Authors: C.J. Miller
Taken by the Con (24 page)
“Why, Benjamin? Why would you do this? Everyone respects you.” Respected. Lucia had nothing but disgust for him now.
“I’m tired of playing the game and getting nowhere. I deserve a little fun money. I deserve a break from the job. As long as the criminals are caught, what’s the harm?”
“Anderson will kill Cash and his father and then he’ll flee the country,” Lucia said.
Benjamin laughed. “News flash, Lucia. Cash and his father are criminals, too.”
It wasn’t black and white. There were so many shades of gray when dealing with Cash, with love and with life.
Lucia looked out the window and caught a glimpse of an ice scraper tucked in the pocket of the door. It was spring, so it had likely been forgotten. She reached for it, her arm burning and throbbing. Her fingers brushed the plastic and then she carefully pulled it into her hand.
She waited until Benjamin was focused on the traffic, paying little attention to her.
She let her head fall back against the seat. “I won’t make it.”
“You were shot in the arm. You’re fine.”
She lifted her left hand, pretending to grab at her wound and switched the ice scraper to her left hand. Then she whipped it across the seat at Benjamin and lunged for his gun.
In a flurry of swinging and grappling for the gun, the car veered off the road. It crashed into something, stopping the car and Lucia sailed forward into the dashboard.
Lucia recovered and put her hand on Benjamin’s gun. She pulled it into both hands and pointed it at him. “Get out of the car.”
Benjamin held up his hands. “Careful, Lucia. You don’t want to shoot me. Your word against mine. You’ll look unstable. Being in a relationship with a criminal and trying to protect him by killing me after I realized he was working for Anderson. Think about how I can spin this to destroy your life.”
Lucia waved the gun at him, ignoring his threat. “Hurry up. I don’t have time for this!” Cash was at Anderson’s mercy. She had to help him.
She forced Benjamin out of the car and had him use his handcuffs to secure himself to a nearby iron bike rack. With onlookers watching, she pointed at a man who’d come out of a used book store. “Call the police. Please!”
“I’m an FBI agent! Help me!” Benjamin said.
“He’s lying,” Lucia said. “He tried to kidnap me. He shot me.” She gestured to her arm as proof.
She took Benjamin’s FBI identification and his handcuff keys and climbed back into the car, grateful when it started. She threw the car into Reverse and then drove. Cash needed her.
* * *
According to dispatch, the SWAT team was one minute away. Lucia dragged herself out of the banged-up FBI vehicle. Her team was positioned at the places Benjamin had asked them to be, but she didn’t wait for them, unsure if they were compromised, as well. She didn’t know if she was too late, but the sight of a small airplane on the runway, propellers whirling, told her she had seconds to stop whatever was happening.
She held up Benjamin’s ID and demanded the plane stop. The pilot ignored her. The plane started forward. Was Cash on that plane?
“Lucia!”
She turned. Cash, his father and Boots were walking toward her. Lucia ran to him, Benjamin’s words echoing in her head. This was what he’d wanted, except he wasn’t here to put a bullet in her back.
Could she trust the rest of the team?
The sound of sirens approached.
She hugged Cash with everything in her, throwing herself into his arms and wrapping her legs around him. She was so happy he was alive.
“Anderson is going after Adrian.” Cash sounded panicked.
He set her down and she turned. A line of SWAT cars were racing up the tarmac.
The sight was imposing and terrifying.
Though one woman waving a gun and a badge hadn’t stopped the pilot, an army of SWAT cars did.
The engines on the plane died and the SWAT team surrounded it.
* * *
“The unit chief approved your transfer,” Lucia said. She should be thrilled for Cash. He would be working at the field office in Seattle and be near his son. It was everything he’d wanted.
Cash looked up from his desk. “I didn’t know what to say when she told me.”
Not caring that the team was watching them, Lucia sat on Cash’s desk. “Why didn’t you say anything as soon as you heard?”
Cash stood, putting himself between her thighs. Not appropriate behavior for the recently promoted special agent in charge, but Lucia didn’t care. The unit chief knew about her relationship with Cash and he couldn’t work with her anymore. Too much liability for the Bureau to take on and they had their hands full sorting out the mess Benjamin had made.
“I’m not going, so it doesn’t matter. I’m not leaving you,” Cash said.
Lucia shook her head. “You have to go. Your son needs you.”
“He does. But Helen agreed to bring Adrian here. For a visit, at first. But if it goes well, maybe more.”
“How? What made Helen change her mind?” Lucia asked.
“The unit chief called her and Adrian.” Cash’s eyes misted. “She told my son I was a hero. She told him why I ran a con and that while what I did was wrong, I did it because I love him.”
Lucia took his face in her hands. “I’m so happy for you, Cash.”
“But I could use a favor. I have enough money saved to move to a better place. A place more suitable for my son and Helen. I was thinking you and I could move to a new place together. We could be a family. A strange, patched-together family, but a family. It fits, don’t you think?”
Happiness filled her heart. “Are you asking me to live with you?”
He groaned. “You make it sound so unromantic, but yes, I can’t imagine another night without you sleeping beside me.”
“Is there a reason we can’t live together at my place? Isn’t it big enough?” she asked.
Cash laughed. “Your place is big enough for five families. But I can’t ask you to let us live there. I want to do my part and I can’t afford your place.”
Lucia stroked the side of Cash’s face. “Money isn’t something I’ll allow to come between us. Not having too much of it or not having enough. I grew up in a house with plenty of money and it didn’t mean that anyone was happy because of it. I want you and me and Adrian and Helen to be together where we’re comfortable and happy.”
“I’ll feel like a kept man,” Cash said, his eyes sparkling.
