Lucky Girl (Lucky Alphas Book 2)

by Mallory Crowe

  “Because the people he’s funneling money for are very, very rich and very, very powerful and they get very, very angry when they don’t have things they want. Like money. Soon enough, the cards will play themselves out.”

  Harper frowned. “You’re setting up your dad.”

  “I’m setting up a very, very bad man. The fact that he’s my father is basically irrelevant.”

  “Basically, but not really.”

  “The point is, nobody was supposed to get hurt.”

  “All right. And why did you use one of my accounts?”

  Lily and Evan both made eye contact with each other.

  “Just spit it out,” said Harper.

  Evan sighed. “I used Lucas’s account because ever since his charges, I knew the FBI was keeping tabs on his money.”

  Harper but her lip. Her heart sunk for Lucas as she realized how Evan was using him. “No shit. You’re not just trying to set Oliver up. You’re trying to get him arrested.”

  “Hey, I’m not changing the cards he played. I’m just letting more people see the hand.”

  “That’s it, we’re not doing any more card metaphors,” muttered Lucas as he walked across the room and back, the facts ping-ponging around in his mind. “Why didn’t you just call the police?”

  “Lily didn’t have anything concrete.”

  “Then get something concrete! Don’t pull me into this mess.”

  “I was keeping tabs on things. If you were arrested for the theft, I would’ve found a way to get you out.”

  “I was arrested!”

  “But not for stealing money,” pointed out Harper. “They set you up for drug trafficking. I bet you Evan was only keeping track of the crime he framed you for.”

  “So I got framed for two fucking crimes!”

  “If you count the first one, that makes it three,” said Harper. “You might be the unluckiest guy on earth.”

  “Please don’t be snarky right now. I can’t fucking handle snarky right now.”

  “That’s a shame. It’s all I got,” she muttered. “But the good news is we found Lily. And now, we need to figure out a way to piece this horrible disaster of a mess together.”

  Harper should’ve been happier. This whole mess with Lucas was about to be figured out, and she could go back to doing what she was doing before. Helping Wade. This whole thing was one long tangent. A side plot. A B-story.

  The stakes were so low. So some guy she barely knew was set up for a crime he didn’t commit. So what? Some of her best friends were being threatened, and she knew nothing more about it than she had when she started her half-assed investigation. But nothing was ever simple when it came to Lucas. For once, she had to admit she couldn’t blame that on him.

  “I’m not going back there,” said Lily adamantly.

  “I’m not asking you to go back and pledge your undying devotion. You just need to prove you’re alive—well, and maybe tell your dad that I didn’t steal that money,” said Lucas.

  Lily shook her head, and Evan stood, moving to stand defensively in front of her. “She’s not doing that, man.”

  “You’re not going to be alone,” assured Harper. “We’ll be with you the entire time.”

  “No. We have a plan and it’s a good plan. Eventually things will play its course and none of this will be a problem for any of us.”

  “Except for me, who has to be back to the middle of bum fuck nowhere Ohio in a few months for a court date.”

  Lucas wasn’t wrong. Even if the FBI did get involved, Lucas would be small potatoes to them. He couldn’t offer any help in the Reinhardt case, so why would they bother to help him clear his name? “Lily, no matter how upset you are at Lucas, you can’t let this ruin his life.”

  “I was never trying to ruin his life!”

  “Intent doesn’t matter. Consequences are what they are. You might be upset that Lucas screwed you over, but he’s been screwed over in the past too.”

  Evan stepped in closer to Harper and glared down at her. “I don’t care if he was screwed by every single one of the goddamn Rockettes. She’s not going to help you.”

  “Oh come on!” Lucas now paced back and forth in frustration.

  “Not even with you there to protect her?”

  “Tell me something,” said Evan, still glaring Harper down. “What would you do if it was someone you loved?”

  Of their own accord, her eyes bounced over to Lucas and, to her shock, he was looking at her too. They both looked away abruptly, each realizing their error. “I’ll try to find another way,” she said softly. Just because dragging Lily’s ass back to her parents kicking and screaming might be the easiest, it definitely wasn’t the safest. And judging from what little she knew about Lily, the girl was a bit of a wild card. Maybe having her out of the picture would be best. “All right. Would you be okay calling your dad?”

  “The phone? Can’t those be traced to the exact coordinates or something?”

  Girl wasn’t wrong. But that wasn’t the type of phone Harper wanted to use. “We’d get you a burner phone. Brand-new, never used, and no GPS enabled. You make the call, prove to Daddy dearest that you’re still alive, albeit not his biggest fan, and then you can destroy the phone. Lucas will be off the hook, and Evan will still be keeping you safe. Happy compromise, right?”

  “We don’t have any burner phones,” said Evan.

  Well, if that was his biggest negative about this plan, things were looking up.

  “I’ll take care of that.” Harper mentally did some logistics in her head. If she left Evan and Lily alone, she was almost certain they would run. No, they needed a babysitter.

  “I’ll go pick up the burners. When I come back, we’ll set up the phones before Lucas and I head back to Connecticut to take care of your family.”

  “I can take care of that,” said Lucas abruptly.

