Calculating Desires (The Rockford Security Series Book 4)

by Jones, Lee Anne

  No good can come of that, right?

  She took the elevator down to the lobby and walked out into the bright Nevada day. Decision made, she hailed a cab and gave the driver the directions. She’d check the bench then choose. Either way, this would be her last full day in Vegas.

  * * *

  Across town, Owen picked up his cell phone for the millionth time, then tossed it down again and rubbed his eyes. He hadn’t dated anyone in years, but vaguely remembered some rule about calling a woman too soon. Only problem with that theory was he’d never actually gotten said woman’s phone number. Over a full day had passed since he’d last seen Alison. That had to be enough time, right? Then again, maybe it was too long. Maybe he’d royally screwed himself and lost any hope of a lasting relationship with her.

  Fuck.

  Lost it before I ever really even had it.

  “Mr. Rockford is in a meeting, sir,” the receptionist at Rockford Security said. “Do you have an appointment?”

  No. I don’t have an appointment.

  What he did have was an urgent need to get Blake to help him find out more about Alison’s mysterious past. “I can wait, if he won’t be long.”

  “Have a seat along the wall and I’ll let him know you’re here as soon as he’s free.” She gave him a polite smile and an appreciative female once-over, but Owen wasn’t interested. The only female he had his sights on at the moment had disappeared off his radar and damn if he couldn’t seem to get her signal back.

  He’d no more than plopped his butt down in one of the oversized brown leather arm chairs, however, when an office door down the hall opened and Liv stepped out with Peaches. “Oh, hey cuz. Glad you’re here. Saves me a trip to your apartment.”

  She released the dog’s leash and Peaches immediately rushed to Owen’s side, panting and happy and playful. Warmth burst in his chest and he realized he’d missed the pooch. Missed having another heartbeat around his lonely apartment and someone who was always happy to see him waiting by the door when he got home.

  Perhaps it was the whole cheating debacle at the Lucky Ace. Perhaps it was the time he’d spent with Alison. Hell, perhaps he was just getting soft in his old age. Whatever it was, he’d made his decision—right then and there.

  Peaches belongs with me. I’ll adopt her this afternoon.

  After he talked to Blake and discovered more about Alison, of course.

  “Hey.” Liv moved to stand on the other side of him. “What happened with that girl the other day?”

  “Oh.” Owen looked up at her between doggy kisses. “Alison, you mean? She’s why I’m here. I was hoping your brother could help me get her phone number.”

  “Phone number, huh?” Liv’s tone turned conspiratorial. “I can get it for you. It’s a simple search and IT gave all the managers access. Just come in my office for a second.”

  “Great. Thanks.” He took Peaches by the leash and led her back down the hall.

  “I need the spelling of her first and last name and date of birth.”

  Owen closed his eyes bringing back the image of her license the day Peaches had stolen it in the casino. The license had her birth date. Owen rattled off the information and Liv typed it into the computer.

  “Great. It’ll take a minute or two to run through the system.”

  “Okay.” He took a seat in one of the chairs in front of her desk and pulled out his cell phone again. “Sorry. I need to make a quick call.

  After thumbing in the number, he leaned back, grateful to have a purpose other than Alison for the call.

  “Paws and Play Animal Rescue. This is Shelby. How may I help you?”

  “Hey, it’s Owen.” He gave his new pet a scratch behind the ears. “I want to adopt Peaches.”

  “Wow! Okay, great, but that’s quite a change of heart. What made you decide?”

  A weird constriction tightened his throat and chest with emotion. He coughed and lowered his voice, turning away from Liv who avidly watched him from across the desk. “You were right. I do need someone in my life.”

  “Aw. Well, I’m glad I could help. And you can have a human someone too, you know. You’re a great catch.”

  He scoffed.

  Yeah, right. The only woman I’ve been seriously interested in since Faith couldn’t get out of my place fast enough after we made love all night long.

