Undercover Fiancee

She sucked in her breath. “I moved back to Salt Lake from Phoenix a year ago...I can’t imagine what any of this has to do with me.”

Annabelle had never been rude to her boss. He was the greatest guy on earth, but he couldn’t possibly know what this unexpected meeting with Rand was costing her.

She didn’t honestly think Roman had engineered it. Which meant it was Rand’s doing. Why?

When they’d parted company a year ago, enough pain had been inflicted to last a lifetime. She’d had to pick up the pieces and start over again. When she returned home to Salt Lake and Roman took her on as one of his PI’s, a certain amount of healing had begun to take place. She’d been making progress.

How dare Rand trespass on her territory after all this time and destroy the world she’d been creating for herself without him!

“The Salt Lake customer service department of my company is in serious trouble.”

She folded her arms in the hope of looking more confident than she felt. “I’m sorry to hear it, but I still don’t know what your problems have to do with me.”

Rand’s jaw hardened perceptibly. For a fleeting moment she derived pleasure because he wasn’t as in control as she’d first assumed.

“It appears a hacker has broken in on the lines and is wreaking havoc with the clientele by giving them false information and causing their hard drives to crash.”

A hacker?

Just last week Trina Martin had called the agency because her eighteen-year-old boyfriend, Bryan Ludlow, a computer genius who didn’t get along with his family, had disappeared from his home and had been missing a week. The police assumed it was a kidnapping case and they were looking for him.

Trina believed he’d vanished on purpose. She wanted Annabelle to find him before he did something bad to embarrass his father, millionaire Daniel Ludlow, a prominent businessman who was going to run in Utah’s next race for the governor of the state. Bryan’s disappearance had made national headlines and now the FBI was involved.

When Annabelle asked what Trina meant about him embarrassing his father, the younger girl said that Bryan bragged a lot about being a hacker. Apparently he’d obtained the password to a major computer company in the Salt Lake area and had already done some things that would make his dad mad with rage if he were ever found out. He sounded too happy about it. That’s what worried Trina.

Since Trina’s call, Annabelle had run an investigation and she’d turned up some interesting evidence. After listening to Rand, she wondered if there might just be a connection between the two cases.

“The patrons are justifiably angry at what’s been going on.” Rand’s explanation mingled with her own hectic thoughts. “Several dozen people have returned equipment, demanding their money back.

“I’ve put some of my best people to work on the problem, but so far we don’t have any leads. It could be the work of an amateur. But there’s the possibility it might be a group of professional saboteurs out to ruin my company and they’ve picked Salt Lake as their first target.

“I don’t know if my enemy is an employee or not. I intend to find out because as of now, I’m going to be personally involved in solving this case. What I need is an expert to work as a partner with me. It has to be someone no employee of mine knows anything about.”

Annabelle could see where this conversation was headed, and another pain splintered what was left of her heart. If ever she needed proof that the love he’d once felt for her was dead in the water, his appearance in Roman’s office said it all.

They’d broken up because he couldn’t handle her career in law enforcement. Being a PI was tantamount to the same thing. Yet here he was at the Lufka agency for the express purpose of availing himself of the very services he’d once asked her to give up for the sake of her safety and their love!

Obviously it hadn’t been love that he’d felt for her, otherwise he couldn’t do anything this callous and cold-blooded. Crushed by the revelation, Annabelle rubbed her palms against the charcoal fabric of the slim-fit pants covering her hips.

Dear God, what a fool she’d been. All this time she’d secretly nursed the hope that he still cared. Nothing could be further from the truth!

He’d flown to Salt Lake to find out what was going on in his company. For expedience sake he’d sought her out because she was the nearest person available who knew how to deal with this kind of computer fraud.

After graduating from college with a degree in computer engineering, she’d gone into law enforcement work like her dad. After he died, a friend of his on the force had talked her into moving to Phoenix for a time and working for the police department there.

It would provide a change of scene, give her a little more time to get over her father’s death, and she would learn a lot under the leadership of Chief Rivera who was renowned throughout the western states for his success in lowering the crime rate.