  Harper was sure he’d like nothing better than an excuse to not be alone with Evan and Lily for an extended period of time. She jerked her head to the front door, signaling that she wanted to talk to him alone. Once they were mostly out of earshot from their unwilling hosts, Harper whispered, “I want to touch base with Wade.”

  “Wade hired me. Don’t you think I should be talking to him?”

  “He might’ve hired you, but I’m the one he has a better relationship with. I want to explain what’s been happening. Maybe he’ll be able to help.”

  “You don’t need his help. We already have everything we need to handle this.”

  “We both know that’s a lie. I know you don’t want to, but just hang out here for a few hours. You obviously can’t take a nap or anything, but hopefully you can at least rest up a little bit. I have a feeling neither of us are going to get any sleep tonight, and we’re both going to have to have clear heads.”

  “It’s funny, you’re the one who accuses me of loving and leaving women, but you’re the one running away as quick as possible.”

  Harper’s jaw immediately clenched. “Don’t do that.”

  “Don’t call it like I see it?”

  “I know what this is, okay? This is just some blip on your radar, and the second we get your situation sorted out, you’re gonna want to get away from me so fast all I’ll see is the dust trail you leave behind. So please do not act like me distancing myself early is anything more than self-preservation. I understand what this is. I never had any illusions. Please don’t make me second-guess myself.”

  “Harper, I—”

  She didn’t leave him time to finish. She had a long list of things to get done and not a lot of time to do it. She had her cell, and Lucas knew how to reach her if he needed to. So she did what she did best. She left to take care of herself.

  This was almost over. Lucas kept on repeating that to himself in his mind over and over and over again. It was the only thing that made this whole situation even slightly bearable. Here he was, sitting across from his former best friend and his former lover, each hunched together on the loveseat, not
iceably inching closer to each other. Obviously the relationship between them was still going strong.

  To be fair, the fact that Lily was with Evan didn’t bother him at all. When he said no strings attached, he meant it. He liked her, she was a cool girl, they had their fun, and now they were both free to do whatever they wanted. However, the fact that Evan was throwing him under the bus so easily worked its way under his skin.

  But even though he had no problem with Lily moving on with her life, he found himself continuously glancing at his phone to see whether Harper had messaged. He didn’t like the way she left. He didn’t like it one damn bit. This whole time, they’d been stuck together like glue. Barely leaving each other’s side for days. Although he was absolutely certain he got on Harper’s nerves and she had to fight the urge to kill him a few times, it hadn’t been all bad. Considering how rarely he worked on a team, it was actually going pretty well. In a lot of ways, Harper complemented him. She was tough, smart as hell, and even he had to admit she had more experience than he did when it came to investigations. Even so, he wasn’t exactly riding her coattails. In all honesty, there were things a pretty girl could get a lot easier than he could. And Lucas was sure there were ways he could convince people to help that Harper couldn’t. Beauty and the Beast was a classic pairing for a reason.

  What the hell was he thinking? It wasn’t as if they were going to pair up like on some buddy cop show. By Harper’s own admission, she rarely ever did little jobs like this. He was an exception for her. As soon as she was done, she was going to move on to bigger, better things and forget he even existed. Move on with her billionaire friends and international job, and he’d be back to scraping together enough odd jobs to pay his rent for the next month.

  The sooner he got used to that, the better for everyone involved.

  “How’s Zoe?” asked Harper as soon as Wade met her in the lobby of his apartment building. She could already tell by the angry set to his eyes that he was in a mood. She figured mentioning his beloved new wife would be the best way to get on his good side.

  She was mistaken.

  “Pissed off.”

  Yep, this meeting was going to go well. “Trouble in paradise?”

  “Yeah, there’s trouble in paradise. Somebody wants me in prison and I am absolutely no closer to finding out who that is now than I was when you assured me you were going to take care of this. So now my wife, who I love dearly and happens to be carrying our unborn child, is under house arrest. She’s not happy about it. Please tell me I have good news to tell the mother of my child.”

  “That’s the funny thing about good news. It’s relative.”

  “So you’ve got nothing.”

  “It’s not like I have nothing. I just happened to get sidetracked.”

  “Do you hear the words coming out of your mouth right now? What exactly is more important than this?”

  “It’s not more important. Just more... pressing.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Leo’s going to take care of it.” Harper glanced around her. “What are you looking for?”

  “I’m looking for the dealer who was peddling whatever drugs you’ve been taking.”

  “I’m not on drugs. If anybody wants to figure out who is behind this, it’s Leo.”

  “No, I get that. You haven’t spoken to Leo in years, though.”

  “I haven’t voluntarily spoken to him in years, until today. I thought he had a right to know what was going on.”

  “You’re lying. I just saw Leo, and he didn’t mention you at all.”

  “You saw him today?”

  “This morning.”

  “I talked to him an hour ago. Don’t worry about it. Whatever you’re working on that’s so important, now you can go back to working on it.”

  “Please don’t be like that, Wade. You know how important you are to me. I just had to prioritize and—”

  “I’m not mad. I’m really not. When you talked to Leo, how did he seem?”

