Read Online FOR THE BABY'S SAKE by Beverly Long - Free Book Online

pantsuit floated toward them. She had big hair and bright red lipstick. “Welcome to the Pleasure Palace. I’m Marvis. May I help you find something? A nice DVD perhaps? Or we have some brand-new battery-operated—”
    “We’re trying to find a book for our friend,” Sawyer interrupted. He nodded at the table.
    “A children’s book?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Well, you’ve come to the right place. Everything is half-off the cover price. All of these belonged to my grandchildren. They are in good shape. The books, that is.” Marvis laughed at her own joke, her double chin bouncing. “Not that my sweet babies aren’t fit as a fiddle, too. They can run circles around me.”
    It would be a fair amount of exercise just getting around Grandma Marvis. Liz caught Sawyer’s eye and knew he was thinking the same thing.
    “There are over two hundred books here. Every one of my eight grandkids could read before they were five.”
    “Our friend comes here all the time. She’s about five-three, fair skin, freckles, blondish-red hair and pregnant.” Sawyer pretended to browse through the pile, all the while keeping an eye on the door.
    “Let me think.” The woman tapped her polished pink fingernail against her lips.
    Sawyer walked over to the counter. He picked the top DVD off the rack. He looked at the price and pulled a fifty out of his pocket.
    “Oh, now I remember. Mary, right?” The woman’s doubled chin tucked under when she smiled.
    “That’s the one.”
    “Wonderful girl. Loves her books. Always takes one of the classics.” She waved her hand toward the end of the table. “Last time she was here, she got Little Women. Said she hoped that if she had a daughter she’d be as pretty as Winona Ryder.”
    “When was she in last?” Sawyer asked.
    “It had to have been at least a week ago. I was telling Herbert, he’s my man friend, just yesterday that I bet she had her baby. What did she have? She was carrying it so low, I couldn’t help but think it was a boy.”
    “No baby yet. In fact,” Sawyer said as he pulled a book off the children’s table and threw another twenty at the woman, “if she happens to stop by, would you tell her to call Liz?”
    “I’ll do that. You all have a nice day. Are you sure I can’t interest you in something? We’ve got a whole new line of condoms. Cartoon characters.”
    “No thanks.” Sawyer literally pulled Liz out of the store and back to the car. He unlocked her side, threw the merchandise in the backseat and got in on the driver’s side. He started to drive away without another word.
    “I wonder if they come in an assorted box,” Liz said.
    Sawyer almost ran the car into a light pole.
    Not that he needed to worry about causing an unexpected pregnancy. A quick trip to his physician ten years ago had taken care of that. But there were other good reasons to wear protection. With a woman like Liz Mayfield in his bed, he’d probably be hard-pressed to remember that. He’d want her, all of her, without anything to separate the two of them. He’d want—
    “Hey, are you all right?” she asked. “You look a little pale.”
    Sawyer whipped his eyes back to the road. In another minute, she’d start to analyze him. If she found out what he was thinking, she’d probably jump out of the car. “I’m fine,” he said.
    “So, now where?” she asked.
    “I’m taking you home.”
    “We can’t just give up.”
    “I’m not giving up. But until a clue turns up, we wait. Maybe Mary will get smart and call you.”
    “You’re determined to think the worst of her, aren’t you?”
    “She’s up close and personal with a drug dealer. It’s hard to think of her as Mother Teresa.”
    “Why don’t you try thinking of her as a mixed-up, scared, lonely kid?”
    “I can’t do that.” He risked a quick glance at her.
    Liz folded her arms across her chest and stared straight ahead. When she spoke, he had to strain to hear her.
    “You need to try harder,” she said.
    He