Lucky Girl (Lucky Alphas Book 2)
By: Mallory Crowe“You know I can’t take you seriously when you ask ridiculous questions like that.” Harper stared out the window, as though she couldn’t even look at him.
“If the answer is no, the answer is no. Just tell me now so I don’t get any more stupid ideas in my head.”
“It’s not a no,” she said quickly.
“So it’s a yes?”
“No, it’s not yes.”
“You’re mysterious. That’s one of the things I like about you.”
Harper shook her head and gave him a quick smile over her shoulder. “So how was your time with Evan and Lily? Were you able to make up?”
“I think my feelings toward Evan will be directly correlated to our outcome tonight.”
“So if you don’t end up in jail, you’ll forgive him?”
“I think that sounds fair.” He remembered what Meredith Reinhardt said to him. Fair is for pussies. It made more sense that she’d think that now. She was the matriarch of a family that earned a good sum of money each year from money laundering. At some point, Meredith had to find ways to massage her conscience. He had no doubt she would squash him like a bug if she got a chance, and he was the perfect scapegoat for any failings their daughter had. From what little he knew about her parents, Lily was much better off with Evan now.
In general, he wasn’t the luckiest guy out there, but now he had Harper with him. Maybe she’d be his good luck charm. God knew he needed it.
“How did the meeting with Wade go?” he asked, trying to pull his mind off the silence of the road.
“He asked about our progress.”
“I’m sure that went great.”
“Well, he’s not super happy. He told me not to worry about looking up the boxes.”
“Does that mean he figured out who was behind it?”
“No. It means he’s replaced us with somebody a little bit more motivated.”
“Leo.”
“All right, how did you know that?”
“Well, we haven’t heard back from him yet. You guys are all so interconnected."
“I really have to look into getting you a job. You definitely have the instinct for it.”
“And the bank account.” He looked over at her and gave her a little wink.
“All right, Stone. I’ve got a challenge for you.”
“All right. I like challenges.”
“I’ll go on a date with you, but only if you can give me one really amazing date idea.”
Hell, he’d been sweeping women off their feet for as long as he could remember. He could do that. “How long do I have?”
“You have until we figure this out with the Reinhardts.”
“And I get to do it under pressure. You really are little bit conniving, aren’t you?”
She looked over at him and flashed him a big smile. “That’s one of the reasons you like me.”
Harper couldn’t believe they were back. The gorgeous house with the stunning red brick and white columns probably looked lovely in the daytime, but at night, everything about it seemed more ominous. When they’d first driven up, she’d been comforted by the fact that they hadn’t been shot immediately. Now she didn’t have that comfort. They’d want her and Lucas to come inside and tell them what they found. If they weren’t happy, a bullet to the head was extremely likely. Considering she and Lucas were not giving them any of their money back or their daughter, their displeasure was inevitable.
They just had to make sure they played this carefully. They couldn’t put all the blame on Lily without making it seem as though they were shaming the Reinhardts’ daughter. Also, they couldn’t have Lucas apologizing for a crime he didn’t commit. Logically, killing them made no sense. Dead bodies were hard to cover up, and they couldn’t know that much about Harper. The Reinhardts had no idea who might come looking for her. Murders were messy, literally and metaphorically. Just because they had the power to kill Harper and Lucas if they wanted to didn’t mean it was convenient.
It was passion that was the problem. If they got too angry or defensive over their daughter or their own pride, logic could fly out the window.
“Do you remember what I said the first time we came here?” asked Harper as Lucas brought the car to a stop.
