His Moment to Steal: In the Line of Duty, Book 4

by Cathryn Fox

  After a good, long look, her gaze traveled up to take in a wide back and even wider shoulders. She caught a glimpse of his tattoo peeking out from the short sleeves of his T-shirt, and her fingers itched to explore the rest of him to see if he had any more ink. She continued to stare, unable to help herself, but when he turned back and caught her ogling, he gave her a sexy, lopsided smile—one that spoke of hot nights and even hotter sex.

  Oh my…

  Okay, so she totally knew what his teasing was all about. The man wanted her between the sheets. Hell, who was she kidding? She wanted that too. The last time she’d crawled into bed with a guy was a little over two years ago. That lust-affair hadn’t ended well. Then again, for as long as she could remember, none of her relationships ever had. In kindergarten no one wanted to play with the girl who had a “retarded” brother, as they called him, because they thought it might rub off. God, kids were so damn cruel, twisting that clinical word to make it so ugly and offensive when all it really meant was that he had special needs. It was wrong to call people names, any kind of name. Simple as that.

  In Emery’s later years, kids started talking to her when they found out her folks ran the market. They befriended her, only to score free candy and soda in their middle school years, and alcohol and smokes in their later ones—which she ended up paying for.

  She’d learned the hard way that people hung out with her for one reason and one reason only—they wanted something. And that something was never a lifelong friendship, or a lasting romantic love affair, like she really wanted.

  From his outwardly flirtatious personality, she assumed Luke was a player, which was fine by her. She wasn’t opposed to a night of sex with a hot guy like him—no strings attached. Hey, at least her eyes were wide open and she knew never to trust, never to set herself up for failure. And, hell, a night in the sack would undoubtedly help ease the tension that had been building inside her since taking over the business two years ago—and watching it go downhill. Things had been good for the first year, but then over the last twelve months she started losing thousands of dollars every pay period. With an expanding neighborhood, and a busier store, she chalked the losses up to theft, but lack of cash flow meant she had to lay off employees. Less staff meant fewer people to watch the store, which only compounded the problem.

  She exhaled slowly, her mind going back to Luke and the reason she’d called his company in the first place. From his teasing banter she guessed he had no idea she was the owner of the market. She’d always gone by Vincent-Taylor and had dropped the Taylor from her last name a few years ago, keeping her mother’s name only. Partly to honor her after she died, and partly because, well, everyone wanted something from a Taylor. Her father had numerous connections in high places, and many favors were traded. Emery just wanted people to like her for who she was, not for what she could give them—or do for them.

  Regardless, now was not the time to be thinking about that, not when her father had trusted her with the business and she needed to make it a success not only for him, but also for her older brother. The residential health facility where he received around-the-clock nursing care was expensive, but it was also the best facility in the state, and she wasn’t about to jeopardize his well-being due to lack of funds. He was counting on her and she wouldn’t let him down, which meant all her focus had to go into saving the market.

  She took a crisp twenty-dollar bill from her purse and jotted Trent’s address down on a sticky note. Pushing to her feet, she made her way into the market with the product Luke had left on her desk.

  Luke…

  Hot, hard, so nice to look at. She thought about the way he’d shifted gears with Trent, and in seconds flat had gone from flirtatious to deadly serious. She’d caught the intense glint in his steel-gray eyes as he hardened himself, and suspected there was more to him than met the eye. Beneath all the charm and charisma she suspected that ex-soldier Luke Phillips had a past that continued to haunt him. Behind the charming grin, and flirty smile, there was a darker part of him.

  Even still, her body was screaming at her to cut loose and have some much-needed fun with the guy who oozed sex. But she had a business to fix, she reminded herself. Which meant she needed to concentrate on running the market, and not on what her body craved.

  Then again, look how that had turned out for her.

  Yeah, some inner voice yelled—probably the one calling the shots from between her legs—look where that got you. Go ahead, have some fun with Luke-o-licious. Let him juggle your melons. You know you want to.

