Betrayal of the Dove (Men of Action)

by Montgomery, Capri

  Craig surfaced from around the corner, causing her to relax, but not Shane. She patted his shoulder and he removed his hand from his weapon. She was still wearing Shane’s shirt so she was sure that look of disapproval on Craig’s face had to do with what he thought had been going on last night.

  “What are you doing back here?” She asked.

  “There was another robbery last night,” he said. “Two shops down. I tried your backdoor bell this morning, but you didn’t answer.”

  “I wasn’t home,” she said. She couldn’t believe how frequently the robberies were happening now. Before there was some time between them, now it just seemed uncontrolled; unstructured.

  “I guess there’s no need to ask you about your alibi then,” Craig narrowed his eyes and glared at Shane as if he wanted to rip his head off, but thought better of it.

  “He was with me,” she said. “Or more like I was with him.”

  “All night?”

  “All night,” she confirmed. “Why are you even looking into Shane? These robberies started long before he became my security guard.”

  Craig shrugged. “Maybe they started so he could become your security guard,” he said caustically.

  “Doubtful,” she said with measured hostility. “Shane didn’t even know me before he came to work for me. A mutual friend asked him to help me. Beyond that, if he had started the robberies so he could come work for me he wouldn’t need to keep doing it.” She felt her anger reaching the tipping point. It was one thing to be jealous. It was another thing to throw baseless accusations and try to ruin a good man’s name.

  “Noted,” Craig said. “The robbery happened at the Icicle, two doors south of you so you might want to be more careful around here. It would seem things are getting closer to your store…a lot closer,” he mumbled before turning and walking away. She could tell he was still trying to find fault with Shane, but she wouldn’t let him blame these robberies on him just because he didn’t like that she and Shane were a couple now.

  “Come on,” Shane put his hand on her low back and nudged her forward. She hadn’t realized she was still standing there frozen in place until Shane prompted her to move forward. Craig was getting out of hand, and she was quickly losing the patience she had been known for having.

  “That man’s head is as thick as a cinder block,” she mumbled. “I just don’t think he gets it…even now.”

  “He doesn’t,” Shane agreed. “Right now he thinks I’m coercing you into being with me. He doesn’t see, whether he can’t see it or he refuses to see it is another matter, but he doesn’t see that you’ve made your choice.”

  “What do I do to get him to understand that?”

  Shane shrugged. “You can’t reason with some people, Alyssa. Sometimes you just have to stay sharp and remain aware of your surroundings. People like that don’t give up, and sometimes they get violent.”

  She knew the truth in that statement, even if she didn’t want to think about all the ways Craig could hurt her, she knew he could. She could fight—moderately anyway, so she figured she could hold her own with a guy who had basic self-defense training, but Craig was a cop. There were so many ways he could get back at her. He could, under the cover of his badge, make her life hell if he wanted to. “Oh good Lord,” she sighed. “Why do things always happen in triplicate?” Just when she thought she was getting things on track, Craig came along and threw another wrench into her engine. That man was going to be trouble and she knew it.

  Chapter Ten

  Alyssa had spent yesterday at work and everything was business as usual, with Shane inside his security area while she managed the store—a very busy store. She had crowds coming in which was good for business, but bad for her nerves. First of all, with that many people in the store at the same time she didn’t have a way to really watch what was going on. Most of her pieces were behind glass inside a locked case, but a few of the broaches were out on display by the cash register. It was her idea to have the last minute purchase sale because while she was getting ready to ring up their item they would be forced to see a beautiful, delicate and oh so fabulously wonderful broach that would be the perfect addition to their purchase. She had learned the trick when she worked for a jewelry store part-time while she was in high school. It worked about sixty percent of the time. Usually, she could keep watch on things and monitor what was going on in her store, but that day she just didn’t have time. She found herself running from one corner to the next trying to honor the, “show me this, show me that,” requests that kept coming at her. A lot of people bought items, and some, as she would call them, were wish book shoppers—the kind of people who looked through the catalog but knew they weren’t going to purchase anything. She had some of the wish book mentality shoppers come into her store usually a few times a week where they had no intention to buy anything, but they wanted to hold the pieces in their hand to see how they would look if they had actually bought them. Sometimes it was more about a pass time activity than an actual desire to shop.

  Sometimes she hated dealing with the people who bugged her just so they could have something to do with their day, and other times it didn’t bother her as much. There was one guy, Lars is what he said his name was; he came into her store at least twice a month looking without the intent to buy. He was young, maybe in his twenties, and he always expected her to show him what was new. It’s like he came out on the days when he knew there would be new products, which was usually a twice a month thing for her. “If I were going to buy something for my girlfriend,” he would say; “which piece would you choose?” She resisted the urge to laugh because she didn’t know why she should be the one choosing since it was his girlfriend, but after about the fourth time of him coming into her store and doing the same routine she figured there wasn’t a girlfriend and he wasn’t planning to buy. He made her laugh most times, but yesterday was not one of those days where she wanted to have to deal with his, “show me everything,” persona. He could, and would, literally spend a good forty minutes just walking around her store. She was too busy yesterday to give him the attention he wanted. Fortunately he hadn’t pitched a fit like some people had.

