Against the Law Read Free

were linked together and wireless.
    He sat down in front of the Mac Pro and entered Lark Delaney’s name as a search term, watched a long list of hits pop up. Scrolling past unconnected references like The Pheasant and the Lark by Jonathan Swift, hepulled up articles from countries around the world. She was good at what she did, he saw, well-respected in the fashion industry.
    Which didn’t really surprise him. Though thinking of the flashy young woman who had walked through his door, maybe it should.
    With her wispy, cherry cola hair, sassy makeup, and come-screw-me shoes, she should have come off as an airhead, but from the start, he had sensed the intelligence behind those cat eyes, along with an iron resolve and fierce determination that didn’t fit her sexy, modish appearance.
    Which only made her more intriguing.
    He clicked on www.LARK.com, her company home-page, and a sophisticated website popped up, with video trailers displaying the bags she designed as well as links to the various department-store locations where they could be purchased. There was a company history, photos of the design studio and shots of some of the team members at work.
    Returning to Google, he clicked on a newspaper article that mentioned the death of her parents, the owners of a chain of Delaney’s Bar and Grill restaurants located across most of the western states. The couple had died in a violent car accident, and Lark and her sister had inherited a bundle of money.
    In an attempt to go into business for herself, Lark had lost most of it right out of college. She had gone to work for the designer Michael Kors, then went on her own again, and the second time she made it.
    Dev inwardly smiled. It appeared Lark Delaney couldwell afford his rates, though for Madman’s sake, he had no intention of sending the lady a bill.
    He read a more recent article in a local paper that mentioned her sister’s death and how Lark had nursed Heather Delaney through the final days of her life at her home here in Phoenix. There was nothing that mentioned Lark’s current project—her quest to find her sister’s four-year-old daughter.
    Once they located the adoption agency, the address of the adoptive parents should be easy enough to find. Assuming the agency people could be persuaded to give up the information.
    Since all Lark wanted was assurance the child was in good hands, he believed there was a good chance they would agree.
    There was only one fly in the ointment.
    It was his strict policy never to mix business with pleasure. He had never been involved with a client and as tempting as Lark Delaney was he didn’t intend to start now.
    In view of his considerable attraction to her, the best thing he could do was find the child, send Lark on her way and get himself back to work.
    Maybe that was the problem. For a guy like him, early retirement probably wasn’t a good idea. He needed to find something to do besides bask in the sun and spend the money he had earned from Wildcat Oil, a company his brother, Jackson, had worked for as a geologist. The investment each of the three Raines brothers had made in the fledgling oil exploration company had paid off beyond their highest expectations.
    Jackson had returned to their hometown of Wind Canyon, Wyoming, and bought the ranch he had always wanted. Gabe had become a real estate developer in Dallas. Dev had gone on to invest even more in the market right before the big escalation and sold just before the crash.
    He had all the money he could spend. Still, he needed to find something more to do than travel from resort to resort and screw himself blind with women whose names he couldn’t remember.
    An image of Lark Delaney flashed through his head, tall and sexy, a vibrant force that made him want to reach out and just grab hold.
    Since that wasn’t going to happen, it was the perfect time for him to reform his wicked ways.
    Or at least give it a try.
    Dev bit back a