Dangerous Dalliances (Maxwell Investigations) (23 page)

Leigh
chuckled again. “I’ll see you tomorrow Victor,” she said softly. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight Leigh,” Victor
breathed before disconnecting the call. His eyes went back to the computer
screen of their own accord. A smile crossed his face as he looked at the image
of the woman he was currently fixated on. Becoming involved with Leigh was
going to be an adventure.

And coming
soon, a new take on old tales....
Come and meet Adam and
Izzy
in

Turn the page
for a peek at the new upcoming series....

The
drive home was uneventful and quiet.
Izzy’s
mind
wandered from pools and having a relaxing go in a hot tub to battle tactics in
the latest shooter she was playing. There was a tournament coming up and she
knew that if she slipped up in any way, she could lose a lot of the respect she
fought for. While the world was changing for the better, there were still a lot
of places that thought the idea of a female gamer was ridiculous.
Izzy
worked hard on showing them that she could play as
well as the big boys could.

When
she pulled up to her home,
Izzy
frowned. Around now,
Beau would be sitting in the widow waiting for her. The front window was
completely empty and dark.
Izzy
pulled up into the
garage and left the door open. If she needed an escape route, she would at
least be able to get to the street.

She
jumped out of her SUV and picked up the pair of brass knuckles she kept under
the driver’s seat.
Izzy
took a slow breath and
painted a smile on her face. “Beau,” she called as she opened the door to the
house. “Beauregard, where are you puppy?”

Movement
from the kitchen made her turn around. A smile crossed her face when she saw
her overly large Great Dane/German Shepherd mix dog. When he walked over to
her,
Izzy
frowned at the way he seemed to stumble.
“What’s wrong puppy?” she asked running to his side. When he fell to the tile
floor,
Izzy
noticed the door behind her swinging
shut. She quickly turned and saw a tall shadowed figure standing behind her.
Without a thought, she threw a jab to his sternum and followed with a heavy
blow to his stomach. As he stumbled back,
Izzy
debated
pressing her advantage. He was bigger than she was, and he was in her house. He
could be waiting for her to slip up and then he would kill her, or worse.

Izzy
waited for
him to make a grab for her and quickly ducked under his hands and landed
another combo in his side. As he cursed, a smile crossed her face. Before she
knew what happened, he lashed out and backhanded her into the wall.

“I’m
not trying to hurt you dammit!” he yelled at her.

She
blinked and tried to clear away the black spots in her vision. “Blow me,” she
said before attacking him again. She grinned evilly when he went to block her
fist, and she heard a crack. As he screamed in pain, she slammed her fist into
his face. “You break into my house and kill my dog! You expect us to be friends?”
she shouted.

Just
as she went to kick him in his side, he grabbed her leg and turned her into the
wall. He slammed her back and held his arm over her throat. “That horse isn’t a
dog. And it’s not dead. I only drugged it.” He looked into her eyes and for a
moment before easing up on her throat. “I’m only here to take you as leverage
for your father.”

Izzy
waited for
him to back off before she lashed out with another kick. She screamed in pain
when he grabbed her leg again and this time punched her in her groin muscle.
Her entire leg went numb as she dropped to the floor. As she sat up straighter,
she grabbed the small statue her father had sent to her. Before she could throw
it at her attacker, he straddled her waist and had it out of her hands. A growl
escaped her as she tried to fight him, but he soon had her hands pinned against
the wall behind her.

“Who
the fuck uses these anymore?” he breathed as he pried the brass knuckles off of
her hands. When he leaned over to toss them onto a near table, he felt her
teeth sink into his arm. With a raised eyebrow he looked at her. “I bite back,”
he warned.

Izzy
released him
and leaned her head back against the wall. “What do you want?” she asked
coldly. When he continued to watch her, she turned her eyes away from him. “And
that arm’s supposed to be fractured, if not broken. How can you have me pinned?
And most important thing, what the hell did you give my dog?”

His
eyes narrowed as he stood. “Now she wants to talk and ask questions,” he
grumbled. His dark hair fell over his face as he looked around the hallway. If
anyone came looking for her, there were clear signs of a struggle. A sigh
escaped him as he grabbed her by her upper arm and lifted her to her feet. “I
heal
quick
,” he said lowly. “And chloroform.”

Izzy
limped to
Beau’s side and ran her hands over his short black hair. She sighed with relief
when she saw that he was dazed, but still breathing. “If you killed him, I
swear,” she started.

“It
would take a lot more than what I did to hurt it,” the burglar countered. He
went to the front door and saw that there was still no one around. “Now, are
you going to come quietly or will I have to knock you out too?”

Izzy
looked at him
for a long moment. It was like he was covered in shadows. She knew he was tall,
and his hair was dark, but that was just about all she could see of him. From
the way he held himself, he was muscular. But aside from that, she had no clue
what she was dealing with. She ran her fingers along Beau’s coat again and took
a shaky breath. “I’ll go quietly,” she said softly. When he started to nod, she
tilted her face up to his.
“Only if we take Beau.
You
could have killed him and I won’t leave him here alone like this.”

Dawn Ibanez is a self-published
author that was born and raised on Staten Island. In junior high school, Dawn
discovered a passion for writing. But it was while in high school she
discovered her other love, Anime. By the time she went to college, Dawn had
written a number of stories for her own entertainment, as well as the
entertainment of friends. While down in Norfolk, she started to write under the
name Midori Bond and has produced several
fanfiction
stories still posted around the web.

Since leaving the
fanfiction
world, Dawn is now a dweller in the Paranormal
Romance genre. She has always had a soft spot for creatures that go bump in the
night.

Dawn currently lives in
Maryland with her family. After thinking long and hard, Dawn and her daughter
welcomed another Beta fish, Sparrow, into their home.