She blushed, suddenly seeming shy. “So would I.”
“Grace?”
“Yes?”
“I think I’m falling for you.”
She kissed him sweetly and nodded. “I think I’m falling for you.”
“Good.” He kicked sand over the flames, smothering the fire completely. When he felt sure it was out, he took her hand. “Then, let’s go home. And see what the day brings.”
Still holding her hand, he led her out into the crisp and frigid day, toward the rescue helicopter.
~~****~~
AUTHOR BIO
Erotica and Contemporary Romance writer Siobhan MacKenzie is the author of the m/m erotica series, His Man… (His Man Friday, His Man Sunday). Her first novel, romantic thriller Wilde Mountain Time, is set for release in March 2014. Other releases for 2014 are No Sooner Loved and Her Scottish Exile.
Ms. MacKenzie lives with the love of her life in New Hampshire. She is a member of the Erotic Authors Association and the Romance Authors Guild.
With Love, Siobhan
http://with-love-siobhan.blogspot.com/
Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/IAmSiobhanMacKenzie
Twitter
https://twitter.com/WithLoveSiobhan
LUCKY BREAK
By
Leanore Elliott
ONE
Late again! Valerie Sinclair screamed in her mind as she rushed down the rain slicked sidewalk. If not for that stupid bus, passing her by, she would’ve been on time. She could’ve sworn bus 30 was the right one. A late loser. I can never catch anything, not a stable job or even a bus to work. The Temp agency warned her about her tardiness already and this time, she would get fired. She gazed down at her brand new watch which she bought to ensure she would be on time for once in her hapless life.…Oh, man, 2 minute warning. I just can’t get a break!
Her mom always said she just wasn’t responsible enough. For her entire life, she just couldn’t seem to stay with anything. A job, a friend or a man. She finally thought of it as Forrest Gumping her way through life. Yeah, Valerie Gump. She let out a humorless laugh as she hurried around yet another mud puddle on the walk. Only, she wasn’t about to get lucky, go on some wild, cool adventure, meet Bubba and become filthy rich. It’s been twenty-five years of one thoughtless mishap after another and it would be funny, if it wasn’t so stupidly disastrous. She could barely balance a job, a freaking checking account or even a simple bus schedule.
After six jobs already this year, she signed up at the Temp Agency. After all, she would be the type of employee they wanted…Temporary help, someone who didn’t care about staying on the job and seeing it through to promotion and a future. Yeah, temporary, that’s me.
So far, she’d waited tables, worked in an assembly line and in a warehouse that made umbrellas. She did like the constant change of scenery, so she really wanted to stay with the agency. Stay? The word seemed to echo in her head. It was a condition fate didn’t allow her, try as she might.
Her aunt Tibby, told her once that her destiny was to be a tumbleweed. At the time, she laughed at the statement. Her Aunt just smiled and told her, “Some are meant to wander and roll around the world, gathering experience and adventure. You, Val…Are one of those wanderers.”
Val stopped laughing soon after that, when she got kicked out of College. It hadn’t been her fault. She’d trusted her roommate and got burned. Susie cheated on a few finals and implicated Val, saying she provided the test answers. No. She didn’t have anything to do with the cheating. Except, she did go out with Brad and Susie considered that as the main cheat…Dammit! Why did she accept his invite to dinner? Susie had a major thing going on for the guy, and then found out he liked Val. Then, sexy but seemingly worthless Brad pocketed her credit cards and went on a Clothe Sexy Brad buying spree. Her friendship with Susie tossed, her credit and education dream ruined and the rest is spiteful history.
Val forced her thoughts away from her failed attempt at accomplishment and a normal life, then hurried in through the double doors of the agency. She couldn’t lose this job, her rent was due and she was still short. Yet another move was unthinkable. It would be living out of another cardboard box, like Sally, the crazy lady outside of her apartment building, next to the alley dumpster. She halted her wild running at the front desk.
