The Wolf's Bandit: Paranormal Shifter Romance: A Howls Romance Read online

  The Wolf’s Bandit

  A Howls Romance

  Milly Taiden

  Latin Goddess Press, Inc.

  Contents

  The Wolf’s Bandit

  Untitled

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  About the Author

  Also by Milly Taiden

  Also by Milly Taiden

  Also by Milly Taiden

  Also by Milly Taiden

  Also by Milly Taiden

  The Wolf’s Bandit

  A HOWLS ROMANCE

  NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  MILLY TAIDEN

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  http://eepurl.com/pt9q1

  Robyn Loxley is determined to save every homeless child she can find, even if she has to break the law to do it. Since the royal foundation rudely turned her down, her target has become their crown jewels. She needs only one more job before she’s done for good.

  Wolf shifter Aitan Hansen is the crown prince of a small country where he runs his royal foundation and takes care of his shifter town. He comes to the U.S. to find who has been stealing his family heirlooms. He’s completely unprepared to meet his mate, especially when he suspects her of being the thief.

  With the opportunity to score a lucrative piece of artwork, Robyn jumps at the chance. The problem is Aitan isn’t the only one interested in her night job. Her black-market dealer doesn’t want to share profits any longer and he’ll do whatever needed to get her latest heist, even taking her with the merchandise.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Published By

  Latin Goddess Press, Inc.

  Winter Springs, FL 32708

  http://millytaiden.com

  The Wolf’s Bandit

  Copyright © 2018 by Milly Taiden

  Cover by: Willsin Rowe

  Edited by: Tina Winograd

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Property of Milly Taiden

  July 2018

  Created with Vellum

  —For every person who keeps romance alive

  Prologue

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  Robyn wiggled over the top of the air conditioning duct under the museum’s first floor. She was almost to the spot where the priceless jewel tiara belonging to some royalty who died centuries ago was on display.

  When she reached the location, according to her measurements, she snuggled between floor trusses and pulled out the Dremel-sized drill and one-eighth bit. Sawdust fell onto her face and safety glasses as she lay on her back, arms pushing up the battery-operated power tool. After punching through, she fed the tiny spy camera into the hole and looked at her watch. Turning the camera in a full circle, she saw the museum hall and the ropes used to protect the display from being touched. Not that anyone was too worried about the security.

  Alarms were set to go off if the glass covering was lifted from the base. Breaking the connection between them was not in the game plan. Thus, drilling up under the hollow base pedestal to get to the prize.

  Seeing how far she was from the bottom of the display case with the camera, she adjusted more to the side and drilled again. Moving the camera into the second hole, all she saw was darkness on her watch’s screen. Perfect. From her bag, she pulled out the customized power saw—customized to be virtually silent—and cut out an area big enough for her to get her upper body through.

  With more wiggling, Robyn kneeled on the wooden floor support and rose into the hollow block. With the base being only four feet high, she could easily reach into the tiara’s housing and swap it out with a fake.

  After cutting another hole behind the crown’s gold material-draped stand, she checked her watch again to make sure no guards were watching, then reached up and snatched the jewelry off the display. Just as quickly, an identical fake replaced what she’d taken.

  She taped the piece cut from the display back into place, yanked out the camera, re-bagged the tools, and crawled back through the joists to the opening in the ceiling over the basement storage room.

  When reaching ground, she slung the bag over her shoulder, slipped on the black side of her jacket and pulled the hoodie over her hair. From there, she peeked into the vacant basement hall, hurried to the side door, and walked out.

  Alarms erupted inside as the door closed behind her. She crossed the empty street and ducked into the dark alley. She pulled off her tear-away pants, and a skirt fell past her knees. Next her jacket came off and she flipped it around, letting the bottom half of the full-length coat untuck from the waist-length version. With the belt tied around the coat, she slid the pants inside next to the hidden bag on her shoulder.

  All while not missing one step.

  As she stepped out of the alley onto the parking lot, she pulled back the hoodie and let her auburn hair flow over her back. She aimed for her deep-red Camry, looking as innocent as a child.

  She was so close to being done. Only one more job.

  1

  Dressed in her power suit, head held high, Robyn stepped off the elevator onto the main floor of Safe Journeys. Inc. As CEO, she felt comfortable walking the aisles of the company she worked hard to put on the map.

