Team Love on the Run Box-Set #1 Read online

  Team Love On The Run

  Box Set #1

  Copyright 2015

  Team Love on the Run

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Ebook Edition March 2015

  Published by Lisa Phillips for Team Love on the Run

  Cover art by Blue Azalea Designs

  False Security

  Angela Ruth Strong

  Chapter One

  It wouldn’t take a pro to break into the new law office on Broadway. Glass doors with standard locks and a lack of cameras? Heck, Laney’s own grandmother could do it.

  She handed her business folder to the young attorney. It really was a no-brainer. He needed security. He’d hire her.

  “Basically, I’m offering a consulting package that will help you choose the best equipment and services to prevent crimes—both physical and electronic.”

  Joseph Morgan Jr. rifled through the contents of her folder. “And your background is with the Spokane Police Department?”

  “Yes.” Hopefully he wouldn’t ask why she didn’t work for them anymore. “I investigated robberies, so I have a lot of experience with what works and what doesn’t.”

  Morgan nodded. “Well, thank you very much for your time, Ms. Winters. I have one more consultant I’m going to meet with before making a decision.”

  Laney tilted her head. Who else was in the area? There were tons of providers but not any other consultants that she knew of.

  Morgan motioned past her. “Oh, here he is now.”

  She pivoted, squinting to make out her competition’s face as he strode toward the building. Or more like strutted. He was one of those guys who wore designer jeans with a sports coat and lots of goo in his hair. He wasn’t a consultant. He was a salesman—more interested in getting paid than actually doing the job.

  Why did his strut look familiar? Why did her guts turn with dread?

  The man pulled open the door, his gaze locking onto hers—a penetrating, blue gaze she would never forget. Her breath exhaled in a whoosh.

  He nodded as if he recognized her, but that was it. No surprise. No anger. Not even any rivalry for business before he turned to focus on Morgan.

  But how could that be? Alex Pierce should still be in jail. She knew because she’d put him there. This man had to be his twin.

  “Alex, I’m so glad you could make it.” Morgan extended a hand.

  So it was Alex. Did Morgan know the man had been a bank robber?

  She had to tell her prospective client. In fact, she had to let the whole city know what they were being set up for. What kind of criminal had the audacity to try to run his con in the same city he’d been caught?

  “Mr. Morgan, may I have a word with you please?”

  The lawyer broke his handshake with Alex and frowned at her. “Ms. Winters, I said I’d get back with you after I’ve reviewed all the information from both consultants. As you can see, I’ve scheduled this time for Alex. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve—”

  “I do mind.” Her pulse raced. She was the good guy here. She’d sacrifice her business to make sure others were safe if she had to.

  He blinked, his ruddy complexion turning even redder. “Are you trying to tell me how to run my firm?”

  “No.” She gestured wildly as she searched for the best way to explain the situation. “I’m trying to save it.”

  A warm hand wrapped behind her back. Alex squeezed her to his side.

  She jerked her chin upward to confront the enemy, but his expression seemed to say he was more friend than foe. Whatever. He put the foe in phony. No wonder he could get away with robbing people blind.

  “Laney, I think if you talk to Joseph later, you’ll have a better chance of getting him to listen to you.” Alex turned her toward the door and ushered her forward.

  That wasn’t a bad idea. She’d expose Alex when he wasn’t there to argue against what she knew to be true. But he shouldn’t be the one to make the suggestion. “I will talk to him later.”

  His lips tilted up on one side. “I honestly didn’t know you would be here today. I’m not trying to steal your business.”

  “I know that’s not what you’re trying to steal.” She pushed out of his grip.

  He held the door open.

  Fine. She didn’t want to be around him one more minute anyway. “I’ll tell him everything.”

  Even as she stormed out the door, Laney wished she hadn’t made such a scene. But Alex had totally caught her off guard.

  **

  Laney had totally caught him off guard. And with all the research he’d done on her security company after he’d gotten out of prison, he should have expected her to be pitching the same client. Now he was nodding his head robotically as said client talked about “the importance of attorney/client confidentiality,” all the while still thinking of her.

  She’d be outside waiting for him. He knew by the alert on his watch when someone touched his car. Her arms would be crossed, nostrils flared. This was so not how he’d planned to approach her.

  “So you think we need some firewalls, employee badges, and metal detectors?”

  “Yes.” Unfortunately, even law offices needed metal detectors for their own protection these days. But Alex would cover all that in his report if they hired him. At the moment he just wanted to wrap up the meeting. “My information is here.” He handed Morgan his own folder. It would be pretty identical to what Laney offered. Just in a nicer package.

  “Great. I’ll give you a ring tomorrow.”

  Alex shook hands again and headed toward the door.

  “I doubt I’m going to go with the girl.” Mason called after him. “She seemed a little like a loose cannon.”

  Alex stopped. He’d wanted to buy Laney’s business, not badmouth her. He looked over his shoulder. “She’s not a loose cannon. She’s just the cop who arrested me.”