  Such desperation didn’t exactly inspire confidence or the possibility of them having a future together, no matter how badly he might crave it. Alison had made him feel things again, things he’d thought long dead.

  She makes me want to be a different man, a better man.

  “I’ll dig up your paperwork from before and you can stop by the shelter later and sign it, okay?”

  “Great. Thanks, Shelby.”

  Blake stuck his head through Liv’s open doorway after Owen ended the call.

  “Hey. I thought I heard your voice.” Blake walked in, his trusty iguana perched on his shoulder, and handed him an envelope. “Here.”

  Peaches jumped up to sniff the reptile’s twitching tail and Owen barely had time to catch her before she went after Henry like a real, live squeaky toy. He kept a firm grip on the dog’s collar as he sat back in his chair. “What’s this?”

  “Another drop-off from that bus hut bench. One of our guards at the casino, Steve, found it after they caught the cheaters.”

  Owen's chest tightened. He'd almost forgotten about the envelope. If Alison wasn't mixed up with the ring of cheater's then why was she getting random envelopes from underneath public benches? What in the world was she in to?

  “And no one opened it yet?” He ripped open the top and peered inside. “Why not?”

  “Figured it was your case, you should do the honors.” Blake gave Henry several air kisses then glanced down at Owen. “So?”

  Owen pulled out a sheet of paper and scowled at the one sentence typed dead center. “It’s sunny in Seattle.” He wrinkled his nose. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “Hmm.” Blake frowned. “Some kind of code maybe?”

  “Maybe.” He held the paper up for Blake. “The rest is nothing but chit-chat. Mom is fine. Went to the grocery store. Ellen baked your favorite apple pie. And there’s no postmark on the envelope or signature. Definitely not normal pen-pal stuff.”

  Blake took the paper from him and squinted at it. “I’ll have my team analyze it to see if they can decipher anything.”

  “I’ve got more bad news,” Liv said from behind her desk.

  Owen’s heart sank, all joy over his pending adoption of Peaches taking a backseat to the continued cloak-and-dagger stuff with Alison. “Let me guess, you can’t find her phone number.”

  “Worse. The Alison James you gave me, with that birth date, died a week after birth. It’s a fake identity. Whoever that girl was at your casino, her real name is not Alison James.”

  Flashes of the past—Faith and all her lies, his trial for suspected treason, all the guilt, the shame, the daily burden of knowing he’d trusted the wrong woman and been played for a sucker—slammed into him like a Mac truck.

  But Alison wasn't Faith. The connection he'd felt with Alison was real. He'd spent only one night with her, but in that night something long dead inside him had come to life. She'd inspired his belief in her and himself again. He knew she had a secret, but it didn't make sense that she was just playing him like Faith had. For what? There was no reason for Alison to pretend to get close to him in order to garner information or some kind of advantage. Heck she'd even begged off on his dinner invitation. No, something else was going on and if his gut instincts were correct, Alison was in grave danger.

  “You okay?” Liv sat forward her expression concerned. “You don’t look so good, cuz.”

  “I’m fine.” He forced the words past his tight vocal cords and pushed to his feet. At least now he knew why Alison had acted so strangely. An overwhelming urge to help her, to protect her came over him. But first he had to find her.

  *
* *

  A few hours later, Owen paced the parking lot behind his apartment building near the Lucky Ace with Peaches’ leash in one hand and holding his cell phone to his ear with the other. It might be the dog’s potty break, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t multi-task.

  “What do you mean she’s gone?” He asked Faye, who was on the other end of the line, doing his best to keep his agitation from his tone. “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know. She stopped by here to get her laptop and didn’t say where she was going. All I know is she had her duffle bag packed and my guess is she’s probably looking for a way out of town.”

  “Why? Why would she leave like that?” He stopped near a sapling while Peaches did her business, squinting through his aviator shades into the bright afternoon sun. “What’s she hiding, Faye?”

  “I don’t know, Mr. Rockford. I swear. All she told me was she was running from something.”

