Betrayal of the Dove - By Capri Montgomery Page 0,52

he said without thought as if she were one of his men serving under him on the battlefield. He slid his hand back and lifted his un-tucked shirttails exposing the gun tucked between his jeans and back. “Stay,” he ordered. She wasn’t a dog. She didn’t stay on command. She would have given him a piece of her mind on that fact except since he was reaching for a gun she was sure now would not be the time to discuss all the ways he shouldn’t talk to her.

Craig surfaced from around the corner, causing her to relax, but not Shane. She patted his shoulder and he removed his hand from his weapon. She was still wearing Shane’s shirt so she was sure that look of disapproval on Craig’s face had to do with what he thought had been going on last night.

“What are you doing back here?” She asked.

“There was another robbery last night,” he said. “Two shops down. I tried your backdoor bell this morning, but you didn’t answer.”

“I wasn’t home,” she said. She couldn’t believe how frequently the robberies were happening now. Before there was some time between them, now it just seemed uncontrolled; unstructured.

“I guess there’s no need to ask you about your alibi then,” Craig narrowed his eyes and glared at Shane as if he wanted to rip his head off, but thought better of it.

“He was with me,” she said. “Or more like I was with him.”

“All night?”

“All night,” she confirmed. “Why are you even looking into Shane? These robberies started long before he became my security guard.”

Craig shrugged. “Maybe they started so he could become your security guard,” he said caustically.

“Doubtful,” she said with measured hostility. “Shane didn’t even know me before he came to work for me. A mutual friend asked him to help me. Beyond that, if he had started the robberies so he could come work for me he wouldn’t need to keep doing it.” She felt her anger reaching the tipping point. It was one thing to be jealous. It was another thing to throw baseless accusations and try to ruin a good man’s name.

“Noted,” Craig said. “The robbery happened at the Icicle, two doors south of you so you might want to be more careful around here. It would seem things are getting closer to your store…a lot closer,” he mumbled before turning and walking away. She could tell he was still trying to find fault with Shane, but she wouldn’t let him blame these robberies on him just because he didn’t like that she and Shane were a couple now.

“Come on,” Shane put his hand on her low back and nudged her forward. She hadn’t realized she was still standing there frozen in place until Shane prompted her to move forward. Craig was getting out of hand, and she was quickly losing the patience she had been known for having.

“That man’s head is as thick as a cinder block,” she mumbled. “I just don’t think he gets it…even now.”

“He doesn’t,” Shane agreed. “Right now he thinks I’m coercing you into being with me. He doesn’t see, whether he can’t see it or he refuses to see it is another matter, but he doesn’t see that you’ve made your choice.”

“What do I do to get him to understand that?”

Shane shrugged. “You can’t reason with some people, Alyssa. Sometimes you just have to stay sharp and remain aware of your surroundings. People like that don’t give up, and sometimes they get violent.”

She knew the truth in that statement, even if she didn’t want to think about all the ways Craig could hurt her, she knew he could. She could fight—moderately anyway, so she figured she could hold her own with a guy who had basic self-defense training, but Craig was a cop. There were so many ways he could get back at her. He could, under the cover of his badge, make her life hell if he wanted to. “Oh good Lord,” she sighed. “Why do things always happen in triplicate?” Just when she thought she was getting things on track, Craig came along and threw another wrench into her engine. That man was going to be trouble and she knew it.

Chapter Ten

Alyssa had spent yesterday at work and everything was business as usual, with Shane inside his security area while she managed the store—a very busy store. She had crowds coming in which was good for business, but bad for her nerves. First of all, with that many