Also by Alyse Zaftig

  Angeleno Billionaires

  Sunshine

  Trouble

  The Bad Boy's Pregnant Bride

  The Reformed Bad Boy's Baby

  Chased by the Dragons

  Galapagos

  Chased by the Dragons

  Her Dad's Best Friend

  Working for Her Dad's Best Friend

  Paying Off Her Dad's Best Friend

  Fake Marrying Her Dad's Best Friend

  Seduced by Her Dad's Best Friend

  Saved by Her Dad’s Best Friend

  Spying on Her Dad's Best Friend

  Protected by Her Dad’s Best Friend

  Falling for Her Dad's Best Friend

  Guarded by Her Dad's Best Friend

  Sleeping with Her Dad's Best Friend

  Tempting Her Dad's Best Friend

  Imperial Draka

  Secret Prince's Bride

  Standalone

  Fresh

  Tonight Only

  Billionaire's Assistant

  Drug Lord

  An Heir for the Billionaire Werebears

  The Volleyball Coach's Surprise Baby

  FALLING FOR HER DAD’S BEST FRIEND

  ALYSE ZAFTIG

  Copyright © 2022 by Alyse Zaftig

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  CONTENTS

  1. Email

  2. Package

  3. First Meeting as Adults

  4. More Heat

  5. Hospital Transfer

  6. Private Hospital

  7. Beach House in Malibu

  8. First Time

  9. Lunchtime

  10. Beach in Malibu

  11. Electronic Digging

  12. Clamps

  13. Car Accident

  14. Extraction

  15. Emergency Room

  16. Database Management

  17. Incursion

  18. Punishment

  19. Apologies

  20. Proposal

  EMAIL

  Tia

  I shook my head, not believing the email that had been sent to me. It said that Jeremy was in danger if I couldn’t figure out the location that the email had been sent from. Immediately, I texted my brother.

  Three hours later, increasingly frantic calls to Jeremy with a barrage of texts had borne no fruit at all. I had figured out where the email had been sent from. I was not stupid enough to go alone, so I called Yvonne.

  “Hi.” She was busy with Grey and her new business now, but she was still my best friend in the world. We had been through a lot together.

  “What’s up?” Her tone was breezy and light. I felt bad about bringing my brother’s drama into her life, but I had to bring her.

  “Jeremy has done something stupid.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I got an email that he was in danger three hours ago. I worked on that email to determine the location of the sender, and I need you to come with me.”

  I could hear her thinking about it. “Grey won’t like it.”

  “Grey also made you go to all those classes and regularly practice on the shooting range. You legally have a firearm. I don’t.”

  I didn’t have to twist her arm much. She knew that I was going to take care of my brother, one way or another.

  “I’ll drive my own car to your house. Pack your pepper spray.” She hung up the phone. She would be at my house within a half hour if traffic cooperated. In Los Angeles, you never knew how long it would take to get somewhere.

  When I re-read the email, I realized that they hadn’t given me a time deadline. If they were about to kill Jeremy, I was sure that they’d be more sinister about it. After packing my pepper spray, I went to the first floor of my apartment building to go sit on a bench where I could see her when she arrived. When she pulled up, I flew out the front doors.

  “Plug the location into my GPS.” Yvonne hugged me. “I know you’re worried about Jeremy, although I don’t think he deserves it.”

  When we got there, it was just an empty parking lot. I had a bad feeling in my gut. I almost told Yvonne to get out of there.

  “Grey would be angry at us for doing this alone, but I’m glad that you called me. There’s no way I would want you to drive to this parking lot alone.”

  As she spoke, an SUV pulled into the parking lot and came very close to our car. A sharply dressed man came out and opened the door for an even more sharply dressed man. The second man walked to our car and opened the door to our back seat. He was handsome, but my heart was beating like a hummingbird’s. What did he want?

  He showed Yvonne and me his gun. “I’d like to keep things civil.” He had the barest trace of an accent, but not enough of one to pin down where he was from. “You may call me Antony. I know you’re Tia and Yvonne.”

  I gulped. If he knew who Yvonne was, then he knew a lot about my life already. “Why do you have Jeremy?” I asked Antony.

  “Jeremy has made an enemy within a prison gang. If you cooperate, I can arrange for his protection.”

  “And if I won’t?” I didn’t want to answer to a puppeteer. I could see from Yvonne’s face that she was highly regretting not bringing Grey. He would have already kicked Antony out of the car; he also had training that the two of us didn’t.

  “I’ll ensure that Jeremy is attacked by the prison gang and tortured mercilessly before he dies.”

  Oh, no! “I’ll do anything you ask.”

  Yvonne said, “It’s a bad idea.”

  She didn’t really need to tell me that, but I didn’t want to have my brother tortured to death.

  “I’ll be in touch,” Antony told me, ignoring Yvonne’s objection. He reached into his suit jacket and gave me a phone. He left the car then, as quickly as he had entered it.

