Lost & Broken (LIttlemoon Investigations Book 2) Read online

  She was damn tough and had bigger balls than half the men he knew. What babe could handle a crime scene, and then eat right after?

  Nothing fazed her.

  When he snuck up on her, the one and only time, she nearly handed him his ass. Being as big as he was, that was no easy task for a woman who barely measured in at five feet. She landed him flat on the ground, Glock in his face, and yet still stared down at him in horror. To say that he was shocked would be an understatement. Before he could speak, she dropped to her knees and tried to soothe his injuries. Through his eyes, he saw more than just an FBI agent.

  He saw his future.

  And it was slipping away fast. If only he could sway her into taking a chance by promising him the next fifty years of her life.

  After their first night together, Kane learned even more surprising things. He found that she was covered in scars, and yet, she never let that make her miserable or angry. They looked like she had suffered an immeasurable amount of pain, yet she was still sweet and kind. Out of all the women, who he had ever met, Christina had an unfathomable well of happiness and joy. He knew that each burn that had been inflicted on her body had to have been excruciating. Plus, the tattoos that she was getting to cover them were just as painful, and yet, she wasn’t bitter.

  Life, and its rollercoaster of twist and turns, hadn’t made her hard.

  She was his inspiration.

  When they first made love, he never brought the scars up, but overtime she was more open to discussing the work related wounds. In fact, he’d made it a practice to appreciate them, and even help her rub lotion on them nightly. They weren’t hideous to him, but the exact opposite. They were her badge of courage.

  His little wood sprite was bad ass, and he loved her.

  Watching her sit there and email her bosses at the FBI made his heart ache. All that Kane wanted was to drop to his knees and beg for her hand in marriage. In fact, he would marry her right there with a justice of the peace. Anything to assure that she would stay right by his side.

  Kane was pretty sure he couldn’t live without her, and he was ready to declare it to the world.

  Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that until Christina made up her mind. It was all riding on that one simple question and the answer.

  Him or the FBI?

  Okay, maybe it wasn’t so simple after all. Her leave of absence was coming to an end in the next week and a half. At that time, he was going to find himself engaged or dumped. If she opted to return to the FBI and Damascus, he was going to be right behind her. How could he let his sweet angel get away? No, he was willing to walk away from the life he knew to be with the woman who owned him, heart and soul.

  What choice did he have?

  God, he wished that he could fast forward through the next week and just get it over with. Each moment of not knowing his fate was tearing a hole in his soul. Kane’s heart couldn’t take it anymore. Each day was more and more excruciating. Here, his biggest fears were being laid in front of him. He was going to follow the path of his uncles and get his heart handed to him by an outsider.

  He was sure of it.

  Christina sent off her email and crossed her legs. She could feel the man she loved staring at her. It was making her nervous and exited at the same time. She couldn’t believe that her leave of absence was coming to an end. It seemed just like yesterday that she was telling the Blackhawks that she needed to follow her heart.

  Well, here it sat right beside her in all his Native glory.

  The only problem she had was the anticipation in waiting to see what he saw for their future. As of yet, the sexy Native beside her had yet to mention anything permanent.

  Was he going to want to get married?

  Or did he only see her as a live in girlfriend?

  There was no secret about how his family felt about him being with a ‘white woman’. In fact, the first meeting had been tense. Even as he reassuringly escorted her in to meet them, she was terrified. Here was this six and a half foot man with this tiny outsider, and it wasn’t lost on anyone that the family was staring at Kane like he was crazy. No, she didn't miss the speculative looks. When he left her alone, to go help his father, Christina heard the whispers.

  Could they look more wrong together?

  Didn't he learn from his uncles’ mistakes?

  What was Kane thinking?

  Yeah, they didn't really respond well to her and her non-Native ethnicity. Now, she was worried that his family had managed to talk him out of marriage. Was she destined to only be his girlfriend for the rest of her life or until he became bored?

  Don’t get her wrong. She loved that aspect of her life, but she wanted, NO, needed more.

  What the hell was she doing wrong? She had watched Elizabeth LaRue wrangle Ethan ‘Sexy as Sin’ Blackhawk in under five days. Then, she found a spare and drew in Callen Whitefox, too. Where had she screwed this up? In all honesty, Christina didn't have a damn clue. Surely, she had done this right.

  Step one was to find a sexy Native. Check.

  Step two, she had fallen in love with him. Check.

  Step three was where she got him to propose. Yeah, Christina was still waiting on that elusive one.

  Yep, that’s where she lost it. Even as she was prepared to forever turn in her FBI credentials and take the big Native leap, she couldn’t get him to even hint.

  It was making her insane.

  All that she wanted to know was if they had a future together. She was sitting on the mother of all secrets, and she wanted to explode.

  Christina never thought that she’d be on the receiving end of faulty birth control, but here she was. Arrogantly, she believed that she was too smart to slip up and get pregnant. What she wanted to do was tell the man she loved that she was having his child.

  In the oven, there was a very Native bun.

  In fact, time wasn’t on her side, and she knew it. Kane deserved to know, but then again, Christina earned the right to hear his feelings too.

