Free Stolen Fury by Elisabeth Naughton Page A

valuable lesson because of him: she was the only person she could ever believe in.
    And that was the second reason she was still single at her age.
    She fought to keep her emotions guarded. The last thing she needed was to leave herself vulnerable to someone like Rafe Sullivan. Her relationship with Doug was long gone, but this thief had obviously dug up enough dirt to know just whom and what she’d been researching the last few months.
    She set her jaw. “And why would I help you?”
    “Because we each have something the other wants. I want Tisiphone. You want Alecto.”
    “Alecto’s already mine, Slick. I don’t need you.”
    That smile returned, white teeth flashing against full, tempting lips. “Possession’s nine-tenths of the law, querida. And just for the record, you don’t have her anymore.”
    Anger simmered just under Lisa’s skin. “So you want to make a deal.”
    He rocked back on his heels as if they were having an everyday, friendly conversation. “You could say that. But I like to think of it as a partnership. Your brains and connections, my resources and funds. I’m fairly certain together, we can find her. Hell, I know we can.”
    “And then what?”
    “And then we split the payoff at the end.”
    He was lying through his pearly whites—she could tell by the glint in his dark eyes.
    “It’s all about the money with you, isn’t it?” Her gaze narrowed when he only stared back at her, a blank look in his eye. “Without Magaera, the Furies aren’t complete. You won’t get half what they’re really worth.”
    His lips curled. “Don’t you worry that pretty little head of yours about Magaera.”
    What the hell did that mean?
    As if sensing her question, he shrugged. “I’ve already got a lead on the third Fury. And I always get what I want. Always,” he added with just a hint of lust in his eyes that told her the Furies weren’t the only things he wanted. “Right now we just need to focus on Tisiphone.”
    She couldn’t trust this guy as far as she could throw him. He’d proven that in Italy. But without him, she was screwed. His “partnership” made a sick sort of sense, if she really thought about it.
    She was short on funds as it was, and he obviously wasn’t. That pretty boat down at the marina was clear proof he had cash. And he was right: she had a fairly good idea where Tisiphone was hiding.
    Although she wasn’t ready to tell him that. It meant having to dig through Doug’s old papers, and so far, she just hadn’t been able to do that yet.
    She didn’t for one minute believe Rafe Sullivan would split the find with her fifty-fifty, but maybe, if she played her cards right, she could walk away with all three Furies before they were through. Maybe she could beat him at his own game.
    Because she knew the Furies didn’t mean nearly as much to him as they did to her.
    They couldn’t.
    “If I say no?” she asked, acting as if it didn’t matter to her in the least.
    “You’re not going to,” he tossed back with confidence.
    She turned and stared out the window as she ran through her options. After she’d found Alecto, she’d put in for a sabbatical from the university so she could go after the others. She was planning on focusing on Magaera next, but if he already had that one as well, Tisiphone was her only hope. She was risking her career on three pieces of stone, taking risks where, if she got caught, she could lose everything she’d worked for over the past fifteen years. But something in her gut said this was her time. If she didn’t try now, she’d spend the rest of her life wondering if this might have been her chance. Finding the reliefs wouldn’t change the past, but they might give her the validation she’d been seeking her whole life.
    After everything that had happened to her because of the Furies, she needed them. And dammit, she deserved them.
    There was her answer. Like it or not, she was about to go along with this outrageous idea.
    She shifted