“I’m hangin’ in there, Eddie. How’s Bandit today?” The dog wagged his tail at the mention of his name.
“He’s doin’ okay. He got to chew on some bones from the restaurant on the corner last night so he’s feelin’ pretty good. They try and save him a little something when they can.”
“That’s nice, Eddie.” Alex dug a twenty out of her pocket and dropped in into his hat.
“You don’t need to do that, girl.” Eddie grinned. “But I thank you kindly.”
“So, Eddie, I need my bag back. Have you still got it?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He turned and dug around in one of his garbage bags until he came out with her backpack. She went down on her haunches and reached out to take it from him. Bandit jumped on her and, as she fell, she heard a voice say, “Stay exactly where you are.” She looked up but had to raise her hand to her eyes to block out the sun.
There was a bull of a man standing above her. He had on jeans and a dark shirt with a black windbreaker over it that was open at the front. He pulled his jacket aside and showed her his gun.
“I’ve gotcha, Bandit.” Eddie was hunkered down on the sidewalk shielding Bandit with his body.
“What do you want?” Alex asked.
“Give me the prototype.” He was wearing sunglasses, but Alex didn’t need to see his eyes to know he was serious.
“Um…” She licked her lips.
“I know you have it. Give it to me now, or the old man dies.” He turned the gun on Eddie.
Alex’s heart was slamming into her chest. It was hard to breathe. She couldn’t let Eddie get hurt. She’d never forgive herself.
“Okay. Okay,” Alex said, and she reached across to grab the backpack from Eddie.
“I don’t think so.” She immediately recognized the voice that hit her ear.
Mitch was standing directly behind the guy with the sunglasses. The man stiffened and started to turn, but Mitch did something she couldn’t see and suddenly Sunglasses stopped moving.
“Alex, I want you to get up and walk over to Zane.” Mitch’s voice was calm. He tilted his head to his left where Zane was standing about twenty feet away. How did everyone find her? Her jacket. Shit. Zane must have put a tracker on her jacket. But how did the other guy find her?
Now wasn’t the time to think about it. She reached over and took the backpack from Eddie. She opened it and started rummaging around.
“Uh, Alex, just take the whole thing and go, please.” Mitch’s voice had an edge to it. She looked up. There was another man dressed similarly to Sunglasses in the park who was heading directly toward them.
Suddenly, she could hear sirens, a lot of them, getting closer. The guy with the sunglasses moved quickly to his right and Mitch responded. The guy brought out his gun but Mitch knocked it out of his hand. There was a scream when the gun it the pavement, and people started running.
She dug around some more. “Come on, come on. Where is it?”
Her fingers closed around a smooth cylinder. She pulled it out and looked. The case for the thumb drive. She turned, looking for Zane, but he was fighting with the other guy.
She glanced over at Eddie, who flicked his eyes toward 14th street and then winked at her. The sirens were right on top of them. If she didn’t leave now, she’d be the star in this new circus.
She handed Eddie the thumb drive. “Give this to the guy with light brown hair and gray eyes. Tell him…” What?
“Go.” Eddie nodded toward the street.
She hopped up and slung the backpack over her shoulder. She started running. She past the flagpole and the big statue. She was running flat-out when a man wearing all black and a black ski mask popped up off to her left, gun pointed at her gut. She slid to a stop.
“Get in.”
She looked over, and there was a black SUV with blacked-out windows at the curb. She opened her mouth to scream when the guy with the gun suddenly twirled in a circle and hit the ground.
She whirled around and saw Mitch standing back by Zane, gun pointed in her direction. She turned back toward the SUV. The guy was being dragged across the sidewalk by two other men dressed the same way. The door of the van opened, and they threw the guy in and followed him. The van door slammed and screeched away from the curb.
She heard her name. Mitch was coming her way, but he stopped. The cops were behind him, telling him to get on the ground. Mitch and her eyes locked for a beat. She wanted to go to him, but if she did, it would be a bigger nightmare. Her heart was shattering into a million pieces. Her legs were heavy as concrete. It was now or never. She loved Mitch, but being with him would make his life a living hell. She just couldn’t do that to him. She turned away and melted into the crowd that was forming.
Chapter Thirty-Five
She zigzagged across the city for several hours after the shooting, making sure she wasn’t tailed. She had taken off her jacket immediately after leaving Union Square and bought new clothes, ditching the old ones in various garbage cans as she walked. She wasn’t sure how the gunmen had found her, but the only logical thing she could come up with was they somehow had an “eye” in the sky.
A drone made the most sense, but how they’d managed to do that without the whole world knowing was beyond her. New York had very tight security. But if it had been a drone, then they’d been watching the building and then tailed the SUV. They would’ve been able to see where she’d gone. She glanced up but then quickly put her face to the ground. No sense in making it easier for them if they were still watching.
Mitch. She tried to convince herself she’d done the right thing. That Mitch was better off without her. Logan would get him out of whatever mess he might be in because of the shooting. She was confident in that.
She’d wire the rest of the money to the company as soon as she got back to her apartment, so the company would be good, at least for now. Drake would be happy that he got his prototype back so, yeah, Mitch would be fine.
