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Her Kind Of Trouble
Evelyn Vaughn
Mysterious strangers, warnings at sword point, threats of bodily harm…all this effort to make me leave Egypt has made me more determined than ever to find the legendary Isis Cup and keep it out of the wrong hands. After all, I'm Maggi Sanger, full-time college professor, sometime grail hunter and all-around stubborn woman who won't be pushed around.And things are getting even more complicated. The local women want my help, my exasperating ex wants me to marry him and the bad guys want me dead. It'll take some quick thinking and new allies to get me out of Egypt alive….The Grail Keepers: Going for the grail with the goddess on their side.
The stranger’s hulking body loomed, and the sharp tip of his scimitar hovered a mere breath from my throat….
“You will leave Egypt, witch,” he dictated. “Today.”
With a rush, air filled my lungs.
“You will not interfere in matters that do not concern you.”
Even as he said it, my fingers clenched around my sword. “Well, they sure as hell concern me now.” And I swung.
Praise for Evelyn Vaughn
“Evelyn Vaughn delivers thrills and chills in a true battle of good versus evil.”
—Romantic Times
“Evelyn Vaughn takes us on an exciting journey of bone-chilling suspense and enjoyable romance.”
—Tracey West, The Road to Romance
Dear Reader,
We invite you to sit back and enjoy the ride as you experience the powerful suspense, intense action and tingling emotion in Silhouette Bombshell’s November lineup. Strong, sexy, savvy heroines have never been so popular, and we’re putting the best right into your hands. Get ready to meet four extraordinary women who will speak to the Bombshell in you!
Maggie Sanger will need quick wit and fast moves to get out of Egypt alive when her pursuit of a legendary grail puts her on a collision course with a secret society, hostages and her furious ex! Get into Her Kind of Trouble, the latest in author Evelyn Vaughn’s captivating GRAIL KEEPERS miniseries.
Sabotage, scandal and one sexy inspector breathe down the neck of a determined air force captain as she strives to right an old wrong in the latest adventure in the innovative twelve-book ATHENA FORCE continuity series, Pursued by Catherine Mann.
Enter the outrageous underworld of Las Vegas prizefighting as a female boxing trainer goes up against the mob to save her father, her reputation and a child witness in Erica Orloff’s pull-no-punches novel, Knockout.
And though creating identities for undercover agents is her specialty, Kristie Hennessy finds out that work can be deadly when you’ve got everyone fooled and no one to trust but a man you know only by his intriguing voice…. Don’t miss Kate Donovan’s Identity Crisis.
It’s a month of no-holds-barred excitement! Please send your comments to me, c/o Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway Ste. 1001, New York, NY 10279.
Best wishes,
Natashya Wilson
Associate Senior Editor, Silhouette Bombshell
Her Kind of Trouble
Evelyn Vaughn
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
EVELYN VAUGHN
has written stories since she learned to make letters. But during the two years that she lived on a Navajo reservation in Arizona—while in second and third grade—she dreamed of becoming not a writer, but a barrel racer in the rodeo. Before she actually got her own horse, however, her family moved to Louisiana. There, to avoid the humidity, she channeled more of her adventures into stories instead.
Since then, Evelyn has canoed in the east Texas swamps, rafted a white-water river in the Austrian Alps, rappelled barefoot down a three-story building, talked her way onto a ship to Greece without her passport, sailed in the Mediterranean and spent several weeks in Europe with little more than a backpack and a train pass. All at least once. While she enjoys channeling the more powerful “travel Vaughn” on a regular basis, she also loves the fact that she can write about adventures with far less physical discomfort. Since she now lives in Texas, where she teaches English at a local community college, air-conditioning still remains an important factor.
Her Kind of Trouble is Evelyn’s eighth full-length book for Silhouette. Feel free to contact her through her Web site, www.evelynvaughn.com, or by writing to: P.O. Box 6, Euless TX, 76039.
To Toni
Contents
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
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
One moment I was studying the five-thousand-year-old statue of a husband and wife, one of several in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s sprawling Egyptian wing. What kind of romantic problems had they faced, I mused. Deception? Cross-purposes? Old wounds? Had love won out?
The next moment, I sensed someone behind me, all size and impatience and body heat.
And not in a nice way.
“So you decided to be good, huh, Maggi?” The voice was too thick to be pleasant even if its owner tried.
He didn’t.