  Chapter Two

  Luke drove his hands into his pockets and leaned against the doorjamb, his gaze raking over sweet yet sexy Emery as she sat at the same desk where he’d recently interrogated Trent. She was so focused on the sheet of paper in front of her that she hadn’t noticed him watching. It was nearing twelve thirty and he wondered what she was still doing here. Didn’t she have to be somewhere?

  Wait…was she? Nah, she couldn’t be. Could she?

  Shit.

  “Oh,” she said, her cheeks turning a pretty shade of pink as she glanced up at him. “I didn’t realize you were back.”

  He angled his head, an uneasy feeling searing his gut as he looked at her ring finger. Even though it was empty, he said, “Mrs. Vincent, right?”

  “Miss Vincent,” she corrected.

  Christ, how could he have missed it? Probably because he’d been too busy flirting with her to realize why she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. This was her business—her upscale market—which meant that technically she was his boss.

  What the hell was it he’d said about her melons?

  Never mind that, he’d been lusting after her and she was one of them. Rich, elite, never one to give second chances. Anger moved through him and he wondered if he’d read her wrong earlier where Trent was concerned. Maybe she’d taken his address down because she planned on turning him in.

  “Now that you’ve seen firsthand on what’s going on here…” she paused and seemed a bit breathless as she gestured toward the chair on the other side of her desk, “…I guess you know why I called your company?”

  With his defenses in place, he hardened himself and sat across from her. “Are you going turn him in?”

  Her brow furrowed, and the pink tinge on her cheeks spread. “Why would I do that?”

  “Why did you take down his information?”

  She blinked rapidly and looked at the white board. “I…I…just.”

  “What the hell?” A sharp voice boomed from the doorway.

  Luke turned to see Winston Taylor glaring at him, as in Winston Taylor, the man who used to own Taylor’s Market and had connections in very high places. Well fuck if his day didn’t just go from bad to worse. He gripped the arms of his chair hard enough to break them, and even though he was no longer in the army, every muscle in his body tensed, ready for battle.

  Emery stood up. “Dad, what’s going on?”

  Dad?

  Her father jerked his head toward Luke, his gaze razor sharp. “What’s going on?” he spouted, spittle flying from his mouth. “I could be asking you the same question.”

  Emery cast a confused look Luke’s way, then turned back to her father.

  In that moment, Luke’s mind raced back to a little over twelve years ago. He vaguely remembered hearing that the man who wanted to crucify him had a daughter around Luke’s age. Not that they ran in the same circles or went to the same schools. They didn’t. Even though she went by a different last name, it should have occurred to him that Taylor would have handed the business down to his offspring after his wife had died—yeah, Luke remembered hearing about her death just before he was put away.

  “You’re not making any sense,” Emery said.

  Her father scowled, his eyes full of hate as he glared at Luke. He pointed his cane Luke’s way. “Do you have any idea who that…that is?” he spat out, like he couldn’t bring himself to voice Luke’s name.

  �
��Luke Phillips,” she said. “I hired his company to set up a new security system for the store.”

  “Security system?” He narrowed his eyes suspiciously and spun back toward Emery. “What’s wrong with our old one?”

  “Insurance purposes.” She gave an easy shrug, the fib rolling off her tongue like she’d spent hours practicing it. “Changes in the policy, that’s all.”

  Luke angled his head, curious about her lie, but said nothing.

  The old man waved a dismissive hand in Luke’s direction. “So you hired him?” With that he laughed out loud. Not a humorous kind of laugh, more like a cynical one. “Well I guess it takes one to know one.”

  Emery shook her head as Luke climbed to his feet. Okay, enough of this. He wasn’t a frightened sixteen-year-old boy anymore, and very little scared or intimated him these days. Juvie did that to a guy. So did the army.

  He glared at the man who’d taken so much from him—his father, his sister, his teenage years. “What he’s trying to say,” Luke began, “is that I’m the guy he put away for stealing.”

