A Man's World 2: Detective Shea (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  A Man’s World 2: Detective Shea

  Lori Shea made detective after only twelve months of being in the police force and has put up with nasty, disparaging comments from her recent ex-partner and his best friend, but she has learned to ignore them. She will never let on how much their nasty comments cut her to the quick and keeps her emotions locked down tight.

  When she meets her new partner Ward Stanford and his hunky brothers Colby and Scott, she is shaken by how much she is attracted to them. But she doesn’t have time for anything else because there is a serial killer on the loose, and she has been chasing him for six long months. However, when she finds herself the target of the psychopath, the three Stanford men close ranks about her and won’t let her leave their sides. The sparks fly between them, and even though she does her best to keep them at an arm’s length, she’s fighting a losing battle.

  And then she’s fighting for her life.

  Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Romantic Suspense

  Length: 46,956 words

  A MAN’S WORLD 2: DETECTIVE SHEA

  Becca Van

  MENAGE EVERLASTING

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

  A MAN’S WORLD 2: DETECTIVE SHEA

  Copyright © 2014 by Becca Van

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-984-0

  First E-book Publication: June 2014

  Cover design by Les Byerley

  All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of A Man’s World 2: Detective Shea by Becca Van from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Becca Van’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Van’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  I would like to dedicate this book to Kristina Galbert. Her suggestion that I listen to one of Cher’s recent songs helped me through a rough patch while writing this book. Thank you, Kristina, your suggestion was timely and just what I needed to boost my creative juices.

  Also to my dedicated readers. Your continued support still humbles but also inspires me.

  And last but definitely not least to everyone at Siren-BookStrand. Thank you to all the editors for your suggestions and corrections. Thank you to Harris Channing and Les Byerley for the wonderful artwork on all the book covers and thank you to Diana for seeing my potential. Without you all I wouldn’t be where I am today.

  Love, Becca. xxoo

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  About the Author

  A MAN’S WORLD 2: DETECTIVE SHEA

  BECCA VAN

  Copyright © 2014

  Chapter One

  Detective Lori Shea stared at all the information she had pinned to the wall of her office and knew in her heart that she was missing something. That niggling feeling in her gut wouldn’t leave her alone, and no matter how long she stared at the pictures and clues before her, she couldn’t put her finger on what she was missing.

  For the last six months she’d been working on this case and every time another woman turned up dead she felt sick to her stomach. The last woman’s body had been discovered in the Twin Buttes Reservoir, just minutes southwest of San Angelo.

  She sighed with frustration, turned away from the massive pin board, and sank down into her chair. That wasn’t the only reason she was feeling anxious and pissed off. The man who was supposed to have been her partner, whom she’d been working with on this case, had taken a transfer to Waco.

  Lori had found out through the grapevine that Detective Geoffrey Reed was a chauvinistic asshole. She’d known that he had a grudge against her and didn’t like working with her or, in fact, like her, but she’d had no idea why. That was until their dispatch operator Rayna Jones had filled her in. Geoff had been a sexist prick and didn’t like working with a female cop. And to top it all off, her boss had told her this morning that he was appointing her a new partner. She just hoped he or she wasn’t a rookie and had some experience under their belt. The last thing she needed was to have to teach a newbie when this case was weighing her down.

  Lori knew that they were dealing with a serial killer and her boss was riding her ass to catch the fucker killing off prostitutes. She’d been chewed out this morning by her chief right after he’d gotten off the phone. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Darius Seymour had taken a battering from his boss.

  This rapist serial killer was getting to her and she was having trouble sleeping. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the dead women in her mind, and she was even having nightmares. She learned to look at crime scenes without any emotion—it was the only way she could deal with seeing the results of violence day in day out—but no matter how hard she tried to be cold and clinical, this case was getting to her.
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br />   Lori rubbed at her temples, trying to relieve the ache in her head, but she knew it wouldn’t help much. She’d had all of three hours’ sleep and after tossing and turning she’d gotten up, showered, dressed, and headed to the office. It was just after 8:00 a.m. and she had been here for three hours already.

