Ms. Starr’s Most Inconvenient Change of Heart (A Raven's Run Romantic Mystery Book 1)

by Dorothy St. James

  Sam was back in his life. But only until they landed. As soon as he got their feet back on solid ground, he’d kiss her. Hell yeah, he’d kiss her deeply and sensually like he’d wanted to all those years ago. And then he’d sign her damned papers and send her on her way to marry another man.

  Don’t think about that either.

  The top of a four-story building was coming into view. That small, unassuming building he’d been aiming for was the headquarters for Hart Security.

  He prayed his partner Rafe Cavanaugh would be on the roof waiting for him. He also prayed Rafe had abandoned his post and wouldn’t be around to witness his royal fuck-up.

  A cover blown all to hell by a beautiful woman. A woman who just happened to be his wife. He was never going to live this one down.

  “We’re about to land,” he shouted over Sam’s terrified screams. They were coming in low and heading for the side of the building instead of the roof. “Hold on.”

  He jerked on the toggles to slow the speed of their descent. The canopy wobbled in the erratic winds whipping around New York’s tall buildings. He sharply shifted his weight in the halter and tugged on the toggles again. A few seconds later his legs slammed down on the pebbly top of the Hart Security building.

  “Shit, that was an ugly landing,” Rafe said with a laugh as the parachute’s canopy floated down around them.

  “I see you had to take the secondary exit. Told you their security system wasn’t as easy to crack as you’d thought it would be. They’re paranoid sons-of-bitches.”

  “Most criminals are.” Logan grabbed as much of the parachute as he could and started to bunch it up into his arms.

  “And you brought a friend.” Rafe’s tone went from joking to cautious. His gaze locked onto Sam, whose arms and legs were still wrapped around Logan’s body.

  “You know me, Rafe. I never like traveling alone.” As much as he hated to do it, he figured it was time to pry Sam’s lovely body from his. “You can let go now,” he whispered. “We’re on solid ground.”

  After she’d finally peeled her eyes open, her chocolate-brown eyes grew wide with a look of disbelief. “We are, aren’t we?” Sam gave a watery smile. “I knew that.”

  She unwrapped her legs from around his waist. A shame. He had quite enjoyed having her pressed to him in such an intimate manner. Once her feet were solidly on the ground, she released her arms from the chokehold she’d had on his neck.

  He smiled at her, feeling all puffed up with pride that he’d been able to be her hero. Wasn’t that what he’d wanted to be for her all along? Be her hero? Finally, he’d gotten the chance. He’d saved her life.

  He leaned closer to her, half-expecting she’d fall into his arms and start kissing the life out of him.

  Instead of sweet kisses of gratitude, she swatted his chest. “Are you freaking kidding me?” With an aggravated grunt, she swatted his chest again. Her voice grew louder and louder. “You jumped off that freaking building. That was your escape plan? To jump off the roof of the building? You could have been killed!”

  Curiously she hadn’t mentioned that she would have died with him if he’d plunged to his death. She was angry that he’d risked his life? That was sweet.

  Still, it rankled to have her yell at him. He was the hero. And that’s what heroes did—take risks.

  “I was saving your life,” he coolly pointed out.

  “Never seen anything so stupid. Jumping off a building. A seventy-story building.” When she swatted his chest for a third time, he grabbed her slender wrist.

  “You seem to have conveniently forgotten about those bad men with the guns, Sammy Jammy.”

  “I forget nothing.” She took a step away from him and stumbled.

  He reached out to catch her, but she batted his hands away.

  “Oh no, not my shoe.” She bent down and with several hard yanks managed to pull her stiletto heels off her feet. When she stood, her right shoe, a pretty nude-colored creation, was hanging from her fingers by its strap. Its four-inch heel had broken in half. “Do you know how much these shoes cost? More than I can afford, that’s how much. You’re not supposed to leap off tall buildings with them. Who do you think you are anyhow? Superman? I suppose you must think that. Why else would you be dressed like Clark Kent?”

