The Embattled Road (Lost and Found Series) (8 page)

“So are we going to check this place out, or what? I need to start looking for a place to live.”

Duncan held the door for him to enter the lobby. He waved at the security guard as they walked to the elevator. “Twenty-four hour monitoring. There’s a physical guard on duty at all times. The top two floors have some kind of medical research firm.”

They stepped inside and he pressed the button for four.

“So, you said you had jobs lined up for us?” Chad asked, leaning back against the wall and folding his arms.

“I do,” he said. “I have a contact in the Worker’s Comp Bureau that needs a couple of cases investigated and another contact that needs records searched at the courthouse.”

Chad grimaced. “Record searches? Really?”

Duncan grinned. “Yep. Hey, we’re just starting out. In two days I have a lady coming in to talk about finding a son she gave away for adoption twenty-three years ago. We’ll get meatier contracts eventually, but we have to start with small stuff first.”

The doors dinged and they exited the elevator to stand in an empty reception area. A broad door was open to the right of reception. They walked through into an expansive office with a small kitchenette in one corner. “This will be my office.”

“So, where’s the furniture?” John asked.

Duncan grinned at him. “Well, we have to go get it. Probably tonight and tomorrow.”

“We’ve got customers coming in two days and the furniture hasn’t been delivered yet?” John rolled out to reception and down the hallway where the other offices were located, sticking his head in each one. Chad and Duncan followed along. “Is there any equipment at all?”

“Well,” Duncan admitted, “I haven’t actually bought any furniture yet. Or equipment.”

Chad’s dark brows shot to his hairline and his jaw fell open. John, on the other hand, looked furious. “You haven’t bought a god damn piece of anything yet? What the hell have you been doing out here?”

Duncan smiled at him, not disturbed by his anger at all. “Well, I’ve been closing escrow on the building, filing the proper business paperwork for the state of Colorado, getting your forms to be certified as investigators by the state, opening a bank account, making contacts and placing ads. Oh.” He reached into his breast pocket for a slip of paper, handing it to John. “And looking for handicapped accessible apartments.”

The heavy frown slipped away from John’s face. “Fuck handicapped.”

Chad laughed out loud and slapped him on the back. “Oh, Gunny. You’ve never served under First Sergeant Wilde, so you have no idea what you’re in for.”

Duncan pointed at a box against the hallway wall. “I did have some letterhead printed up.”

Chad crossed to it and flipped up the lid. He pulled out an invoice. “LNF? What does that stand for?”

“Lost and Found Investigative Services.”

They all shared a long look. They didn’t need an explanation on the title. They’d all
been
lost and found. With each other.

“Sounds good to me,” Chad said.

“Yeah, I guess it’s all right.”

But the look on John’s face said otherwise.

“What, John?”

The other man shrugged. “It’s just cheesy. I mean, LNF, really? You name anything else around here, Duncan, as your partner, I want a damn say…”

Duncan held up a hand to interrupt him. “We’re working with the public, John. We can’t use the word ‘fuck’ in anything. Why the hell do you think I kept controlling interest?” He grinned at the two laughing men, genuinely excited at the prospects before them.

It wouldn’t be easy building a business with men like them, but he couldn’t imagine tackling it with anybody else. The way he saw it, fate had thrown the three of them together for a reason. It would just take time, a willingness to learn and dogged Marine determination.

Many would say that success would be next to impossible, but then they’d already returned from impossible. “Let’s go shopping boys. We’ve got a lot to do.”

*****

Note from the Author~

I sincerely hope you enjoyed the beginning of Duncan, John and Chad’s stories. I would appreciate it if you would:

LEND IT- to friends and family. It is lending enabled.

REVIEW IT- at the site you purchased it from. Positive reader reviews have a huge impact on the success of a book.

RECOMMEND IT- to anybody you think would enjoy it.

A portion of the proceeds of this book will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project. If you would like to make a personal donation, you can find information at http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

Thank you so much for reading.

And finally, a sneak peek at

Embattled Hearts,

John’s story. Enjoy!