  The second that he closed the door, Yvonne hit the gas and hightailed it out of there. “It’s a bad idea to get involved with Antony. We should call the prison and get Jeremy moved somewhere safe.”

  “I don’t think we’ll be able to. Being threatened outside of the prison generally isn’t enough.”

  “You should still make a police report about what just happened to us.”

  “You know I won’t.”

  “What about hiring private security to do it? Kyle is Grey’s friend, and he can help dig into things.”

  “I’m not going to risk Jeremy’s life by involving a stranger.” I knew that Kyle had helped her, but I didn’t know him all that well myself. I had a lot to lose.

  PACKAGE

  Tia

  THE NEXT DAY

  Feeling a weight in my gut, I stared at the brown package that was on my doorstep. It didn’t have a label on it. I had an instinct that it had to do with the guy who had jumped into the car the other day. He said his name was Antony.

  Reluctantly, I picked it up and brought it inside of my apartment. I sliced open the tape. Inside, there was top-of-the-line equipment. It was a substantial upgrade on the hardware that I had. Softly, I whistled. Normally, I’d never be able to afford this kind of gear.

  Nothing in life was ever free. It came with a typed note. Antony was directing me to break the encryption on the system of a small local bank and send him the master password for the bank’s IT department.

  I didn’t want to, but I thought about whether or not Jeremy was safe in prison. It was hard not to resent his choices that brought him to this point. Our grandmother didn’t raise us to do drugs and get involved with bad characters like Ray Brewster. She wanted us to make something of ourselves, especially after both of our parents died. Fortunately, the Social Security money for Jeremy and me while we were minors helped a lot. We had both finished high school, but I was more interested in going to college than Jeremy was. I just wanted to save up enough money to live on first; I didn’t want to have trillions of dollars in student loans by the time I finished.

  I dispatched somebody with a smartphone to visit the bank physically. One of the easiest security flaws at most banks was that they provided free wifi for customers. Within an hour, I was into their system.

  Before he died, my dad had been the one who taught me how to talk to computers. He had taught me binary when I was first learning numbers; Jeremy hadn’t been interested in playing around with computers as a little kid, but I had been. I could remember going to LAN parties as a really little kid, since Dad liked to host them with his close friend, Kyle Shirling. Dad’s friends were indulgent of a tiny little girl trailing around after her dad. They didn’t mind me being around, because Dad always packed snacks and some drinks for me to take care of myself while his friends played video games together. My mom was grateful for something that got me out of the house sometimes.

  Browsing around, I saw where they kept their encrypted passwords. It was the work of a few moments to grab the password I needed. They really hadn’t set up good safeguards in their system.

  Swallowing hard, I slid the burner phone that Antony had given me out. I stared at it. I was about to incriminate myself. I would be an accomplice in whatever Antony had planned. He would have something to use against me from this moment on.

  But could I let Jeremy be tortured to death? I rubbed the ba
ck of my neck, unsure of the right choice. I knew that if I called Yvonne, she’d get Grey involved immediately. Grey cared a lot more about my safety than Jeremy’s. Our grandma would have changed things, but she didn’t live at home anymore.

  Gritting my teeth, I keyed the password into the right app on the phone and sent it to the phone number that Antony had indicated. The phone dinged to let me know that the message had been sent.

  Instantly, I regretted breaking into the bank. How many things would I need to do to keep Jeremy safe? How much would I give to protect my brother?

  The next day, I was watching the local news. Our news anchors put up a picture of the local bank on the screen. They said that somebody had taken $250,000 out of the accounts of the ten largest accountholders.

  I knew that I’d had a big role to play in the electronic heist. At least the accountholders would have FDIC insurance for that amount. I would do what I needed to do in order to protect Jeremy.

  The burner phone buzzed. I didn’t want to pick it up, but I accepted the call.

  “Hello.” My voice was flat and dull.

  “You have passed the test.”

  “You want more?” I closed my eyes. I should’ve gone to Grey already.

  “That bank uses the same system as part of the NSA.”

  I was terrified. He not only had incriminating evidence, but he was getting me involved in cracking the head defense agency that handled cryptography in the United States. I could already feel the heat from the boiling water around me.

  “I’ve done enough,” I warned Antony. “It stops now.”

  “We’re just beginning. I need you to find the undercover agents that the NSA has in Moscow. You have five days to deliver the list to me through the same app.”

  “What are you going to do with it?” I was starting to get a headache. My heart was nearly pounding out of my chest.

  “It will facilitate business.”

  I didn’t want to have the deaths of NSA agents on my conscience. It was one thing to steal from insured rich people. It was another to betray my own country. I didn’t want to tangle with the Department of Defense. “I won’t hack the NSA.” I ended the call.

  I had to move and protect my brother. I called the prison where he was being held. “Hello?”