  “Running?” Shit.

  He walked two paces then stopped again as Peaches found another spot to mark. “And stop with all the Mr. Rockford crap. I think it’s time you called me Owen, don’t you? Considering the circumstances.”

  “Okay, Owen. Is Alison in trouble? I’m worried about her.”

  “So am I.” He gave Peaches’ leash an impatient tug to keep her from obsessively sniffing until midnight and started back toward his apartment. “That’s why I need to find her. Whatever she’s mixed up in, she needs my help. And my protection.”

  Owen stopped near the entrance to the building and promised Faye he’d do what he could to find Alison then ended the call. He’d just shoved the phone back into his pocket and was reaching for the door handle when Peaches woofed loud and yanked hard on her leash, causing him to lose his grip. Before he could catch her, she’d taken off around the corner of the building.

  “Dammit! Come back here.” He raced after the dog only to damned near rundown a person on the other side of the wall. Owen stopped short and stared at the woman who’d been foremost in his thoughts for days. “Alison? What are you doing here? I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  She straightened from petting Peaches and tucked an errant curl behind her ear. His fingertips itched to run through those silky strands again, to fist them tight as he sank his body so deeply into hers that he didn’t know where she started and he ended.

  He clenched his fists at his sides and stepped back.

  This is another woman who lied to me. I can’t let her close again.

  I can’t let her walk out of my life…

  She kept her gaze lowered, seemingly fascinated by the toes of her sneakers. “Can we, um, go somewhere and talk?”

  “I know you’re in trouble.” He placed a hand on her shoulder, as if to confirm she was really there and not a beautiful illusion. “Let me help.”

  Alison looked up at him then, and Owen’s heart kicked into overdrive at the blatant fear in her expression.

  What the fuck is she mixed up in?

  “Not here.” She glanced around as if expecting a sniper to take her out any second. “Upstairs. Please?”

  Fourteen

  Outside Owen’s door, Alison shuffled her feet and did her best to keep from fidgeting. All this was new—trusting someone, sharing her real past with someone, not constantly looking over her shoulder to be sure she wasn’t followed.

  While Owen fiddled with his keys, she leaned against the wall and scratched Peaches behind the ears. It had been months and her contact, Caroline, had nothing but the same report over and over. All clear.

  Yesterday, there had been no envelope under the bench, a sign that it was still clear. Their arraignment was that a note would come every two weeks unless there was an emergency. The last envelope was just over a week ago, so she was still in the clear, but it had taken her almost twenty-four hours to wrestle with the decision of whether or not to trust Owen. Her head said no, but her heart said yes. In the end, her heart won out.

  Maybe Copernatech had stopped looking for her, finally. Maybe once they’d driven her away from everything she’d known, they’d decided she was no longer a risk. Maybe they figured she was already dead. Maybe her greatest fear now wasn’t her past, but the man standing in front of her.

  “C’mon.” Owen opened the door. “Let’s get inside and talk.”

  Alison led the dog into his apartment then unclipped Peaches’ leash and removed her hoodie, wanting to be as comfortable as possible for this completely uncomfortable conversation. She curled up on a corner of his sofa and toed off her shoes before tucking her feet beneath her. “I’m not sure where to start.”

  “I am.” He discarded his suit jacket and loosened his tie before taking off his shoes and sitting opposite her, his brown gaze narrowed. “How about starting with who you really are.”

  “What?” Her pulse notched higher.

  He knows about that? Of course he knows about that, idiot. He’s in security.

  Memories of him picking up her wallet that day at the casino, his slight hesitation as he stared at the holder where her license was kept on the back side, bombarded her brain.

  “You heard me.” He stretched his arm along the back of the cushions and watched her with an unreadable expression. “Alison James died a week after she was born.”

  “You memorized my information that day, didn’t you?”

  He didn’t answer.

  Brows knitted, she stared at her hands in her lap. She should’ve expected him to figure it out sooner or later. Better now, she supposed, if she intended to stay. “You ran a background check too.”