I recognized billionaire slimeball, Phil Stuart, even before I turned. And here I’d thought that this one-thousand-dollar-per-plate event was exclusive.
“I’m always good,” I told him, masking my unease as I turned anyway. Phil was nobody I wanted at my back. “But if you mean well-behaved…maybe not.”
“You gave up on those stupid goddess cups, right?”
Gave up? It hadn’t been two months since I’d rescued the antique chalice of my ancestors, a holy relic called the Melusine Grail, from thugs sent by this guy. Since then, I’d been preoccupied helping nurse my sometimes-lover Lex back to health after a vicious knife attack.
By more thugs.
Probably sent by this guy.
Supposedly the two incidents were unrelated. I didn’t need psychic abilities to doubt that. Either way, I’d had an excellent reason for not seeking out a second chalice.
Really.
I didn’t need Phil tossing out double-dog dares.
Phil Stuart always looked a little off to me. Like a poor imitation of something better. Other than to check for the bulge of a gun—or a ceremonial knife—under his tux, I barely glanced at him before noting the two suited gentlemen lurking by the ancient stone archway. Was he kidding?
“Bodyguards, Phil?”
“Right?” He leaned closer, into my personal space. “You’ve given up on those stupid goddess cups?”
“Not your business.” I knew how to stand my ground, even in two-inch, ankle-flattering heels. “Back off.”
“Or what?”
He wasn’t an immediate danger to me. This may sound weird, but…ever since I’d drunk from the Chalice of Melusine—my family goddess, a goddess renowned for her prophetic scream—my intuition had sharpened to the point that my throat tightened whenever something threatened me. And my throat felt fine just now.
Then again, Phil rarely did his own dirty work.
He raised his voice. “Or what?”
A smooth voice beyond him said, “Or you’ll make your date jealous.”
Speaking of deception, cross-purposes, and old wounds…
Lex, my sometimes lover and current escort, had returned from fetching champagne. Beside him stood a small, blond woman in an expensive gown. A black gown, naturally—this was a New York arts event. But Lex, healthy again and wearing a tuxedo with an ease GQ models would envy, was the one on whom my gaze lingered.
Alexander Rothschild Stuart III wasn’t so tall he towered, nor so athletic that he bulged. His ginger-brown hair sported an expensive but conservative cut. His face revealed generations of upper-class ancestors, all pulling together in the sweep of his jaw, his cheeks, his nose, understated and yet, well…perfect.
Maybe too perfect. But, good or bad, it was him. Lex was what Phil, his cousin, could never copy. When I wanted him, that was great. When I felt unsure of our relationship, it really complicated matters.
Lately, things had been very complicated.
“Maggi,” Lex said coolly, passing me a champagne flute, “have you met Phil’s new girlfriend, Tammy?”
“Let’s go,” said Phil—but I was already taking Tammy’s manicured hand in my own.
“Pleased to meet you,” I said. “I’m Magdalene Sanger. Are you sure you know what you’re doing with this guy?”
“Hey!” Phil protested.
Tammy’s eyes widened. Her lips parted. “Why do you…?” Then, quickly, she looked down at our hands.
I’m not psychic, sore throats aside. I just knew Phil.
“Now,” Phil insisted. But this reception was for patron-circle members, on a Monday night when the museum was normally closed to the public. If he made a scene, he would do so in front of the crème de la crème of city society. I hadn’t pushed him that far. Yet.
Then again, this was my first drink of the evening.
Tammy slid an annoyed glance toward Phil, then said, “Pleased to meet you, Magdalene. That’s a fascinating necklace you’re wearing.”
“Thank you. It’s called a chalice-well pendant. It—”
“Enough!” At Phil’s exclamation, several patrons turned to see who had been so gauche. Even Lex’s lips twitched, which is about as close to a guffaw as my ex-lover is capable. “Stop talking to her, damn it!”
Tammy blinked, as if seeing him for the first time, then laughed. “Why in the world should I not talk to her?”
“Probably because his wife left him after talking to me,” I guessed. That had been shortly after Lex landed in the hospital. The woman had good reason to be concerned.
Now my throat tightened in warning.
I spun in my heels and nailed Phil with a glare that stopped him cold, before he’d surged forward an inch. Everything about his posture said he’d meant to strike out at me, public place or not. And so it began.
Or continued.
“Here, Phil?” I warned softly. “Now?”
