Betrayal of the Dove (Men of Action)

by Montgomery, Capri

  She sobered quickly. She was in a world of mess right now and she couldn’t add thinking about her father to the pile. “I have to do this. What other options do I have here? I swear I am so never hiring anybody ever again. Once the Row is robbery free and Shane decides to leave I’m going back to my just me shop and being done with it.”

  She spent a few more minutes listening to her sister. Eve, the new voice of reason in her life, assured her that things would work out and she shouldn’t stress herself out about it. Right, things were going to work out all right. She turned around and used the phone-fax machine to fax the papers to her attorney. She was going to need his help—boy, was she going to need it.

  Shane had seen the female officer enter the premises. He saw the papers being served, and while he wanted to go out there and find out what was going on he didn’t overstep his position. Besides, he could easily find out because he had installed a state of the art security system that allowed him to zoom in on specific areas of the store. He had used it quite often to zoom in on that beautiful face of hers. There was a definite advantage to being at the helm; he could watch her whenever he wanted. Maybe that was unfair, but he couldn’t help it. She was the most beautiful woman he had seen in a long time, and it wasn’t just physically, she was sweeter than sugar, smart, determined—she was all woman and he liked her. He liked her a lot.

  He was doing his job too. He could multi task, but he also knew how to focus. When somebody was in the store he stayed vigilant. He had set up cameras in her store that covered every angle, and still managed to get clear images of the people passing by on the street. He set one up outside the back parameter as well. One could never be too careful in his opinion. When she was alone in the store, tinkering with a clasp on a piece of jewelry or working on something, even if she was just flipping through a catalog, he found himself watching her. Yesterday she had on a pair of black pants and a fitted red top. Today she had on white pants with a corset like spring green top. Her bare shoulders looked smooth like brown velvet and he wanted to reach out and touch them. Now wasn’t the time, but soon, he hoped; soon he would make his move.

  He zoomed in on the papers enough to know she was headed for trouble. Then, when she was having the conversation with her sister he heard every word, or at least her words. The walls weren’t thick and he could hear everything she said. Some people just couldn’t take rejection, but that wasn’t a reason for a lawsuit. He hoped the presiding judge would feel the same way and quickly dismiss the case otherwise Alyssa was in for a long battle with the man. She didn’t need this. She didn’t deserve it, but it was happening to her nonetheless.

  He watched her brush her hand through her hair, pushing the long wavy locks off her shoulder. Her hair was so soft that it just fell right back into place. She pushed it back again, this time looking more exasperated than she did just a few seconds earlier. He wanted to go out there and take her in his arms, settle her down with one smooth loving kiss, but he couldn’t—not yet. She wasn’t ready for that yet.

  When she took a rubber band from the drawer and pushed her hair back in a ponytail he knew it was time to get out there. She had left the store open and ran upstairs just two days ago for what she called an ouch less scrunchie because she didn’t want to use a rubber band in her hair, but here she was doing it today. He stepped outside of the room, letting the door close behind him. “Hey,” he said calmly. She looked up at him and he could see unshed tears in her eyes. She wouldn’t cry, at least not with him there because she was too stubborn to let any man know he’d hurt her. He gathered it had something to do with a previous heartbreak, but he wouldn’t know for sure because they hadn’t talked about it.

  “I’m being sued,” she said softly. “Can you believe that? It’s like, oh she didn’t hire me maybe I should sue her.” She shook her head.

  “Why didn’t you hire him?”

  “He had three months of experience. He was cheap and I thought about it, but then you walked into my store. You had so much experience, you were offering to help me get this place together and you came highly recommended—that is I know my brother had something to do with it and you wouldn’t have come in here if you weren’t qualified. I might be stubborn, but I’m not stupid. When help this good comes along for a price I can marginally afford I’m going to take it.”

  He nodded. “So when you go before the judge you tell him that. You had a more qualified candidate come along who was willing to take the pay you could afford and you hired him. It had nothing to do with the color of my skin, nor did your not hiring the other guy have anything to do with the color of his skin.”

  She nodded and smiled a weak smile. “Yeah, but I’m going to have to close the store and I just really can’t afford more closed days. I closed for Thomas’ wedding. Then my mom got sick not long after that. She had just gotten back to California from the wedding and she ended up in the hospital. She called me because she didn’t want to bother Thomas on his honeymoon, or Eve because she was already somewhere in Ireland, or Gavin because…well, none of us really like to have to call Gavin. Overkill,” she nodded. “I think my mom was probably afraid he would shoot one of the doctors for not taking better care of her,” she shook her head. “He just might have.” She chuckled lightly. “Anyway, she called me and I closed the store to go be with her.”

  “Is she okay now?”