  In the bullpen area, she saw the heads of the thirty-ish employees busy in their cubicles. This was only the administration department at the headquarters. Each satellite branch across the country had its own group operating the local business. Her papa would’ve been proud.

  “Good morning, Miss Loxley,” an employee in a cube called out.

  “Good morning, Hao,” she replied. Several more greetings came her way and she replied with a name for each. One of her assistants stood at the entrance to a cube, holding out a clipboard and pen.

  Draping her long coat over the arm with the briefcase, Robyn grabbed the pen. “Where do I sign, Kara?” At the bottom of the first page was a sticky note with a red arrow that read sign here. Robyn scribbled her name and Kara flipped the pages for each signature. In a matter of seconds, that was done. “Kara, please make sure I get of copy of that. Thank you.”

  “Miss Loxley, reminder you have dinner tonight at Granma’s,” another assistant said as she passed.

  Damn, was it Wednesday already? What happened to Tuesday? She was sur
e she didn’t sleep through it. A hand holding a Starbucks coffee cup lifted into the air as she approached her office. The scent of chocolate and mint floated in the area. “Thank you, Gattis. I owe you one.”

  “That comes to about thirty-six now.” His voice reflected the smile on his face.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Robyn said. “Wait to forty and I’ll get you a steak dinner.”

  Gattis clapped his hands together and did a quick victory dance in his cube. “Yes! Steak dinner. All mine. Steak dinner...” Robyn smiled as she backed into her office, pushing her door open with her butt. When it closed, she leaned against it and took a big sip of coffee. A huge sigh drifted out after the chocolatey goodness.

  On the sofa in the office, she laid her purse and coat, and the briefcase she set on the worktable behind her desk. Plopping her ass in the leather swivel chair, she moved the mouse to bring up the passcode screen. In the car on the drive over, she listened to her email and phone messages and deleted the junk. The rest she needed to reply to. Her eyes skimmed the list—from top to bottom of the screen. Sometimes she hated this job, sometimes she loved it.

  One of the “love” aspects was seeing what new jobs came in the day before. Most were routine with armored trucks going to banks and ATMs to collect money and transport it elsewhere. But several times, new jobs like the one halfway down the list popped up.

  An auction house in south Manhattan needed a reliable way of transporting special items from seller to buyer in two weeks. That would be easy. She needed to find out what things before she could secure the right vehicles. She double-clicked to open the request to read further, then her desk phone rang. Few people had her direct line, so she knew she’d be talking to someone important in business.

  “Hi. This is Robyn,” she said with her stern, but sweet voice. Working in New York was tricky. You had to stand up for yourself or the competition would run you over, yet you had to be friendly enough to not be called a bitch. And the men where the worst.

  “Robyn. Thank god you’re in.” She recognized the slightly feminine voice of the assistant curator of one of the bigger galleries.

  “Hey, Sam,” she replied. “You sound distressed.”

  “Oh my god. If you only knew!” Sam answered with a squeak on the last word. She waited patiently for him to get a grip on his drama mama side and spill whatever was wrong. “My delivery service for tomorrow is flaking out on me. We have an opening tomorrow night! Oh my god, Robyn. I NEED HELP.”

  She swallowed her laugh, even though it wasn’t funny. But it was. Sam was just one of those people who could make anyone laugh even when he wasn’t trying to be humorous.

  “It’s okay, sweetness,” she finally said with a semi-straight face. “You know I’ve got you covered. Now relax and tell me what you need.”

  With a huff, Sam continued. “I knew to hire you, but my boss said to go cheap. Ha. This is what she gets. I don’t care what she says anymore. This is so not a job for amateurs. Besides, I have to deal with the fallout. Not her. So I should be able to choose who I want, right?”

  Ugh. Robyn needed more coffee for one of Sam’s one-way conversations this early. After a chug burned down her throat—so choco-minty worth it—she waited for him to take a breath, then she took her chance.

  “What do you need delivered?” she asked as fast as she could. There really was no reason to ask. She knew everything that was coming into town and how much it was worth. Sam’s gallery was opening the traveling exhibit on Downton Abbey for its national tour. It was a big to-do with reenactments with characters and set pieces and live presentations of the series.

  That type of exhibit wasn’t worth much to her except as business. No, what she was really interested in was a painting in their main room. One worth a quarter million dollars. And this was the “in” she needed.