Not long after she’d been working there, a bomb threat at the Dunbarton plant in Phoenix had catapulted her into Rand’s world and she’d fallen hard. So hard she hadn’t seen any problems during their whirlwind courtship and premature engagement until it was too late.

When she’d broken off with him, her life seemed to lose meaning. Heartbroken and bitter, she resigned from the Phoenix police force and returned to Salt Lake and the little family home she’d rented out during her absence.

In a perpetual abyss, Annabelle couldn’t seem to pull herself out of it. Though she joined the Salt Lake police department, her heart wasn’t in her work and she simply went through the motions.

That’s when her best friend, Janet, suggested she try something different to get a new perspective in life. Why not become a PI, a job which would allow Annabelle to still work in law enforcement, yet allow her more creativity and the freedom to choose her own hours.

At that point in time, Janet was the one voice of reason in Annabelle’s shattered world. Taking her friend’s advice turned out to be the best thing she’d ever done.

Roman hired her to join his prestigious staff, not only because of her background in police work, but because he needed someone with her level of expertise to handle the electronic fraud cases that came in to the office from time to time. Until now, everything had been going just fine...

Unable to stand it any longer, she jumped out of the chair. “Roman? Could I see you in private? It will only take a moment.” The one thing she could count on with Roman—he would always be loyal to his own.

“Will you excuse us a minute, Rand?”

“Certainly.”

She didn’t trust Rand’s pleasant smile. It was about as benign as a quiet summer morning before an earthquake.

As soon as she and Roman had moved out into the hall, he put a steadying hand on her shoulder and forced her to look at him. “He walked in here this morning out of the blue. For the record, I’ve never met or spoken to him until a half hour ago. No one, not even Diana, knew he was that Dunbarton.”

Roman was an honorable man. His explanations relieved her more than he would ever know. “Thanks for telling me the truth.”

“You’re welcome. Now that we have that out of the way, you must realize Rand has a serious problem on his hands. He obviously came to us because he needs the best person to help him crack this case and he knows you work for me.”

Roman was a legend with the police force, both locally and nationally. He didn’t hire people for his agency who weren’t the top in their field. She knew he didn’t pay compliments he didn’t mean.

His unstinting praise of her was humbling to say the least. But this was Rand they were talking about, the man who had turned her world inside out.

“You’re a natural for this assignment, Annabelle. I don’t have to point out the reasons why. What he’s hoping is that you’ll put all personal feelings aside. I realize that’s pretty well asking the impossible. I understand if you can’t deal with it, but it might be the best therapy in the world if you did.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been hurt by your relationship with him. Perhaps if you faced him head-on, you would exorcise the ghosts haunting you. I speak from personal experience. Because I waited so long to realize what was most important to me, I almost lost Brittany.” His voice rasped.

She nodded. Roman’s wife had told Annabelle their story in confidence. When they’d first met, Roman had been working as a CIA agent, a dangerous job which prevented him from getting married and putting down roots. The struggle between duty and his growing love for her complicated their relationship and took its toll on both of them. But in the end he gave up his job because he loved her too much to lose her. That was their destiny.

Rand’s and Annabelle’s case was different. He’d never really loved her. All he’d done was make demands. They had no destiny.

“You know what they say about the truth. It will make you free. Maybe you ought to think about that in terms of your own future. But whatever you decide, I’ll stand behind you.”

Annabelle closed her eyes for a moment. She was thinking. If Rand could treat her like this, then maybe it was time for her to take action and show him the same indifference back. Maybe it was the only way to get over him.

Slowly she expelled a sigh. “All right. I’ll take his case.” If my hunch is right and Bryan Ludlow is involved in some way, I’ll solve it so fast Rand will be back in Phoenix and out of my life before he knows what hit him.

Roman’s compassionate smile actually hurt. He saw too much. “You’re stronger than you know, Annabelle. I’ll be behind you all the way.”

Having Roman on her side meant everything. “Before I go back in there, I need to discuss something with you first. It’s about the disappearance of the Ludlow boy.”

“His parents have already asked me to look into it.”