But she wouldn’t. Her career as a thief was over. She almost caused Leo to get caught and herself to be killed. It was definitely time to retire. She just had no clue where to go or what to do.
She’d spent years creating the life of Alex Morgan, Asset Repossession Specialist Extraordinaire. Now she was just Alex. Her heart hurt when she thought about Mitch. He’d shut down when he realized she was walking away. His face went blank. It killed her to know she had hurt him. She loved him. She knew it in her very marrow, but he was better off without the circus, and if she stayed in one place too long, she would be discovered.
She took some time to watch her street, and when she was satisfied she wasn’t being followed, she went into her building. She waited with a small group of people for the elevator. The ride up was long and slow. People were talking about the shooting in Union Square. She didn’t want to hear about it, just wanted off the elevator.
Finally, she got to her floor and moved quickly down the hallway to her place. She unlocked her apartment door, stepped inside, closed the door, locked it, and then turned around and leaned against it.
The adrenaline had worn off long ago, and now the exhaustion set in. She wasn’t sure her legs would carry her to the couch. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and leaned her head back on the door.
“Did you think I wouldn’t come after you?” he growled. Her eyes flew open. Mitch was sitting on a stool, leaning on her kitchen island.
“How— Where?” She stopped speaking. She was incapable of making a complete sentence.
“I’m just that good.” His smile was smug.
Her eyes narrowed. “Logan. He tracked me down, didn’t he?”
The smile disappeared, and Mitch’s expression got serious. “What did you think you were doing?” he demanded.
“Don’t,” she yelled as she pushed off the door. “Don’t you start with me.” She moved across the room and wagged her finger at him. “I would have gotten away from the guy with the gun, no problem. I was about to do so when you shot him. I don
’t need you to take care of me. I am perfectly capable of doing it myself.” She stood in front of him with her hands on her hips.
“I was talking about leaving me. Did you really think I would let you walk away after last night?”
“I… Mitch, we don’t work.” Her hands fell from her hips, and she turned away to walk to the windows.
“The hell we don’t. We were working just fine last night and early this morning.”
The heat rushed up her cheeks, but she pushed it back down. “That was just sex. It wasn’t—”
“It wasn’t what? Important? Real? What are you going to say? Because it was both of those things. It was me being me and you being you, and it was fantastic. I don’t care who your family is. I care about you. The real you. The one that loves a challenge and rises to it every time. The brilliant, beautiful thief, who makes my life hell but makes me better at my job because of it. I love your laugh and your smile. I love the way you dance and the way you fit perfectly with my body and in my life.”
“But I don’t,” she said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Oh yeah, it will be great for the first few months, and then someone will figure out who I am and the circus will start. Paparazzi will follow us, me and you, wherever we go. There’s no privacy left. How will you work?
“Then you’ll get angry and resentful because your life is no longer your own and you can’t do what you used to do.” Her voice caught in her throat. “The money won’t be enough anymore. You’ll end up hating me. And I don’t want that Mitch.”
Tears started to roll down her cheeks, but she didn’t stop them. The emotion was too great. She didn’t have the energy to hide it anymore. “Mitch, I love you and I never want you to hate me. I love you too much.”
Mitch got up off the stool and walked over to stand directly in front of her. “You need to listen to me, and listen good. I will never hate you. We are stronger together than we’ll ever be apart. I need you in my life. I need to know that you have my back. I don’t care about the money or the circus or anything else. It’s you I want.
“If it all gets too much, we can run away to an island somewhere and live off coconuts as far as I’m concerned. But know this, I love you and I will not let you go. Not now. Not ever. You are mine. My woman. My thief.” He slanted his mouth over hers, claiming her lips and her heart with a scorching kiss.
Epilogue
“Where are they?” Logan demanded as he paced back and forth in the conference room. “I don’t have time for this, Gage.”
“Relax, Logan. They’ll be here. They’re only fifteen minutes late.” Gage rocked his chair back on two legs.
“But they’re always late. My God, they’re like bunnies. Can’t they limit their sex life to nighttime like everyone else?”
Gage grinned. “Someone sounds jealous. Need to get laid, Logan?”
“Fuck off,” Logan snarled.
Gage just laughed. “You’re proving my point.”
Logan threw himself into his chair. “Let’s just get started. Mitch and Alex can catch up whenever they come up for air.”
Gage put his chair down and slid a file across the table at Logan. “We still have no clue who hired Tolliver or how they found out about the prototype. I spoke with Drake again after I reviewed everything via encrypted email with his programmer. I can’t figure out the leak from that end, but there has to be one. He still won’t tell me where she is, and he’s insisting she’s safe.”
“What does he want us to do then?” Logan was frowning as he tried to read the file.
“He wants Mitch and Alex to go to Europe and take over his security there. He’s had a couple of weird things happen, and Mitch is the only one he trusts. I guess he’ll put up with Alex if it means Mitch will come, although he’s not pleased about it.” Gage grinned. “A hundred says she’ll win him over inside of a week.”