  “Who’s your friend, Logan?” Rafe choked back a laugh. “She’s right about your clothes, you know. You should have listened to me when I’d told you that you’d gone overboard with the nerd outfit. Most geeks know how to dress themselves nowadays.”

  “That’s the truth. I work at a library with bookworms and geeks. And most of them are wizards with fashion. I’m Sam.” Her smile—a smile for Rafe and not for him—seemed to light up the late afternoon’s fading blue sky.

  All women smiled at Rafe like that. He was too good-looking for his own good. Women flocked to him as if he had a paranormal power of attraction, which was generally fine with Logan. But the thought of having to watch Sam throw herself at his partner had him gritting his jaw so tightly he worried he’d cracked a tooth.

  Even though Logan was more than capable of dealing with his prickly, soon to be ex-wife, Rafe stepped forward acting only too eager to lend a helping hand.

  “Hi, Sam. I’m Rafe.” His green eyes sparkled. “How did you end up in my partner’s arms? I hope he didn’t abduct you. I know he gets a little...um...crazy around beautiful women.”

  Logan didn’t approve of the way his friend was leering at Sam’s slender body. Hell, her cute round breasts were about to pop out of that slinky blue dress of hers. A thin scar ran down the center of her chest between her pert breasts. A remnant of the heart transplant? He liked how she apparently didn’t feel a need to wear outfits with high collars to cover it up.

  Her hair was blonde now. It used to be a dark brown. He wasn’t sure about the new color, but it was still as shiny as silk even if a little tangled from their windy escape. Her long legs were shaking, which only made Logan imagine how her legs might tremble after a long night of passion.

  Logan took a possessive step forward and placed himself between Sam and Rafe. “Sam’s not my friend, and I didn’t abduct her like some psycho. She’s my wife.”

  “Wife?” Rafe nearly fell over backwards.

  “In name only,” Sam added a little too quickly.

  From one moment to the next, Rafe went from carefree bachelor to deadly warrior. His hand slowly reached for the gun holster tucked into his jeans. “And she was at the Global Tech building because why? She works there? She—”

  “We haven’t seen each other in a long time.” Logan moved so he was practically standing front of Sam in case he needed to shield her from his overly protective partner.

  “Your wife?” Rafe asked again.

  Logan nodded.

  “No kidding, dude. Your wife? And here I thought I knew everything about you. I mean, we’ve been together since Special Forces training. We survived many tours in the Afghan War. And I followed you when you took at job at Hart Security. In all that time you never mentioned a wife. I’m hurt. Seriously, hurt. When the hell did you find the time to get married?”

  “It’s a long story and not a very interesting one. And it doesn’t really matter because she’s about to leave.” And he hated it. With Rafe there watching, he doubted he’d get his chance to steal his kiss from Sam before she walked out of his life forever. Again.

  He suddenly felt like a gangly uncoordinated teen instead of Sam’s hero. His shoulders deflated at that thought. He might pretend to be this superhero, but he wasn’t. Even though he’d grown into a strong man, sometimes he still felt like the same sickly little boy who could do nothing to help his sweet Sammy Jammy. Only, he wasn’t sickly anymore.

  The sooner he got her out of his life, the better. Right? “Let me hire you a town car to take you home,” he said with a long sigh.

  He tried to escort the now barefoot Sam toward the roof access door. But Rafe jogged in front of them and blocked the door. “H
umor me, dude,” he said, his dark eyes now as hard as rocks. “Explain to me what’s going on like I’m a moron.”

  “Nothing’s going on. Move out of the way.”

  “No. Hell, no. Not until you talk to me. How did your wife—your secret fucking wife—end up as part of your escape from Global Tech?”

  “Calm down, Rafe. It’s not what you think.”

  “It’s not? How long have you worked for Jason?” Rafe demanded of Sam.

  “Who? I work at a library. The head librarian’s name is Gloria, not Jason.”

  “Then what were—?”

  “Don’t interrogate her,” Logan growled.

  “Fine. Then tell me this. If she isn’t working for Jason, how did she get past Global Tech’s security to talk with you?”