  Her boss would be here any moment to introduce her to her new partner, and she really didn’t have the patience or energy to deal with him or her.

  The media hadn’t gotten hold of the information regarding the serial killer yet but Lori knew it wouldn’t be long before it was leaked. She, Geoffrey, and the uniformed cops had been walking the streets of downtown San Angelo questioning other professional sex workers and telling them to be careful. But until they had a lead, they were searching blind. There had been no DNA left at any of the crime scenes or on the deceased women, and that worried her.

  Whoever was raping and killing those women knew how the system worked and that scared her. Were they looking for another law enforcement officer or was their perp just smart?

  Lori pushed her fingers into her tired, gritty, burning eyes and then she rubbed the tense muscles in the back of her neck. Reaching into her desk drawer, she pulled out the bottle of painkillers and washed two down with the black sludge that was supposed to be coffee and grimaced when she tasted the cold, bitter brew.

  She rose to her feet and walked back over to the pin board. Eight women had been raped and murdered in a six-month period and she knew if she didn’t find any clues to who this asshole was that more women would be killed. The prick was getting bolder and had a taste for killing. The first four months, he was killing one woman per month, but the last two months he killed two per month.

  A noise behind her drew her attention and she turned around to see her boss and three big, muscular men entering her office behind him. They were so damn tall their heads nearly connected with the top of the doorway. She drew in a ragged breath as she took in their long muscular legs encased in formfitting jeans and the tight T-shirts covering their wide shoulders and brawny chests. The three men were very handsome and when she met their hazel and brown eyes her heart flipped and started beating rapidly. They were so good looking her body instantly responded. Her breasts felt like they swelled, her areolae crinkled, and her nipples hardened and started to itch like they were begging to be touched. Lori cursed under her breath and wished she’d put a blouse on instead of the soft cotton T-shirt and lacy bra. When she crossed her arms the lace abraded her nipples, making them ache even more. Moisture formed in her pussy and damped her lower lips, and she squeezed her thighs together trying to stop the pulsing in her clit, but it didn’t help one damn bit. In fact it only made her pussy throb more and cream wept from her cunt.

  “Lori, I’d like you to meet your new partner, Ward Stanford,” Darius said, and smiled up at the three men. “And these two have just transferred to our homicide division and are Ward’s brothers, Scott and Colby. They’ve just transferred from Phoenix, Arizona.”

  Lori met Ward’s eyes as he held his hand out to her and felt like she was drowning in those big brown orbs. When their hands, met she held her breath for a moment as fire raced up her arm to her breasts and straight down to her dripping pussy.

  His deep voice sent shivers of awareness racing up and down her spine as he spoke. “Pleased to meet you, Lori.”

  Lori cleared her throat. “Same here.”

  She released his hand and before she could lower it back down to her side, it was engulfed in another large palm.

  “Hi, Lori.” Scott smiled at her. “Nice to meet you.”

  “You, too.” She pulled her hand back and swallowed before shaking Colby’s hand.

  Colby smiled and winked at her before enfolding her hand in his. “Lori.”

  Lori nodded her head and tried to smile, but she wasn’t sure she’d succeeded. These three men intimidated the hell out of her and not just because her body was taking notice of their good looks and muscular bodies. They had an aura of power around them that she’d never come across before and that made her nervous, but she wasn’t about to let them know that. She’d spent years working her way up the ladder to make detective and had learned to keep her emotions hidden. She was an independent career woman and hadn’t ever let anything or anyone stand in her way, and she wasn’t about to let these three handsome hunks get to her.

  “Colby,” she finally remembered to reply, and after pulling her hand from his, she looked at Darius. She didn’t want to have another partner, especially after dealing with Geoff’s narrow-minded ignorance, and Darius knew it.

  Darius had been like the father she’d never had and they had often shared a meal or drink after work. She had told him what an asshole Geoff was and even though he’d wanted to go to bat for her, to take Geoff down a peg or two because of the sexist comments and disparaging labels he’d pinned on her, Lori hadn’t let him. She knew that men like Geoff would get great pleasure out of knowing how much his malicious words had hurt her.

