Addison Fox - The London Deception

The House of Steele works for the good guys—but sometimes it’s hard to tell heroes from villains…

The beautiful former thief had never met a lock she couldn’t pick. Although Rowan Steele is now legit, she handles some of the family’s most dangerous assignments. When she agrees to safeguard an ancient treasure, her heart—as well as her life—may be the price.

His outlaw days roaming the streets of London are behind him. Now Finn Gallagher’s expert eyes authenticate the treasures he used to steal. When a major antiquities cache is threatened, he recruits Rowan to join him. Together, he figures, they can keep anything safe. Until an old enemy raises the stakes…

“Let’s get out of here.”

Finn was rarely taken off guard, so the obvious invitation in Rowan’s words caught him up short. “Where do you want to go?”

“Have you ever been to the British Museum after-hours?”

He had, in fact, been there on more than one occasion, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. “Now, what would a nice girl like you be wanting in a place like that?”

“What happened to that adventurous spirit, Finn?” Rowan moved in, the light scent of her wrapping around his senses as the heat of her body assailed him through his suit. “You know, the one that had you making those idiotic jumps off your office building?”

“And the guards with guns?”

She waved a hand. “Easy.”

“What are we waiting for, then?” Finn held out a hand, barely suppressing the urge to wrap her in his arms. “Lead the way.”

House of Steele: Elite investigators taking on the most difficult assignments all over the world.

Dear Reader,

Welcome back to the world of the Steele siblings. Liam, Campbell, Kensington and Rowan formed the high-end security firm—the House of Steele—to cater to a wealthy clientele the world over. Each has a unique skill set used to get the job done for their elite, exclusive clients.

In The London Deception, the youngest Steele, Rowan, is forced to confront her past in the form of sexy Finn Gallagher. Now a modern-day female Indiana Jones, Rowan trots the globe, rescuing antiquities.

Finn needs Rowan’s help. He’s authenticating a major find in Egypt’s Valley of the Queens and needs her expertise. What neither of them anticipates is to be revisited by an enemy more dangerous than either ever suspected.

I had so much fun writing The London Deception. I’ve always had a fascination with ancient Egypt and I hope you’ll forgive me some artistic license as I played with the history of Ramesses II and his wife Nefertari. While they are real, I’ve taken liberties with their sculptures and burial chambers for the sake of the story.

I absolutely loved writing this book and the very real challenge of taking two damaged souls and redeeming them through the power of love. Love of family, love of a significant other and, maybe most important of all, love of self.

Best,

Addison Fox

The London Deception

Addison Fox

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ADDISON FOX

is a Philadelphia girl transplanted to Dallas, Texas. Although her similarities to Grace Kelly stop at sharing the same place of birth, she’s often dreamed of marrying a prince and living along the Mediterranean.

In the meantime, she’s more than happy penning romance novels about two strong-willed and exciting people who deserve their happy ever after—after she makes them work so hard for it, of course. When she’s not writing, she can be found spending time with family and friends, reading or enjoying a glass of wine.

Find out more about Addison or contact her at her website— www.addisonfox.com—or catch up with her on Facebook (addisonfoxauthor)and Twitter (@addisonfox).

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For Alice

Valued critique partner, trusted confidante, dearest friend.

I’m so blessed you left a message.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Epilogue

Excerpt

Chapter 1

Twelve years ago—London

The bullet missed her ear by the grace of God and a stone in her shoe.

Unwilling to tempt fate twice, Rowan Steele belly crawled across the roof of the Knightsbridge townhome, reluctant to find out if her assailant was going to try again or just come after her.

She needed a more secure location.

Now.

Not for the first time did she curse her innate fear of guns or she’d have nicked Grandfather’s World War II service pistol and stuck it in the waistband of her black pants before sneaking out earlier. A raw, choked laugh welled in her throat at the irony.

Guns she ran in fear from. Climbing London rooftops as a means to rip off the contents below? Bring it on.

A shout echoed from the street, muffled in the light fog that coated the city. When she’d arrived ten minutes earlier, she’d considered the fog a blessing, but its rapid swirl and increasing weight had her reconsidering that decision.

Who the bloody hell would be shooting at her?

And how did they even know she was up here?

Rowan kept moving, her breath heavy, even as the questions swirled through her mind faster than the fog around her body. A small nook sat between two chimneys—sitting room and study respectively—and she moved determinedly onward over the rough tiles to give herself a moment to regroup in relative safety.

Obviously the jewelry extraction—the evening’s main event—was off.

Now she just had to figure out how to get off the roof undetected.

The small space enveloped her as she slid her body between the twin columns of old brick and took her first easy breath since the gunshot. Voices still echoed from the street, but they’d grown fainter and she didn’t think it was only from the fog.

Her plans for the evening ran through her mind’s eye on the same steady loop she’d not been able to get out of her head since her first visit to the townhome six months before. Her dear friend Bethany Warrington couldn’t stop talking about her mother’s latest gift from her father—a diamond-and-ruby bracelet purported to have been worn by Queen Victoria.

While Bethany might have been dear, she was altogether too dim and had blithely provided the combination to the jewelry safe her mother kept in her bedroom as she’d fiddled her way through it three times before successfully cracking it on the fourth.

Since the bracelet was basically sitting there for the taking, Rowan could hardly ignore the windfall and had plotted how she’d get in and out when Bethany’s family took their annual jaunt to the Côte d’Azur.

On a rather huge level, Rowan knew what she was doing was wrong. Even if she could work her way past the clear directive in the Ten Commandments, she also knew by her actions she betrayed a friend.

Yet the impulse to take—to take and take and take whatever she could get her hands on—wouldn’t be sated.

And no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn’t change that simple fact.