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The Tycoon's Double Trouble

Harlequin Enterprises Limited

Chapter One

Sadie Evans, the prettiest girl in Troy's high school class, still had her trademark black hair, sexy green eyes and perfect figure. But it appeared that rather than choose a career that took advantage of her good looks, as everyone expected, she was a policewoman!

Troy watched dumbstruck as the kid cursed loudly, shrugged off Sadie's grip and ran across the street toward the bank parking lot. But Sadie was every bit as fast as the boy, and she caught him about twenty feet away from Troy.

"Come on, Mark," Sadie said to the teenager. Her chin-length hair swayed as she twisted his arm behind his back and brought him to a grinding halt. "This can go easy or this can go hard. Let's do it the easy way."

"No way! I'm not going to jail!"

"Who says you're going to jail?"

Mark stopped wrestling and peered at Sadie. "I'm not going to jail?"

"No. Technically, it's only your first offense so you won't go to jail. But you are going to be punished. Lacy Vickroy says you're shoplifting every day now. You know she just bought Tilly's from the Brennans and she can't afford your stealing. She said she's talked to you, but you don't pay any attention, and she had to stop you somehow. This is it."

"Great." The teenager huffed.

"I'm going to have the police chief take you to the borough building so Lacy can file the official complaint. Since this is your first arrest, you'll get a fine, but no jail time. But your parents will be notified and I expect this to be the end of your shoplifting."

Blatantly eavesdropping, Troy stared in awe. Watching Sadie Evans arrest someone was like seeing a Barbie doll come to life and do the job she was dressed for.

"So what do you say, Mark? You're only getting a slap on the wrist this time. But you've got to promise to stop this."

Mark drew a long breath. Troy held his. Mark was bigger and stronger than Sadie, and if he chose to fight for real, things could get ugly. Troy almost stepped forward to help her, but Mark said, "All right."

As Sadie led the docile boy away, Troy continued to gape in amazement, not caring that his mouth probably hung open. Sadie had been the queen of study hall. The pretty, pampered head cheerleader never studied much, but she wasn't dumb, either. She once argued the difference between peach and coral with the art teacher by showing him two lipsticks. And her fashion shows earned enough money for the cheerleaders to get new uniforms every year. But instead of becoming a model or owning a cosmetics company, she was a police officer. Troy would be damned if he ever thought he would see this day or even one close to it.

"Dad!"

Bumped out of his thoughts by his eight-year-old daughter Ginger as she whined and tugged on his hand, Troy glanced into the SUV. His little girl stared at him with crystal-clear blue eyes just like her mother's and, as always, his heart melted. "Sorry, Ginger."

"You said we were going to pick up Grandma and go to the mall."

"And we will, Rosemary," Troy said, his gaze sliding to his second daughter, who was identical to her twin sister. Ginger and Rosemary. Named after spices because his wife, Angelina, had thought children were the spice of life, and after thirty hours of labor, Troy hadn't argued. Then, after two weeks of being a dad, he had understood what Angelina had meant. The girls changed their lives. They made days more interesting, and certainly more challenging, but they also made every moment more special. They added meaning and purpose Troy didn't know life could have.

From that moment on, Troy had known Angelina had had an innate, uncompromising sense of what was important, and he'd never again argued when she got a certain passionate look on her face. Eighteen months past her death, he still missed that look. Still missed her.

"But first we have to get money from the bank."

"Why didn't we just use the drive-thru?" Ginger asked with a very adult sigh.

Troy grimaced. "Because I wanted to take two minutes to talk with Mr. Johnson."

"Ah, Dad!"

"Honey, I have to do this. I have to shift some of my business accounts to the bank because I'm going to need lots of money to move my company here and I'm the only one from Sunbright in Wilburn," he said, referring to his software company, Sunbright Software Solutions. "Everybody else is still in California."

"Daaaadd!"

This time both girls whined. In stereo. Troy glanced at Bruce who was sitting behind the steering wheel of the SUV. Tall and muscular, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, Bruce looked like a normal twenty-five-year-old who probably should have reacted to the disagreement around him. But he didn't say a word. He didn't even roll his eyes or purse his lips.

Troy knew why. In the months since the death of the girls' mother, Troy had pampered his twins. No. He had spoiled them. Undoubtedly, Bruce had grown accustomed to it. But though Bruce was too polite to say it, or even acknowledge it, Troy had long ago begun noticing he was creating little monsters out of his daughters.

In fact, that was why he had moved them to his hometown of Wilburn, Pennsylvania, population 4,500. First, it was safer, quieter, calmer than L.A. any day of the week. Second, he was hoping that if his twins saw the way normal people behaved, eventually they would take the hint and change.

Even after six months, no such luck.

"Okay, let's compromise. I won't open the accounts right now. I'll just tell Mr. Johnson to expect me in about two hours. But that means we cut your mall trip short."

Ginger sighed with disgust. Rosemary crossed her arms on her chest and looked away. Troy prayed for strength. But he suddenly got a flash of memory of Sadie Evans as a teenager crossing her arms on her chest exactly the same way and pouting prettily, and he burst out laughing. The truth was he was raising two little Sadies. Which was funny until he guessed that he was probably in for at least ten more years of this kind of behavior. No, he knew he had ten more years of this kind of behavior, because when he left town right after high school graduation, Sadie hadn't changed a bit. Somewhere between age eighteen and twenty-eight she had performed a miracle, but she hadn't done it before eighteen, which meant Troy could be in for a long, difficult decade.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Tycoon's Double Trouble by Susan Meier Copyright © 2003 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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