  Why wasn’t Wade mad? He should be mad. He had every right to be mad. “I don’t know.... He seemed like Leo. Kind of weird. I thought he was hitting on me, but he insisted he wasn’t.”

  “You should talk to him again. He has some things he needs to say to you.”

  For the love of— “I do want to speak to him again. He promised me he’d get some information to me. I haven’t heard from him. I’m now guessing you have something to do with that.” Not that she really needed Leo’s help in finding Lily anymore, but she didn’t like that Leo said he would do something and then didn’t. Though, to be fair, that’s exactly what she did to Wade.

  “Do you need help with whatever you’re dealing with that is so important?”

  “For real? You’re offering to help?” She was originally going to ask him to help, but after hearing his disappointment with her, she was shocked he’d offer her anything.

  “I’m not gonna lie and say I’m not annoyed, but I know you. I have to assume that you put my life-threatening situation on hold for a good reason.”

  It was so touching to hear him say that. The idea that he trusted her judgment, and not only that, but would offer to give her assistance as well. Was it possible that, despite her past efforts, somehow Wade had managed to remain friends with her? “My thing should be taken care of soon. I appreciate the offer, though.” Lucas had been right. They could handle this on their own. Probably.

  “Whatever happened with that Lucas guy? I assume he has something to do with all this.”

  That would be a safe assumption.... “Lucas is good. He....” She struggled to find the right words to explain it to Wade. “His past caught up to us.”

  “Us? How close are you to this guy?”

  “That’s not really any of your business.”

  “Considering I hired him, I’d say it’s literally my business. It kind of worries me that you’re so involved with this guy.”

  She scoffed. “Please don’t play big brother on me.”

  “Hey, I’m not judging. Trust me. But I know you, and you’re not one to mix business and... other things. At least not the Harper I used to know.”

  She took a nervous swallow. “Yeah, I’m not the Harper I used to know, either.”

  “So what took you so long?” asked Lucas as he finally navigated the rental SUV onto the highway.

  “Are you going to accuse me of sleeping with another one of my exes?”

  “So you do admit that Leo’s an ex?” Harper twisted around in the passenger seat of the SUV and was about to lay into Lucas when he held up a hand. “I was kidding. I was kidding.”

  “Damn right you were. Does that mean you’ve come to see the humor in how silly it was that you were accusing me of sleeping with other men? The fact that it even slightly microscopically bothered you?”

  “Oh, trust me. I don’t think there’s a lot amusing about it.”

  “Good. Me neither.”

  “But I don’t feel bad about it.”

  Of course he didn’t feel bad. “Are you happy about it then?”

  “No. Just... it bothers me. I never get jealous. Ever.”

  “Should I be happy that I’m the one exception?”

  “I don’t think happy is the right word.”

  “All right. I admit it. I’m confused. What are you getting at?”

  “I’m wondering if maybe there’s something to this. Maybe if my gut tells me that you shouldn’t be with any other guys, I should follow that.” Her face went pale, and he knew this wasn’t going well. “I’m just saying.... Except for when we’re fighting, we have a good time together, don’t we?”

  “We’re always fighting.”

  “All right, fine. Even the fighting is kind of fun.”

  “Are you asking me out on a date?”

  “Oh no. I think this is a lot worse than that. The way I see it, we’ve kind of been going on one long continuous date this whole time. I’m asking you to go steady.” He planted a smil
e on his face, but he knew this was no joking matter.

  While Harper had been gone, even though it had only been for a few hours, he’d had time to think long and hard about her. To be fair, he hadn’t stopped thinking about her ever since he met her. Even with everything going on, flashes of her wicked smile, delectable body, and razor-sharp wit distracted him all the time. And for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why the thought of her with Leo bothered him so much. She called him out for acting like a caveman, and he knew she was right. Considering he never felt this way about any other girl before, something had to be different. He should keep on fighting it, but in all honesty, fighting his attraction for Harper had only landed him in bed with her twice and with a minor bit of sleep deprivation that was only bound to get worse. So instead of fighting the feeling, he was going to lean into it.

  “You know I can’t take you seriously when you ask ridiculous questions like that.” Harper stared out the window, as though she couldn’t even look at him.

  “If the answer is no, the answer is no. Just tell me now so I don’t get any more stupid ideas in my head.”

  “It’s not a no,” she said quickly.

  “So it’s a yes?”

  “No, it’s not yes.”

  “You’re mysterious. That’s one of the things I like about you.”

  Harper shook her head and gave him a quick smile over her shoulder. “So how was your time with Evan and Lily? Were you able to make up?”

  “I think my feelings toward Evan will be directly correlated to our outcome tonight.”

  “So if you don’t end up in jail, you’ll forgive him?”

  “I think that sounds fair.” He remembered what Meredith Reinhardt said to him. Fair is for pussies. It made more sense that she’d think that now. She was the matriarch of a family that earned a good sum of money each year from money laundering. At some point, Meredith had to find ways to massage her conscience. He had no doubt she would squash him like a bug if she got a chance, and he was the perfect scapegoat for any failings their daughter had. From what little he knew about her parents, Lily was much better off with Evan now.