Con Man: Complete Series Box Set: A Bad Boy Romance Read Free Page B

loved it. Cursing at the narrow pockets of her dress pants, she pulled out the keys to the car and gestured for me to get in.
    Once we buckled in, she sped off like we were heading out to catch a murderer or kidnapper, not to check out some old stuff that had gone missing. Then again, she drove like that everywhere. While I hadn’t been in the department long, I had quickly learned to adapt to my mentor's aggressive driving.
    “Why have a car if you’re not even going to drive the speed limit!” she shouted at another vehicle as we whizzed down the road. I just sat back and trusted that we would get there in one piece.
    Somehow or other, we survived, and Alverez pulled up to the front of the museum far ahead of the time estimated by her GPS.
    “Um, Benita, this is the fire lane.”
    She shrugged and raised an eyebrow. “What are they going to do? Arrest me?”
    I rolled my eyes and hopped out of the vehicle. I knew better than to argue with her.
    The museum was certainly an impressive sight. Four solid floors of sculptures, paintings, and other pieces of fine art. I was all for the arts and their studies, but this wasn't exactly my thing.
    Benita was already power walking towards the doors, and I quickly followed after her. There was already a couple of police officers on the scene, as well as a panicked receptionist. A frazzled man in an expensive suit was shifting from foot to foot.
    Benita greeted them even as she walked toward them. “Hello. I'm Agent Alverez, and this is my partner, Agent Melendez. I heard we had a robbery here?”
    The suited man stepped forward first. Definitely the owner. “Yes, there was.” He extended a hand. “You got here fast.”
    “Light traffic,” Alverez answered flatly, almost startling a laugh from me. She shook the man's hand.
    “Ah, well, thank you. Shall I take you where the, uh...” his voice dropped to barely a whisper, “ the incident happened?”
    “Yes, that's usually where these investigations start.”
    Another choked laugh. After a few months, I should've been used to the dry wit that matched my own, but her deadpan was flawless.
    “Of course, of course.” He started walking quickly, looking back at us every few words. “I can't believe this happened to us. You hear about it all the time at other museums, but we never thought...we were infiltrated from the inside! Who does that?”
    “Thieves. That's who does that,” I supplied without an ounce of irony. Benita shot me a subtle grin before facing the sweating owner again.
    “Well, yes, we know that. But it's just...if my niece hadn't been in town we wouldn't have known for months! It would have been even more disastrous!”
    “How does your niece fit into this?”
    For the first time since I met him, his chest puffed up, and he looked a bit prideful instead of half panicked and flushed. “She's one of the leading art restoration specialists in the entire United States. She surprised me with a visit, so I wanted to show her some works by her favorite artist we managed to secure last season. She spotted the fakes almost instantly.” He shook his head again. “If she hadn't been here, we wouldn't have known until June. June!”
    Finally, we reached what had to be the super-secret art fixer-upper room or something like that. A peaked-looked security guard stood at the door, talking to a cop.
    “What happened with the guard?” I asked. “Was he incapacitated?”
    The owner fidgeted, looking even more embarrassed. “Um, technically, yes.”
    “Technically?” Benita asked.
    “He was in the bathroom. He thinks it was food poisoning.”
    “Pretty convenient, don't you think?” I asked. Benita glanced at me, and I explained, “This thief knew exactly when food poisoning was going to strike the guard and leave the place open?”
    Alverez whistled. “This thief really did think of everything, didn't he?”
    “I don't understand.” The owner looked back and forth between the two of us. “What do you