  “It’s the crown jewels,” Sam said in a hushed voice. “They are late getting to the US and the other company can’t guarantee a pickup on time tomorrow. And it’s the opening night!”

  “Breathe, Sam. Breathe. We got you,” Robyn said. “Give me the details and we’ll be there.”

  “Oh my god, Robyn. Thank you so much.” His voice cracked, and he sniffled. She rolled her eyes at his emotional display. He was such a riot. She loved hanging out with him and his group. But it had been a long time since they were together. It seemed she’d been doing nothing but working for months.

  During his next breath, she asked about a walk-through for delivery and setup. He confirmed a time for tomorrow and passed along the details. “Okay, darling,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  He added before hanging up, “And you have to come to the opening tomorrow night in that a-maz-ing red gown.”

  Robyn laughed and promised to come in the dress. After replacing the receiver in the cradle, she did a fist pump. She was tempted to go out and do a little dance with her steak employee. Then she realized she had a ton of things to do to get ready. The first being getting the truck on the schedule. She sent an email to the coordinator and followed up with a call to make sure there were no snags.

  She’d been waiting so long to get into the building. After they remodeled and added a new security system, all her info on the place was out of date. Unfortunately, she hadn’t had the time to start new research. Now she’d be rushed. Most of the work would have to be done during the walk-through tomorrow.

  Her speakerphone buzzed and Kara’s voice came through. “Miss Loxley, there’s an Aitan Hansen here to see you.” The name didn’t ring a bell. Did she have a meeting she’d forgotten about? That wasn’t like her. She clicked her calendar to see it blank this morning.

  “Miss Loxley?” Kara asked at her long silence.

  Robyn scowled. She didn’t have time for salespeople who didn’t have the curtesy to make an appointment before showing up. “Tell him I’m in a meeting or something.” She heard a commotion through the speaker and her door opened.

  In her doorway stood the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen.

  2

  Aitan stepped out of the black SUV he rented at the airport. It was the biggest vehicle they had but he still felt cramped. He stretched and looked at the building. The address he’d written down matched that next to the main entrance. Safe Journeys, Inc.

  Cute name, he thought, especially for an armored truck company. His researched showed the company was owned by R. Loxley and had been in business fifteen years, starting as a single armored truck service, growing into what it was now. Approximately five years ago, their business picked up from small local accounts to branches across the states. Around three years ago, the company delivered the first piece of priceless jewelry he owned. A family heirloom ring stolen from the museum shortly after its arrival.

  Years had passed since the last time he was in the States. He’d been on holiday with his parents, touring the big cities and networking with other wolf shifters. At a young age, his eyes were opened then to what the world was like. So different from his sheltered part of the world.

  He couldn’t understand why humans hurt each other or killed others. In his country, there was the occasional theft of cows or bread, but the reason for the theft was dug out and the problem resolved—finding a job for money, breeding for more animals, or anger management. If the person refused to help themselves and there was a repeat offense, then there was the choice of banishment or death. Most chose exile. But there hadn’t been an incident needing that resolution since before he was born. His pack was forward thinking.

  All wolves understood that expulsion from the pack was a death sentence in its own right. They knew if they didn’t work together to make their world good, it wouldn’t be, and the town would fall into ruin. That was not going to happen to his home or people.

  As the heir to the crown of his small country, Cloustien, he was responsible for continuing to bring the shifters and few humans into the current century. His position was only a figurehead. Many moons ago, the monarchy turned into rule by the peo
ple. And the country had flourished.

  For the past ten years, he headed up the royal foundation who provided charity cases with monetary needs. Plus, they had the history of their shifter community back to before medieval times.

  Now, he was playing private investigator to do what the police in the United States failed to accomplish. He would find the person responsible for stealing his great-grandmother’s crown tiara. And if he was lucky, he’d solve the mystery of a royal ruby diamond ring stolen three years ago, which the police also failed to resolve.

  Not being trained in the “investigation process,” he was determined to turn every stone until something showed up. Plus, being a shifter, he could smell a lie and had other advantages over normal humans.

  His newest theory was a shot in the dark, but his gut kept telling him he had to follow this possibility to the end. So, now he stood in the parking lot of Safe Journeys, Inc. wondering what the hell he was going to say. Hello, sir. I think you stole a tiara that belongs to my family and I want it back. That would get him booted out quickly.