Fraud: A Stepbrother Romance Read Online Free PDF

a wonderful time.
    “Goodbye, Alfred!” I cried.
    My eyes blurred, and I sobbed, missing him
so much.
    Only, this time, there was no one there to
lick away my salty tears.
     
    *****
     
    As the weeks wore on, the memories of
Alfred got to me, so I decided to not renew my lease.
    I kicked around for a while, working down
my cases, and finally went to Minneapolis.
    All during that time, Derek was in the
back of my mind, but only as a shadow. I had no idea what he was doing, and
even though I knew he was living his exciting life, I secretly wished he’d just
appear in my doorway, one day.
    No such luck.
    My career was all-consuming.
    For the next few years, I worked harder
than I had ever worked at anything.
    I won every case I had, and my client list
grew.
    I found a favorable reputation as a hard,
but fair attorney, who missed nothing.
    I managed to rack up the wins, but it also
increased my case load.
    My bank account grew as well, but my time
was given over to work. I was literally married to my career!
    Hah!
    I would never have imagined that.
     
    *****
     
    One week, a case brought me south to
Florida, and I liked the weather and excitement of SoBe so much I made a
decision.
    I looked over the real estate ads, and
took about a month to find a new home.
    I had enough money, so I bought an
expensive apartment in Miami, on Brickell Avenue.
    Life was almost perfect.
    So, I got another dog.
    His name was Nigel.
    Nigel was one of those Yorkie kinds of
dogs, all hyper and yappy and fun, and always happy and ready to play. His
favorite toy was an old t-shirt that he’d grab and shake and wrestle like it
was the world’s most dangerous snake, and he had to defeat it.
    Watching Nigel tear that thing up made me
laugh.
    It felt good, to finally be getting out of
my blues.
     
    *****
     
    And then, the Robert King trial reared its
ugly head.
    King had somehow managed to bilk almost a
billion dollars out of his clients, prospects and not a few rich socialites.
    I threw myself into it, and as the facts
presented themselves, knew I was going to win it.
    It was a slam dunk.
    There was absolutely no doubt.
    The evidence was incontrovertible, and the
IRS had records that had come up in discovery that proved fraud beyond the
shadow of a doubt.
    King was going down…
     
    *****
     
    Imagine my surprise, then, when I found
out Peg was ‘dating’ Robert King…
     
    *****
     
    I’d never really cared who Peg was
fucking.
    After Dad had passed, I wanted as little
to do as possible with her, and that little bastard, Blaise.
    The way Peg had gone out of her way to
make me miserable, I owed her nothing.
    But, her attachment to King made things
different.
    I wasn’t sure if I needed to recuse myself
from the case, now.
    But, there really wasn’t any legal reason
to do that.
    After all, she wasn’t my biological
mother, and I could be professional, right?
    I could submerge my hatred of her for the
duration of the trial, right?
    After all, this was my biggest case, and I
had it in the bag.
    What was there to worry about?
     
    *****
     
    And then, just like that, “Ike” Turner had
taken my victory and snatched it from me.
    Oh well, next case, I guess.
    Fuck.
    I really hate to lose…
     

Chapter 4
    MEGAN
     
    About three weeks after the King fiasco, I
was rummaging around some old boxes I had stored when I came across some photos
of Derek and me when we were kids.
    It was an unexpected thing, and caught me
a little off-guard.
    I remembered the place where we had been
staying, and I also remembered the other people in the photos.
    But, in the background of one or two of
them was a fuzzed-out man who seemed to resemble King.
    I figured maybe my mind was just playing
tricks on me.
    I wasn’t really sure I wasn’t just
projecting my recent defeat onto every little thing in my life, so I carefully
put the photos into my scanner and then enhanced them.
    The man might have been Robert King, but
if it was, he still had hair.
    And, the way he