  “That’s right,” Taylor said. He jutted his chest out, and if he didn’t look so old, so pathetic, Luke might have considered clocking him. “Someone had to teach you and the rest of those hooligans you ran with that you just couldn’t walk in here and take what you wanted without consequences.”

  Emery’s eyes widened, but Luke just stood there, the things he felt for this man burning a hole in his gut. There was no point in telling Emery the truth. That he wasn’t the one who’d taken a loaf of crusty bread and a jar of peanut butter to feed a pregnant girlfriend. Or that he’d taken the fall for his buddy because unlike Luke, Shane was of legal age and there was no way in hell he’d have made it in jail. Yeah, stealing was wrong. Luke knew that. His father was a religious man and had drilled that into him and his sister when they were young. But sometimes desperation drove a guy to do desperate things. He could tell her all that but why bother?

  Few people believed him—believed in him—so why would she?

  “Don’t hire him, Emery. Once a thief always a thief and nothing good can come from this,” Taylor said.

  Luke glared at the man as Emery’s head bobbed back and forth between the two, like she had no idea what to do next. Financially, Luke needed this job, but he wasn’t about to stand here and take any more shit from the Taylor family. Nor was he going to come between a daughter and her father. Not ever again. It wasn’t that he thought father knew best. He didn’t. But a girl needed her dad, especially when she didn’t have a mother. Of that he was certain, and it was the reason he hadn’t spoken to his kid sister in over twelve years.

  With that last thought in mind, he took a step toward the door, figuring he’d somehow find another way to support the community center. Maybe he’d even dip into his savings. Expanding his business could wait a little longer, although he’d been hoping to give a few of his army buddies a steady paycheck when they discharged next month.

  Luke clamped his hands behind his neck, ready to walk away from the contract. He’d never quit a job before. He’d never quit at anything. But in this case he didn’t expect he’d have to. He fully expected Emery to fire him on the spot after finding out about his past. But what she said next not only surprised him, it shocked him to his core.

  “Well that was a long time ago.”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” her father said, practically frothing at the mouth as he banged his cane on the floor.

  There was a real sadness on Emery’s face, a deep worry in her eyes as she sat back down in her chair, indicating that Luke do the same. Mumbling curses under his breath, her father stormed off, cracking his cane hard against the floor.

  “I’m open to hearing all your ideas,” she said. “After what happened here earlier, I’m sure you can see that I really need help.”

  He looked over her face, assessing her, and as she gave him an almost pleading look, something inside him gave, softened. He wasn’t sure what it was about her, and even though she was one of them, he found himself wanting to help her, wanting to protect her. He could tell she was strong, had been strong for a long time, and wasn’t the kind of girl to ask for help. But she was asking him right now.

  He listened to her talk, and when she placed a paper in front of him, the layout of the store, he scanned it.

  Emery looked at him. “My father,” she began. “He doesn’t usually come around too much anymore. His health, it’s failing.”

  “Emery…” he said even though he had no idea what it was he wanted to say to her.

  Walk away, Luke. Just walk away.

  He glanced at the store’s layout again, then looked into her big hopeful eyes. When he opened his mouth, to tell her he couldn’t take the job, he suddenly found himself saying, “We have a lot of work to do.”

  Shit.

  He thought he caught a flicker of a smile on her face before she switched into full business mode. “Okay, what’s our first order of business?”

  “First I’d like to hang around the store to observe, then I’d like to set up surveillance cameras and get my team to watch from the monitors in my truck. Once I see the thieves in action, I’ll know where we have to make changes in the layout, cameras, et cetera.”

  She nodded, and once again the smell of her sweet floral shampoo reached his nostrils. His fingers curled around the arms of the chair as his cock shifted.

  Easy, boy. She’s not the one for you.

  “I’ll give you a rundown of the store and then let you and your team get to work.” She climbed from her seat. “If you have any questions or need anything, you know where to find me.”