  “Yes, how may I help you?” The woman who answered the phone seemed disinterested in actually helping me.

  “I’m Tia Malone, the sister of an inmate, Jeremy Malone.”

  “And?”

  “I’ve received some threats that he’ll be attacked by a prison gang.”

  “We’ll make a note of it.” It didn’t sound like the person answering the phone would do anything at all.

  “It’s important,” I tried to convince her.

  “Yes, miss. Is that all?”

  “Yes.” I didn’t know what else to say. “Have a good day.”

  “You, too.” She ended the call.

  The wardens were not going to protect my brother. I had to go to Yvonne and Grey to fix things.

  My burner phone rang again. It was Antony. Biting my lip, I didn’t want to talk to him at all.

  “You’ve brought this on yourself, but I’ll give you a chance to reconsider.” He didn’t add anything more to that.

  The burner phone buzzed. There was a picture of my brother’s mug shot from when he got arrested with Ray.

  Within a half hour, I got a call from the prison. “Hello, we need to reach Tia Malone.”

  “I’m Tia Malone.”

  “Yes, your brother is in the infirmary.” She clicked her tongue. “Your brother has been badly beaten, but he’ll live. We’ll just give it some time.”

  “Can he be transported to a hospital?” He might be safer there.

  “He’s not in stable enough condition to be transported right now, but he might be later. Do you have the money to pay for private care? The government won’t authorize it out of public funds.”

  “I’ll find the money,” I told her. I hated taking money from anybody, but I was aware that Yvonne would chip in for medical expenses if it came down to it. I’d repay her, no matter how much time it took.

  “Good. I’ll give you an update later today, if his condition improves enough. Bye.” She hung up the phone.

  My instincts were screaming. I had hacked the bank just like Antony had told me to, but Jeremy had still been beaten. I was out of my depth. I took a few deep breaths before dialing Yvonne. With Yvonne and Grey, I could fight back against Antony.

  FIRST MEETING AS ADULTS

  Kyle

  Grey told me that one of Yvonne’s friends had gotten herself into trouble hacking a local bank. Typical kid stuff. I’d unravel whatever tangle she had gotten herself into. Grey would always pay the tab when it came to Yvonne.

  Grey was sitting behind his desk, drinking a little bourbon. Luisa had handed me a cup of hot cocoa and left the room. She knew that I didn’t drink while on the job, and I only drank tea in the morning. I had a standard toolkit with me. Wearing a standard suit, I settled into my chair in Grey’s home office and waited for Yvonne’s friend to arrive. I reviewed the long email that he had sent me with the details that Yvonne had given him. I would never let my wife or fiancée go into danger as Yvonne had. My future wife would find herself over my knee if she did something like that.

  But I hadn’t dated in years, not with the career that I’d built up in the military and afterwards. Truth be told, I had enough money to live on for the rest of my life. But I would find sitting at home and staring at the walls utterly boring, so I kept my hand in by continuing to do a version of what I’d done my entire career. There was always new tech to learn about.

  I was done draining the mug of cocoa when the door to the office opened. I looked up and noticed how beautiful Yvonne’s friend was. I had seen her when we had arrested Ray and Jeremy, and I knew that her name was Tia Malone. Now that I was focused on her, the name was ringing a bell.

  “Do I know you?” I asked her.

  She was frozen. “Uncle Kyle?”

  “Are you Oliver and Charlotte’s daughter?” They’d died tragically in a car crash in their twenties. When I was helping out Yvonne, I had looked up Jeremy Malone’s rap sheet in connection with investigating Ray Brewster. I had not dug around that much in Tia’s background. Clearly, I should have.

  “Yes,” she whispered, coming to sit on the chair next to me.

  The housekeeper broke the moment by coming in with a mug of soup for Tia. Luisa understood what would work the best for each individual. I could smell the chicken and spices, which made me hungry.

  “I used to carry you around on my shoulders when you were knee-high to a grasshopper.” I felt ashamed of my physical reaction to her, because I was remembering thinking about spanking a future wife. “How old are you now?”

  “Nineteen,” she said. “I haven’t seen you since Dad died.”

  “No, I didn’t stay in touch with your grandmother, Bethel.” I knew that their grandmother had been in charge of the two kids, but I hadn’t tried to provide for them or anything. They weren’t my kids, and I hadn’t had all that much money in my twenties. It was only through saving and investing that I was able to grow my portfolio; providing for two children would have put a big dent in it.

  Tia was clearly not a child. Her curvy body was turning me on without her trying anything. She had a light floral scent. I wondered what she’d feel like with her hands tied to my specially ordered headboard and thighs parted for me.

  Mentally, I slapped myself for thinking lascivious thoughts about Oliver Malone’s youngest. He would have killed me for laying a hand on his daughter if he knew about it. Just because he was dead didn’t mean that the lines of right and wrong were erased. I needed to focus on what Tia Malone was up to now as a young adult.