  The real ones!

  There was no doubt in her mind, that if she spilled the beans, he would certainly marry her.

  But, was that what she really wanted?

  Was it wrong to be offered marriage out of nothing but obligation because his sperm had found her egg? What was she supposed to tell her child when it was old enough and wanted to know why daddy married mommy? Because he was a good man and a little old fashioned? No, she wanted him to propose because of love.

  Damn you, Cupid, and your vicious arrows!

  Yeah, she was biding her time until that happened.

  At least she was able to get some support. All the women in the office knew. Tori and Vivian had found her weeping in the conference room, and she was forced to show them the reason. Making them take a vow of silence, even to the men in their lives, she believed that her secret was safe. After all, it had been a few weeks, and Kane was still oblivious.

  Wasn’t he?

  How he didn't notice her disappearing after dinner to toss her cookies, was beyond her. What did he think? That she was just repeatedly trying to get out of dish duty?

  How many times could she tell him that she needed to brush her teeth before she looked like a serial dental freak?

  Glancing over, she gave him a smile.

  When he brushed one of the strands of her hair away from her cheek, her heart melted. Yeah, this was the father of her child, and her heart was lost to him. From the day they got drunk and slept together, Christina knew the truth.

  He was the Native of her very sexy dreams.

  Cautiously, she placed her hand on her belly and sent her little nerd in the making some love.

  A part of her still couldn’t believe that she was going to be a mother.

  Holy shit!

  Christina Bridget Hart was growing a baby, and when her family found out, there was going to be definite hell to pay. If Kane didn't think that her father would round him up and hold him at gunpoint, he was mistaken. If he didn't want t
o marry her, she already knew that she would be forced to play single parent, back at the FBI.

  If he walked away, she’d protect him. It wasn’t like this was his fault. They had really spectacular sex, a lot, and one little Kane sperm found its way to her nerdy egg. She was just as much to blame.

  Damn contraceptives!

  She could almost see her mother’s face now, and hear her shrill, angry voice.

  Yeah, Kane better propose and fast, because this wasn’t going to fly with her parents.

  Christina somehow doubted that he was going to enjoy the lecture that was going to be heading their way if he didn't ‘do right’ by their baby girl. Then again, Christina wasn’t exactly looking forward to hearing how she wasted her career and ruined her life on a man who wasn’t willing to commit.

  Yeah, no thank you.

  “Oh crap,” she muttered.

  “What?” Kane said, glancing over.

  She simply smiled. “Nothing, love,” she answered.

  Holy moly! She really needed him to pop the question and fast.

  Oh boy. They were both in so much trouble…

  Chapter Two

  When Tori and Julian entered the conference room, the tension was thick. Both could tell that something was up with the two people in front of them.

  Apparently, love wasn’t fairing so well against stress this week. It was definitely getting the shit kicked out of it on multiple fronts.

  “Hi,” stated Christina cheerfully.

  Tori could tell it was faux excitement, and she knew why. The poor girl was having a baby and refused to tell the father. If she did, there was no doubt that the man would do the right thing. Not that it would be the only reason. Everyone who worked there could see that Kane Redwolf was more than smitten with his little geekette.

  He was infatuated.

  Point in case was the way he was staring at her. Kane was openly gazing at her like she was a reincarnated deity who fell from the heavens. At any moment, he might build her an altar to worship her greatness.

  “Good morning, Christina,” Julian replied, dropping down in his customary seat. He slid his chair closer to Tori, hoping that she would offer him some soothing from a simple touch. Rarely, was she not in contact with his body.

  When she didn't, he simply dug himself deeper into the paranoia. Now, his woman wasn’t even touching him. This had to be a really bad sign.

  “Do we have a big one coming in?” Kane asked.

  Julian wasn’t really sure. “All I know is that the client, who is arriving, wants us to find a missing book. She was pretty vague on the phone, but it shouldn’t be a hard one. We finally hit a lull after the storm, so we should be good.”

  The last few weeks had been filled with tons of calls. When they arrived every morning, the voicemail box for the office was filled to capacity. There were so many people who had seen their last case on the news and wanted their help.

  It was chaos and every business owner’s dream all at once.

  “It’s about time. You’re going to have to hire more investigators if this keeps up,” Christina added. “I don’t know how long the six of us can run nonstop.” Yeah, especially in her condition…

  Julian was well aware. Thus, the office switch up. “I’m contemplating it, and I have some calls out to other people who I know can fill the job. I never thought I would be saying this, but I hope that business slows down a little. I wasn’t prepared for this explosion.”

  Tori dropped her hand on his thigh when she believed Julian would be too distracted to move away from it. “I’m not surprised, Jules. You’re really good at this,” she stated.

  The familiar contact gave him hope that they were fixable. “Thank you, honey. I can’t do it without you and the rest of the team.”

  “I could use a day off,” stated Kane.

  Julian laughed. Couldn’t they all? At that point, they were running seven days a week, trying to stay ahead of the cases. They were turning down so many a week, and pulling priority ones to the head of the list.

