Debra Webb - Her Secret Alibi

Still wanted to. Simon swallowed back the need welling inside him. He swore hotly at his inability to maintain control. He could deal with the fact that Jolie Randolph was beautiful. He could even deal with the slender curves of her toned body. But what he couldn’t turn away from was the sweetness, the innocence she radiated. She needed protecting, and the damned woman didn’t even know it. Whether she was guilty or not, which she probably was, Jolie was on the edge of a deadly precipice. Men like Raymond Brasco played for keeps. Big Ray or any one of his men wouldn’t hesitate to kill someone like Jolie if she got in his way or failed to live up to his expectations. Simon knew that firsthand. The input he’d received from his old colleague at the local Bureau office backed up his every conclusion.

Raymond Brasco hadn’t changed.

Jolie Randolph was in over her head.

And Simon wanted to protect her more than he wanted to take his next breath, and that didn’t sit well with him. He had a job to do. This time it was personal. He had been watching Jolie and another of the bank’s employees, Mark Boyer, for two weeks now. He likely knew more about them than they knew about themselves, particularly Jolie. Simon’s former life in the Federal Bureau of Investigation had taught him every trick in the book when it came to profiling a suspect.

Unfortunately, the time he had spent watching Jolie had somehow evolved into something deeper for him. And that was dangerous, for her and for him. Not to mention it had never happened to him before. Not once. But her circumstances were different. There were things she apparently didn’t know. Things that could tear her whole world apart.

Tomorrow his cover at the bank would be put in place, facilitating the investigation requested by the bank’s board of directors. By hiring the Colby Agency to look into the situation, they hoped to head off a full-fledged federal investigation and possible scandal in the media. With major corporations making the headlines every day, the board wanted action fast.

Monitoring Jolie’s and Mark Boyer’s activities at work would be much easier from the inside. The contact he’d had with Jolie so far would keep her off balance. Simon needed her unsure of herself. Boyer was slick, and tripping him up wouldn’t be easy. But Jolie was vulnerable. Simon had no choice but to work this investigation from the most accessible angle. He had to turn up the heat and intensify the pressure until she snapped. Time was of the essence. The feds wouldn’t be put off much longer. They wanted answers.

The memory of the way Jolie had looked at him in the bank today when she’d hesitated at the top of the stairs, as if she had remembered something or recognized him, seeped into his thoughts. Simon’s response was immediate and savage. That connection had been real, at least on some level. He had felt it too strongly to believe otherwise. And tonight, there had been something…some sort of mental as well as physical connection.

If he couldn’t maintain his objectivity where Jolie was concerned, Simon would have to reconsider his strategy. Maybe even turn over her after-hours surveillance to another investigator at the Colby Agency. Simon had already taken a risk by not telling Victoria that this case hit far too close to home, was personal to him on more than one level. She wouldn’t like it if she discovered his omission. He would simply have to deal with her disappointment and irritation when the time came. All that mattered to him at the moment was bringing down Brasco. If Simon had to call in backup to prevent getting in too deep with Jolie, then he would. That would keep him on track and out of trouble.

But he had a feeling that no force on earth could keep him from wanting Jolie.

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