Addison Fox - The Professional

In just a minute.

The hot August night wrapped around her in a tight stranglehold, and she was tempted to remove her suit jacket. The cool air from the lobby had diffused some of the heat at the taxi line, but this far away from the door it was absolutely stifling.

A minute was only a minute, though, and she’d already used up half of hers. Stripping was a waste of the time she had left.

“Ever responsible and practical,” she muttered to herself before compromising and unbuttoning the top button of her blouse.

The hot air coated her skin and with it, an image of Max filled her thoughts. A place he’d occupied far too often these last weeks.

Heck, the past year, if she was truly being honest.

She’d noticed him at the first community business meeting he’d attended in the Design District after opening his architectural firm, Dragon Designs. Since getting to know Max and Tucker better, she’d learned that Tucker had abdicated any interest in playing their firm’s business lead and had been more than willing to hand the role over to Max.

Which had put Max and Violet firmly in each other’s orbit.

Even without the pressure of Cassidy and Lilah’s ongoing interest in seeing the two of them get together, Violet could admit that Max did manage to push all her buttons. He was strong and solid. And if she were honest with herself, she liked that he was a bit surly. The man wasn’t a pushover, and it was a trait she admired.

Maybe if they hadn’t gotten involved in the mystery of the jewels under the floor, and maybe if her best friend wasn’t marrying his best friend, things could be different.

A fling, maybe?

Thirty, remember? That small voice that kept her constant company rose up. Call it what it is. An affair .

Violet turned the thought over in her mind. Like sophisticated women had been doing since the dawn of time, she could manage her life and this crazy attraction through a discreet affair in which both knew the score. No pressure for a happy-ever-after or expectations neither had any interest in fulfilling.

She’d scratch the itch and move on.

It would be perfect if it weren’t for the fact that her two best friends were also her daily colleagues. To say each of them missed nothing about the other two was an understatement. Lilah and Cassidy saw everything.

As she did with them.

Which took her right back to square one. Nothing could come of this odd little spark for Max.

The heavy tread of feet interrupted her musings and she shifted her attention, mentally sighing that her minute was gone. It was time to get back to the wedding.

Her gaze caught on a man moving with swift determination up the sidewalk. An odd spark of recognition lit in her gut. Was he a wedding guest?

Or had she seen him somewhere else?

It was only as he closed in on her, his large hands wrapping around her shoulders, that she registered the depth of the threat.

And as a sharp prick hit her neck, she watched the bright lights of Dallas blur before the black took her over.

Chapter 3

Max scanned the various screens inside the security center before settling in with the computer operator, Jake. The man had seemed to light up with the unexpected excitement as he asked, “Do you know the rough time and what part of the hotel?”

“The lobby cameras pointed around the bar. Around ten o’clock.”

The man made quick work of the request, his fingers flying over the keyboard at his station before he pointed toward an even larger screen in his sight line. “I’ll put the footage up here.”

Max saw the lobby still filled with revelers getting drinks and zeroed in on the couch. “There. He was on that couch for some time.”

Jake scrolled several frames forward, the clock ticking off the time in the lower right-hand corner, before Max stopped him. “That’s him.”

The screen expanded as Jake enlarged the image. Max nodded as the strange man’s face came into view. “Now we need to see if he was mingling with the guests who were fighting.”

Jake nodded, his focus absolute as he scrolled through earlier footage, the clack of the keys the only noise in the room. Max watched him work before his own focus shifted, his normal inability to sit still taking over.

He paced the wall of screens, taking in various views. Two of the wedding guests were getting amorous in one of the hotel elevators, while another couple in a different elevator was clearly in the midst of a heated—and likely liquor-fueled—fight. Since both couples deserved their privacy, he continued to scan the wall, the image of the bride and groom and their assembled guests filling several more screens, displayed from different angles.

Before the notion even fully registered, Max found himself searching for Violet.

Where was she? He’d have assumed she’d be smack in the middle of whatever was happening with the bride and groom, but another glance through all the ballroom screens showed no sign of her. Cassidy and Lilah both stood on point, and he saw Tucker and Reed not far behind them, but Violet was nowhere.

“Jake—” He broke off as he caught sight of the exterior cameras. Panic washed like icy needles over his skin.

“What?”

The man’s eyes widened as Max moved toward his chair, his large form hovering over the tech. “Pull it up. The driveway camera. Now.”

Jake did as he was told, his hands flying, and in moments the driveway camera footage came into full view.

Along with an image of Violet being dragged toward a waiting car.

“Call the police!” Max shouted the order as he ran hell-for-leather toward the front door.

* * *

Tripp Lange stared at the heap of very attractive woman deposited on the bench seat opposite him as they put Dallas in their rearview mirror. They’d already stopped at his private home on the outskirts of town and changed into the waiting car Alex had prepared in advance. So now, barely twenty minutes after snatching the woman, they were headed for the Hill Country.

Alex had done well, as always. He’d waited for the perfect moment, then leaped.

The fact Violet Richardson had made the snatch-and-grab relatively easy with her late-night stroll was beside the point. They had her.

And through her, he’d get the rubies and his wife back.

“What did you use, Alex?”

The man’s voice was crisp and clear from the front seat. “That sedative I’ve been working on. I’ve changed the ratio of sedative to paralytic, and I think it’s the right one. She’ll come to, but it will take her longer to get her bearings.”

“Good.”

They had a two-hour drive ahead of them, and Tripp wanted to make sure Violet stayed out.

“And her cell phone?”

Alex waved the device through the window partition. “Already off.”

Tripp studied the woman, her slender body relaxed in sleep. A black suit covered her in prim lines, but the hint of skin at her throat and chest suggested there was something of a tiger beneath the gloss. She was on the taller side—at least five-six—and another four inches added with the heels.

All in all, an incredibly attractive package.

But one that hid, for the most part, behind severe suits and an all-business attitude.

She was a calculated risk, no doubt. Alex had spent a fair amount of time observing her, and she was no one’s pushover. The previous week, his man of business had witnessed her dealing with a hotel manager who’d thought to change the terms of their agreement. Alex had been more than impressed with her handling of the situation.

Which also meant she’d be a challenge to break on the path to securing what he wanted.

It was a good thing he knew not only how to break people but also exactly what made Violet Richardson vulnerable.