  Basically, if it wasn’t life or death, it wasn’t happening. You could sing a million sob stories, but it all came down to how the team viewed it as a priority.

  The intercom buzzed, signaling that their appointment had arrived. Any second, Lena would be escorting the next potential client in. It looked like the show was about to begin. At one time, they had to impress the clientele to earn their case. Now, the shoe was on the other foot, and they were waiting to see if the case intrigued them.

  It was a good position to be in.

  “Let’s see what we have,” he stated, waiting for the woman’s arrival.

  “Lena said the potential client was trying to sell her situation like there was no tomorrow. In fact, she sounded borderline desperate,” Tori stated, sipping her coffee.

  “Yeah, well, I’m hard to impress,” Julian stated, and he was. Look at how he carefully chose only the best woman for the job of partner and wife.

  Quality mattered.

  When Lena appeared, she was all smiles. That told Julian that the person she was escorting in would be attractive. Lena was like their early warning system. She didn't really have a poker face when it came to perceived hotness.

  When the potential client entered behind his secretary, he didn't find the girl to be anything extraordinary. Don’t get him wrong, she was definitely pretty, but she wasn’t his kind of woman. Glancing over at the feisty redhead beside him, he squeezed her hand. Yeah, the babe who owned his heart had to be a little bit wild and a total handful.

  “Mr. Littlemoon, thank you for seeing me,” she said, walking over to shake his hand. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you’re taking time out of your busy day to hear about my situation.”

  Tori couldn’t help but notice the way the woman was checking out her husband. Granted, she wouldn’t be the first but generally, other women were less overt. This was a flagrant once over, and it was irritating her. Yeah, whatever was going through this woman’s head wasn’t happening. She’d boycott this assignment right off the top if this woman thought that there was a snowball’s chance in hell that she had a shot.

  Tori struggled to stay calm. If she wasn’t so stirred up, worrying that Julian would want to replace her, she might have been able to laugh it off.

  Now, not so much.

  “You’re welcome, Miss…” he paused, waiting for her to introduce herself.

  “Oh, God! I’m so sorry! I’m Jamie Montgomery.” She beamed at him, praying that he’d take her case. What was a little flirting if it got him to do it?

  “It’s nice to meet you, Miss Montgomery. These are two of our investigators, Kane Redwolf and Christina Hart,” he said, introducing them. Then, he motioned toward his wife, who was sitting stiffly beside him. “This is my partner and wife, Tori Littlemoon.”

  They both saw the way her face fell.

  Yep, Tori wasn’t mistaken. Their guest honestly believed that sexuality would help her get them to take the job.

  Yeah, it was never going to happen in this lifetime.

  At his introduction, Tori almost wanted to dance around triumphantly. Yeah, the word ‘wife’ knocked the wind out of her sails. It was pretty petty, but with all the issues they were having, it was nice that Julian saw what she did and put a stop to it.

  “It’s nice to meet you all.”

  “How about you tell us about the case?” she urged, trying to get the pretty blonde to spill it. “Give us the details, and we’ll let you know if we can help you.”

  The woman looked taken aback. “If? I thought that this meeting meant that you were taking my case. You mean there’s still a chance that you won’t?”

  Yeah, Tori wasn’t feeling so magnanimous. Already, she was weighing in on the decline side of the assignment. In order to sway her, there would have to be some amazing perks to overlook the woman’s perceived insult.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Montgomery, but we need to see if we can handle it, then we’ll decide
,” Julian replied. “As you can imagine, we get a lot of calls from people who need our help. We need to screen your case and see if it fits our criteria.”

  No one missed the disappointment, and then the desperate look that followed it.

  She took a deep breath before continuing, “Okay, I completely understand. I don’t know much about this kind of thing. You’d be the first private investigators who I’ve ever tried to hire. I just assumed.”

  Tori crossed her arms. Yeah, that wouldn’t get her very far. Assuming was a very dangerous thing. Oh yeah, so was flirting with a married man. Clearly, the ring on Julian’s hand said taken.

  “You mentioned to our receptionist that you needed us to find a book for you. How about we start there?” Julian began, returning to his seat after Jamie took hers.

  “Have you ever heard of the Hesser family?” she asked, glancing around the room. Surely, once they heard the details, they’d be hooked on the mystery.

  “I actually have,” stated Christina, as the rest of the team looked around without a clue to what she was talking about. “They were just on the news. I think the report was discussing something about how the matriarch is in a nursing home and on the verge of dying.”

  She nodded enthusiastically. “They’re one of the richest families in the country, and I believe that I’m an heir to the fortune.”

  They all stared at her.

  Yeah, this was going to be a bust.

  “I know that it sounds ridiculous, but in searching out my family roots, I believe that my great grandmother worked for them. She may have had an affair with Joseph Hesser and gave birth to a child.”

  “Is this family history?” Tori asked. If it was, then why did she need them?

  “Kind of,” she answered, pulling out the paper. “As I was researching my family tree, I traced it back to my grandfather. He was put up for adoption in nineteen thirteen. He went to a nice family who loved and raised him.”