Wicked Deception (The Rockford Security Series Book 5)

by Lee Anne Jones

  “Sounds great.”

  Shelby left, and Liv got Angela a pair of gloves and a bucket of her own then got her started on the cage beside the one she’d been working on. “So, what made you decide to volunteer?”

  “Well.” Angela ducked inside the large enclosure then reached out for her bucket. She was short, and her dark Mediterranean beauty reminded Liv of a young Raquel Welch. “Milo wants a pet, and I told him that before we commit, he needs to learn responsibility and how to care for an animal. I thought this would be the best place for him to do that.”

  “Great choice.” Liv climbed back into her own cage and started scrubbing again. “Even if the boss is a bit nosy.”

  Angela chuckled. “Believe me, I know all about nosy.”

  “Yeah. Personal experience?”

  “Yeah. An older brother who makes the Gestapo look like pansies.”

  “You too? Glad to know I’m not the only one.” Liv rubbed her nose. “Try having an ex-cop for a brother.”

  “Oh, yeah, that’s a tough one.” Angela winced. “At least he’s probably around a lot, though, right?”

  “Too much.”

  They exchanged a look and burst into laughter. “Blake’s not that bad, I suppose. And he does have his moments.”

  “My Dom’s a great guy too. Just gone a lot.” She glanced sideways at Liv and smiled. “Too bad he’s out of town now, because you’d be perfect for him.”

  “Really?” Liv tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. Her love life was enough of a disaster. She sure as hell didn’t need a blind date to add to the mix. “That’s sweet of you to say, but I’m not really looking for a relationship.”

  “That’s because she’s already taken,” Shelby supplied helpfully from across the space.

  “I am not taken.” Liv gave Shelby a death stare then turned back to Angela with a polite smile. “There was a misunderstanding earlier today and—”

  “A misunderstanding, huh? Is that what they’re calling it these days?” Shelby wandered over and leaned against a nearby cage, her blue gaze narrowed. “Apparently that misunderstanding involved getting naked too, huh?”

  “Shut up!” Liv tossed the soggy sponge at her, but it fell short of its target, falling to the ground in a wet splat. Heat prickled her cheeks, and she stared at the toes of her sneakers, too embarrassed now to look their newest volunteer in the eye. “It wasn’t like that. Really. Tom’s my employee.”

  “Well, if you make all your employees strip in your office, maybe I should get a job there just to check out the eye candy.” Shelby grinned, undeterred.

  “I’m telling Chase you said that.”

  “Go ahead.” Shelby straightened and bent closer to Liv. “Lighten up. I think it’s great you finally have someone in your life. You deserve it.”

  Well, damn.

  She didn’t respond, just watched as Shelby walked away.

  “Mommy? Can we take one of the dogs home tonight?” Milo returned, the words rushing out in an excited tumble. “I met them all and I really like them all and I think that we should take all of them home to live with us now.”

  “We can’t take them all, silly. Just one. Maybe. We’ll see.” Angela smiled at her son, the deep, obvious love between them making Liv’s heart ache. She wanted kids of her own someday, a family, a home. An image of Tom at her brother’s house, interacting with her siblings, playing with her nieces and nephews, flashed through her mind. He seemed strong and secure and loyal. He’d be a great dad someday. Too bad she’d never find out.

  She coughed to clear some of the sudden constriction from her throat. “Shelby lets the volunteers foster animals to see if they’d be a good fit. Maybe you can check that out, Angela.”

  “Can we, Mommy? Please?”

  “We’ll see.” Angela pulled her son inside the cage with her amid a chorus of delighted giggles. “First though, you need to help me clean this kennel. Taking care of a pet isn’t just fun and games. There’s work involved too.”

  Liv finished scrubbing the cage she was working on then moved to another, half listening to the lecture Angela gave Milo. She seemed like an excellent mother—patient, kind, nurturing. Liv wanted to be all those things too. Someday when her career didn’t take a front seat to everything else in her life.

  An hour later, Liv headed back out to the lobby, where Angela, Milo, and Shelby were already waiting. A black and white puppy, maybe a Boxer–Labrador mix, panted excitedly at Milo’s feet.

