Betrayal of the Dove (Men of Action) Read Online Free PDF Page B

had made her feel as if she was just an obligation, a way of doing a favor for a friend.
     
    She needed to get over her issue with why he was there. In a lot of ways it was good that he wasn’t truly there because of her. She wanted to keep things professional and his feelings of obligations to his friend meant he wouldn’t be thinking of anything more with her. She wanted him to think of more, but she knew it was a bad idea. “Employers do not date employees,” she said as she walked back down the alley to the front door of the store. She took the walk instead of going in through the back because she really needed just a few minutes of breathing room, a few minutes to get her head on straight and not think about all the things she wished she could do with Shane Maxwell.
     

 

     
    Chapter Two
     
    V alencia had warned him about Alyssa’s independent streak, “Irish temper,” she had said. She had told him about Thomas McGregor. He was a former Marine, severely injured in action and had fought his way back and was a stronger man because of it. He could hear the admiration in Valencia’s voice. Then she had told him about his sister’s problem. She needed a security guard and she didn’t have a lot of money. He hadn’t been looking for a job working security for a store. He had a couple offers from companies that paid more, and wanted him as a security consultant. The consultant positions were more his speed because it’s what he had been contemplating opening his own business in before he put in his papers. There were a lot of options in a position like that, meaning he could choose the jobs he took and he could set his own hours. Even if he had chosen one of the other companies that had offered him a full-time position, he had still been in talks with them to be a freelance consultant; meaning they would pay him an exorbitant amount while he still worked as his own man. He liked that idea a lot.
     
    He also had his ranch that he was finally going to turn into a working ranch with horses. He had never been able to do that before because he was always away on missions or prepping for one. He hadn’t that long ago retired from the military. He had stayed in past his twenty years plus one day, but eventually he turned in his papers. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was going to do. He had a lot of ideas from security consultant to full-time rancher. He had an idea that turning his Cave Creek ranch into a little slice of heaven wasn’t such a bad idea. He had kicked around the idea of working as a security consultant part time while ranching, but he wasn’t sure if it was plausible.   If he started his own business as a consultant, advising companies on the best way to improve their safety and security, that would take a lot of time, research on the company, its structure, its enemies—inside and outside the company, and he wasn’t sure that could really be done part-time while still ranching. Although if it could he had rationalized that he could be making money while building his ranch to whatever his ranch could be built into. Right now it was just a big ranch style house and a lot of property that he hadn’t fully put to use. His mother would have called it a waste since he hadn’t used much of the land after he purchased the place ten years ago. His father would call his entire life a disappointment. He never wanted him to join the military. He was a staunch pastor who had strict rules and beliefs on what his son should and should not do. He definitely didn’t think he should go into the military. The government was evil, war was evil and God was going to cure it all. That may have been the case, but while they waited for God to cure the ills of the world they still had to protect themselves. He joined up so he could protect this country, maybe he even joined up to get away from his family, but whatever his reason, his father was never more disappointed of him than he had been the day he told him he