  Morgan laughed. “Seriously? Did she not know you were out of jail?”

  Alex shrugged. “It would appear not.”

  “Well, good luck with her then, man. Talk to you soon.”

  Alex headed out into the parking lot. Sure enough, the woman in question had planted her rump on the hood of his lime green Corvette. He stuffed both hands in his pockets and moseyed her way.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

  “A better question would be what are you doing here?” He pointed to the vehicle she sat on. “That’s my car.”

  “I knew it.” She slid to the ground and stuck her hands on her hips. “Flashiest ride out here. How did you get out of jail? And how did you get the money for a Corvette?”

  He rubbed at the back of his neck. She wasn’t going to make this easy. “Good behavior and a good friend.”

  “Ha.”

  “Which one are you laughing at?”

  “Both.” She stepped forward and poked him in the chest. Sure enough, her nostrils flared in her pert, freckled nose the way he’d expected them to. “Though it’s more likely you talked a friend into buying this car for you than for you to actually have made any money as a security consultant. Why do you think any company would hire you? Once Morgan finds out—”

  “He already knows.”

  She stepped back “What?”

 
“His dad was my defense attorney.”

  Her hand dropped to her side. “And they would still hire you, knowing you robbed banks?”

  There was the side of her he hadn’t seen for a while. Defenseless. Vulnerable. Almost sweet. If only it would last until the end of their conversation.

  “It’s what makes me perfect for the job.”

  She shook her head and motioned toward her beat-up, old van across the parking lot then toward herself in a faded blue polo shirt and frizzy ponytail. “No, I’m perfect for the job. You’re—”

  “Reformed.”

  “Hardly.” She leaned back against his car once again, crossing her legs this time. “If you were any different, then I wouldn’t have been able to guess which car was yours.”

  “Look, Laney…”

  “Detective Winters,” she spat out. Then as if realizing the title didn’t fit anymore, she averted her eyes.

  “Look, Winters,” he tried. “You’re really good at what you do with setting up security. You’re just not so good at the business end.”

  Her chin shot back up. “Just because I’m not as showy as you are—”

  “Are your finances in the red or the black?”

  She didn’t answer, but he already knew.

  “I want to buy All Seasons Security from you.”

  Her hand rose to her chest. “It’s all I have.” Her eyes hardened. “You’re not going to take anything more from me. No way. Absolutely not.”

  “What if I wasn’t taking anything away but offering you something?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What are you offering me?”

  He took a deep breath. He’d meant to butter her up a little better before having this conversation. “I’ll buy you out. Then I’ll hire you.”

  Her hands flew into the air. “Are you kidding me? I am not going to work for a convict. This is just ridiculous.”

  “Ex-convict,” he corrected, not that this term was any better. It would stick with him for the rest of his life.

  “You should still be in jail.” She slapped the hood of his car. “You bought this with the money you stole from impound, didn’t you?”

  Would she ever believe the truth? The truth she’d spent years looking for? “If I’d stolen that money, you would have found evidence of it by now.”

  She met his gaze, challenging him with flecks of fire in her amber eyes. “Well then, who did it?”

  Her coworkers had thought she’d done it. After she’d arrested him, she’d been the one to transport the nine million to impound. Only it never arrived. It had disappeared out of her trunk.

  Internal affairs could never prove she’d been the one to steal it, so she wasn’t arrested, but she’d been removed from her position. He wouldn’t go there. Wouldn’t suggest she was capable of theft. Because she wasn’t.

  He might as well be real with her. It wasn’t like she could get any angrier. “Your partner stole it.”

  Her mouth fell open. “Mitch took the money from our vehicle?”

  “Yes, Mitch Sterling.”

  She rolled her eyes to heaven. “He couldn’t have. He was shot during the operation. And since you were suspected for shooting him, that’s the most ludicrous thing you could have said.”

  “I was never convicted of that crime, either.” Alex took a step forward to entreat her with a hand to her arm. If she thought about it, she would realize his conclusion was the only one that made sense. “Mitch shot himself in the leg to give himself an alibi. Did anyone see him from the time you raided my place to the time the money disappeared?”

  She lowered her gaze to his hand until he let her go. The look she gave him as he stepped back held enough disdain to fuel his rejection issues for another five years. “You left him to die in that alley, and you want me to believe he’s the criminal?”

  Alex sniffed to suck it up. How much ridicule could he face before he gave up on her? “I never carried a weapon, Laney. I broke into vaults after hours. I wasn’t armed, and no gun was ever found.”

  She chewed on her lip. She wouldn’t want to believe him, but she was smart enough to consider his claims. Maybe he could get through to her after all. At least she didn’t flare up at the use of her first name this time.

  “The whole reason I want to team up is because I think you have the evidence I need to prove Mitch Sterling guilty. I know you’ve been investigating on your own, attempting to clear your name, but I think you’ve been looking in the wrong place. You know, since you’ve been trying to pin it on me.”