  Luke followed her into the market, and after a tour, he spent the rest of the afternoon pretending to shop so he could observe the flow of customers and the areas that were cut off from view. By the time night rolled around, he hopped onto his motorcycle and made his way to the bar, in need of a drink, and maybe a fist to the face from one of his comrades. Yeah, perhaps a punch to the head would knock some sense back into him. What the hell was he thinking agreeing to stay on?

  He pushed his way through the heavy front door and plunked himself down next to his buddy, Garrett Andersen. “Hey,” he said to the former military security specialist turned city cop.

  After a long moment Garrett nudged him with his elbow. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

  Twisting restlessly on his stool at Sky Bar, his favorite after work hangout, Luke looked up from the beer he was nursing and said, “Nothing, just thinking about the new job I just contracted.”

  “Oh yeah, is she hot?”

  Luke laughed. “Fuck off.”

  “Is who hot?” Matt James asked as he came through the back door and took the empty seat beside Luke at the end of bar. He unzipped his backpack and slapped his books onto the bar top.

  “The girl at the new job site,” Garrett provided.

  “Ah,” Matt said. “So that’s why you’re all mopey?”

  “Mopey? Christ, Matt. You sound like your grandmother.”

  Matt shrugged, reached back into his bag and pulled out a jar of peanut butter and a plastic spoon.

  Luke shook his head. For as long as he’d known Matt, the guy had been eating peanut butter from a jar. At least he’d upgraded to a spoon than from his damn finger. “You know you’re not twelve anymore, right?”

  “I’m a poor college kid now,” Matt said. “I just got out of class so I eat what I can, when I can.”

  Just then, Sky, the owner of the bar, came sauntering over. “Then eat this.” She slid a whole-wheat ham and cheese sandwich, along with a garden salad, in front of Matt.

  The smile that lit up Matt’s face damn near blinded Luke, and made him wonder why his friend had never made a move on Sky. They all went way back—Caleb and Shane making up the fourth and fifth members of their group—and Matt lit up like a kid on Christmas morning whenever she was around. After Matt, Caleb, Shane and Luke had returned from overseas, a
nd Matt enrolled in college, Sky gave him a job at the bar, allowing him to work around his classes. The two were tight, but Luke had the feeling that Sky had something for Caleb—who was down in San Antonio working in the medical clinic.

  Despite the sandwich, Matt opened the jar of peanut butter and stuck in the spoon. He held it out to Luke. “Want some?”

  “Get that shit away from me.” Luke shoved Matt’s arm. “You know I’m allergic.”

  Matt laughed, and flipped open his MCAT book. “Yeah, but I thought it would be good to see firsthand what an allergic swelling looks like. You know, in case it’s on the test.”

  “Piss off, Matt.” Luke offered him his best hard-assed face, and made a fist. “Or I’ll teach you a thing or two about swelling.”

  Matt grinned and turned his attention to his sandwich and thick book. Garrett asked Sky to bring two more beers. After she delivered them, he turned to Luke.

  “So who is she?” he asked, keeping his voice low since Matt was studying beside them.

  “Don’t you have a pretty wife and little girl waiting for you at home?” he asked, not wanting to talk about Emery or how curious he was about her. Why did she lie to her father? Why did she still hire him for security, of all things, after finding out about his past?

  “Hey, don’t be jealous, man,” Garrett teased.

  Luke laughed. “Me? Jealous? No way.” He looked at the cute blonde who had just sauntered in the door. “I’m good right where I am.” Truthfully, it wasn’t that he was opposed to marriage, but he enjoyed dating different women. He wasn’t a man whore, but he liked variety. Nothing wrong with that as far as he was concerned. Maybe someday when he found the right one he’d consider settling down. Although he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to find his soul mate at Sky Bar. Most of the singles that came there were simply looking for a good time.

  “Okay, so tell me about this job,” Garrett said, all teasing gone from his voice. “What’s the name of the company, and why do you look like you’re standing on the front line about to take a direct hit from the enemy?”