“Wait.” She raced to grab his hand and hold him in place. “Don’t leave. I have to get shoes and my purse.”
He looked down at her hand on his. First time she’d initiated contact. But it was more as if she was trying to put a leash on him than make friends.
Did he even want to be her friend? He’d wanted her business and the info she had on Sterling, and he’d wanted to make sure she was safe. But she wouldn’t like what he had planned. Maybe he could create a distraction for her so he could do what he needed to do that morning. They could work together the rest of the day.
“Fine. Grab your purse.”
She took off back to the house. Hopefully quietly. Hopefully not waking Mr. and Mrs. Gedrose.
Alex climbed behind the steering wheel and banged his head on it to keep from obsessing while he waited.
The passenger door opened, and she dropped inside. “Where are we really going?”
“My office.” Eventually.
She studied him as he started the engine and pulled out onto the road that wound around the lake. Such a beautiful setting, with the rising sun shining through tall evergreens and shimmering on the lake. Another luxury his former self had planned to gain through bank robbery, while he could have earned it legitimately working hard the way Laney’s friends had.
Sure, his life wasn’t over. He could still work hard to pursue his dreams, but first he had to prove himself innocent. Prove that he’d never owned a gun or shot at cops. The courts may have not had enough evidence to convict him, but that wasn’t the same as convicting someone else.
Laney snapped her sparkly clutch open. “What’s at your office?” She pulled down the visor to look in its mirror and busied herself with rubbing some kind of wipe across her face. She really did have a fresh look about her, when her skin wasn’t caked in the kind of makeup most women considered fashionable. She finished off with a clear lip gloss before popping a piece of gum in her mouth.
What had she asked him again? Oh yeah. What was at his office? “I just want to do a little computer research on my own. Maybe find out if Sterling has been to any automotive stores lately to purchase antifreeze.”
Laney turned wide eyes his way. “You may know how to track a criminal from your experience as a criminal, but you have to remember that Mitch is going to be good at keeping undetected from his experience as a detective.”
Not the simplest game of cat and mouse he’d ever played. Maybe it was a good thing he had Cat Woman on his side. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted your help on this in the first place.” If only she wasn’t so suspicious of him.
She studied him, or more accurately his profile since he kept his eyes on the road. Hopefully his expression didn’t give him away. He couldn’t let her see him scheming up how to get rid of her even as he talked about what a good team they would make.
Her phone jingled. Whew. Saved by the ring tone.
“It’s Collin.”
Or not.
“What do I tell him?”
He grimaced. Being a good guy that everyone still thought was bad was much harder than being a bad guy everyone thought was good. “Can you wait to talk to him until we have something to report?”
She frowned at the phone. “What if he has something to tell us? What if his friend discovered proof Mitch doesn’t have an inheritance after all?”
That would’ve been incredible. But incredible things didn’t usually happen so easily. “Or what if he’s just going to try to get us to go back to his house, and his friend hasn’t found anything at all, and then the cops come knocking on his door and he gets in trouble for helping us hide out?”
She bit her lip and clicked “end” on her phone.
Alex relaxed deeper into his seat. One problem down, one million more to go. Or that’s how it felt anyway.
Laney shoved her phone back into her clutch but couldn’t get the thing clasped. She wrestled with it as Alex stopped at the light that would lead them onto the freeway.
“I hate this thing,” Laney complained. “I can’t believe I let Gwen talk me into carrying it last night. At least I fit into her flats so I don’t have to run around in heels all day.”
Alex glanced over at her feet. He missed the heels at the same time as being grateful they were gone. Maybe once this thing was all over he’d ask Laney out, but for now he had to keep his head in the game. “We can stop at the mall and get you a new purse on the way to my office.”
She blinked. “I don’t need to buy a new purse. I’ve got plenty at home. Grandma buys a new one for me everywhere she travels.”
Of course she would argue with him, but he couldn’t argue back. He would have to act all nonchalant like he was just trying to help her out. Which he was.
“The mall is on the way, if you change your mind. I don’t want you to lose your phone if we have to jump over any more walls or anything.”
“Oh. F-Y-I, I’m not planning to jump over any more walls.” She took her phone out of the purse and shifted in her seat to try to stuff it in her back pocket. “Maybe I could…” She grunted. “Nope. Gwen wears her jeans tighter than I do.”
Thank you, Gwen.
“I’m crazy to worry about a purse in the middle of all this.”
He wouldn’t mention all the times he’d agreed with such assessments of her sanity.
“But I guess we need to eat, don’t we? Would you mind if I ducked into Macy’s while you get us something to eat?”
Bingo. Alex lifted a shoulder. “That’s fine.”
He pulled into the Spokane Valley Mall and glanced at the clock on the dashboard. He’d have to hurry to meet his contact, but it could still be done.
As soon as Laney was safely in the purse section he took off at a run. Hopefully Shadow wouldn’t get spooked and disappear. He followed his nose to the food court to join the sweetly scented line for cinnamon rolls.
The guy in the gray hoodie in front of him twitched. He surveyed their surroundings to make sure they weren’t being watched.
“Hey, Shadow.”
