скачать книгу бесплатно
Major Crimes
Janie Crouch
A burning desire – a killer secret…When Omega special agent Cain Bennett asks for Hayley’s help to catch a murderer, she knows better than to say yes. After he sent her to prison, Hayley’s only just started piecing her life back together. But with their past colliding will she be able to stay away?
Working together would bring down a killer
But her secrets could tear them apart...
Hayley Green never wanted to see Omega special agent Cain Bennett again. Ever. He seduced her, then sent her to prison for hacking, and Hayley’s only just started piecing her life back together. Except now Cain needs Hayley’s help to catch a murderer. Their past is colliding with their still-smoldering attraction...and the only thing more dangerous than the killer is the secrets Hayley’s been keeping.
Omega Sector: Under Siege
JANIE CROUCH has loved to read romance her whole life. This USA TODAY bestselling author cut her teeth on Mills & Boon Romance novels as a preteen, then moved on to a passion for romantic suspense as an adult. Janie lives with her husband and four children overseas. She enjoys traveling, long-distance running, movie watching, knitting and adventure/ obstacle racing. You can find out more about her at www.janiecrouch.com (http://www.janiecrouch.com).
Also by Janie Crouch (#uadf18358-466a-5201-840a-a1d1a7a3e0e7)
Daddy Defender
Protector’s Instinct
Cease Fire
Major Crimes
Special Forces Saviour
Fully Committed
Armoured Attraction
Man of Action
Overwhelming Force
Battle Tested
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Major Crimes
Janie Crouch
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-07905-1
MAJOR CRIMES
© 2018 Janie Crouch
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
This book is dedicated to Hayley, aka “Mandy”. How blessed I am to still have you in my life all these years later. We may be continents apart (I move to one...you move to another) but I treasure your friendship and the memories we have. To Mandy, love Mittie. xx
Contents
Cover (#ub3c040db-353b-56ef-bf05-e93f412e096c)
Back Cover Text (#u43ef217e-55fb-5865-97ba-41ba34f4cd76)
About the Author (#ua279ce11-79ba-5b74-a22e-26237130eaae)
Booklist (#u77ada594-b9f2-59a6-b734-b5a0f0e9b6b0)
Title Page (#ucc38e448-5372-5303-aa45-cbc217e5759b)
Copyright (#u5fece775-2983-5fa6-b745-08f3353e0743)
Dedication (#ubc528ee6-f390-5130-bebf-d81199c9af31)
Prologue (#u6904ea82-4fed-5e73-b504-8e2d7890c33c)
Chapter One (#u6c2e16b0-bc2e-5f74-8b48-c295bddb58f3)
Chapter Two (#ubcea49e3-99af-5d5c-9fc7-12e8aa114609)
Chapter Three (#udcfc937a-2aae-5448-bb03-b9fb6739c4fd)
Chapter Four (#ubce4ffd6-af8d-59dc-9562-e19f00afa601)
Chapter Five (#u89ee6d17-7f87-5638-8ecd-1373b414db5f)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue (#uadf18358-466a-5201-840a-a1d1a7a3e0e7)
Omega Sector agent Cain Bennett sat in the back row of a Georgia courthouse waiting for the judge to come in and sentence the woman Cain had loved since he was sixteen years old.
Hayley Green, the woman Cain had arrested.
He scrubbed a hand over his face, then leaned forward to rest the weight of his forearms on his knees. Hayley currently sat ramrod straight at the table directly in front of the judge’s bench, in a Fulton County orange jumpsuit, her straight blond hair in a ponytail behind her. She was obviously ignoring the whispers from the crowd that was here to see her sentenced. Press, government figures, even some people from their small Georgia hometown who wanted to be able to report the gossip live filled the room.
You would think she was about to be sentenced for murder rather than computer hacking.
He still hadn’t figured out why Hayley chose to use her ninja-like computer skills illegally, to hack the College Entrance Test—CET—system. The exam, which allowed students to get their results back instantly rather than having to wait months like previous standardized tests, was supposed to be unhackable. Questions completely random.