  She didn’t say anything, only stared him down. This was a good thing, he told himself. The truth always came out in the end, didn’t it? In this case, the truth most certainly would set him free.

  He had her on the edge. One more nudge and she’d tip over to his side. “Let’s pool our efforts to prove ourselves innocent.”

  Her gaze turned hard. “One problem.”

  Only one? That didn’t sound so bad. Except for the fact that her eyes warned him it was a big one. “What’s that?”

  “I don’t believe you’re innocent.”

  **

  “You still don’t believe that dashing rogue is innocent?” asked Gwen, as Laney pedaled next to her on the Centennial Trail along the Spokane River.

  “Oh my stars.” Laney groaned, wiping sweat from her neck in the late autumn sunshine. “Don’t ever call him a dashing rogue again. What is this, the 19th century?”

  Collin chuckled from his mountain bike in front of them. “You’ll have to forgive her, Laney. She has a thing for bank heist movies. You may be talking about Alex Pierce, but she’s talking about George Clooney.”

  Well, that made more sense. But as Collin and Gwen were the only people Laney had available to vent to, they both needed to be on the same page with her.

  “Will you please tell Gwen that Alex Pierce is nothing but a high society, high-tech criminal who knows how to schmooze?” Laney called up to him.

  If anybody understood, it was Collin. The retired police chief had been around since her daddy was a cop, though he’d unfortunately left right before she’d caught Alex.

  “Well.” Collin down-shifted as they neared the entrance to her neighborhood. “You could be a little biased, Laney.”

  “What?” She raced to catch up with him. “You of all people know that every criminal claims to be innocent.”

  “True.”

  Wind whizzed past, forcing her to strain to listen for Collin’s next words. There were none.

  “But?” she encouraged, preparing to win the argument.

  He slowed even more to take the curve that led off the trail and down the block toward the little old bungalow she’d grown up in. “That’s all. You’re right. Pierce is probably guilty.”

  Laney relaxed back onto her seat, letting her shoulders drop away from her ears. She hadn’t realized she’d gotten so uptight. She blew her bangs up off her sticky forehead. If Collin agreed with her, then there was no need to second guess her refusal to work with the man.

  Collin signaled to turn left at her corner. “Except…”

  “Aha.” She lifted a hand from the handle bars to point at him. “I knew you wanted to argue with me.”

  Collin gave her a fatherly smile as he rolled to a stop and dismounted next to his hybrid SUV in front of her yard. Gwen huffed and puffed as she joined them, clearly struggling to keep up in her attempts to overhear their conversation.

  The couple had never been able to have children, which gave them the time to take Laney under their wings. It also gave them the freedom to retire early and make the most of the outdoor activities Washington offered. Their latest activity being that of adventure racing. As Laney was her own boss, she could schedule morning runs and rides with them, while weekends were reserved for rock climbing and kayaking to train for the big event.

  “I don’t want to argue.” Collin removed his helmet. “I just want you to consider the fact most criminals don’t seek out the cop who arrested them to help prove
their innocence. Especially after they get out of prison.”

  There was that. Laney pulled off her own helmet and slid her sunglasses on top of her head. “Maybe he just wants me to think he’s innocent, so I don’t go around ruining his new business.”

  Collin hoisted his bike onto the rack attached to his vehicle. “Maybe. Or maybe if you did work with him, you’d finally be able to get some closure to that part of your life.”

  “Ugh.” She didn’t want to consider the possibility she’d been chasing the wrong person this whole time. And she refused to believe her old partner Mitch could be responsible. That thought would just send her into another depression. “I’m over it. I’ve moved on.”

  Collin hoisted his wife’s bike behind his. “Have you?”

  Laney looked down and dug her toe in the dirt. “Mostly.”

  Gwen leaned over to give her a hug. “Then seeing Alex shouldn’t have been such a big deal.”

  Laney hugged her back. If anybody knew how to move on, it was Gwen. How the woman had kept such a positive outlook on life while her husband dealt with the dregs of society was beyond her.

  “It’s not a big deal.” Laney wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince her friends or herself.

  Gwen stepped away, and Collin put his arm around his wife. “We’ll support whatever decision you make.”

  Of course they would. They’d been there for her through everything. And she didn’t want to let them down. But could she ever work with Alex?

  Laney moaned. “Why does it have to be him?”

  Gwen wrinkled her nose. “Dashing rogues are known for being irresistible.”

  All right. Time for them to leave. Laney waved them away. “See you Saturday.”

  It took her a good five minutes to get the old, rickety door to her detached garage open so she could put her bike away. She retrieved a cool soda from the garage fridge and headed across the lawn toward her back door.

  Was Collin right? Gwen certainly wasn’t, not with the whole “dashing rogue” thing. Alex was a married man for goodness sake. But Collin’s more conservative stance on what Laney might get out of a partnership with him was worth considering.