taken a business call after dinner and left her alone to make her choice.

  It filled him with regret and sadness that she hadn’t chosen him.

  ‘Ruby Rhodes’ had fooled him for all of ninety minutes after meeting her. There was no way a woman was that perfect and just happened to sit next to him at his favorite bar, order Macallan Rare Cask—his favorite drink—then accidentally trip and fall right into his arms.

  No fucking way.

  She was good though, he’d give her that. She never slipped once, and her government had done a decent job at hiding her real identity. It’d taken his best IT man and more money than some countries’ entire GDP to learn that Ruby’s real name was Kennedy Alicia Jones.

  In his office sat an envelope full of pictures of her life: where she’d grown up; high school yearbook photos; college graduation pictures; the professional, posed photo of the day she finished boot camp with the Marines; candid family photos… Having seen her humble beginnings, it made him love her even more every time she so effortlessly pulled off her heiress persona. But it also made him punish her harder when they played at night. She wasn’t fucking real, and he desperately wanted her to be. Keni—not Ruby. He wanted to be more than just a means to an end for her. He wanted her to love him like he loved her.

  Fortunately, her assignment was also a benefit to him, so he played into her ruse and savored the time he spent with the charming actress, waiting to see what she decided. Should her CIA gig not turn out, she had a future in Hollywood.

  Dante stood in his dressing room, staring at the small, black velvet box in his hand. He’d bought the ring today, just in case Keni didn’t go through with her mission. If his uncle was alive in the morning, Dante was marrying her tomorrow night. Kennedy—not Ruby. He had resolved to end this charade one way or the other, but the way it had ended made his heart hurt. Kennedy hadn’t chosen him. Now he was going to have to hunt her down and punish her—for so many things.

  Chapter One

  Kennedy

  After she reported back to her handler with photographs of the bullet in Enrique Guzman’s head, she quickly emptied her fat bank account—the CIA had added a lot of zeros to it as a bonus—and went dark. Only a handful of people knew how to reach her, and even fewer knew where she was. That was exactly how she wanted it.

  Starting over with a new identity was proving to be lonely as fuck this time, and she missed Dante every single day. He was haunting her dreams to the point where she could almost feel him in bed next to her, and thoughts of him tormented her even when she was awake. More than once, she could have sworn she’d caught a glimpse of him in the little town where she’d gone into hiding, just outside Seattle. But each time she investigated further, she found it was just a dark-haired man in a business suit.

  Just wishful thinking?

  Maybe.

  But if it had really been him, she would probably be dead, so perhaps it would be best if she wished for something else.

  Keni had taken a few clandestine assignments since she’d left Dante’s estate, but nothing that kept her away from her new bungalow for more than a few weeks at a time. Her landlord and new neighbors thought she was a flight attendant who traveled overseas. That helped explain her sporadic schedule—being gone for weeks on end, then home for extended periods. It didn’t justify why she paid for everything in cash, but she’d been able to get away with no questions asked so far.

  The hardest part about being untraceable was giving up contact with her family, even her mom and sister. She hadn’t been in touch with Reagan for almost a year, and she hated every minute of it. She missed her younger sibling terribly; it’d been too long since she’d heard her little sister’s laugh. But it was a necessary part of staying off everyone’s radar. Until today she thought she’d been successful, but that had all changed when she’d gone out this morning for her daily run. Now she was trying to decide if her cover had been blown or if the good-looking pediatrician who lived up the street was legitimately interested in getting to know the new girl in town.

  He had come out of his Craftsman six houses north of her bungalow, moments after she’d started her morning jog and fell in pace behind her for a block, then sped up until he was right beside her.

  “Do you mind if I run with you?” He was classically handsome: sharp cheekbones, Greek nose, full lips, with blue eyes and black hair.

  Hello, dreamboat.

  She was instantly on guard. The whole thing was reminiscent of the countless setups she’d done on men for the government.

  “Sure, as long as you don’t want to chat while you do,” she huffed.