  “Yeah, it was just acid reflux, but she thought she was having a heart attack the pain was so bad. Her husband was out of town on business so I went and stayed with her a few days until he got back. But in this business, closing for even a day hits my sales hard. If I’m closed I can’t move products. If I don’t move products, I don’t get paid. I have a small savings right now, but I don’t want to deplete it. I’m still trying to build it.” She sighed. “Oh well, such is life. I’ll figure it out. But if I’m closed you can just take the day off or something, and if it goes on longer I’ll figure out a way to…I don’t know,” she admitted. “I’ll figure it out. Don’t worry about your pay because you will be paid. Speaking of pay,” she pulled a check out of the closed drawer behind the counter. “I paid you from the day you started, so this check is a little bigger because it includes extra days. And I’ll be paying you weekly. I think I mentioned that to you already, but just in case you forgot.” She was definitely new to having employees herself, but not new to the game of retail business. Her previous jobs must have prepared her for how things worked and she picked the things she liked, changed the things she didn’t like, but she was still finding her own way. There was something refreshing and inspiring about her quest. A lot of people would have given up by now, but not her. She was a fighter, determined to make her passion her career and she wasn’t going to give up.

  He smiled, taking the check from her hand and looking at it. “Nice,” he said and then he ripped it up.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I took this assignment as a favor to a friend,” he said and he saw the look of…almost like pain, in her eyes. Just because he took it for a friend didn’t mean he wasn’t there now because of her. “And you seem like good people, Alyssa. I don’t mind helping out for a little while. Just consider the last two weeks, three days and five hours on the house—my house, not yours.”

  She laughed. “I would protest, but I really could use this money. I have to pay my lawyer now. I’ve used him before and I pay him when I need him. I think I need him for this. I don’t think it would be a good idea to show up without legal counsel. Do you?”

  “No. I don’t.” He resisted the urge to caress her shoulder. Instead, he leaned forward on the counter, bringing him to perfect eye level with her. “It’s going to be all right.” She gave him a smile that made him want to kiss those sexy lips of hers, but he wouldn’t do it, not yet.

  Chapter Five

  “Eve, I tell you I am so nervous. It’s not just that I have to go in that judge’s chamber and defend my hiring choice, but I have to close the shop again, and I’m
not sure how this is going to affect business. And what if I lose? Am I going to have to pay this guy money I don’t even have? I know I didn’t hire him because there was somebody more qualified, but what if he convinces the judge it was something else.” She sighed. “And why am I asking you all of this. I am so freaking out here and I think I’m stressing you out with me.” She laughed. “Okay, since I’m talking to your voice mail and not you I should probably stop now. When you get back to the states, call me again; please?” Eve was still in London the last time she talked with her. She couldn’t imagine that was a cheap phone call to make. She just really needed to speak with her. She would help her pay the bill if need be, just so long as she called.

  She wished Eve was back in the Sates, but ultimately, she was just grateful that she had made it out of Ireland alive. Thomas had called and told her what Blaine had told him. He was not happy about the situation by any means, but they all knew there wasn’t much they could do about it. Eve was her own woman and she seemed determined to put herself in the path of hell at any chance she got. London was safe—relatively anyway. While she didn’t want her to move there, she knew there was a chance she would.

  The store phone rung and this time she answered it in the professional way she should answer it, even if she was getting increasingly frustrated over present circumstances that was no excuse to answer the phone with a one word irritable “what,” thrown out there.

  “Hey big sis,” Eve said so sweetly and with an English accent on top of that. She imagined her sister was prepping for the big move—or trying to prep her for it. They were close. As the only girls in the family they had to be. Although, Eve had been blessed with her connection to Thomas. She was closer to him than she was anybody. She was always so cute hanging on to him too. Alyssa hadn’t really had that connection. She loved her brothers, but she never had what Eve and Thomas had with each other—that deep blood bond that seemed unbreakable. Eve was family all the way, while Alyssa was the independent rider. She loved her family, but she had no problem moving west after high school. She didn’t want to stick around in a city that she practically hated living in. So, family or not, she packed her car and hit the road. She kept in touch with everybody, but it wasn’t the same as Eve and Thomas’ relationship.

  “I take it you got my message.”

  “Yeah, you sound jittery. I don’t think I’ve heard you like this since…hmmm…your first date with Jarrod Womack. Oh yeah, I remember that.”

  Alyssa laughed. “He was the hottest guy in my class; of course I was nervous,” she said. “Thanks for calling me back. I probably sound like a complete idiot right now, but I’m nervous. I have to show up there Monday morning for the nine o’clock hearing and my attorney tells me I’m in with one of the toughest judges in the state. Not just the city, Eve; the entire state. What’s up with that?”