Chapter One

Shannon looked down at her rear tire incredulously. “Are you serious? Why today, damn it?”

Snow flurried around her as she stood there, hands on hips, and tried to decide what to do. She’d have to change it, of course. And call Duncan to let him know she’d be late. Grumbling, she stomped up the walk and into the house to change her clothes.

Twenty minutes later, she was positively livid. Not only was the brand new snow tire flat for no apparent reason, but so was the freaking spare. How the hell did that happen? She could hear her father’s amused voice in her mind now, as he whispered ‘
oh, calamity Grace’
. Little black rain clouds followed her sometimes and no matter how many pairs of boots she wore or umbrellas she carried, she always managed to get drenched.

Lisa pulled into her driveway two houses down just then and waved. Shannon heaved a relieved sigh and crossed the snowy ground to her. “Hey, neighbor.”

The pretty strawberry-blond flashed a tired smile. “Hey, yourself. Something wrong? You’re usually gone by now.”

Shannon waved a hand at the lopsided Explorer. “Somehow, I managed to get not one, but two flat tires sitting in my driveway.”

Lisa scrunched up her face and laughed. “Really? Oh, Shannon, even for you that’s impressive.” She looked down at her blue scrubs. “Give me a minute to change and I’ll drive you to the garage. Come on in.”

Shannon followed Lisa up the walk and waited on her entry rug while she changed. “Wow, nice TV,” she called. The flat screen took up a huge expanse of wall-space. Looking around, she could see evidence that a man might be staying with her neighbor.

Lisa peeked her face around the corner, grinning.

“You like that? Boyfriend’s last apology for being a schmutz.”

Shannon laughed and shook her head. Lisa’s up and down relationship with her boyfriend was more tumultuous than a Colorado snow storm. “So why do you stay with him?”

Her friend’s face closed down. “There are some things you can’t change in life; who you’re related to, taxes, the nasty boss you’d like to shove off a roof. And you can’t choose who you’re attracted to.”

Oh, boy. Didn’t she know it?

Lisa drove her to the garage, then back home and hour later. Shannon couldn’t quit wondering aloud about the tire. “If nothing was in it, how did it get flat then?”

Lisa glanced at her and shrugged, but Shannon could tell her patience had worn thin.

“Sorry. I know I keep harping on this, but it’s driving me nuts.”

“Well, do what the mechanic said and drive the truck in and he’ll check the other tire too.”

Shannon nodded and looked out the window. She needed to think about something else.

“I’m sorry I’ve dragged you away from your sleep. Did you have a bad shift at the hospital?”

Lisa grimaced as she turned into their subdivision. “Bad enough,” she admitted. “A three year old swallowed two quarters and a nickel, an old guy came in with chest pain, and there was a car crash out east that was flown in. Not pretty. They all managed to survive though.”

“I don’t know how you do it, Lisa.”

The other woman shrugged. “You get used to it.” She grinned. “I don’t know how you sit at a computer all day.”

“You get used to it,” she retorted, laughing.

Lisa stayed with her long enough for Shannon to change the tire, then headed home. Shannon changed her clothes, again, and drove to the garage. The nice little mechanic had the truck ready to go in minutes.

“Nothing in that tire either, ma’am.”

Shannon stared at him for several long seconds, and asked him to repeat that. He did, but it didn’t make any more sense the second time. She paid the man and walked out to her truck in a daze. What would cause both tires to go flat that way?

Or who?

Unease tightened her scalp, and she glanced up and down the busy street. Then she shook her head at her craziness. It was a fluke. Had to be.

John Palmer gritted his teeth and clenched the wheels of his chair in his fists as he listened for Shannon in the outer office. She’d come in beautiful but frazzled two hours late and said her tires had been flat. That actually hadn’t worried him as much as the unease he had seen in her eyes. She’d tried to laugh the incident off, but he’d been watching her for a long time. Everybody else accepted her explanation, but in his gut he knew something didn’t ring true.

Something one of the men said snagged his attention and he tried to pay attention. He was supposed to be taking part in the meeting, but the proposal was so ridiculous he’d zoned out, straining to hear Shannon.