Hayley and her cohorts had figured out not how to hack the test, but how to build false exams into the system. Ones that the system thought were real and that gave the students who “took” them real scores and credit.
Rich students were willing to pay handsomely for these false exams and scores, which would, in essence, assure their acceptance into any college they desired. A pretty nifty scam when it was all said and done. But why she had done it, Cain had no idea. The girl he’d known in high school would never have.
And Hayley sure as hell wasn’t going to offer any reasons why to Cain. She was refusing to talk to him at all.
He gritted his teeth in a constant tension he’d lived with for the past several months. Yes, he’d reignited his relationship with Hayley because of the hacking case.
But because he’d thought she might be able to put him in contact with some of the hackers, not because he thought she was one of them.
But to her it just looked like he’d slept with her as part of some damn sting operation.
Cain looked up at Hayley’s still, stiff form in the chair. God, he’d made a mess of things. She had, too. Why the hell had she been hacking? Become a criminal? She knew he’d dedicated his life to law enforcement. Choosing to break the law was like a slap in the face after what they’d once shared.
But hopefully the judge would take into consideration that Hayley had no prior convictions, no arrests. She’d pleaded no contest in order to not drag out the case and cost taxpayers thousands of dollars in a trial. Cain, as the agent who had been in charge of the investigation, had petitioned for no jail time for Hayley.
Parole with limited computer usage, definitely. But Hayley wasn’t dangerous. Had no intent to harm others. Time already served would be a perfect sentence for her.
She might not like it, but Cain planned to be a lot more present in her life. He’d been wrong to let them grow so far apart as he’d gone to college, then the FBI training academy, before joining Omega Sector. They’d talked via social media and email, but he obviously had not been privy to what was really going on in her life. Aka: criminal activities.
That would stop now.
The judge would release her today, and tomorrow Cain would begin to bulldoze his way back into her life. She’d be mad—hell, so was he—but they would work through it. They had too much history, too much passion, too much rightness to be without each other for long. Hayley Green was his, the same way he was hers. They had been for over ten years.
Beginning tomorrow, he was going to make sure his little felon had her own law enforcement agent keeping her on the straight and narrow. Cain smiled slightly. It wouldn’t be easy, but she was worth it. They were worth it.
The bailiff announced for all to rise as the judge entered the courtroom. Everyone sat back down as the judge asked Hayley to stand.
Cain listened as the judge spoke to Hayley about computer crimes, although not violent, not being victimless. He grew more tense as the judge pointed out that she’d stolen not just from the company that developed and ran the CET, but from students around the country who had missed out on the opportunity of college acceptance and scholarship because of the test results she had sold for money.
Bile began to burn at the back of his throat when the judge said that Hayley had not just hacked computers, she had stolen futures.
This was not good.
“Today,” the judge continued, “I feel that it is important to set an example. To show that people like you, Ms. Green—young, intelligent, able to work—will be held to strict standards when you choose to break the law. To discourage others from making the same choices.”
Cain wanted to stand up. Stop time. Do something. Because the next words to come out of the judge’s mouth were going to alter Cain’s entire world.
He couldn’t imagine what they were going to do to Hayley’s.
“Hayley Green, you have pleaded nolo contendere to a charge of first-degree computer crimes, which is a class B felony, with a sentence of up to twenty years in prison. This court hereby sentences you to ten years at the Georgia Women’s Correctional Institution, Minimum Security Campus, eligible for parole not before four years.”
Cain saw Hayley’s body jerk as the gavel came down against the sound block on the judge’s bench. The judge said a few more things and then court was dismissed.
Cain couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. Feeling like all the oxygen had been sucked from the room, he stared at Hayley, still standing stiffly at the table as her lawyer murmured something in her ear. Hayley’s cousin Ariel, the only family present, was crying softly in the row behind her.
Four years. Hayley would spend at least four years in prison.
And Cain had sent her there.
People began filing out around him, but Cain couldn’t force himself to move. Couldn’t stop looking at Hayley. Couldn’t figure out how to make this right.
Things would never be right again.