Carol, the receptionist had never been nice, now she glared at Val with a visible sneer on her lips.
“I’m so sorry!” Val burst out, “My bus just passed me by and—”
“Save it!” Carol seethed.
“But I’m just a few minutes late, I could—”
“I said save it.” Carol handed her a slip.
The dreaded pink slip! Val reached out with a shaky hand and took it.
“No need to say more. You’re done here,” Carol whispered as she gazed over to the row of chairs by the window.
Val sighed with distraction and followed her gaze.
A smallish man sat in one of the chairs. He wore overly large glasses and dark suit he nodded his head at Carol.
Val swung her gaze back to the prickly receptionist. Shrugging dejectedly, she went back out through the doors. Well, another day as a tumbleweed, and now I won’t be able to make the rent either. My new address will be Suite One at the alley dumpster. “Dammit!” she swore as she stepped out to the sidewalk.
~***~
“Dammit!” Tucker let out an oath and finally finished with his tie. It’d taken three tries at the knot and he still struggled to get it. Finally, it cinched and he stepped back to look at his reflection. Yeah, black, a good color to wear today. His dark hair and blue eyes matched the suit’s colors perfectly, but it was his mood that it really suited. Meeting with this buyer had already made a mess of his nerves. The agent who approached him a week ago said they were very dangerous people. He straightened his shoulders as the whole situation hit him suddenly. I’m working for the FBI! Tucker reminded himself yet again. It all felt so surreal.
Agent Moss just appeared in his office one day and asked him, “Do you love your country, Mr. Midland?”
Tucker stared back at him and didn’t answer the question, instead he asked, “Do you love your face, cause it’s about to change, if you don’t explain why you broke into my office.”
After 2 days of harassment and some sweet talk of government contracts, they’d convinced him to go ahead and talk to this mysterious buyer. They put him in as undercover. All this chatter and trouble over a teeny-tiny piece of technology. A device which Tucker never thought of as any kind of big deal, least of all to a super power government and the FBI. Tucker-Midland had its interest in all kinds of pots, so to speak. Mainly oil, transportation, communications and lastly…technology.
Tucker was actually Tucker Midland, the third. His name was the actual company name. It appeared on train trailer boxes, gas stations and natural gas trucks, along with an entire national truck line.TM was the biggest manufacturer of electronics in the entire Midwest. He’d inherited the name, wealth, the company and the headache that came along with it. Just as his father did. All this money and he simply felt trapped every day of his life. He hated the social events, the stuffy board meetings, and the weight of billions of dollars crushing his soul.
He dreamt of just being someone anonymous and maybe just live like a regular guy. Working 9 to 5, live in the burbs and be just like everyone else. Join a bowling team, have brewskis with the guys at a local bar every Friday night. To just be—Tucker Smith, the mechanic? Or, Tucker Brown, who worked at construction. Hell, he’d even settle for Tucker Jones who worked at the corner convenience store. At least then? His decisions would only affect himself and his life, not hundreds of stockholders, partners, subsidiaries and the thousands of employees. Their benefits, their futures and their 401 K’s…all in his hands.
However, none of that would ever happen. He’d been born to take over a multi-billion dollar company, educated and groomed for it. He was also supposed to pa
ss it on to his son someday. Fat chance of that! He’d already learned the hard way about women and love. The women he’d dated, only wanted him for the money and never love.
Tucker grinned at his handsome reflection. Not that I’m hard to look at. He shrugged his wide shoulders as his smile faded, but most women just thought his well muscled body and good looks to be just tasty icing on an already lucrative money cake. He was simply a walking, muscled meal ticket and every power hungry debutant wanted to cash him in. What about what he wanted? A life where yeah, rent was a struggle to make, but at least you were in control of your own destiny, no matter how small it might be. Then, he wanted to be able to find a woman made just for him, someone who was real and untainted by greed. Yeah, like she even exists!