  Logan had no answer for that. It had taken both Logan and Rafe weeks of hard work to exploit a crack in Global Tech’s security system in order to forge Logan’s credentials. Even then, he’d been caught. Because of Sam.

  He furrowed his brow. “That’s a good question. How did you get onto the sixty-fifth floor, Sam? That level is a secured level. You couldn’t have just walked into the computer lab.”

  “Er...” Her pretty cheeks turned a flaming red. “I took the elevator up.”

  “Bullsh—” Rafe started to bark.

  “You couldn’t have made it past the security guards, Sam,” Logan said. “Not without clearance.”

  “Well, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. I sort of had clearance.”

  “Impossible,” Rafe barked.

  “Not impossible at all,” Sam argued.

  Logan liked how she stood up for herself. Most people, especially those who didn’t know Rafe had a heart of gold hidden under his warrior exterior, were terrified of him when he acted like the tough guy. “For the most part I charmed my way past the guards. The ones at the door ran a cursory background check. And...” Her cheeks turned an even brighter shade of red. “It’s amazing what people let you do when you’re wearing the right clothes and have the right attitude. Also, I might have cried a bit when a guard tried to stop me from getting to the sixty-fifth floor.”

  “And that worked?” Rafe’s mouth fell open.

  Sam shrugged. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble for you, Logan.”

  “You did a hell of a lot more than cause trouble for your hubby, lady,” Rafe was quick to say. He then added to Logan, “Did you even get the—?”

  “Not in front of Sam.” Logan knew his voice sounded like a rapid-fire assault weapon. Sharp. Angry. But he didn’t care how he sounded. All that mattered was getting Sam out of his life before anything bad happened to her.

  He gently squeezed her arm. “Let’s get you into a car.”

  “B-but—” Rafe sputtered.

  “I’ll tell you everything after I get Sam home.”

  “Wait.” Sam resisted Logan’s urging that she follow him. She took a deep breath. After hearing her scream so loudly and for so long, he expected her to crumble into hysterics once they’d reached safety.

  Instead of nerves or tears, she sounded downright incensed. “You have to sign the papers.” She started to dig around in her oversized purse, which had somehow survived the seventy-story plunge. She dug out the pen she’d taken from his pocket protector, but not the papers.

  “Papers?” Rafe got all overprotective again.

  “Divorce papers,” she answered as she continued to dig around for the document she’d been waving around as they’d run for their lives at Global Tech. “Where are they?”

  “You were holding them.” Logan closed his eyes and groaned. When they’d jumped off the building, the last thing he remembered seeing was a flock of pages fluttering back toward the roof. “They must have slipped out of your hands.”

  “No!” Her search for them in her purse turned frantic. “No, you have to sign them.”

  “I’ll contact you in a few days. That should give you time to get a new copy printed up.” He put his hand on her back and tried again to maneuver her toward the roof access door. “Rafe, get out of our way. I’m sure Sam is more than ready to get home.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.” Sam closed her purse with a loud snap and swung its long strap over her shoulder. “I’m not letting you out of my sight until I get those papers signed.”

  “But—”

  “But nothing, buster. You were too hard to find in the first place. And no wonder, running around using assumed names. Criminal. It all sounds criminal to me.”

  “Criminal?” First, she didn’t think he was a hero. Now, she thought he was a criminal?

  He started to tell her that he wasn’t doing anything illegal. But she thrust up her hands. “I don’t want to know what you’re involved with. Just give me a chance to get my lawyer to fax me another copy. Once you put your name—that’s Logan Preston Dalton in case you’d forgotten—on the document, I’ll leave you to whatever mischief you’re involved with.”

  “It’s not that easy,” Logan said. “You can’t stay here.”

  “You can’t let her leave,” Rafe said at the same moment. “Not after—”

  “Dammit Rafe, this is my mess. Let me handle it.”

  “Mess? Now, I’m a mess?”

  “My mess.” He flashed a blazing smile. “Please, let me get you a town car to take you home.”

