Read Online Seduced by the Enemy (Blaze, 41) by Jamie Denton - Free Book Online Page A

it’s close,” she finally said. “Very close.”
    He crouched beside her and pulled another document from the stack in her hands. “This isn’t a coincidence, Peyton. Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to make sure you were linked to the money they claim I made off with when I ran. Someone with a lot of power.”
    â€œI admit it doesn’t look good, but it’d be easy to prove the money, and the account, for that matter, aren’t mine.” She tapped the card again. “This is not my signature.”
    He shrugged, as if the obvious was of no consequence whatsoever. “Maybe. A handwriting expert could corroborate your claim, but they’d have their own expert who says that it is, without a doubt, yours, and before you know it, you’re just one more innocent person behind bars.”
    She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the back of the chair.
    â€œIt gets worse. Look at this.”
    She let out a sigh and took the documents from Jared, surprised to see the financial records of the Elaine Chandler Foundation and the Biddeford Home for Girls. Dread filled her. She’d been placed in Biddeford when she was twelve. When Peyton was five, her mother had died from complications of pneumonia. With no other living relatives, and no idea of the whereabouts of her father, who took off when she was only a toddler, she’d been shuffled from one bad foster home after another, until her social worker had pulled strings and had her placed in the privately run orphanage for girls. Biddeford had saved her life, andfrom the day she started her first job, she’d sent a little something to the home every six months. As her salary grew, so did the amount of the donation. But according to the documents in front of her, two donations were recorded as received within a day or two of each other: one from Peyton for the fifteen hundred dollars she always donated semiannually, and the other from an anonymous donor in the sum of fifty thousand dollars, an amount she hadn’t made and couldn’t afford.
    She compared the date of the donations to Biddeford to the bank statement in her name and her heart took a dive. Every six months one-hundred thousand dollars was deposited into “her” account. Within about ten days, a check for fifty grand cleared the account, and a donation of the same amount appeared on Biddeford’s books.
    The documentation for the Elaine Chandler Foundation, the charity that had provided Peyton with a complete scholarship to Georgetown, and where she now held a seat on the board of directors, wasn’t quite as incriminating, but the connection was there just the same. At the same time the phony bank account was opened, an anonymous donation of a million bucks had been given to the foundation. The fact that she’d been given a seat on the board around that time would go a long way in building an even stronger case against her, circumstantial evidence or not.
    â€œWho’s doing this?” she asked.
    â€œMy guess is someone pretty high up is telling this lawyer, William Minor, to do the dirty work.”
    She looked at Jared. The understanding in his gaze was nearly her undoing, and she fought back a sob.“I wonder if Alan Dershowitz is taking on new clients,” she said miserably. “I’m gonna need the best criminal-defense attorney in the country to get out of this.”
    A half smile turned up the corner of Jared’s mouth. “This isn’t the time to kid around, sweetheart.”
    â€œYou think I’m joking?” She rattled the papers in her hand. “If this information gets out, I’ll be ruined, Jared. My career, my…everything. Ruined. All I’ve done, all I’ve gone through will mean nothing.”
    She’d been working in the justice system long enough to have shed her naiveté long ago. Justice didn’t always prevail, but for the most part, she still believed