  Lars had been on time with his bi-weekly visit, but she hadn’t been on time with stocking the store. She had been busy with other things the previous night and so her usual get up early and take the new pieces down routine wasn’t in the cards. Instead, she had to do it this morning. It was also garbage day so she had to take care of that too. If the morning was starting off this hectic she wondered what it would be like once she actually opened. Shane was going to come in a little early with his friend so she could meet him. She wasn’t sure what Leo was going to do after that because Shane had assured her he was staying at work the entire day even though she had given him the time off should he want to use it. After yesterday maybe he thought twice about taking the time she was offering him free and clear.

  Thanks to Shane she didn’t lose a sixty dollar piece of jewelry. It was only sixty dollars, but in her book, sixty dollars was sixty dollars and she didn’t want to lose any of her pieces. He, Mr. Shane Maxwell security extraordinaire, had come out of the security room; something he didn’t do often during the day, and he said, “you’re going to pay for that right;” in such a loud voice that all activity in the store came to immediate cessation. If he hadn’t caught it, a rather not-so-honest leggy blond would have walked off with the sterling silver broach encrusted with several small gems.

  She locked the back door as she briskly walked to the dumpster. It wasn’t exactly close by, but it was a shared dumpster for the three shops to the right of her, plus her shop. The bistro had their own dumpster—thank goodness that wasn’t near her shop because the pungent smell of the food rotting would take over her store and her home until the trash collector came. Even though she had to walk to get to the dumpster the planning committee had assigned her to use she didn’t mind the walk because that meant when the truck came to collect the trash she didn’t
have to hear much of the clanking that went along with collection.

  On her way back inside, just as she had unlocked the back door, she felt a firm hand close over her mouth, and a strong arm wrap around her neck and shoulder area. She sent her elbow back and jabbed her attacker in the ribcage before swiftly turning and going for a palm up jab to the nose. She knew not to go for the groin because that’s where men always expected a woman to strike first, so she went for the move that would break the guys nose and give her time to get away; except he had anticipated that as well, either that or he was just expertly skilled at evading. She got a couple hits in before he punched her in the face, grabbed her by her hair before swiftly turning her and slamming her head into the door. After that it was lights out Alyssa until she came to and found herself bound to the chair she used at her work table. Only instead of being at her work table, it was in the center of the room, and it had a not so nice looking rattle snake curled up not too far in front of it.

  She couldn’t move. Her ankles were bound with rope, but her wrists were bound with flex cuffs, those very sturdy, very secure plastic things cops seemed to carry around. There was no way Craig would have done this to her. He was being a jerk, but he wasn’t crazy—at least she didn’t think he was. The reality was it didn’t matter who had done it, it had been done and she was stuck. She didn’t know how long she had been sitting there because she wasn’t facing any of her clocks, but it was light out now, not that barely-light setting that had been there when she took the garbage out. She always took it out early and she never once thought anything of it, but maybe she should have. “Oh good Lord,” she whispered breathlessly as the snake coiled in front of her decided to start waking up. “I hope you’re not as mean as you look,” she said low. “I am so soon to be dead,” her eyes widened as the snake started to uncoil. The only thought in her head now was that she hoped her brothers found the bastard who did this and ripped him apart piece by piece. Gavin would do it too; she knew that because while Eve had Thomas, she had Gavin. They didn’t have the same relationship, but she knew he had taken it upon himself the day she was born to be her protector. He wouldn’t let her death go unpunished. Unfortunately, not even that thought was bringing her comfort because she so didn’t want to die.

  Shane pulled into his park and got out of the truck. He was deep in conversation with Leo when he noticed the back door slightly ajar. “I told her she shouldn’t leave it open when she takes the trash out,” he shook his head.

  “Does she usually do that?”

  “No. She did it once and that’s because she had to run back upstairs for the last bit of trash.” When he reached the door and saw her keys on the ground he felt an acute awareness that something was wrong. He didn’t wait; he rushed inside, noticing that the upstairs door was wide open too. “Alyssa!” He ran up the stairs like a man on a mission and he didn’t stop until he saw her sitting there, bound to the chair with a rattler shaking its tail. Leo was right behind him.

  “A little help; please?” She said softly.

  “Who did this to you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “How long have you been like this?”

  “Shane, that is so not important right now. As I recall, those things rattle before they attack.” In other words, she was telling him to stop talking and start acting now because that thing was definitely shaking its tail.