  “Just sign here, and he’s yours for the night.” Shelby handed Angela a clipboard.

  After signing off where required, Angela took her son’s hand. “Make sure you hold on to his leash tight until we get him to the car.”

  “I got it, Mom.” Milo scratched the puppy behind the ears, and the dog looked up at him with goofy doggy devotion. Love at first sight, Liv suspected.

  “Well, thanks for all your hard work, ladies.” Shelby stepped behind the counter and shut off the lights. “Be careful heading home.”

  Liv held the front door for Angela and Milo and the puppy and was almost out of the place herself when Shelby called from behind her.

  “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  “I won’t.” She made a face at her friend then walked across the well-lit parking lot to her SUV. Angela was parked beside her.

  “It was nice meeting you,” Angela said after getting her son and the dog secured in the backseat. “I hope we see each other again.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  Angela seemed nice, and Milo was such an adorable kid. Who knew, maybe she’d take her up on her offer to meet her brother too sometime. If the guy looked anything like Angela, then he was probably handsome as hell.

  Liv climbed into her vehicle and sighed. This thing with Tom wouldn’t last. Couldn’t last. She couldn’t keep seeing him. Especially after what had happened today. She’d worked too long and too hard to blow her professional reputation by screwing one of her own. And so what if the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled warmed her insides and the touch of his hand on her back made her feel safe and sexy.

  No.

  From this moment forward, she and Tom Bates were officially done.

  14

  Tom walked into the coffee shop that Thursday afternoon, his gut knotted. For some weird reason, a gray cloud of foreboding had seemed to loom over him all day. Nothing in particular had happened to make him feel that way. It was more of just a sick niggle of dread, like the odd seasick sway of a boat right before it capsized.

  “Next!” the barista behind the counter yelled.

  He stepped up and ordered his usual. Double espresso, straight. No sugar or milk. Too much Italian brewing in his veins for that sissy stuff. After he paid, he sidled right to let the next person in line move ahead and accidentally bumped shoulders with the person he’d come here to meet.

  “What’s happening?” the guy asked, his voice low and his gaze locked straight ahead. For all the world it looked like the two men weren’t communicating at all, which was exactly how they wanted it to look.

  “Still only got the two names,” Tom said. “Cody Brooks has disappeared, and Jessica Matheson refuses to disclose his whereabouts.” He pretended to scroll through the emails on his phone while he waited. “Brandon’s still digging. No fed resources, or so he says anyway. You find anything on that footage from last week?”

  “No.” Another barista slid a cup across the counter, and the guy stepped forward to grab it before it slid off onto the floor. He popped the lid, took a drink, then faced Tom and abruptly dumped half the cup’s contents down the front of Tom’s white button-down shirt. “Shit. I’m sorry, man.”

  Tom scowled and held his sopping clothes away from his chest. “What the hell?”

  The guy grabbed a wad of napkins and pressed them into the front of Tom’s shirt, stepping closer and dropping his voice to a whisper. “There’s something else.”

  “What?” Tom wiped at the mess down his front. “That you
’re a clumsy ass? Or is this payback for the other day?”

  “No.” He grabbed Tom’s arm and pulled him aside. “It’s your family.” Tom jerked to attention, and the guy gave him a warning glare. “Don’t get alarmed, but I thought you should know. It’s your nephew. Your sister just took him to the ER.”

  “Fuck.” Tom pulled free and headed for the door. “I need to go.”

  “Wait a minute!” The guy caught up with him near the exit. “He’s fine. It’s minor. Think about what you’re doing. You could ruin everything.”

  “Order for Tom!” someone called from the counter.

  Fuck his coffee. Fuck his job. Fuck everything except getting to the hospital and seeing his family again. They needed him, and that’s all he needed to know. “I don’t care. If Angela’s got Milo at the hospital, it’s not minor. I need to see them.”

  The guy raked a hand through his thick black hair and exhaled loudly. “Fine. I’ll do what I can to cover for you. But if the Rockfords find out you’re an undercover fed, I won’t be able to help.”