  She glared at Darius but he all he did was hold her gaze, and she ended up looking away first. Damn it.

  “I want Colby and Scott to work with you on this case. Hopefully between the four of you, you can work out who this asshole is faster and get him behind bars before he kills another woman.” Darius nodded his head and then without another word spun on his heels and left her office.

  Ward glanced down at her and then pointed to the pin board. “Is this your latest case?”

  “Yeah.” Tori sighed with frustration and moved away from the three men, but they followed her over to the wall and stood so close to her that she could feel the heat emanating from their bodies. She decided that it was time to get away from them for a few moments so she could get her wayward body back under control.

  “The files are on my desk. Why don’t you three familiarize yourself with the evidence? I’ll be back.”

  Lori skirted around them and hurried out of her office toward the ladies room. Just as she rounded the corner, she slammed up against a big hard body and would have fallen on her ass if he hadn’t reached out and grabbed her upper arms.

  “Look who we have here. How are they hanging, Shea?” Regent glared at her with ice-cold eyes and then he looked her up and down and sneered as if he thought she was disgusting.

  Lori didn’t bother to reply, she was used to Regent and his hurtful remarks. He and Geoff had been real tight and had spent all of their spare time together. Regent Prentiss was as big a fucktard as Geoff had been. She pushed his hands away, maneuvered around him, and looked back over her shoulder to glare at him. Heat suffused her cheeks when she saw all three of the Stanford men glaring at Regent.

  She should have known that her reputation as a ball buster would get to them quickly, but she had hoped that it would be at least a few weeks before they heard it. Shame and embarrassment coursed through her body and her face felt like it was hot enough to fry an egg on, but she wasn’t about to defend herself to that asshole or give him the satisfaction of letting him see how much his comments hurt.

  Lori hurried into the stall and did her business. After she finished she washed her hands and then splashed water onto her hot face. Tears of humiliation burned the back of her eyes, but she wasn’t about to let them fall. She took a deep breath, held it for a couple of moments, and then exhaled slowly. After drying her face with some paper towel she looked at herself in the mirror.

  She wasn’t ugly but she was no model either. Lori was five foot five with an hour glass figure. She wasn’t fat by any stretch of the imagination, but she wasn’t thin. She was built up top and had wide hips, but her waist dipped in and her legs were slim. Her ass stuck out and no matter how much she exercised, it never got any smaller. Maybe if she’d lived back in the fifties and sixties she would have been a sex symbol like Marilyn Monroe had. She had long blonde hair she kept up in a braid most of the time, and her eyes were a boring hazel color. But there was nothing she could do about how she looked and she didn’t e
ver bother with make-up. She hated the way cosmetics felt on her skin, as well as the smell and taste of them. Lori had begun to wonder if maybe Geoff and Regent were right after all. Maybe she wasn’t feminine at all.

  Lori didn’t want to go back to her office and face those three Adonises after they had heard Regent and his nasty comment, but she knew she couldn’t put it off. She was used to ignoring malicious comments about her body and her personality and she would continue to do so now.

  No way would she let anyone besides Darius know how much those nasty words cut deep into her heart. She was a professional. All that mattered to her was her career and that she did her job well. Everything else was inconsequential.

  * * * *

  Ward and his brothers sat around Lori’s desk as they looked through the case files. None of them had said a word since they’d heard that asshole’s nasty comments, but they didn’t really need to. He could see how pissed off Scott and Colby were by the tenseness in their muscles, and knew he probably looked just as angry. He’d been grinding his teeth for the last five minutes.

  “I would really like to go and punch that fucking asshole out,” Colby snarled.

  “Me, too,” Scott said.

  “Did you see how hurt and ashamed she looked?” Colby asked.

  “It was hard to miss,” Ward replied. “I think the fact that we heard and saw that little exchange embarrassed her big time.”

  “Yeah. Fucking bastard.” Scott thumped his fist on the desk. “How could anyone think that gorgeous, sexy woman has balls?”