Christmas with the Kings (The Kings of Guardian) Read online

  A Christmas with the Kings

  Kris Michaels

  KMRW LLC

  Copyright © 2018 by Kris Michaels

  Krismichaelsauthor.com

  Cover Art: Cover Me Photography and Design, Becky McGraw

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted in the licensed material is a model. This book is fiction. Names, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locations are entirely coincidental.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Foreword

  Introduction

  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

  Also by Kris Michaels

  Foreword

  Author's note:

  This novella—all tied up in shiny paper and wrapped with a satin bow—is a holiday offering to all those readers who have fallen in love with the characters in Kings of Guardian and the Guardian Shadow World series and made them their own. Inside these pages are glimpses into the family lives of Jacob and Tori, Adam and Keelee, Frank and Amanda, Jared and Christian, and all the others. The story unfolds three weeks prior to a particularly memorable Christmas at “The Ranch.” If you are concerned about reading order, consider this offering as the Kings of Guardian Book 11.5.

  Please note: THERE IS NO BACKSTORY INCLUDED IN THIS NOVELLA.

  This novella is not for you if you have not read the previous books in this series. You will not understand the characters or the dynamics. If you have not read all the Kings of Guardian and Guardian Shadow World series, please consider not buying this story.

  For my readers who have followed me on this journey... I hope you enjoy a glimpse into the life of my Guardians.

  Introduction

  Dear Readers,

  My editor told me that I needed to include a who's who listing in this book as I don't provide any background or remind you of the backstory for anyone in this novella. So, this is a quick down and dirty about the main characters, and offspring, to date.

  Patriarch & Matriarch of the Marshall-King Family:

  Frank Marshall is the widowed father of Victoria and Keelee Marshall. Amanda King is the widowed mother of Joseph, Justin, twin sisters Jasmine and Jade, Jason, Jewell, Jared and Jacob King. (For those of you who have asked, this is the birth order of the siblings.) She and Frank are now married to each other. She is now Amanda King-Marshall.

  Marshall & King Children

  Jacob King is married to Victoria (Marshall) King They have four sons, Talon, Trace, Tanner, and the baby, Tristan.

  Joseph King is married to Ember (Harris) King. They have one son, Blake King.

  Doctor Adam Cassidy is married to Keelee (Marshall) Cassidy. They have one daughter, Elizabeth (Lizzy) Cassidy.

  Jason King is married to Faith (Collins) King. They have one son, Reece King.

  Jared King is married to Christian (Koehler) King.

  Jasmine King is married to Chad Nelson. They have one daughter, Chloe Nelson.

  Jewell King is married to Zane Reynolds.

  Jade King is involved with Nicolas DeMarco.

  Justin King is engaged to Danielle (Dani) Grant.

  The following characters, while not related by blood, are considered their “children” in the eyes of Frank and Amanda Marshall:

  Drake Simmons is involved with Doctor Jillian Law. Drake has an identical twin, Dixon, whose love interest is unknown at the time of this story. *Yes, I do know, but I’m not telling… LOL!*

  Mike White Cloud (Chief) is involved with Tatyana (Taty) Petrov.

  Kaeden Lang (Anubis) is married to Sky Meyers-Lang. They have a daughter, Kadey Lang.

  Chapter 1

  Jade King took a deep breath and stopped outside the door to gather herself. The Guardian Security conference room was empty, but any minute, a number of valuable assets would walk through that door. For an entire week, she'd debated the pros and cons of calling this meeting. She hated to acknowledge she might have taken on an operation requiring more than her solo skills, but time had evaporated, and if she wanted this operation to succeed, she needed to call in some specialists—the “A” team. She rolled her eyes and snorted in disgust. She’d thrown her best effort into it. She'd gone into reconnaissance mode and had spent the last four days doing intense research. The groundwork was laid for the operation. The structure was there... basically... maybe... but the logistics of getting it all to come together? For this particular mission, the logistics portion was astoundingly confusing. Fuck her standing. She had no idea so many moving pieces and details were involved. No idea. Dammit, none of this was ever supposed to have happened. She'd never felt so ill-prepared, and that pissed her off, which made getting shit done even harder.

  She glanced down at the printed version of the email she'd sent earlier this morning.

  >Urgent. Assistance required. Main conference room. 1400hrs. Today. <

  Her assets had acknowledged receipt of the email and had confirmed their attendance. She was screwed with a capital 'S' if they refused to help. She took a deep breath and opened the massive door. The metaphor clobbered her. By coming here and asking for help, she would be doing exactly that—opening a massive door—especially when she laid out her plans and intentions for this op.

  She turned on the light before hitting the button on the remote to fog the glass walls and door. Her satchel hit the dark wood of the conference room table, and she pulled three folders and two notebooks out. An unprecedented event two weeks ago triggered her need for help today. Jade hadn't told anyone about what had transpired. Hell, it was intel she held close to her vest. But, but in to order ensure things happened according to her plan, she needed help, and that meant releasing some highly sensitive information.

