Read Online The One Who Got Away (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) by Ava Claire - Free Book Online Page A

Advil, a dash of makeup, and determination to take care of business couldn’t handle. And today’s agenda was getting Backpacks for Change off the ground...and not thinking about Lincoln Carraway.
    Part one of the agenda was well under way. The fractured grimace that multiplied like some fun house mirror was proof that part two needed some work.
    I tucked the visor back in place and slipped from the car. With my briefcase in hand, I smoothed the front of my pencil skirt and buttoned my blazer. My blonde and honey brown strands were pulled into a bun that sat at the nape of my neck. I strode across the parking lot, the sound of kids playing on a playground just out of sight lassoing my heart. For some of those kids, the kids the program would benefit, school was the only place where they could be kids. The bell rang and they went from a playground to a battlefield. There were no toy soldiers, no Nerf guns, only real ones that had the power to snuff out their dreams—whether they were the ones taking the bullets or being coaxed into firing them.
    From the outside, Morgan looked like a non-descript elementary school that one would find in the suburbs or a city anywhere in the country. Inside was a different story. The door opened to a security guard that looked like he ate testosterone for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The metal detector looked just as imposing, like some hell gate that I imagined must be terrifying for the children who walked through those doors every day.
    There was a pigtailed girl in a pair of overalls and a cotton candy pink polo in front of me. Some mothering instinct I didn’t know I had made me want to crouch down and tell her it would all be okay, but she bounded forward, shrugging off her glittering backpack so it could go through a separate X-ray machine, and stepped right up to the man. I waited for him to crack a grin or do something reassuring like give her a high five. It was a school, not a prison, after all. He just raised an expectant brow, and the girl stepped her legs apart and put her hands behind her head while he took a metal detector wand and passed it over her body. She passed inspection, walked through the second scanner with nary a beep, then grabbed her backpack and skipped down the hall.
    “Miss?” A guttural sound wrenched my attention from where she’d been before her dark pigtails went flying. I came face to face with the guard.
    “Sorry,” I mumbled, my face darkening. I pushed my briefcase down the conveyor belt, a nervous chuckle falling from my lips as I stood there awkwardly. “Haven’t gone through anything this thorough since my last flight.”
    My joke pinged right off his hardened face. “You can keep your jacket and shoes on, but I need to wand you.”
    “O-Of course,” I stuttered dumbly, copying the little girl’s stance, lacing my fingers and looking up at the ceiling as he made sure I wasn’t a security threat.
    He grunted an ‘all clear’ and I briefly made eye contact before my gaze dropped to a nametag that read ‘Abel.’ It was some sort of sick irony that a man that looked ready to draw blood and take someone out if the occasion called for it shared a name with someone so gentle. I gave the final stage, the big mama metal detector, the evil eye and walked through. I half expected the thing to go off, shouting that I was some bleeding heart liberal that wanted to turn it into scrap metal. It didn’t make a peep.
    On the other side, I raised my chin and snatched my briefcase from the conveyor belt. “Just so you know, I’m here because I want to make things like this-” I pointed an angry finger at the metal detector. “-obsolete and unnecessary.”
    Abel’s salt and pepper brow arched past where I’m sure his hairline would have been if he wasn’t bald. “You think I like patting down six year olds, lady? I wish my job wasn’t necessary too, but last year, some kid brought a gun in his backpack and thought it would be a good idea to