Wilder Than the Rest: MacLarens of Fire Mountain Read Online Free Page A

the trunk. She’d given the outfits she’d used while undercover at the Desert Dove to one of the working girls, a young woman who’d started just after Mollie began her last assignment. The same time she’d first met Pierce MacLaren.
    She leaned against the frame of a window overlooking the main street and fingered the thin black ribbon around her neck. Dangling from it was the cameo her mother had given her many years ago, just before she’d left for her job at a small laundry several blocks away. She’d never returned, leaving ten-year-old Mollie and her father to carry on alone.
    Twelve years later, Mollie was still plagued with the notion that her mother had not walked out on them, but had become a victim. She was certain her mother was dead.
    Her father had insisted otherwise, said that she’d gotten tired of living with so little, and walked out. The police had sided with him, explaining that a body had never been found, nor had anyone heard screams or pleas for help anywhere between their house and the laundry.
    She glanced out the window and pulled her thoughts from the past to the real dilemma that had her so on edge—her partner.
    Mollie had been raised by a single father, she’d worked alongside men as a clerk in a lumberyard, served drinks to them while at the Desert Dove in Fire Mountain, and yet none of them had made as significant an impact on her as Pierce MacLaren. He’d walked into the Dove alone one afternoon, taken a seat at a back table, and introduced himself. She knew who he was. Everyone knew the six MacLaren men, or at least knew of them.
    She’d served him a whiskey then lingered for a moment wanting … something. She hadn’t known what. All Mollie remembered was the way she’d felt when he’d walked into the saloon. Tall and lean, rugged looking with broad shoulders, short dark brown hair, and clear blue eyes that had locked with hers the moment he’d walked in. Her stomach had tripped over itself and her breath had caught in her chest. Never in her life had she felt such an immediate attraction to a man.
    Now, they were partners. Mollie winced, irritation at the current situation coursing through her. She still felt the same pull toward the man, yet that pull was mixed with equal parts frustration and exasperation. He was an arrogant, self-righteous, controlling troublemaker who wreaked havoc on her patience whenever they were together. She didn’t understand how one man could affect her so much.
    Mollie turned toward the bed and looked at the small trunk that held everything she owned. She straightened her spine and resolved to get through this one last assignment with him. After that, she’d collect her money and take the first train to Boston, leaving the bigheaded MacLaren and her job as a Treasury agent behind.
    ******
    New York City
    Lee Hatcher finished his coffee and set the empty cup on the desk. He’d been studying the report in front of him for over an hour, jotting down notes and trying to figure out what it was about the information that sent cautionary sparks through his body. He was a perceptive man, had stayed alive more than once by recognizing the red flags and heeding their warnings. The newest report signaled that what Noah Dodd and many others thought to be isolated cases were, in actuality, tied together. The problem was no one had any information on how all the disparate occurrences were related.
    A knock on his door had him looking up to see his other boss, Alex McCann, walk in with another gentleman behind him.
    “Good morning, Alex. I thought you were in Philadelphia this week?” Lee stood and walked around to face the two men.
    “Something came up that we need to discuss. Alex, this is William Rents. He has some information that might prove interesting.” Alex McCann owned a well-respected investigation firm whose clients included some of the most wealthy and influential men in the eastern United States. Lee, as his chief investigator, was aware of