The man turned sideways but refrained from making eye contact. “Glad to see you got out, Pierce. Are you planning another heist?”
“No.” Maybe next time they met he’d get into the reason he wouldn’t be robbing banks anymore. Share the hope he found with Shadow. But he didn’t want to scare the guy away before he got answers. “I’m trying to find the guy who stole the money I stole from Washington Trust.”
“Yeah?” Shadow chuckled. “I thought the cop who arrested you took off with it. Pretty sly of her, if you ask me.”
The old Alex would have agreed. But that was beside the point. “She was investigated and found not guilty. Who did it, Shadow?”
“How come you think I know?” Shadow turned his back to Alex to order a pastry.
Alex reached in front of him to pay. “It’s on me,” he said. “And I’ll take two more, plus a couple coffees.”
He eyed the informant, making it clear he’d pay much more for the answers he was seeking.
“Hey, thanks,” said Shadow, in mock shock at the free meal.
They stood in silence, Shadow waiting for his breakfast and Alex waiting for the kind of truth that would change his life.
The smell of yeast and sugar announced the arrival of their meal. Alex picked up his bag, wondering if he’d still be leaving empty-handed anyway. He turned to go. Maybe Shadow didn’t know anything after all.
“Hey,” said the other man. “I’ve been wanting one of those new game station thingies. Wanna stop at a video game store with me?”
At last. Alex mentally subtracted another four-hundred from his expense account. This one might be hard to explain on a tax form, but it’d be so worth it. “Sure.”
They walked separately toward the game store. Shadow grabbed a box and set it on the counter while Alex slid his card across to the surprised clerk.
Alex shrugged. “Paying it forward.”
Shadow grabbed his bag and headed
toward the door.
Some of the people Shadow ratted to would take him out if he didn’t make good on a payment for information, but the snitch knew Alex didn’t work that way. He could take advantage of Alex. And it looked like he just had.
Alex stuffed his wallet in his pocket and took off to meet Laney and her new purse at Macy’s. He would have been better off buying her the handbag than trying to bribe a known felon. Served him right for falling back into his old ways to try to figure this out.
“Hey.” Shadow stood in front of the window for the computer store next door.
Alex slowed. “I’m not letting you sucker me again, Shadow. Enjoy your video games.”
“I was just going to tell you what I know, Pierce.”
Alex pretended to admire the display. “I’m listening.”
“Winters isn’t dirty, but her partner was. I paid him off one time when he caught me…uh…borrowing money from an ATM patron.”
Shadow meant robbing a bank customer at gunpoint. Alex really wanted to hear more about Sterling’s part in the crime, but he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to share hope with a criminal. Jonathan hadn’t. “Shadow, did you know there’s somebody who already paid the price for all your sins?”
Shadow chuckled. “I heard you got Jesus, man. And I’m real happy for you. But I’m not interested.”
Alex pressed his lips together. Shadow might have to hit rock bottom before he looked up—the way Alex had.
As for Sterling? The cop had been dirty even before he took the money from Alex’s robbery. If he’d done this with Shadow, he’d surely done it with others. He’d probably been waiting for just the right big score, and Alex had unknowingly supplied it.
He had to get back to Laney to prove what he’d just discovered. Energy pulsed through him with this news, reigniting his cause. “Anything else?”
“Maybe for a laptop.”
“Forget it.”
Alex spun around towards Macy’s to find Laney staring at him, mouth hanging open. Oops. She must have recognized Shadow.
**
Laney turned and ran. If Alex was still associating with criminals, then he couldn’t be on her side. She had to get away, back to Collin. He’d know what to do.
Her heart pounded in her ears. Or was that Alex’s footsteps behind her? She’d have to run faster.
“Laney!”
She threw her empty clutch back at him hoping to trip him up. Where was her Glock when she needed it?
“Wait.”
Warm fingers wrapped around her wrist. Apparently she’d missed him with the purse.
“Let me go. I can’t believe I fell for your charm again.”
He didn’t release his grip. In fact, he spun her around to face him. “Laney—”
She pushed against his chest. “I thought your offer to let me get a new purse was so kind, but you just wanted to consort with your criminal pals.”
“Would you listen?” He gripped her shoulders now. “I was not consorting.”
“I saw you consorting.” She instinctively rammed her knee between his legs.
He buckled, the bag of cinnamon rolls dropping to the ground.
She felt bad. Just for a moment. She shouldn’t feel bad for him though. He’d use it against her. She scampered back the way they’d come so she could retrieve her purse with her phone. Collin would come pick her up.
“Please, Laney,” he looked up at her from his crouched position.
She turned away from his puppy dog eyes. Even just looking at them made her want to believe him. Darn her traitorous heart.
Then she was tackled from behind. Rammed up right against the mall directory displayed in the middle of the walkway. And yet there was a gentleness about it, even as he crowded her against the structure.
“Get off me, or I’ll call—”
“Shh,” he hissed in her ear. Not a controlling hiss, but a desperate one.
Maybe the police were already there on the other side of the directory. “What?”
He pulled away and motioned for her to peek around the directory, but kept a hand pressed to the display on either side of her to keep her tethered in.