“Are you ready sir?” A voice called from the hallway.
Tucker sighed as his dream of being Mr. Smith, invisible guy evaporated. He grabbed his Armani jacket and called out to his driver, “Yeah Parker, I’m ready!”
~***~
“You have two days…” Mr. Harvey told her as he handed her a red piece of paper.
Val stared down at it. The dreaded red notice. Great—first pink, now red. Maybe the next paper will be what—black? It sure would suit today….a BLACK notice. Do you get one of those when you’re about to die? Bad joke, Val. What I really need is some green paper, badly. “I can’t get a thousand dollars together in two days, Frank. I need a week at least.” Yeah, like I really needed a month. She anxiously chewed at her bottom lip as she stared at her landlord.
He shook his head. “Sorry girl, it’s not up to me. You’re already 3 months in arrears and I can’t—I tried but…you know.”
She knew he was telling the truth. It was Mrs. Harvey who called the shots…Ida, the shrew faced battle axe. Val wondered how Frank, who really seemed like a sweet man, could be married to the witch of west Fourth Street. What a tough nut to crack too. Try as she might, she never could seem to penetrate that steely-bitch exterior of hers. “Well, I’ll start packing then.” She turned away. “Time to go to Wal-Mart and find just the right box,” she muttered to herself.
“I really am sorry,” he called out to her back.
“Yeah, me too.” Val sighed as she went out through the lobby of her apartment building. She really felt too anxious to go home just yet. Home? She was gonna lose another one, just like the job. Glancing up the alley, she spotted crazy-Sally, rummaging through the dumpster. This is the future Miss Valerie Gump, a basket case with no home, no sanity left. “Ooh!” She straightened her spine in frustration and knew she needed to do something. She needed to come up with a solution. She needed a break—a lucky break. “Fat chance of that…” she muttered and peered down at the red eviction notice.
“Oof!”
Surprised, she looked up, realizing she’d bumped into someone, and almost ran him over. “Oh! I am so sorry!”
“You really need to pay attention young woman,” the man huffed out as he straightened his pinstriped tie.
Her eyes grew wide as she recognized him. “You? You were in the lobby at the agency.”
He nodded and pushed his horned rimmed glasses up along his rather pointy nose. “Yes, I followed you.”
Val took a step back. This felt too weird. He followed me from work? “Well, now that’s just—just creepy.”
His eyes grew larger behind his spectacles. “Oh, no, no. I want to hire you!”
Val looked him up and down. 5 foot tall, if that and he appeared to be 45 or so, with beady eyes. “Even more creepy.”
He peered at her. “No! I’m not interested in you!”
Val almost laughed in his sweaty little face. “Then, what is it you do want?”
Looking nervous, he cleared his throat and turned his head to look all around. “It’s a delicate matter…”
Val was reminded of some cartoon hoot owl as she watched at him. Though, his behavior still seemed suspicious and she felt she needed to take yet another step back.
“I need to hire you to deliver a message.”
She shook her head while feeling puzzled. “What? Like Western Union or something?”
“No, no. Hand delivered.” He smiled for the first time.
Val almost laughed again at this funny little man. Him smiling made him look even more cartoonish. “I don’t understand.”
He squared his shoulders. “It’s complicated and really not your concern. It’s supposed to happen out a ways and it’s time sensitive.”
Val nodded slowly. “I still don’t—?”
“500 to deliver and another five when it’s done.”
Val’s mouth popped open as her jaw went slack.
The man’s grin grew wider. “It’s just an envelope, see? “ He raised up a green colored envelope
Val stared at it. Green! Blinking her eyes rapidly, she tilted her head back and stared up at the sky in sudden reverence. Was a guardian angel listening to me just now? A green notice? She rubbed the goose bumps from her arms.
The little man looked spooked as he leaned his head back and followed her sky gazing, probably wondering what she saw. He then dropped his head to peer at her again. “I saw and heard everything. You getting fired and all…” he continued, “I really needed this in a hurry and the agency couldn’t have it done when I needed.”
