Free Ellie Ashe - Miranda Vaughn 02 - Dropping the Dime by Ellie Ashe

trust someone just because he's got a badge."
    "Burton, honestly. If anyone knows that, it's me."
    "Some guys you think might be trouble because of their past, might actually be more honorable than their reputation would imply," he said.
    I squinted at him. "Wait. What are we talking about?"
    Burton gave me a sly smile. "You. And your choice in men."
    Heat crept up my neck. "Not fair. We were talking about Sean Keogh. I don't want to talk about my choice in men. I haven't even chosen any men in a long time. A really long time."
    He laughed. "I'm just saying that Q's a good man. You could do worse."
    Now my face was on fire, and I had no idea how we'd gone from work talk to Burton's matchmaking.
    "I have done worse, I'm sure," I muttered, thinking of my former fiancé, Dylan. So yeah, I didn't have a great track record with men. But I didn't consider Jake a bad choice. It was more like bad timing.
    "You should get to know Q."
    "That's what everyone keeps telling me," I said. "So, tell me about Sean Keogh. What was the rumor about his abrupt departure from federal service?"
    Burton shrugged and frowned, but let me change the subject. "Nothing that was ever proven, or at least not made public," he said. "I actually hadn't talked to him in about three years, but he was able to help me out."
    "Sounds like you owe him."
    "Yeah." Burton sounded very unhappy about that. "He's not someone I want to owe."
    "Why not?"
    Burton shrugged and his eyes narrowed. "He doesn't have the best reputation."
    "What does that mean? That he's incompetent? Or he cheats at cards?"
    I studied Burton's profile, which gave little away. "Maybe the first. Definitely the second."
    I raised an eyebrow and waited, but Burton didn't respond to my stare. Damn . It always worked when he did that to me. He'd lean forward and make eye contact, and before I knew what hit me, I'd be spilling my secrets.
    With a sigh, I returned to the stack of press releases and scanned the little bit of information I'd found on Hedgehog. It had been founded by a man named Thomas Dillon who had been quite successful in funding a couple of computer game start-up companies. Most of his gambles paid off, and Dillon was a billionaire by the time he turned thirty-five. That's when he hired Mark Ramsey his old college buddy to take the reins of the venture capital firm. And then Dillon paid an obscene amount of money for a custom yacht and sailed off to explore the world.
    "In half a mile, turn left onto Hedgehog Drive," the sultry voice of Burton's GPS announced. It wasn't the typical robotic voice, and I turned toward him, my eyes narrowing.
    "Is that customized?"
    He grinned. "Yeah. You like it?"
    "It's kind of creepy. It sounds like you've got Kathleen Turner in your trunk."
    Burton laughed and eased the car onto the long, tree-lined boulevard that led to a gatehouse. He touched the controls, and the tinted glass of the driver's side window silently slid down. A guard asked for both of our identifications, checked our appointment on a touch-screen tablet, and then placed a call from inside the booth. After a brief conversation that we couldn't hear, he passed Burton a placard to put in his window and raised the gate.
    We rolled forward and Burton frowned. "Seems like a lot of security for a toy investor."
    "High-tech companies have problems with corporate espionage." But as I spoke, I eyed the perimeter of the property, which was lined with a high chain-link fence and with razor wire at the top. It looked more like a prison than an investment firm. "Though that fence does seem excessive."
    The car rounded a soft curve, and before us lay Hedgehog's headquarters, several large office buildings surrounding a manmade lake. It looked more like a college campus than an investment firm. The grass was green and manicured, and paths between the buildings wound past sculptures, small groves of trees, and benches overlooking the water. We parked in a lot for visitors near a fountain depicting a