  “I’m not leaving.” Sam stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest, which only pressed her delicious breasts up higher.

  If only she hadn’t dropped those stupid divorce papers. Why had she been waving them around in the first place? If she’d kept them in her purse, they’d be signed, and she’d be in the lobby of Hart Security waiting for a rented town car to drive her out of his life. He remembered seeing more than a few of the pages landing back on Global Tech’s damned roof...pages that the security team must have already found and read. Pages that would link Sam’s name with his.

  Damn.

  “You’re right, Sam.” He grabbed her arm. “You’re going to have to come with me.”

  “Damn right she will.” Rafe still wasn’t smiling, but at least he’d stepped out of the way of the door after hearing Logan’s abrupt change of mind.

  “And I’ll get my explanation of why those men were shooting at us?” Sam asked as she happily accompanied the two men down the stairs toward the Hart Security’s offices.

  Rafe, his eyebrows raised, looked at Logan.

  “You’ll get an explanation,” Logan hedged. And maybe, just maybe, he’d get to taste Sam’s pearly pink lips before sending her back to her life...a nice normal life that didn’t include him.

  Chapter 5

  “You’ll get an explanation,” Logan had said. An explanation.

  Talk about a weasel answer. I wasn’t so naive I didn’t know what he’d meant by that. I decided to wait until we had a moment in private before I reminded him how important it was for him to always tell me the truth. I figured I could work on prying the truth out of him about the trouble he was in at the same time.

  At least that was the plan I’d had when we’d left the roof. I had no idea what kind of trouble Logan had gotten himself into, or what kind of company he worked for. But the more I saw as we walked through the hallways of Hart Security, the less certain I felt about wanting to find out.

  Logan kept his hand on my arm as he and Rafe rushed me through the nondescript offices. The name, Hart Security, neatly printed on the front door had given very little information about the kind of work they did.

  On the other hand, Global Tech is a multi-national company with offices throughout the world. Everyone knows of them. Most people have one of their virus protection programs installed on their computer or cell phone.

  “Is this one of those shell companies set up to house hackers that I’ve been reading about in the papers?” I blurted the question without really thinking about what might happen to me if the answer was yes.

  Sure, the security guards at Global Tech had nastier guns. But I couldn
’t overlook how Rafe was armed and quite unhappy with my surprise appearance on the roof with Logan.

  “Um, you don’t have to answer that,” I said, eyeing Rafe nervously.

  “I’m not a criminal,” Logan insisted.

  “I think Jason Billings would disagree,” his partner said.

  “Not now,” Logan grumbled.

  “The Jason back in the computer lab was the Jason Billings? The billionaire founder of Global Tech?” I demanded.

  “Yes,” Logan grunted.

  “Why would he think you’re a criminal? What have you done?”

  “Not now,” Logan repeated.

  “Why not?”

  “Because we need to get you somewhere safe,” Logan said, which only made me itch to understand what the two men were talking about and what Logan had been doing at Global Tech. But the more I pressed for him to tell me what was going on, the quieter he became. As we continued through the hallways, the two men only spoke when necessary and didn’t offer any more information about what was happening, where they were taking me, and why they felt I needed to be taken to a safe location in the first place.

  Was I in danger? Danger from whom? The guards at Global Tech? Or from Rafe and the other criminal hackers that worked at Hart Security?

  I knew only one thing for sure, Logan, my dear adventurous Logan, would never let anything bad happen to me. He’d already proven that he’d go to great lengths to protect me by jumping off the top of the building to get me away from those trigger-happy security guards.

  Good gravy, what kind of corporation shoots at intruders like that?

  Perhaps all the high-tech businesses used deadly force to guard their intellectual property. What did I know? I was a librarian in the children’s section of a small community library. I’d enlisted the help of security at work only once. A little boy had tried to steal all the Curious George books in his tiny backpack. The security guard and I had calmly sat the little tyke down to explain how a library card worked and why he didn’t need to steal the books when they were free to check out.

  There’d been no shouting. No chasing. And certainly, no guns had been fired.