  It wasn’t a question, since she already knew the answer.

  Owen crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side, his tone flat. “I like to know who I’m getting involved with. You have a problem with that?”

  “We’re not involved.” She glanced up at him then looked away fast. “Not yet, anyway. If you want me to leave, I will.”

  “What I want is the truth, goddammit.” He raked a hand through his hair “What I want is to help you get rid of whatever you’re running from.”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “You have something better to do?”

  No. I don’t.

  Truth was, it felt so good just to be with him again it scared the hell out of her. She shifted in her seat and drew her knees in closer. “I’ll change the names to protect the innocent.”

  “I’d prefer you didn’t.”

  Damn. “Knowing the truth could put you in danger.”

  “Honey, I thrive on danger. Four years in the Marines will do that to a guy. And I learned the hard way the importance of keeping secrets.”

  Well, then. She wanted to ask him more, but now wasn’t the time. Not with the way he’d grown defensive after his last statement and her promise to tell him the truth and nothing but the truth.

  After a deep breath, she started. “My real name is Heather Connors.” She gave a small, sad smile. “God, it feels weird to say that now. Anyway, in my former life, I was a mathematician for a pharmaceutical company named Copernatech. My main focus was working as part of a team researching a new cancer vaccine. My duties specifically were to run the numbers associated with patient side effects, adverse effects, and deaths from the vaccine and determine probabilities of frequency as they moved forward through the clinical trials necessary for FDA approval.” She picked nervously at the hem of her gray hoodie, the jolt of adrenaline caused by her discovery just as sickening now as it had been all those months ago. “Except their vaccine caused more deaths than it prevented, causing patients’ immune systems to lower to dangerous levels or stop altogether—unacceptable results. When I took my data to the company execs, though, they brushed it aside and told me they’d handle it appropriately. They didn’t. In fact, they accelerated the release date and sent falsified reports to the FDA to expedite the approval process.”

  Peaches jumped up on the sofa between them and settled down with her head on Alison’s leg as if for moral suppor
t. She stroked the dog’s soft head while she continued. “I couldn’t let them harm or even kill all those people because of their greed. So I took the information to a reporter in the area who specialized in investigative journalism. It was all supposed to be anonymous. No one would get hurt, the drug would get pulled. End of story. But it wasn’t the end. Not at all.”

  Peaches whimpered and Owen sat forward, his expression morphing from stoic to concerned. “I’m not liking where this is going.”

  “Believe me, I didn’t either.” She twisted a lock of hair around her finger. “Right before the story was set to run on the local network affiliate, the reporter turned up dead. The coroner ruled it a suicide, but I knew the truth. The guy had a great home, happy family, two kids in school. No way would he off himself like that.” She jammed her hands in the pocket of her hoodie so he wouldn’t see them shake. “Then my house got broken into. They took my laptop, my devices, all the notes I’d kept on the vaccine project. Nothing else. And that’s when I knew. I’d always known the pharmaceutical business was cut-throat. I’d just never imagined Copernatech would branch out into actual murder. I was wrong. So I ran. Found people to supply fake IDs and assumed the name of a deceased infant. That’s when I became Alison James.” She shrugged. “The only person I have any contact with from those days is a woman named Caroline Biggs who still works as a microbiologist at Copernatech. She keeps me informed if anyone from the company has discovered my location. Right now, I’m just trying to stay alive until I can come forward with what I know about that vaccine and stop it from ever reaching the light of day.”

  An awkward silence fell once she’d finished, only the sound of Peaches’ tail thumping against the cushions filling the air and for once, Alison didn’t have the kahunas to look at Owen for fear of what she’d see.

  Disapproval? Most likely. Disappointment? Quite possibly.

  Disgust?

  She’d rather die by Copernatech’s hands than see him look at her that way, but she’d stolen the identity of an innocent baby to save herself, gone underground like a coward, retreated when she should’ve charged forward to prevent a catastrophe.