  Her attention snapped to the door. Victoria, her sister-in-law, and Jewell, her sister, walked in. Jade hit the remote to lock the door behind them. It made an audible click.

  Victoria glanced from the door to Jade. "So, what's the crisis you referenced in your email? It was cryptic." Tori gracefully walked around the table and sat down in one of the plush leather chairs. As always, she was beautifully put together, her make-up, hair, and clothing were all runway ready.

  Jewell threw a bag of fruit-flavored chews on top of the table and flopped into a chair before asking, "What's up, buttercup? Why the secrecy?" Her black hair was pulled up into a messy bun. Three yellow, #2 pencils poked out of the untamed mess. She wore her husband's hoodie over... yoga pants.

  Jade gawked at her sister. "Why are you wearing yoga pants?"

  "Because I'm off today. I wasn't planning on coming in."

  "Oh." Jade glanced at her watch. It was Saturday. Damn, how did she not notice it was the fucking weekend? The days had blurred together. She stood up and started pacing behind her chair. Her sweaty palms ran up and down her shirt sleeves as she mentally deb
ated the wisdom of asking for help. Fuck it. She just needed to get it out there. It was time to do this.

  She stopped behind her chair and picked up two of the three folders she'd put on the table. "I need your help with an... well for the lack of any better term, an operation. This needs to be kept confidential. Nobody can know about this unless I specifically approve it. If this information gets out..." Jade ran her hand through her hair, pulling it away from her face. She looked at the women across the table from her. "It could be a mess of biblical proportions."

  Tori leaned forward. "What case is this? Overseas or domestic?"

  Tori glanced at Jewell who shrugged. "Seriously, I have no idea what hot mess she's working on. I like it that way. Keeps my ass out of the fire."

  Jade snorted and slid the files across the table. "Before you open those folders, I want your assurance this will remain between us."

  Tori looked from the green folder to Jewell and then back to Jade. "How much trouble is this going to get me into with Jacob, or hell, for that matter, Jason?"

  Jade slumped back into the leather cushion of her chair and groaned. "None that I'm aware of, and as this operation progresses, we may have to bring them into it, but I hope like hell we can keep it contained."

  Jewell reached for a fruit chew, leaned back in her chair and lifted her feet up onto the leather seat as she squinted her eyes at Jade. "Jason doesn't know about this? What have you gotten yourself into?"

  Jade shook her head. "Not until you assure me this information stays between us."

  Jewell shrugged. "Until it becomes illegal or immoral, I'm in." She unwrapped the candy and popped it into her mouth. "As illegal is a grey area for me, you've got wide latitude."

  Tori's eyebrows rose skyward at Jewell's comment. She turned to Jade. " I need to know what it is. If I can't buy in, I'll walk, but I won't share anything from this brief. Will that work for you?"

  "That's fair enough." Jade held her hand out stopping the women from opening the folders. "Before you look at those, I need to show you this."

  She unzipped a small side pocket located on the outside of her satchel and reached her fingers in searching for...ahh, there it was. She extracted the item and positioned it before she lifted her hand.

  The earth-shattering squeal damn near ruptured her eardrum. Thank God the conference room was in privacy mode and soundproof.

  "You're engaged! Oh. My. God!" Jewell ran around the table and slammed into Jade. The tackle hug was awesome and horrible at the same time. Jewell's squeals and shrieks were less than six inches from her ear—guaranteed hearing loss.

  She glanced at Tori whose smile split her face, ear to ear. But… fuck, the woman was tearing up. She lifted a warning finger in her direction while trying to contain her sister's gleeful hug with her other arm. "No. Absolutely no crying, Tori."

  Tori laughed and wiped at her eyes. "Right, I'll try. Let's see the ring!" She bounced out of the chair and reached across the table to hold Jade's hand.

  That comment caught Jewell's attention, and she finally released the death grip she had on Jade's neck.

  Tori sighed, "A princess-cut diamond. What is the other stone? A fire opal?"

  "Yeah." Two baguette-cut opals flanked the diamond. Nic had told her it was because he saw her strength and fire in those stones, not that she'd ever tell anyone that bit of information.

  Tori's eyes welled with tears again. "It is beautiful! When did Nic propose?"

  Jewell grabbed her hand and examined the ring.

  "Two weeks–"

  "What!" The word echoed around the room.

  "Wow, impressive. You two did that in unison." Jade was seriously in awe of their synchronization.

  "Why didn't you tell us?" Jewell's eyes darted between the ring and Jade.

  Dammit, she knew there might be hurt feelings, but seriously, it was... fuck, it was hard. "Look, you know me. I don't do this froo-froo shit, but I was going to try. I was all about letting Mom know and hoping she'd help me do all the planning for the wedding, right?"

