Deadly Misconceptions — Sandy Loyd

PI Lucy Maddox, former thief, liar and have-not, spent her formative years as a runaway on the streets. She's worked hard to rise above her past, and now leads a respectable life using her survival skills in a more honest way. Yet when the reporter responsible for getting her off the streets goes missing, she risks her respectability to steal a thumb drive. Lucy believes the drive, belonging to her missing friend, holds incriminating evidence against the last person the reporter interviewed before vanishing. The same man also confiscated the drive to begin with. Unfortunately, Jack Finnegan, nemesis and royal PITA, catches her leaving the scene of the crime, the office of a judge who is announcing his candidacy for governor in three days. Jack is the man's top aide and campaign manager. Jack dealt with Lucy during her years on the street when he interned for the judge. Back then Lucy was a lying hothead who acted before thinking and refused to let the system work for her. Her accusations have come at the worst time. Jack's not about to let lies and innuendos ruin his employer's good name. He believes, like everyone else, the missing reporter is on an undercover assignment and isn't checking in for obvious reasons. Jack joins forces with Lucy, mainly to prove her wrong and to keep an eye on her. From the reporter's thumb drive they uncover a ring of high school girls whose behavior could only be characterized as bullying. Then things get crazy, starting with a harrowing near-miss that's just too coincidental to be accidental. Plus, they're being followed. Jack and Lucy's mutual dislike for each other disintegrates into mutual respect and their attraction builds. As both are drawn deeper into the mystery, they struggle to keep their emotions in check. And when they uncover the truth about the games the cruel girls were playing, Jack and Lucy realize they have fallen victim to Deadly Misconceptions.