  Tom pushed out into the bright midafternoon sun and glanced back at the guy over his shoulder. “That’s a chance I’ll have to take, Felix.”

  Thirty minutes later, Tom burst through the doors at Las Vegas General Hospital and followed the bright red signs to the emergency department.

  “Where is Milo Ranucci?” He did his best to keep his tone calm even as he demanded information from the nurse behind the desk.

  “Are you a family member, sir?” The woman looked at him over the rims of her glasses like a prudish schoolmarm.

  “Yes.”

  “Name, please?”

  “Dominic Ranucci.”

  The nurse tapped a few keys on the computer keyboard and squinted at the screen. “Ah, yes. Mr. Ranucci. I see you listed as an emergency contact. Your sister and her son are through those doors and down the hall. Trauma bay number two.”

  Trauma bay? His pulse thudded loudly in his ears as he mumbled his thanks to the nurse then headed through the automatic double-doors and down the wide white hall.

  Milo was just a kid. A small, scrawny kid. If anything happened to him, Dom didn’t know what he’d do. At the end of the hall sat another desk with another stern-looking nurse behind it, this time male.

  “Can I help you, sir?”

  “I’m looking for Trauma bay two, please.”

  The guy pointed to the left and Dom raced down the corridor and shoved the curtain aside to find Angela sitting in a chair, thumbing through a magazine, while Milo played with his pocket-sized video game. Okay, so maybe Felix had been right, but dammit, he needed to see for himself.

  Dom raked a hand through his hair and forced a smile. “Uh, hi.”

  “Hey.” Angela looked up and grinned, then did a slow assessment of his front. “What the hell happened to you? And what are you doing here?”

  “I heard something happened to Milo. I wanted to make sure he was okay.” He moved in beside his nephew’s bed and gave him a hug. “You all right, buddy?”

  “Yeah, Uncle Dom.” The kid held up his left arm, now covered in a white cast. “Look what I got!”

  “Cool.” Dom glanced at Angela, who tossed her magazine aside and moved in beside him. “What happened?”

  “Broken arm. Tripped over our foster puppy in the backyard and landed wrong.”

  “Foster puppy?”

  “Yeah. We needed some company in the house, since you’re not around.”

  Guilt and loneliness gurgled in his chest. He put an arm around his sister’s shoulders and pulled her closer to his side, kissing the top of her head. “Sorry. This job is taking longer than I expected.”

  “No biggie.” Angela slipped her arm around his waist. “It’s great to see you. Kind of unexpected though. I figured you were working out of town.”

  Dom looked away. For once, he wished he could tell her the truth, let her into his lonely world of secrets and lies and espionage. But he’d known the stakes when he’d joined the FBI and taken his oath. Fidelity. Bravery. Integrity. He’d never questioned his career path, not once.

  Until now…

  Angela took a seat beside Milo on his bed, cuddling with him and pointing out things on his video game, and the picture sliced Dom’s heart open like a razor. Would his life be like that if he had a normal job, a normal home, a family of his own to love and honor and cherish?

  “Hey, Uncle Dom. Can you come home with us today?”

  His sister gave him a quick look before lowering her gaze once more.

  “Sorry, bud, I can’t. Only came by now to make sure you were okay.”

  “How did you find out?” Angela pushed off her son’s bed.

  “A friend.”

  In all honesty, his handler Felix was the closest thing he had to a friend these days. He pulled his sister into his side again, craving some family bonding time. “I promise I’ll be back home as soon as I can. I just have to finish this job.”

  “When will that be exactly?” She looked up at him, one dark brow raised. “It’s not like this is the first time I’ve heard that from you.”

  “I know.” He stared at the sparkling floor and frowned. He wanted to say that it wouldn’t be long but didn’t want to lie. God only knew when the case might break. Still, it was his duty to stay until he found decisive proof one way or another about Rockford Security’s alleged illegal activities. Then there was Liv. His heart squeezed. Maybe if he helped her discover the real leak, he could finish his case and they could start over again, fresh. But would she even want to? He’d been lying to her all this time—even about his name—and Liv didn’t seem like the type of woman that took lying lightly.

