Severed Threads Read Online Free PDF

There, tethered to the dock, sat a beautiful red and white Grumman Mallard seaplane, and still smiling, back in the corner of the room, sat the solution to all their problems.

Four

    Bam-bam-bam! Bam-bam-bam!
    Devon Lyons sprang up in bed. He squinted at the green glowing clock on his nightstand. 12:45 A.M. What the hell? It suddenly occurred to him that Logan Tulles must have gotten his messages. He had probably come over to rage about their disastrous dilemma. But why show up at this hour? Why didn’t he just call?
    “ Dev, it’s me. Open the door!”
    Selena Pollero’s muffled voice jacked his scowl into a smile. A verbal assault wasn’t waiting on his doorstep after all. Still, if he didn’t hear back from Logan by the time he finished breakfast, he’d have to send out a search party. He tied on his bathrobe as he swept through the condo and unbolted the front door.
    Selena rushed inside, her long auburn hair flowing behind her. "What took you so long? It’s freezing out there." A tight, off-the-shoulder black dress hugged her curves, raising more than goose bumps on her olive skin.
    "Aren’t you breaking rule number, what, fourteen on your brother’s list?" Devon smirked. He closed the door, already imagining his hands exploring every inch of her figure. The memory of her long legs wrapped around him caused his body to ache. He nabbed one of Selena’s arms to draw her in for a kiss.
    "I’m not here for that." She broke free and marched past him.
    He brushed the scruff on his chin with the back of his hand, thoroughly amused. Selena had taught him the power of impassioned stares and soft-spoken directives. The moment she ended her playful taunts, her sexual appetite had been known to surpass his – which wasn’t an easy feat.
    "So why are  you here?" he challenged, lips curled.
    At the window, Selena lifted the edge of the beige vertical blinds. She seemed to be distracted by something in the lit street below. When she looked back at Devon, her knitted brows had relaxed a bit, but her doe eyes appeared unsettled.
    "What’s going on?"
    "I think someone’s following me again." She walked a short distance across the hardwood floor in the living room and back again. "My brother’s got his guys on me all the time."
    After her second trip, Devon grabbed her arm. Her pacing was rattling his nerves.
    “ He can’t know I’m here,” she insisted.
    Just like his sister Rachel, Selena had a tendency to overreact. Yet this time, fear flickered in her eyes, convincing him to heed her warning about Gabe.
    "When I got home tonight, I heard him on the phone. He said you’d been messing with him. That if you didn’t show up, there was gonna be one less investment broker in town." An accusation edged her voice.
    Releasing her, Devon stepped closer to the dining room window. He lifted the shade a fraction higher and scanned the marina. No one in sight. He blew out a breath.
    "Whatever you’re involved in, Dev, you gotta get out of it. And fast."
    Despite the angst balling in his gut, he faced her and offered the false reassurance she sought. "There’s nothing to worry about. Just a misunderstanding. I’ll clear it up tomorrow, okay?" He stroked her cheek with his thumb, shielding his anxiety.
    Based on Logan’s recent discovery of their boss’s offshore accounts in Antigua, their "venture" was suddenly showing all the earmarks of a Ponzi scheme.
    Selena pulled his hand from her face. "Don’t lie to me. If you’re into something illegal..."
    "I’m not," he told her. "I promise."
    Devon hated being dishonest, and of all people, Selena deserved the truth. There was no purpose, though, in coming clean at this point – letting her know he was climbing walls over the laundered money he and Logan had entrusted with their missing boss. Should the Securities and Exchange Commission find out, they could be seeing prison time. And if they didn’t deliver an overdue inflated return on her brother’s stag investment,