If she was truly afraid of him, she would have screamed and yanked her knee up again. But it wasn’t fear she felt. More like curiosity. What could make an ex-con cower the way he was?
She narrowed her eyes before shifting her weight to look beyond the directory. She could always scream and knee him after she saw what he was hiding from.
A teenager with too many piercings? An elderly couple holding hands? A mom and dad with a little girl drinking out of a paper cup about the size of her head?
Those weren’t things to be scared of. Wait. Her gaze zeroed back in on the family. The woman looked familiar. With her blonde bob and the mole above her lip. It couldn’t be.
“It’s Elise.” Alex gave a resigned sigh.
Okay. So why was he hiding from her? Could it be because… “She’s remarried?”
“Yes.”
Oh man. Talk about a heartbreak. Laney had been through a bad breakup herself, but not a divorce. “And they have a daughter?”
“She has a daughter.”
Isn’t that what Laney had asked? She frowned and peeked back around the directory. The little girl with the smoothie looked to be about preschool age, which meant Elise would have given birth not long after Alex went to prison. So if Elise’s husband wasn’t the little girl’s father, then who was?
Her hand flew to her mouth. She jerked back around to stare at Alex, her heart in her throat. “Oh my stars. You have a daughter?”
His solemn eyes met hers. “Yes.”
Why was he hiding from his own daughter? Surely Elise would have taken the child to visit him in prison. If not, the only other conclusion was almost too much to voice. She whispered, “You’ve never met her?”
Alex didn’t answer right away. Maybe he couldn’t. Maybe it was too much for him to voice as well. Finally he said, “I’ve never met her. I’m not allowed to.”
Laney’s hand dropped from her mouth to his shoulder. She knew how he felt. Or more honestly, she knew how the little girl felt, growing up without knowing her real father.
“Because you were in jail?” she asked, though that really didn’t make sense. Kids could still visit parents in prison.
He looked away, perhaps back in time. “Yes. Elise didn’t know I was a thief. But even worse, she didn’t believe me when I told her I didn’t steal the money from your car or that I didn’t shoot Sterling. She went to court and had a restraining order put on me. I can’t be within a hundred feet of Daisy until she’s 18.”
So that’s what Alex was really fighting for, his daughter? “Why didn’t you tell me?”
His eyes lifted back to meet hers. No more charm. No more show. Just the windows to his brokenness. “I didn’t think you would believe me. And I didn’t think you would care.”
He might have been right. She still had trouble trusting him. Maybe she could ask him a few more questions while he was telling the truth, “I want to believe you, Alex. But you lied to me about coming to the mall. You planned to meet Shadow, didn’t you?”
Alex looked past her. He pulled away from the blockade he’d made with his arms and led her back behind another part of the triangular directory as his ex-wife and child headed the opposite direction. “I wanted to find out what he knew about the theft from your vehicle. But I didn’t think you would be okay with getting information from a criminal.”
Laney pursed her lips together. He was right on that matter. Could she trust him now, just because he was a father? He did have a legitimate reason for consorting with his past. Well, not necessarily “consorting.”
He sighed. “Laney, I get it if you don’t believe me. But I want you to know that if I was still lawless, I wouldn’t be here with you right now. I would be planning my next bank heist to fund a court custody battle. And I’d win.”
She chewed her lower lip. She could still c
all Collin. He’d be there for her like he always was. Or she could keep working with Alex. Keep trying to find the truth on their own. But where would they go next? “Did you learn anything from Shadow?”
Alex blinked and lifted his eyebrows at the change of subject. “I did actually. Your old partner apparently has a history of being a dirty cop. Shadow even paid him off once.”
Laney’s head dropped back against the directory. She stared at the skylights overhead. “It just gets worse and worse.”
“Uh, actually, Laney.” Alex rubbed the stubble on his chin, drawing her attention back down. “This is good to know. If he’s been dirty before setting you up, then there’s going to be more evidence. We just have to start looking for it.”
Laney studied the man before her. The man she’d hated for so long. The man she’d blamed for getting her kicked off the police force. When really they’d both been victims of the same dirty cop. And she had a thing against dirty cops.
“Where do we start?”
Chapter Six
Laney shifted in her desk chair in Alex’s front office and took a short break to stare out the window over the river. Tracking down criminals and getting them to admit to paying off a cop was just as hard as it sounded. Though she could sure get used to working in such surroundings. Maybe she would sell All Seasons Security to Alex and work for him after all. He seemed to have a good thing going, with as much as his investor seemed to believe in him.
“Any luck?” she called back to his office.
“I don’t know if you would call it luck,” he yelled back. “But it looks as if there’s some former cop still getting payoffs from the Eighteenth Street Gang. Not sure I want to visit them to ask questions in person, though.”
Eighteenth Street was national, not just a local gang. She’d dealt with them in a couple robberies that had never gone to trial. Had they paid her partner off? No wonder she’d looked so suspicious when the money went missing. Mitch had probably been feeding investigators a bunch of lies about her from his hospital bed while he played the injured cop.
“Ugh.” She stood up and looked around for something she could punch.
Alex peeked out at her through his office window. “What?”
Team Love on the Run Box-Set #1 Page 5