“And when is that?”
“Tonight, by 7.”
“What? Seven—as in tonight?”
He nodded his head and reached into his pocket. “Here is the up front.” He showed her five one-hundred dollar bills “All you gotta do is deliver this to a man out on Highway 87 at a small truck stop.”
Val hesitated.
He sighed loudly. “Look, I know it sounds strange, but it’s nothing dangerous or illegal, I assure you. Just a letter, plain and simple. High finance, no drugs or sedition, I assure you. The plain truth is—I might lose my job for being late on getting this taken care of, you see?”
Val relaxed a little. “Well now, that I can relate to.” She laughed. “I’m always late and always getting…” She decided he didn’t need to know any of that. “How do I know, you’ll pay me the rest?”
His smile dropped. “I will go back inside here…” He pointed at her building.
Val turned her head to stare at Mr. Harvey who’d been watching through the plate glass window.
“Yes, I happened to be in the lobby and overheard your um…rent dilemma.” He nodded his head knowingly.
Val turned and stared at him. “You sure do get around, don’t you? Yeah again, pretty creepy, mister.”
“I’m not a creep!” he defended as he pushed his glasses up along his nose again. “I’m just a little desperate. I need this to be done and caught a lucky break when I found you.”
The words lucky break echoed in her mind. What the hell is happening here? She gazed all around, wondering if there might be a hidden camera. This could be some kind of YouTube prank or something. Her gaze finally rested on the odd man again. Or some kind of con job?
Creepy cartoon man motioned his head toward the Lobby.
“Are you paying for my transportation?” She knew better than to leap and grasp at straws yet again, but that cardboard box kept looming in her mind. She could pay her rent and have breathing room to find another job.
“Yep.”He gave her that funny lopsided grin again.
TWO
“Are you sure this is the right way?” Tucker sat forward in the Limo seat.
“Yes, sir.”
Sighing and peering up at the sign, he shook his head. “I don’t like this.” The car stopped and he gazed down at his overly expensive watch. The Board of Directors gave him the garish timepiece for his last birthday. A regular watch would suit him better, but it didn’t matter, time was just…Time. He sighed and tried to be patient. His instructions were precise and he couldn’t leave the car yet. “Parker, have you seen any agents at all?”
“No, sir. But I imagine it’s their job to remain invisible.”
&nb
sp; “Yeah, well if this goes wrong? They’d better appear and fast,” he grumbled as the word invisible felt like a catchword to him. To just disappear and start over. It would be so great to be free.
A few minutes went by in silence as he wondered if this might be more dangerous than Agent Moss let on. Well, at least it was something far away from the boardroom or the all too empty gated, locked down penthouse. In fact, he’d never been on this side of town before. He gazed at the truck stop to see it looked rather old and well used. “I bet they have great pancakes.” Yeah a silly thought, a three stack with melting butter, maple syrup. A heady taste and enjoyed while country music hummed in the background. Simple pleasures of a simple world.
“It’s time sir.”
Tucker released a breath. “Okay. Ready as I’ll ever be.” He checked his pocket yet again for the component. It weighed nothing and was only a quarter inch wide, almost small enough to lose in an instant. “Who would think something this small would be such a big God dammed deal?”
“I don’t know sir. Sometimes, small things can be worth a lot.”
The offhand but meaningful remark struck Tucker as odd. In the years his driver had been with him, he’d never said anything so profound.
“Good luck, Sir.”
“Yeah…You know what Parker?”
“Sir?”
“I think from now on…You can call me by my first name, okay?”
His driver gazed at him through the rearview mirror and then broke out into a warm grin. “Yes, sir. I mean—Tucker.”
Tucker chuckled and opened the door. “Now remember, you’re supposed to take off and wait for me around back, okay?”
Stranded With a Billionaire Boxed Set Page 14
