Free Stolen: A Novel of Romantic Suspense by Shiloh Walker

him.
    “What in the hell is she talking about, Elliot?” Lorna asked quietly.
    Shit, it was almost verbatim, too, he thought.
I barely
got away—he was just too strong. Crazy, and he wanted to hurt me. I could see it—
    Swearing, he ground his fist against his brow and shoved the memory of that awful time out of his head.
Charges were dropped, man. The people who matter know she lied
. Granted, there weren’t a lot of them. A lot of the guys he’d thought were his friends had believed—
fuck, Winter, you need to focus
, he told himself.
    He had another nightmare on his hands.
Another
one. How in the
hell
had he ended up with another crazy bitch out to try and destroy his life? He’d met this woman
one
time and he hadn’t touched her for longer than it had taken to shake her hand.
    “Elliot, damn it, would you concentrate?” Lorna snapped. “What the fuck is she trying to pull?”
    Glancing over his shoulder, he met his sister’s furious gaze and shook his head. “I don’t know, Lorna.”
    There was a knock at the door. “Not now,” he called out.
    The knock came again thirty seconds later.
    Swearing, he shoved back from the computer and stormed over to the door. With a savage twist of his wrist, he jerked it open and glared at Becca. She shrank away from him. “I’m sorry,” she blurted out before he even managed to open his mouth. “I’m sorry, Elliot, I just … I didn’t know what to do. It’s … the book is missing.”
    “If somebody stole a damn book, we can deal with it in a few minutes. I’ve got a bigger problem on my hands,” he snarled.
    “It was Shay,” she said, as though she hadn’t even heard him.
    He stilled. “Shay?”
    She started twisting one of the numerous rings she wore on her hand. “She was at the register and she didthe weirdest damn thing. She bought every last one of the signed Shane Neil books—I mean,
all of them
. It was like over a hundred dollars’ worth and a lot of them were copies, ya know? Duplicates of the same book. But every signed book. She bought them all. Then, she was looking all white and pale, like she was going to pass out. I heard about her wreck and all and I was worried, so I asked her if she wanted some water. I went to get her some from the break room and I brought it out here. She was leaning against the counter, acting fine. Still pale and everything, but she drank it. Said thank you. Then she left. I swear, Elliot, the book was
there
, on the counter behind the register, when I went to get the water. I was reading it before I checked her out, I know it was there. But now it’s gone.”
    The words came spilling out of her in a rush and it took a few seconds for him to process them all. He was still confused. “What book?”
    “That one from Shane Neil … the advance reader’s copy you got from the author. I’m sorry … I know you two used to have a thing going, but I think … I think Shay stole it.”

CHAPTER
FIVE
    “I T ’ S NOT REALLY STEALING ,” SHE MUTTERED, SHOOTING a look at the ARC on top of the books. It was her damn book. Whoever had it couldn’t have a legit right to it. That was her line of thinking. So whoever had it, when she’d given it to Elliot, had done it under false pretenses and besides, the bitch had fucking
signed
it. It had a false signature on it—that made it a lie.
    If Elliot wanted a signed book, she’d give him one.
    But he wasn’t keeping
that
one. Wasn’t selling the other ones in his store, either.
    Nearly an hour had passed since she’d rushed from the store as fast as she could. It wasn’t very fast. She was finally back up over half speed. She figured she was at 70 percent now. Snow had moved in and it had taken her nearly fifty minutes to get home instead of the normal thirty. But now she was settled in front of the fireplace. It was already set with wood. She had matches. And she had the books.
    It was time to watch them burn. The damn things weren’t going to exist in a few