Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 58108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 291(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 291(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
“You have an interest in all things Viking?” I asked.
My father closed the lid on the briefcase and took it. Burns handed over the dagger, and the buyer held it and studied it as if it were a precious infant, not hundreds of years old.
“It is the central piece to my collection. I missed the auction for it, and Lucas Straight refused to sell. My ancestors were Viking, and I wish to believe this belonged to one of them.”
“Well, that doesn’t mean it belongs to you,” I said full of snark.
With that, all hell broke loose.
The door was kicked in.
“FBI! Hands up!”
A swarm of people with FBI emblazoned on their shirts or jackets stormed the suite.
The buyer’s men reached for weapons beneath their jackets and were immediately subdued.
I raised my hands over my head as I stepped back and watched it all unfold. No one touched me.
Burns was patted down and handcuffed. My dad, the same. It took less than thirty seconds, and it was over.
“What about her?” Burns shouted, wiggling like a snagged fish in an agent’s hold when he noticed I wasn’t being cuffed.
“I’m with them,” I said.
“What the fuck, Meg?” my father asked.
“She stole the dagger,” Burns said, pushing the blame to me.
“I’ll make a deal. Her for information,” my father offered, desperately looking to the agent beside him.
Unbelievable. I dropped my hands and stared at him. Any bit of feeling I had for the man was gone. Crushed beneath his cruel words. He was going to give me up for his freedom. Just like he had on the job when I was seventeen.
“That your daughter?” the agent asked him.
“We worked together. She was caught with the Empress ring, but I know other jobs she did. Unsolved crimes.”
The agent shook his head. “You’d throw your own daughter under the bus? What an asshole.”
“In my phone,” Burns said. “The proof she stole the dagger. Arrest me for fencing stolen goods, but that’s all that’s happening here.” Technically, what Burns said was true, and that meant he’d do less time, if any, if he had a good lawyer.
“What proof?” Hayes came in the room. Kennedy was right behind him.
God, he looked so good. Larger than life. And all mine. Feel-good endorphins flooded my system just at the sight of him. It was almost like a post-orgasmic high.
“I didn’t find any proof on your phone, Burns,” Kennedy told him.
“Who the fuck are you?” he snapped.
“He’s irrelevant.” Hayes glared at Burns. “I’m the one you should remember because you fucked with the wrong woman. My woman.” He looked to me. “You okay, baby doll?”
I nodded. I wasn’t in the clear yet. I wouldn’t do any time because I helped bring Burns and the buyer to justice. My dad was small time, but he’d go down, too, which was fine with me. Still, I’d be known as a criminal. I’d have no job. My career was over.
“Ms. Hager. I wanted to introduce myself.” In strode Lucas Straight and Ford.
I blinked. So did Burns and my father.
“Lucas Straight.” The actor offered his hand to me to shake. “I want to thank you for your effort in testing my security.”
I blinked again while he turned to one of the FBI men. Hayes hadn’t told me any of this. “Alpha Mountain Security did a great job with my vacation home. I am humbled and shamefaced to admit that what I thought was a good alarm system was a total failure. That’s not speaking poorly of Ms. Hager. In fact, it was top of the line, and she got past it.”
“What the fuck?” Burns said.
Ford set his hand on Lucas Straight’s shoulder. “That’s why you pay us the big bucks. We only hire the best consultants. With a background like Megan’s, she’s the only one for the job. When I heard she’d learned from the best–isn’t that what you said, Hager?” He glanced at my father, but only briefly, as if he wasn’t worth his energy. “Nabbing the Empress ring at seventeen. Such talent. Since she did the crime for her involvement, she did her time. Years in law enforcement show her true colors. Her honor.”
“What better person to test my system than a thief?” Lucas Straight looked pleased. He was an even better actor than I knew. “And to know I helped in bringing down some bad guys. It’s like out of a movie…” He winked at me as he shook Ford’s hand again and left the suite.
Holy shit. Straight saved me in the best and most obvious way possible. He made me out to be a thief, just as I had been. But one with a purpose. For good. And while they might discover I’d done the Empress job, I’d completed my sentence. That job held no sway any longer.
I looked to Hayes, who curled a finger, beckoning me over.