Desire for Love (The Club #13) Read Online Free PDF Page B

it.
    Her stomach knotted as
cold sweat formed along her spine. “None of that’s true,” whispered Madeline. What
the hell is happening? What money? And what client? She’d only had the one
last night and look what a disaster that turned out to be.
    “Honey, all I know is
that security has been beefed up, there’s talk of warrants for the cops to poke
through our lockers, and all the vid feeds for the past month are being
scrutinized by the suits. You, Madeline, are a strictly no go zone.”
    The police? “Sasha,
you have to help me. It’s imperative that I speak to Jet. Or Brittany, if
possible.” She dragged in a deep breath to steady her racing pulse and tried to
think logically. “You let me into your building. You didn’t have to do that and
that tells me you want to help.”
    The other girl sighed. “I
guess I’m finding it hard to believe it’s true. I wanted to hear what you had
to say about it.”
    “I appreciate that,
Sasha. I swear none of it is true. I don’t know what’s going on but I need a
chance to clear my name before things get out of control.”
    “Honey, they are way out
of control. Look, best I can do is give you Jet’s email. I don’t know if it’s
going to be of any help though because last I heard he was incommunicable. He’s
out of the state, in vacation mode. Wait here.”
    The door closed.
    Madeline stood in the passageway
and waited until Sasha re-opened the door, slipping a piece of paper through
the crack.
    “If it’s of any
consolation, Beebee, who works the bar with me some nights, reckons she’s going
to look into it, although what she thinks she can do is anyone’s guess. Good
luck and remember, you didn’t get this address from me.”
    The door slammed shut and
this time Madeline heard the lock engage. She was on her own.
    All the way home, she
kept expecting a cop car to sweep up to her at any moment and order her to pull
over. Panicky thoughts chased themselves inside her mind like squirrels on
speed. Matty. His future. Their mother lying dead on the floor in a pool of
vomit, her eyes staring at eternity. Harrison. Roberta and that shitty bet. The
impossibility of achieving her goal as a paralegal if she was charged with
theft. Even the whiff of being under investigation would be sufficient to taint
her chances of employment in that area.
    And she was so close.
    She’d been working on her
online degree so hard, paying down the fees as and when she could over the past
four years while working at the Club. With only one final exam to pass, the
next step would be applying for work in a law firm for a year while she
continued with fifteen hours a week legal education. Then, if all went
according to plan, she could apply to the State Bar of Texas for membership.
God, if she could never break away into a new career, how much would that
jeopardize her brother’s future?
    Shit. There was more than her new career at stake here.
    Her reputation.
    There was her freedom.
    The knowledge that she’d
let Matty down.
    That he could lose his
place at the Academy, be sucked into one of the local gangs. Drugs. Violence. A
sordid death.
    With a start, she
realized she was driving down her street and coming up to her house. Her heart
raced, slamming against her rib cage. Her head pounded. The palms of her hands
were sweaty. She was on the verge of panic attack. Gasping for air, she pulled
over and turned off the engine and windshield wipers. The street was quiet, the
rain and cold wind keeping people inside their homes. Her hands clenched on the
steering wheel as a car turned into the street. She squeezed her eyes shut for
a second. When she opened them, the car turned into her neighbor’s driveway two
doors down and disappeared from sight. It wasn’t a cop car.
    I need to focus. Get a
hold of myself. Think!
    She locked the Chevy and
hurried inside the house where she kicked off her boots. Still in her overcoat,
she perched on the edge of the sofa and reached for Matty’s old