  Tori's brow furrowed, but she nodded. Jewell just cast her a suspicious look.

  "Well, I called her the next morning because, you know, I was kinda busy with Nic the night before." Jewell and Tori snickered but sobered immediately when she frowned at them. "Anyway, I was going to tell her, but she launched into this happy gush of words about all the work she was doing to prepare for the entire family coming to the ranch for Christmas. It’s the first time in what, God, I don't know how many years, that we've all been home at the same time. She's excited, and she's neck deep in all things Christmas. Food, cleaning, buying gifts, assigning rooms, finding things for the grandchildren to do so they don't drive everyone batshit." She glanced at Tori. "No offense."

  Tori laughed. "None taken. The boys can be a bit much."

  "Nah, your kids are awesome... as long as I can give them back to you when they start whining." Jade shrugged. It was the truth. Talon was cool as shit, and so was Reece, but they were older. The smaller ones? They scared the fuck out of her. And babies? Nope… she'd end up breaking them.

  "So, you didn't tell her?" Jewell sat on the conference room table beside Jade.

  "No, and the reason I didn't was because I had probably the most stupid idea of all stupid ideas. Ever." She drew a deep breath and shook her head. " I know it is almost impossible for everyone to be at the same place at the same time. I mean when Nic and I were home just before Thanksgiving, Mom moaned about how Thanksgiving almost didn’t come off because of the scheduling conflicts between the few of us that were able to come. Thinking about how to pull off a wedding where everyone could be there? Shit, the details damn near drove me to drink. But then I thought, why not Christmas at the ranch? Everyone is going to be at the ranch anyway, well, except for maybe Dixon, Chief, and Taty."

  "Girl, like you need a reason to drink." Jewell taunted.

  Jade flipped her off, and Jewell stuck out her tongue. It was orange from the candy she'd just eaten.

  "Anyway, I thought we could get married on Christmas Eve and have it as a surprise for Mom, kinda like an early Christmas present." Jade grimaced when she saw her sister's expression change from interest to disbelief.

  "Three weeks? You want to get married in three weeks?" Jewell stood up and leaned against the table staring at her sister. Her hands hit the wood, and her fingers moved to mimic typing strokes. She shook her head. "Do you realize how long it took to plan my wedding? The logistics of a ceremony are mind-boggling. To start with, do you have a venue–"

  "Jewell," Tori interrupted. "Maybe we should hear what type of wedding Jade wants. That would probably assist us in knowing whether or not she's bitten off more than we can chew."

  "Thank you." Jade sat down and tapped the folder in front of her. "I've been doing research and calling around. I talked to Reverend Miller at Mom and Frank's church. He wasn't too keen on doing the wedding on Christmas and suggested we do a ceremony in the early afternoon the day before Christmas. He asked that the flowers remain in the sanctuary and be in liturgical colors for the season."

  "Liturgical colors?" Jewell mumbled the question around another piece of candy.

  "Colors appropriate for the Feast of Christmas. White and gold, but red’s okay, too. I guess poinsettias or roses and such. I can deal with those colors." Hell, Jade loved the idea. "We have to do video counseling with him before the wedding. Evidently, that's a church requirement. We've already scheduled that. If you take out the calendar...” She watched Jewell and Tori flip through their folders. “Yes, there it is. You'll see I have those appointments already written in."

  "In pen, on a copied, fill-in-the-date calendar?" Jewell sat up straight and shook her head. "This is going to go digital about sixty seconds after this meeting is over."

  Jade leaned forward and rubbed her temples. "I don't care, Jewell. The point is, I need help."

  "What do you need?" Tori pulled a piece of paper from the folder, scanned it and flipped it over.
She then reached over and plucked a pencil out of Jewell's hair.

  "I need flowers. Obviously, because I told the preacher I would do it. I can't find a florist within a hundred miles of Hollister."

  Victoria tapped the table with the eraser of her commandeered pencil as she thought. "It’s been a couple years, but I think—no, I know—Keelee hired a florist from Rapid City to do the arrangements and went down the day before to pick them up. I bet she could work something out for you." Tori circled the flower arrangements. "But that would mean I’d need to tell her. I know she can keep her mouth shut. The woman is about as stoic as they come."

  Jade groaned and flopped back into the chair. "I really didn't want to let anyone else in on this."

  Tori glanced up from the paper Jade had put together. "She'd be able to take care of it, and you could mark it off your list."

  "Fine, but you call her, and you make her swear she won’t say a thing to Mom, or anyone else for that matter."

  "Deal. She'll keep it to herself." Tori scratched something onto her paper. "So, any combination of red and white?"

  "Yeah, but I don't want a big thing to carry down the aisle. Something small, okay?"

  "That leads to the question of your dress." Jewell grabbed a pencil from behind her ear and flipped over a piece of paper from the file. "You've got that taken care of?"