With effort, he focused on the two men seated beside him. Were they for real? Yes, they were competent, knew the security business and had plenty of money to throw around, but at the bottom line they wanted the publicity of financing an all-veteran detective agency. His eyes flashed to Duncan’s across the desk. He seemed just as unenthused.

Why were they wasting their time?

“Are you fucking serious?” he snarled.

The men looked uncomfortable for all of two seconds before they plowed on with their spiel.

As if it wasn’t bad enough they were disabled, now these yahoos wanted to make money off them?
No fucking way
. Even Chad seemed turned off. Texas was his home state. He’d pushed for this meeting to talk about a possible expansion to Dallas. John personally thought that the Denver office was enough for now. They were busy, but not so busy that things slipped through the cracks.

The meeting finally began to pull to a close. The automatic cringe on Duncan’s face when he heard the proposal had said it all. How were they supposed to be effective investigators if their faces were plastered everywhere, as well as their disabilities? That was the part that turned his stomach. Why on earth would he want
more
people to know he was damaged? He could hardly stand the stares now. He had taken the on-line crimes section and the technology side, the bugs and wires the guys used every day, deliberately so he wouldn’t have to deal with the public.

To offer them money for doing the shit jobs nobody wanted was just crass.

Chad, ever the happy-go-lucky Texan, deflected the conversation to a favorite sports team and Duncan told the men they would consider their proposal. John knew by the sound of his voice, though, that they would do no such thing.

The business had flourished as soon as it started. There was a period of adjustment he’d had to go through when they first opened. He couldn’t be part of the detectives out on the street. Chad had been responsible for a lot of the running in the beginning. Looking down at his worthless legs, he was once again swamped with anger. As a Marine, it had been standard practice to run for five or ten miles a day. Now he was lucky if he could get his thigh to twitch on command. It was historic if he could even get a hard-on.

Although, he thought with a slight smile, it happened more and more often when Shannon was in the room. The first time he’d seen her, more than six months ago now, she and Mrs. Harrison had been kneeling on the floor going through files. Mrs. Harrison planned to retire and Shannon had been brought in to replace her. She’d straightened and arched her back to work out the kinks. She’d been wearing a cute little pink outfit thing that clung to her lush curves. The lust that had fired through his veins caught him totally unaware.

For the first time in five years, he’d gotten excited looking at a woman’s ass. He had sat silently in his chair and soaked up her subtle beauty and the exhilaration of being turned on. The women hadn’t seen him, so he’d used their distraction to his advantage and cataloged everything he could about Shannon Murphy. Mrs. Harrison had told them she was extremely intelligent and competent at her job, but she hadn’t told them how exceedingly beautiful she was, with her trim form and curly brown hair laying gently on her shoulders. She was a good bit smaller than the older woman beside her and had a laugh that gave him chills. His own lips curled up in shared humor, even though he had no idea what she laughed about. Without conscious thought, he had pushed his chair forward to get their attention.

Mrs. Harrison saw him first and pushed herself to her feet. She urged the young woman up beside her. John barely heard the introduction as his eyes hungrily took in the details of her face. In honest fact, she was not classically beautiful. Actually, cute would more likely be applied to her mobile features and dancing hazel eyes. Her broad smile started with up-tilted lips on one side, then spread to encompass her whole mouth. He held out his hand automatically and was entranced as she pumped energetically. Without blinking, he watched for any hint that the chair or his disability bothered her, but she seemed almost oblivious to the fact that he could not stand up to shake her hand. For the first time in longer than he could remember, he had met a person that not by word or deed made him feel like less than a man.

Even her height made him feel manlier. In her bare feet, she was
maybe
an inch over five feet tall. With heels on at work, she stood about five four. Before the accident, he had stood six three in his stocking feet. So sitting in his modified racing chair, he was only a bit shorter than her. And no shorter when she sat in her own office chair, which she did a lot when he entered the office. She seemed to sense that it put him more at ease, to be on an equal level. John appreciated that more than she knew. It infuriated him and frustrated him beyond belief to be stuck in this chair, especially when he had to look up at men he could not tolerate.