Read Online Stolen Seduction by Elisabeth Naughton - Free Book Online Page A

this crazy treasure hunt wasn’t really all that crazy after all? Who had killed
    Bryan, and why? And what if the same person had had something to do with her father’s death?
    The phone buzzed, indicating the car was there, the sharp sound like a chain saw cutting through
    her thoughts.
    She plastered on a smile as she and Billy said a quick good-bye. He grabbed his backpack from the
    bedroom and told her he’d be in touch. As the door closed, she prayed his part of their little plan
    went off without a hitch. Then dropped her head against the wood as soon as she was alone.
    Way to go, Hailey.
    Billy was the only person who could vouch for her true whereabouts last night and she’d just let
    him go. If Bryan had been murdered, then she really was in deep shit.
    She turned, braced her back against the cool door and stared across the suite. She needed to get out
    of Chicago ASAP. Before the police figured out a reason to keep her here. Before Shane Maxwell
    came back and questioned her all over again. If it weren’t for that meeting tomorrow morning with
    the Lake Geneva planning commission, she’d be on a plane right this very minute.
    Something inside her said sticking around was going to be bad news, just like it had been in that
    bar. In each and every way she could think of.
    Tony was in the car on the phone when Shane slid into the passenger seat. He pulled the door closed
    and glanced at the construction site. Though this part of the resort was close to being finished, there
    was no landscaping around the base of the building, just mounds of dirt and construction materials
    strewn about under a thin layer of snow.
    Tony flipped his phone closed and shot a look Shane’s way. “Get anything out of her?”
    “Nothing more than you did.”
    “She say what happened to her face?”
    “No.” Shane’s jaw clenched as he stared at the resort. And thought about what she’d admitted to—
    shit, being taken hostage by a jihad terrorist? Kauffman was at the top of his list of assholes to deck
    the next time he saw the man, right after he pounded Billy Sullivan to dust.
    His brain switched over to what she hadn’t admitted. “Could have been a random mugging.”
    “You buy that?”
    “No. Do you?”
    Tony perched an elbow on the windowsill and shook his head. “No way. Just making sure you
    don’t. Girl’s lying through her teeth.”
    Hell yeah, she was lying. Big-time. And Shane wanted to know why.
    He also wanted to know what Sullivan was doing in her hotel room. The kid was in his midtwenties.
    She had to be at least six years older than the guy. What the hell did she see in a screwup like Sullivan? And if she was really with the loser, why the hell had her tongue been in Shane’s mouth last
    night?
    He raked a hand through his hair when he realized where his thoughts were going and tried to put
    the visual of the two of them naked and sweaty out of his mind.
    “Son of a bitch,” Tony mumbled from across the car. “You fucked her.”
    Shane’s gaze darted his direction. “What? No, I didn’t.”
    “Then you want to,” Tony said emphatically.
    Shane scoffed and shifted around so he could reach the Tic Tacs in his pocket. He needed one. Or
    fifty. “Get your head out of the gutter.”
    “I would if you didn’t have yours firmly up your ass. I saw the way you two were looking at each
    other. She’s a possible suspect, man. To a pretty nasty murder, in case you forgot. If there’s something going on between the two of you, you better fucking lay it out on the table right now.”
    Shane glared up at the building again and tried to figure out what he could say that would make a
    lick of sense. No way Tony was backing down on this one. Not after the last time.
    “Look, there’s nothing going on between us, okay? I met her when I went to Florida to find Lisa a
    few months ago. That’s it.”
    “That’s it? Really? ‘Cause it doesn’t look like it from where I’m sitting.”
    Shane’s jaw flexed.