  He could check the video footage later and see if he could make anything out of the images. Even if the guy had been wearing a mask he could at least pin down height, weight and build to narrow down his search. “I can’t shoot it; I’ll hit you.”

  “If you don’t shoot it, it will bite me.” She said in a tone that told him she thought being shot accidently was the lesser of two evils here.

  “Damn,” he cursed low and furious. “I can’t shoot you, baby. I might kill you.” She was small and while she had muscle mass he doubted it would stop a bullet from ricocheting its way through her body.

  “So will it,” she said in a harsh whisper. “I’ll take my chance with a bullet.”

  “I can’t,” he felt his heart racing. He didn’t want to risk it, but he knew he had to do something.

  “I’ve got this,” Leo bent down, pulled his pants leg up just enough to expose the steel blade strapped to his lower leg. He removed it slowly, cautiously, as if trying not to jar the snake into a faster attack. “Valencia insisted I bring this,” he mumbled before taking aim.

  “Don’t hit Alyssa,” Shane felt compelled to say.

  “I’ve got this, Shane. Settle down.” He aimed and threw the blade just as the snake’s head was poised and ready to take the strike. It dropped, so easily as if it had just decided to back down when in reality it was dead—or dying, either way it wasn’t going to get his woman.

  Shane rushed over to her. “Careful,” she had said as he got closer to the area where the snake was. “I’ve got you,” he whispered before coming behind her chair and lifting it, so effortlessly, and moving her away from the snake.

  “I can’t believe you just did that,” she gasped.

  “You’re light weight,” he assured her.

  “Can you get these things off of me, please?”

  Leo went to her kitchen and grabbed two knives before coming over to them and handing Shane one of them. Together, they managed to get her out of her bindings. She was shaking, trembling with fear, and unshed tears were making the blue of her eyes shimmer like a crystal clear lake. She was stubborn. She refused to show her emotions right now, even when Shane pulled her up into his arms, felt her trembling body resting against his own, she didn’t cry. His heart was pounding against his chest hard, furious, angrily drumming a beat that drowned out the sounds in the apartment until all he heard was the deafening rage growing in his heart. “When I find the bastard who did this,” he growled low. “He’s going to die.”

  “He had to have some military training, Shane. One of the moves he tried on me was one Gavin taught me years ago. He learned it doing his training. I never really got how to get out of it without opening myself up to another attack, though,” she sighed as she pulled back from him. He could have killed me outside; why didn’t he? Why do it like this?”

  “It’s him,” Shane growled. “It has to be him.”

  “Now don’t jump to conclusions, Shane. It could be any whacko with some military experience. Or anybody who picked it up from somebody. What do I know? That move could be everywhere by now.”

  “No; it’s him. I know he’s here.”

  “Why would he come after me? I wasn’t a member of your team.”

  “Does this have anything to do with your friend who just got killed?” Leo broke their moment for two, and Shane could tell the man was already getting into hunter mode. This wasn’t his fight. He was on vacation and he deserved to enjoy it. After the year his squad had just had the man deserved some time off.

  “This doesn’t concern you, Leo. Stick to your vacation and I’ll handle my own demons.”

  “The hell you will. You saved my life in Oahu, Shane. You stopped a man from putting a bullet in my head while I was trying to diffuse a bomb and I won’t ever forget that. Somebody comes after you and they deal with both of us.”

  Shane could stand there and argue all day, but it wouldn’t change things. Leo was a man of his word and once he committed to something he didn’t back down. He went after it, pursued it, fought for it, hard and relentless without mercy until he met the end goal. The mission that brought them together had been one of Shane’s last missions. He was there to uncover a domestic terrorism ring. That was the job of his team, to keep America safe from enemies in and out of its borders. They had needed local authorities assistance and they got Leo’s precinct, which was good because they had came upon a bomb that was so large it could have leveled a few city blocks. Leo, confident or cocky, depending on how anybody looked at it, walked right into hell without a second thought. Shane’s team went in to disarm the bomb of the human pers
uasion while Leo went in to get what the bastards had set up.

  The group of religious fanatics had left a few of their own behind. Just in case somebody came in and tried to stop things they were there to shoot to kill. Shane couldn’t understand what would make anybody willing to blow themselves up for any cause, but there they were, eight total, just waiting for everything to explode in some big blaze of glory.

  “I’ll look after your woman,” Leo said and Shane was sure that was his way of telling him he understood she was off limits. “You go find the bastard.”

  “What if it’s not him? Seriously, Shane, why would he come after me?”

  “To get to me,” he uttered those words with staunch anger in his tone.

  “I have had my own problems lately,” she reminded him. “There was the lawsuit. And Dumas did say it wasn’t over. Then there’s Craig. I don’t think he’d do this, but who walks around carrying flex cuffs?”