  He kissed Angela once more then hugged Milo before heading out. “No tight completion date yet, sis, but as soon as I know, you’ll know.”

  “Yeah, yeah. See you around, brother.”

  “See you. Bye, buddy. You be good for your mom, okay?”

  Milo nodded and Angela blew him a kiss, and he walked out of the area feeling like Atlas carrying the weight of the world. At thirty-three, maybe he was getting too old for all this cloak-and-dagger shit. Maybe after this case was done, he should consider asking for reassignment. As he walked out of the stuffy confines of the hospital and back into the crisp Vegas air, Dom shook his head.

  Yeah. And maybe the only person he was lying to here was himself.

  15

  “I still don’t see why this is necessary. We should report this guy’s whereabouts to the police and let them handle it.”

  Liv glanced at Tom in the rearview mirror, one eyebrow raised. They’d been over this mission at least twenty times already. If there was another, better way to trap Bill Remington, she would’ve been the first one to champion it. Unfortunately, there wasn’t. So here they sat, five Rockford employees squished into one company SUV, parked in front of some greasy diner on an early Friday evening.

  Fun times.

  Not.

  “Handle what exactly, Tom?” This from Blake, his tone annoyed and his famous glare—the Hurt—in full force. “We have zero actual proof Remington is one of the masterminds behind the necklace theft. All we have is his connection to Cody Brooks, or whatever the hell that guy’s name is.”

  Brandon chimed in next. “I’m not even sure Remington has the capacity to hack our servers and find the route. The person who did do it got in and out with no trace whatsoever, which is pretty close to impossible. They’d need state-of-the-art equipment.” He leaned forward to peer past Blake and over to Tom, who sat on the opposite end of the vehicle’s rear bench seat. “That’s why we need Liv to find that out.”

  Tom still looked unconvinced, arms crossed and expression skeptical. “How, huh? How the hell is she supposed to find that out? Even if this guy has the equipment, if he’s got any brains at all, he’ll hide it.”

  Liv bristled under the lack of confidence in his tone but kept quiet. She needed to focus on her mission, not a bunch of bickering me
n in the backseat.

  “Not necessarily.” Brandon shrugged, seemingly unfazed by all the tension in the air. “You’d be surprised how small and portable things are these days.”

  “But—” Tom started in again, but Liv had reached her BS threshold.

  “Listen, guys. I can take care of myself, okay?” She shifted in the front passenger seat to face the men in back. “In case you all forgot.”

  “I didn’t forget.” Tom gave her a disgruntled look. “But this isn’t some match in the gym. What if he’s armed, eh? In the case of gun versus fist, gun wins. Every. Time.”

  “Really?” She gave him her best mock horror look. “I’m so glad I have you here to tell me these things. How did I ever survive before you came to work for the company, Tom?”

  Brandon snorted, Blake shook his head, and Tom clenched his jaw so tight a small muscle ticked in his cheek.

  On a roll now, she continued. “If you don’t like it, then maybe you should go in.” She glanced down at herself then back up, cupping her breasts for emphasis. “Oh wait. I forgot. You don’t have a set of these.”

  Cursing, Tom opened the door and got out, stalking across the parking lot.

  She unbuckled her seat belt and exited too. She stalked over to a small landscaped area and leaned against the trunk of the tree, grateful for the cool night breeze on her heated cheeks.

  The sound of footsteps behind her and Liv prepared herself for another confrontation. This was why they should never have slept together. She’d grown up with brothers and was more than adept at proving her mettle, but something about Tom made her yearn for his approval. She wanted him to like her, to be proud of her, to see that spark of heat and admiration in his eyes.

  “Um, hey,” Tom said from behind her.

  She didn’t respond.

  “Look, I’m sorry about what happened in the car. Maybe I’m jealous you get to have all the fun while I’m stuck in the SUV.”

  “You’re not jealous.” She kicked a pebble with the toe of her shoe. “What are you doing over here anyway? Shouldn’t you get back to the goon squad over there?”