Logan shook his head. “No way. That’s a sucker’s bet. She’s too charming. Even Drake will end up liking her.”
Logan frowned again. “What am I looking at, Gage? I don’t understand it.”
Gage leaned forward and took the top piece of paper. “That’s because it’s in code. The night of the shutdown, Lacy Carmichael was working here. She sent a series of coded emails. That’s what you’re looking at. They mention the prototype. We haven’t entirely decoded the everything, but it seems like whoever she’s emailing was very interested in it.”
Logan looked at his brother. “Are you thinking whoever she sent the emails to could be the buyer?”
Gage shrugged. “It’s possible. She could have told Tolliver to make Monica use Alex.”
Logan was skeptical. “But they’re best friends...”
“Yes.” Gage went silent.
Logan eyed his brother. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“We’ve picked up some chatter about the prototype. It’s no longer the secret it once was. The chatter says something big is going to happen soon, and the Bahamas have been mentioned. We’re not sure how it fits in but, coincidently, Lacy Carmichael is heading down there this weekend.”
Logan nodded. “And you’re going to go down and keep an eye on her.”
“No.” Gage shook his head. “You are.”
“Me? Why me?” Logan was dumbfounded. He was the CEO. He oversaw running the daily business. Ops were not his thing.
“Obviously, Mitch and Alex can’t do this, plus they’re needed in Europe. I have to work with Mitch on Drake’s security plan, but I also have a couple of things I have to check out. We need Dex, Zane, and Dragan to hold down the fort here and do some minor jobs we have coming up. Look, she’s probably going down to Nassau to lie on a beach and soak up some rays while drinking rum punch. You could use a little of that yourself. Maybe even get laid.” Gage stood up. “I’ve gotta go. We’ll chat later,” he said as he headed out of the room.
“Wait. Mitch and Alex were never supposed to be at this meeting, were they?”
Gage’s laughter floated back to him. “Your flight leaves in three hours. Sloan has all the info.”
Logan sat at the boardroom table looking down at the gibberish on the papers in front of him. Maybe his brother was right. Maybe he did need a bit of R&R. He could use some sunshine and rum punch. Hell, he’d like to get laid. Gage was right—it had been too long. But the more he tried to convince himself that this was a good idea, the more he knew in his gut it was going to be a nightmare.
DID you enjoy Break and Enter? If so check out the next book in the series, Smash and Grab.
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You read my book. You got through the first chapter and continued reading! I cannot thank you enough for sticking with me. You have made my day, my week, my year! Without you, the reader, I’m a bored mom/housewife with an overactive imagination. With you I am an author. I feel so special! You have made my dreams come true. Genuinely, truly, you are a fairy god-parent. So thank-you!
Now, I’m hoping you love this new-found power of making dreams come true and you want to keep going. The next book in the Callahan Security series is called Smash and Grab. You can get it here: https://bit.ly/2UvJawi. I will be eternally grateful if you buy a copy. You will be fulfilling your destiny as a wish granter. (Is that even a thing outside of genies and fairy god-parents?)
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Keep reading for a look at Smash And Grab
Can’t get enough of the men of Callahan Security? Keep reading for a sneak peek at Logan Callahan’s story, which takes place in the exotic Bahamas.
Logan Callahan knows he’s out of his depth. As CEO of Callahan Security, he thrives on balance sheets and bottom line
s. But there’s a huge different between running a company and running for your life. Unfortunately he doesn’t have a choice. The woman he came to the Bahamas to investigate was kidnapped and he was taken right along with her. He knew the sexy lady lawyer was trouble. He just had no idea how much.
Taken again. Lacy Carmichael was not new to the Kidnap and Ransom game but usually she managed to talk or fight her way out of it. After all, when your father was one of the largest arms dealers in the world, danger comes with the territory. Since Logan was grabbed with her, she’ll have to reveal all her secrets in order to save their asses.
Logan is hesitant to trust Lacy but a power grab by her father’s enemies removes his choice. If only she wasn’t so damned smart and sexy, staying neutral would be easier. Searching for a way out of the mess, and fighting their mutual attraction to each other, will take all of Logan’s and Lacy’s skills. Unfortunately, deception and betrayal by those they trust the most has changed the rules of the game, and they find themselves battling for their lives and their love.
Smash And Grab
“I’m not going, Markus,” Lacy Carmichael hissed as she tugged her arm from the large man’s grasp.
She took a step back and glanced around the party to see if anyone had noticed. It was packed, and the beat from the music was vibrating in her chest. “Like I told you when you called, I’ll meet my father on Monday. He expressly told me not to come to see him before then. If he wants me to come now, he’s going to have to call me and tell me himself. I’m only following orders.”
She straightened her dress. “Now,” she said above the noise, “I’m on this yacht to enjoy myself, not to discuss business.” With that, she turned on her heel and disappeared into the crowd. She glanced over her shoulder to see if Markus followed and smashed right into someone, a man’s chest to be accurate.
Break and Enter: A Sexy, Thrilling Romantic Suspense (Callahan Security Series Book 1) Page 26