Lucia rolled her eyes. “Then we can move wherever you want. But I’m partial to my view of the sky.”
Cash gathered her close and she felt the heat and excitement of his arousal against her.
“What will your family say about us?” he asked.
“Who cares? It took me meeting you to realize I don’t care about their approval. I know what I want.”
“And what do you want?” Cash asked.
“You. Just you.”
She pressed a kiss to his lips and Cash kissed her back fiercely.
The dozen special agents around them and the unit chief let out catcalls and whoops of delight.
* * *
A man in a cowboy costume was leading a horse across her parents’ lawn.
“Mom, please, you need to tone it down,” Lucia said. “This is not necessary. You promised you would make Adrian feel comfortable.”
Her mother sniffed. “Helen and I agreed this was best. Adrian is my first grandchild and I have already missed too many birthdays. He’s having this birthday party, it will be fabulous and he will know we adore him.”
Adrian already knew that. Her family, even Bradley, had gone out of their way to include and welcome Adrian and Helen. Lucia hugged her mother. “Thank you, Mom.”
“For what?” her mother asked.
She knew what Lucia meant, but Lucia would tell her again. “For accepting Cash, his son and Helen. For accepting me as I am.”
Her mother turned her, arm still around her. “You picked a good man. Look at them.”
Cash, Wyatt, her father and Adrian were running around her parents’ basketball court, playing some variation of the game that made them laugh.
Wyatt had been given community service for the theft of the documents from Holmes and White. Because he had saved an FBI agent’s life by lying to Boots at the abandoned covered bridge, the judge had gone easy on him. He was part of their lives, and with Adrian living in DC and without Anderson blackmailing him, he’d quit his criminal lifestyle.
Leonard Young and a host of other Holmes and White employees had been arrested as part of the embezzlement scandal. Boots and Kinsley Adams joined him in prison for their parts in the scheme.
Anderson was given no leniency. He was serving a triple life sentence in prison.
With the list of accounts that Anderson had given to Cash, ninety percent of the stolen money had been returned to its rightful owners.
Much to Elizabeth Romano’s relief, the original Copley was rehung in the art museum. Audrey was allowed to return to her home with a stern warning to be careful with whom she made associations.
Elizabeth and Lucia returned the fake Copley to Franco, and Franco had immediately asked Elizabeth on a date to discuss art. Lucia had warned Elizabeth about Franco, but she swore her interest in him was purely professional curiosity.
And Cash. Cash had been given a position on another team in the white-collar unit. They wouldn’t be working together day-to-day, but they spent every night together in their home.
When they noticed Lucia watching, Adrian and Cash waved.
Lucia and her mother approached them.
“Don’t let her in here. I don’t want the baby to get hit,” Adrian said.
Lucia touched her stomach. She was only two months pregnant. They had told Adrian and Helen, but not her parents yet.
Her mom’s and dad’s faces had matching looks of joy and surprise.
Cash circled the court enclosure and took Lucia in his arms.
“Guess the secret’s out,” he said.
A smile played on her lips. “We’re not a keeping-secrets kind of family. The truth tends to find its way out.”
Cash laughed. “And I couldn’t be happier to be part of it.”
* * * * *
If you loved this novel,
don’t miss these other sexy,
suspenseful stories from C.J. Miller:
UNDER THE SHEIK’S PROTECTION
TRAITOROUS ATTRACTION
PROTECTING HIS PRINCESS
SHIELDING THE SUSPECT
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SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM
When a masked intruder appears in her son's window, Nicolette Kendall needs help from guarded cowboy Lucas Taylor. But even as his guarded heart begins to crack, they must unravel secrets to save her child...
Read on for a sneak peek of
A REAL COWBOY
, the first book in the
COWBOYS OF HOLIDAY RANCH
series by
New York Times
bestselling author Carla Cassidy, coming March 2015 from Harlequin Romantic Suspense.
H
e stepped outside and looked around. “What are you doing out here all by yourself in the dark?”
“You told my son that cowboys only bathe once a week, and now Sammy won't get into the bathtub.”
By the light of the room spilling out where they stood, she saw his amusement curve his lips upward. “Is that a fact?” he replied. “Sounds like a personal problem to me.”
“It's all your fault,” she said, at the same time trying not to notice the wonder of his broad shoulders, the slim hips that wore his jeans so well.
He raised a dark eyebrow. “The way I see it, you started it.”
This time the heat that filled her cheeks was a new wave of pure embarrassment. “Look, I'm sorry. When I told my son those things, I'd never really met a cowboy before. The only cowboy I've ever even seen in my entire life is the naked singing cowboy in Times Square. I now have a little boy who refuses to take a bath. Can you please come back to the house with me and tell him differently?”
Amusement once again danced in his eyes as he gave her a smile that made her feel just a little bit breathless. “Basically you've come to say you're sorry about your preconceived notions about cowboys, because I think it would be nice if you apologized before asking for my help about anything.”
“You're right. I am sorry,” she replied, wondering if he wanted her to get down on her knees before him and grovel, as well.
“Okay then, let's go.” He pulled the door of his unit closed behind him and fell into step next to her.
“A naked singing cowboyâ¦and you New Yorkers think we're strange.” He laughed, a low, deep rumble that she found far too pleasant.
She realized at that moment that she wasn't afraid of cows or horses, that she wasn't worried about falling into the mud or getting her hands dirty.
The real danger came from the attraction she felt for the man who walked next to her, a man whose laughter warmed her and who smelled like spring wind and leather.
Don't miss
A REAL COWBOY
by Carla Cassidy,
available March 2015 from Harlequin Romantic Suspense.
Copyright © 2015 by Carla Bracale
