Fool Me Once (First Wives #1)

Rick brought his cell phone to his ear while Reed pushed out of the car to satiate his need for caffeine.

Morning coffee rush hour was in full swing.

The tables in the coffee shop had yet to fill, but the line was six customers deep. Instead of standing in line, he walked to the bathroom. Sure enough, when he left the restroom, only two patrons were waiting to make their orders.

Then he heard it . . . a voice, very deep and distinctive.

He turned.

Red hair, petite . . . a voice that should be on the radio or doing voice-overs.

Sam . . . Lori’s partner.

What the hell?

He turned back toward the hall to the bathroom and dialed Rick.

It rang several times before he picked up. When he did, he answered with a demand. “Regular coffee, black.”

“Sam is in here.”

“What?”

“Samantha.”

“I know who Sam is . . . what is she doing in there?”

“I don’t know, but I have a feeling we should.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Sam sitting at a tucked away table. A woman sat in the opposite chair, her back to him. Not Sasha, he could see that from where he stood. This woman was a little larger, her hair a little lighter. Her profile suggested a similar gene pool to Sasha’s, but that was about it. He had a feeling he’d seen her before but couldn’t place her.

Rick walked in the front door like a bull in a china shop.

“Lordy, Lord, Lord, I could use some caffeine.” Rick said the words loud enough to get everyone’s attention in the place.

Including Sam’s.

Rick smiled at the woman in front of him and nodded with a wink.

There was a brief moment of eye contact, and Rick placed a hand to his head. “Just don’t think straight without a little coffee.”

He was next in line.

“What can I get you?”

“An ultralarge grande, verde . . . whatever it is you call your biggest cup of coffee. Just coffee. Cut off any of that froufrou stuff. I’ll let the women in my life sweet talk me, I take my coffee bitter and black.”

Reed saw the moment in Sam’s body language when she switched gears. The fact that she hadn’t jumped up from the chair to say hello to someone she knew said she didn’t want the woman with her to know.

“Our coffee isn’t bitter,” the barista said.

“Well, if I leave it in my car as long as I usually do, it will be cold and bitter by the time I suck it down.”

Reed stayed hidden while Sam ended the conversation with the woman.

There was a quick back-and-forth before Sam shook the woman’s hand and the unknown woman turned and walked out.

Like a switch, Rick’s character jolted back to baseline, and he abandoned the coffee he’d just made a show of buying in the barista’s hands. “Who was that?” he asked Sam.

Reed walked around the corner, and Sam saw him for the first time, her expression going from concerned to panicked.

“A new client.”

Reed stepped forward. “For Alliance?”

Sam looked between the both of them, then to Rick. “Yes.”

Ah, damn . . .

Rick bolted for the door and called behind his back, “No new clients, Sam. Lock it down.”

Reed followed him out the door.





Chapter Thirty-Two




“Sam’s on line two, she said it’s an emergency.”

Lori accidentally pressed the wrong line. “Sam?”

“I’m on hold for—”

She disconnected the man on the line, pressed the next one. “Sam?”

“Lori?”

“What’s happening?” Her heart was pounding. Sam didn’t cry wolf, and emergencies were never mentioned unless it was.

“I need to know exactly how you met Susan Wilson.”

“The new client?”

“Not a client. I scheduled a quick meeting to get a feel for her. Before I had an opportunity to really speak with her, Rick and Reed showed up.”

Lori’s head spun. “Reed? What was he doing with—”

“I don’t have the details. They ran out the door. The woman is obviously not who she says she is. No new clients on either end until further notice. Now tell me again how this woman approached you . . .”

Once the call with Sam was over, Lori pushed away from her desk and stormed into her lobby.

Her resident loiterer glanced up, smiled, then looked back down to his book.

“Cooper!”

He snapped his eyes up.

“My office. Now.”

Liana looked around as if a cloud of crazy had descended upon the office.

She stormed past her office door, waited for him to close it before she began. “Where is Reed?”

Cooper blinked a few times but didn’t answer.

“I know he’s with Rick . . . why?”

“You should probably have this conversation with Neil.”

“Nobody converses with Neil. The man sits there, listens until you run out of words, and then walks off.”

Cooper opened his mouth to argue.

“Cooper! Spill, now.”

He bobbed his head a few times, ran a hand through his hair. “He’s working with the team to find this Sasha woman.”

“Working with . . .”

“Reed is the only one who knows what she looks like.”

“We can’t trust him,” she all but shouted.

“So far . . . that’s not completely true.” Cooper spoke with slow, careful words.

“Oh my God . . . have you ever heard the phrase, ‘fool me once, shame on you’?”

“Yes, but—”

“No buts. He’s a lying piece of dirt. He bugged my home. Tracked my car.” Broke my heart.

“He did all those things. You’re right. However.” He paused.

Lori spun around, marched to the window as if it offered some sort of sanity.

“Neil and Rick think he can be trusted.”

“Idiots.”




They lost her.

Reed ran after her while Rick jumped into the car. They didn’t make it two blocks before she was swallowed in a sea of people.

Rick drove slowly along the parked cars on the busy street with his window rolled down. “Anything?” he yelled.

“No.” Both hands on his head, Reed spun in circles.

“Was that Sasha?”

“No.”

Several cars were attempting to get around Rick, and honked and shouted as they weaved around them.

Reed gave up and got into the car.

They drove around the block several times.

“Which means Sasha is leading us to this woman.”

“A woman who now knows our faces.”

Rick tapped his hands on the steering wheel. “I don’t think that’s the point. We know her now.”

“And if she was attempting to be one of those Alliance brides to get on the inside . . .”

“Yeah,” Rick said. “That’s my thought.”

“So either Sasha doesn’t want the competition or . . .”

“Or she’s helping us out.”

“And if that’s the case, then this was the woman we needed to be on the lookout for yesterday.”

Rick muttered a curse under his breath, pulled an illegal U-turn, and made his way to the Beverly Wilshire.

They left the car with the valet and split ways when they entered the lobby. “You watch the elevators, I’ll check the garage.”

Reed took his place against a wall. With each ding of the elevator bell, his pulse hitched up a notch.

Ten minutes later, Rick sent a text. Not in the garage. Sweeping the common rooms.

With each click of the second hand on his watch, he knew they’d missed her.

His phone rang.

Unknown number.

“This is Reed.”