  He chuckled, barely breathing hard. “I’ll keep quiet. I just like keeping pace with someone. Makes it feel less solitary.”

  “Maybe I’m hoping for solitude,” she panted.

  He lifted his arms chest-high in symbolic surrender. “If that’s the case, please say so. I don’t want to intrude.” He was still speaking as if he were standing still. Is this man even mortal?

  “No, not today. But some days I do.”

  “Noted.”

  Their feet hit the pavement in rhythm but neither said anything more until they reached the park, and he asked, “Which trail?”

  If she was being set up, she needed to stay on the most popular trail.

  “Panther Trail.”

  They completed the two-mile route, filled with other joggers and bikers, then slowed at the park’s entrance and eventually stopped. Keni bent over at the waist to catch her breath. At least her good-looking neighbor was now breathing heavily.

  “You’re pretty impressive,” he commented, putting his hands on the back of a green park bench and pressing his heel down to stretch his Achilles tendon.

  When she’d finally caught her breath, she stood up straight.

  “Thanks,” she said, walking to the nearby drinking fountain. After a long drink, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand then smiled. “Well, thanks for the company,” she said, and turned to head back to her bungalow.

  “Wait!” he called. “Do you want to grab breakfast? Or just coffee if you’re not a breakfast person.”

  The corner of her mouth lifted as she turned around to assess him. “I don’t even know your name.”

  Mr. Yummy held out his hand. “Bruce. Bruce Parker. I’m a pediatrician at Southern Memorial.”

  She shook his hand tentatively. “Well, Dr. Parker, I appreciate the offer, but I have things I need to do this morning.” Like figure out if my cover’s been blown.

  His smile was polite. “Maybe another time…?”

  “Sonni Templeton,” Keni said without hesitation.

  “Maybe another time, Ms. Templeton. Thank you for letting me run with you. Hopefully I’ll see you around.”

  With a wave, she headed back to her house and her secure internet connection to start doing some research. Was he just the local, friendly, handsome bachelor—or did she need to get the hell out of Dodge?

  ****

  Dante

  “I stalled her as long as I could, D. I even asked her to breakfast. She wasn’t interested.”

  The fact she hadn’t wanted to go to breakfast with the handsome American henchman—his oldest and most trusted friend, John—made him happy.

  “Don’t worry about it. They’re done.”
He hung up the phone and waited, watching his computer monitor to see when his little assassin came up her front walk. His men had just left, after planting cameras and bugs throughout the quaint house she had rented in Leavenworth, Washington. Why a Scottish girl would choose to settle in a town that had been remade into a Bavarian village was beyond Dante. The few times he’d been after he’d found her, he’d drawn people’s attention—a Mexican man in a German village in the state of Washington wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. He didn’t want to spook her—it’d taken him six months to find her—so he’d decided on a long-distance approach.

  The cartel man smiled when he saw her face on the monitor—her auburn hair pulled up in a high ponytail, no makeup, and dressed in her black and pink running gear. She took the steps two at a time and crossed her porch. Judging by the expression on her face, she was troubled about something. He guessed her morning run with John had set off alarm bells. His suspicions were confirmed when she got inside and immediately began searching online for ‘Dr. Bruce Parker.’

  Fortunately, Dante had already had the real Dr. Parker’s photos doctored to reflect John’s image.

  His heart soared when he saw her next search. This time it was his own picture that popped up on her screen. She stared at it a long time, even tracing the outline of his face with her index finger and sighing.

  “I miss you, Dante Mateo Guzman,” she murmured.

  “I miss you, too, Bella,” he whispered back.

  With a louder voice, she continued, “But you really need to step up your game,” just before his monitors went black.

  His first inclination was to curse, which he did—repeatedly—as he pounded a fist on his mahogany desk. He had sent his best men in. How the fuck had she known—and so quickly?

  Slumping back in his chair, he sighed as he pondered what went wrong. Then a slow smile crossed his face, and he shook his head.