Blood and Roses Read Free

perfect picture of Small-town America.
    She parked at the curb in front of the ranch-style house, smiling at the white picket fence that said a lot about the man he was. The yard was immaculately landscaped and a swing hung from the porch rafters. It was just the sort of normal family home she’d always fantasized she would have one day.
    Unfortunately, she wasn’t normal and neither was her family. Her brain was filled with a variety of larcenous information, which was how she’d come to be an insurance investigator specializing in fine art and jewelry theft—her mind worked like a criminal’s.
    Keeping Jake had never been an option for her, despite how much they loved each other. His brain had always worked out problems from the opposite side of the law, and he’d always planned on working in law enforcement. She couldn’t imagine him being anything other than a cop.
    How could she ever ask someone like him to connect his life to those of a band of criminals? The reason she’d come back only proved how right she had been to walk away. What would it do to him, to his career, to their love if she went to jail? She’d known that one day Tilly or Frankie would land into trouble and when that happened, it would impact Jake. She couldn’t do that to him. In the end, she’d loved him enough to leave him.
    “Yet here you are at his place,” she murmured to herself, grabbing her weekend bag from the passenger seat. She slung it over her shoulder and opened the gate, admiring the cobblestone pathway to the front door and knowing Jake must’ve laid it himself. She imagined him outside on a sunny day, shirtless and sheened with sweat, the muscles of his back and arms flexing as he worked his way across the lush lawn.
    She wondered what he’d been thinking of while he was working. Had he imagined a wife waddling over it while pregnant with his child? Or his kids skipping along it on the way in from school? Or a dog bounding over it as neighborhood children played in the yard with his own?
    Her hand clenched around the keychain she’d made for him when she was just sixteen.
    Been that way for twelve years now, Ana.
    Jesus. That was a heartbreaker. And yet she was touched that his love was as true as hers.
    She let herself in, dropped her bag on a black leather couch, and took in the surprisingly modern style of the furnishings. He’d gone with pale blue and chrome with black furniture, and the cool palette went remarkably well with the warmth of the gleaming hardwood floors.
    If she’d had any sense at all, she would have stayed at the inn. Leaving had shattered her last time. What would she suffer through this time? What would Jake?
    Taking a deep breath, Ana pulled the much-loved scent of him deep into her lungs, her entire body tingling with awareness. Jake had been her first lover and her senses were trained to be attuned to his.
He’d
trained them, first with his hands and mouth, and later with restraints and the delicious bite of pain. It was a lifestyle they’d fallen into together, both of them realizing that she had a deep-seated need to surrender to his authority, and in the process, he’d ruined her for other men. Sometimes, when she was lying in bed at night, she wondered if she’d ruined him for other women.
    Ana dug out her laptop from her bag and carried it into the dining room. Jake had a square, high table and she kicked off her heels before climbing onto a barstool. As her laptop powered up, she pulled out her cell phone and his business card, and texted him.
    Password for your wi-fi?
    A moment later, he replied.
An@m1ne69
    She stared at the code and smiled. “Ana-mine-69, huh?”
    Wishful thinking or a hint?
she texted back.
    He answered fast.
An order.
    “Well. Some things never change.” Ana flexed her fingers and rolled her shoulders back, focusing her mind on the work ahead.
    She was going to dig up information on Terence Parker and she was going to break the law doing it. She pushed aside