  “You’ll be fine. I know you. You’re my big sister. You’re the woman who packed her car and moved across country without anybody’s permission. You’re the woman who punched Morris Fischer in the nose because he pushed me down in the mud, and he was about three times your size in weight and probably almost that in height,” she laughed. “You kick butt.”

  Alyssa laughed. She was the shortest in the family and they never really let her forget it, not that she could anyway. Her brothers towered over her. Eve wasn’t so bad, but she was still taller. “Anybody messes with my sister and they deal with me,” she said. It didn’t matter how big anybody was she was not going to stand by and let anybody hurt her sister. “But this is different. I don’t think I can get away with punching this guy in the nose…or the judge for that matter.”

  “I don’t think so either.” She laughed. “Otherwise I’ll have to bail you out of jail.”

  “From London? Yeah, that might not work so well.” She shook her head as she put a piece of jewelry back in the case and locked it. “I can’t believe I’m going to have to close the shop. I’m already closed on Sunday. Monday is one of my busiest days, and now I have to close. I hate that. Why couldn’t they pick Tuesday, when it’s near dead in here anyway? They picked Monday. That’s a good seven thousand in sales stopped at the door. I wonder if I can counter sue him,” she mused. If she won maybe she should sue him for making her lose revenue, and her sanity too because she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep or a peaceful day’s thought since she got those papers.

  “I wouldn’t say you have to close.”

  “I hired security, Eve, not store help. I have to close.”

  “No you don’t,” the door swung open and in walked Eve, dressed in cream khaki pants and a deep red blouse.

  “Oh my God! What are you doing here?” She kept the phone up to her ear even though her sister was there, right in front of her. Eve laughed.

  “I came to help my favorite sister in the whole world,” she smiled. “Now stop using up my minutes, get off that phone and get over here and hug me already.”

  “Oh yeah, okay, bye.” Alyssa hung up the phone before running from behind the counter and throwing her arms around her sister. “I missed you so much.”

  “I missed you too. After I spoke with you the first time I figured I had better get myself on a plane and come help you. And if you want me to, I’ll punch the jerk in the nose.” They laughed together.

  “No, then I’d have to hide you from the law. I’d end up in jail and Thomas and Gavin will probably blow up Scottsdale to get us out of here.” They laughed together.

  Eve took Alyssa’s hand in hers and gave a gentle squeeze. “Tell me what I need to know to keep this shop open for you.”

  “Oh it’s simple,” she took her behind the counter. “I have keys to all of the cases. The cash register is a cinch and there’s a very cute security guard behind those closed doors.” She smiled.

  “Yeah, you might have mentioned him to me once or twice, or more;” she winked at her. “I want to meet him.”

  “Okay, but he doesn’t know I think he’s cute. I have to keep this business only you know.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m his boss. I can’t afford to get sued again you know.”

  “You like him,” she assured her. “You should tell him.”

  She shook her head no. “Now, let’s get back to the store information. I’ll give you the code for the alarm so you won’t get the shock of your life if it goes off on you. I think Shane wants to change it, but he hasn’t gotten around to that yet.” She knocked on the security room door and waited for Shane to open it.

  “Shane, this is my sister, Eve. She’s going to keep the store open for me on Monday.”

  “Nice to meet you,” he stood and extended his hand to Eve.

  “Likewise,” she smiled before gently nudging Alyssa’s arm in one of her famous “you go girl,” kind of nudges.

  Real subtle, Eve. Alyssa was serious when she said she was not going to embark on a relationship journey with an employee. She watched Eve and Shane and the ease at which they seemed to communicate with each other. Eve had grown up so fast, and changed so much. She wasn’t just her little sister, she was a grown woman with a career and the tenacity and kick butt attitude to follow through. They were so much alike in so many ways, and in other ways they were so different.

  When they left out of the security room and Shane closed the door, Eve smiled at her with a knowing look in her eyes. “Future brother-in-law,” she nodded.

  “You are so crazy, girl.”

  “That man looks at you the way Adam used to look at me,” and then came the somber look in her eyes. She knew it had to be hard for her to get through each day when she thought about the man she had lost that day. She was hurting so much and it nearly killed Alyssa to be there within reach and still not be able to do anything to help her, to take away the pain and the sorrow and all the heartache—she wanted to give her sister peace, but she was powerless to do so.

  “Why don’t you go take your stuff upstairs and get some rest?” She looked out the windows. “
Where’s your car?”

  “I sold my car the week before going to Ireland. I didn’t think I would be coming back. Plus, shipping a car isn’t cheap. I rented a cute little BMW and it’s down the street. The parks in front of your place were taken so I had to circle around. I’ll move it later.”

  “No, you’ll move it now. I’ll park my car on the street and you pull into my space back there.”