Read Trust Me: The Lassiter Group, Book 1 for Free Online

surprise him. Even unarmed and with the gas can abandoned by the truck, she was still dangerous. He wasn’t about to make underestimating her his second mistake of the evening. Third if he counted not getting that shop door locked the second he recognized her.
    Circling a massive pine tree, he approached from the opposite direction. Each time the scraping sound stopped, he did too, edging forward only when the noise masked his approach.
    A few minutes later, he reached a small clearing less than twenty feet across. A small blur zipped along the ground. A fat raccoon paused, eyes glittering like torches in the dark before the animal growled and darted under a bush.
    Great, he’d been stalking a raccoon. Definitely a detail he’d be leaving out in his update if he ever got his cell phone to work.
    The hair on the back of his neck rose to attention.
    Something changed, a shift in the air, and he glanced up to see a blur of pink bearing down on him.

Chapter Three
    Max ignored her cramping legs, her grip on the tree branch so tight she was half convinced she’d never be able to peel her fingers off the bark.
    Ten feet down, maybe less, Lucas stepped from the cover of trees. He closed in on the same raccoon that had growled at her moments ago from the opposite end of the branch she presently occupied.
    Too bad the furry little bugger didn’t take his friend with him. The second raccoon was smaller, but that didn’t make his claws or teeth any less sharp. And when faced with going head-to-head with the nocturnal creature stalking toward her or the guy circling below, she’d take Lucas.
    She didn’t know what exactly he was after or how much she could possibly be worth that he’d covered her back at Sherri’s shop, but either way he was going home empty-handed.
    The raccoon snarled and lunged forward, and God help her, she jumped.
    Either the raccoon had impeccable timing or fate was on her side, because she hit Lucas dead-on.
    He grunted in surprise and his knees buckled, pitching him forward and taking her with him. She landed on her side, the impact knocking the breath from her lungs. Recovering quickly, she rolled to her feet and kicked the gun Lucas had dropped out of his reach.
    He glared up at her, already to his knees. She pivoted on instinct, snapping her leg around to deliver a kick to the jaw. Lucas blocked her with his forearms, then caught her ankle and shoved her backward.
    Off-balance, she stumbled and hit the ground, but drove the heel of her boot into his stomach before he could pin her. Doubled over, he still managed to snatch a handful of her sweater and jerked her toward him.
    Son of a bitch.
    “You keep this up and one of us is going to get hurt.”
    “Worried?” Snapping her elbow back, she caught his bad shoulder, but damn it he was fast and managed to wrench her arm behind her back.
    “Not really.”
    “Wait,” she breathed, the white-hot pain running from wrist to shoulder turning the last syllable into a wince.
    “Are you done playing games, Max?”
    “Absolutely.” She didn’t give him a chance to wonder if she meant it. She smashed her head back into his, then twisted free.
    Grabbing his shirt, she spun and shoved him at the tree only a couple feet away. He couldn’t get a hand up in time to prevent a full-on collision and skidded across the bark before hitting the ground.
    It should have been enough of a head start. Maybe if she’d managed to keep out of range of the kick that caught her across the thigh as he dropped. She stayed on her feet, but he rolled and tripped her before she got another foot of space between them.
    Her back had barely touched the ground and he was on her, using every inch of his solid frame to trap her beneath him.
    Breathing hard, she glared at up at him, cursing the fucking raccoon that had forced her to jump when she’d been prepared to stay up there all night if she had to. Or until Lucas gave up and moved on, whichever came first.
    “Okay. Now I’m