Excerpt of Agent E2: Aidan by Joni Hahn

Chapter 1

In order to be a true super-agent, a man needed a pair of breasts and a
push up bra. Cassandra Naylor zipped up her black jacket as she stepped
over the unconscious D.I.R.E. agent lying in the hospital’s fourth
floor corridor. Men were such predictable animals. Flash them some
perky cleavage and they were distracted like an ADD child at an
amusement park.

Slipping off her high heel pumps, Cassandra shoved them into her tote
and jogged down the hall barefoot. It hadn’t taken much to hack into
the hospital’s computer network and find her father’s name on the
patient roster. What had scared the manure out of her was his location:
Fourth Floor ICU.

According to the hospital’s map, ICU was on the second floor.

Finding a door marked ICU, Cassandra pushed it open and peeked around
the corner. Big, rugged Robert Naylor laid pale and unconscious, a
myriad of tubes and wires connected to intimidating machines. An oxygen
mask covered his face, a ventilator at his bedside.

Letting the door swish shut behind her, Cassandra stepped over to the
bed. Fear knotted in her throat as she took in her father’s lifeless
form. His ghostly complexion made him look years beyond his age, the
veins under his skin prominent against his pallid flesh.

Taking his limp hand in hers, she squeezed it, hoping to elicit some
type of response. Her tears increased with her grip until she held his
hand in a white-knuckled hold.

“What happened, Father? Who did this?”

You know who did it. Mitchell Jacobs and his D.I.R.E. Agency.

The hospital records showed a gunshot wound to the chest. Thank God,
he’d survived. She couldn’t imagine life without him. He, Dar and
Naylor Interests were her life. If he died, her entire world died with
him.

Leaning over, Cassandra gave him a feather-light kiss on the forehead.
His skin felt cool against her lips, her body heated from the post-
midnight excursion into the hospital. She’d never attempted anything
like this alone. That had always been Dar’s specialty.

“Where’s Dar, Father?” She stroked back the hair from his forehead.
“What have they done with him?”

Her twin could be free, in a local jail, or well on his way to D.I.R.E.
Headquarters. Mitchell Jacobs would like nothing more than to
interrogate Robert Naylor’s son – then kill him.

The elevator dinged down the hall. She heard male voices, then running
footsteps. Guess they found her unconscious agent.
She had to get out of there.

Pulling up her blonde waves into a ponytail, Cass shoved her feet into
a pair of ballet slippers and donned her glasses. Her father wasn’t
going anywhere, anytime soon. She had to find Dar so they could decide
what to do. How would they get her father out of D.I.R.E. custody like
this? What should she do about the weapon technology deal that was
supposed to take place tomorrow night?

Inadequacy weighed on her shoulders. She’d never been involved in that
side of the business. Her father and Dar had purposely kept her away
from the danger. Yet, now she found herself in charge and in doubt of
what to do next.

Opening the door a slit, she peeked down the hall. Empty.

Opening the door further, she stuck out her head and looked to her
right. The body had disappeared, an agent standing in its place. He ran
toward her.

Blast.

Bolting out the door, Cassandra ran in the opposite direction. Taking a
right at the first crossroad, she sprinted toward the stairwell, heavy
male footsteps closing in on her. She hit the exit door and flew down
the stairs, her slippers floating over the hard concrete steps.

The door slammed opened behind her. Shit, shit. Strong footsteps
followed, gaining more ground than she could ever cover with her size
eight feet. He jumped over the handrail and landed behind her.

Cassandra’s heart leapt to her throat. She couldn’t afford to get
caught. She had to save her family.

“Stop. I just want to talk to you.”

Sure, you do. With a little water and a towel over my face.

The first floor door came into sight. If she could make it to the
ground floor, she could lose him in the bustle of emergency room
activity.

The agent grabbed Cassandra’s arm from behind. Electricity shot through
her. She convulsed with violent spasms, her body shaking and quivering
with wild abandon.

He released her arm. Cassandra collapsed on the landing, her head
bouncing off the plaster wall. Pain exploded at the back of her skull
as dizziness shrouded her head. Her body hummed with residual power,
every nerve-ending charged and sizzling.

He dropped down beside her. She gazed up at him through clouded, lazy
eyes. Her heart stopped, any hope for breath lodging in her lungs.

She must’ve died and gone to the hot angel floor of heaven.

Bright, emerald green eyes stared down at her beneath furrowed brows, a
lock of dark copper hair falling over his forehead.

“Are you okay?”

Yep. He was an angel all right, with a soft, deep voice that made her
body sizzle and her head spin all the more.

His full, gorgeous lips were by far his most appealing feature,
although his chiseled, smooth jaw came in a strong second. He even wore
intricately carved copper and gold armbands like archangels in
paintings of old.

The stories of heaven she’d always heard were way underrated. “You’re
beautiful.”

He grinned with a dimpled smile that would render an auctioneer
speechless. “I think you hit your head. Can you stand?”

Cassandra frowned. As a matter of fact, her head did hurt. Reaching
behind her, she felt around in her hair and found a knot the size of a
Ping-Pong ball.

She wasn’t dead?

Damn. That meant this guy worked for D.I.R.E. That just wouldn’t do.

Shutting her eyes, Cass took a mental inventory of her body. Other than
limbs like noodles and a nagging headache, she felt okay.

She had to lose him. What a pity.

Mustering strength she would surely beg for later, Cass backed away
from him when he tried to help her up. “Don’t touch me.”

Holding up his hands, he unfolded to stand above her. “Sorry about
that.”

Glaring up at him, Cass got to her knees. Bracing a hand on the wall,
she slowly climbed to her feet - with a swift uppercut to his crotch.

Sonovabitch echoed in the cavernous stairwell as he doubled over.

Cass flung open the first floor door. Running into the busy corridor,
she lost her footing.

Shit, shit, shit.

Grabbing a handrail on the wall, she righted herself and took off.
Thank God she wore stretch jeans. She had a little crawling to do.