Read Online A Cavanaugh Christmas by Marie Ferrarella - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Marie Ferrarella
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if I ask you a question?” he asked as they wove their way out of the restaurant.
She spared him a glance. Was it his imagination, or was that wariness he saw in her eyes? “Go ahead.”
“I get the feeling that this case is really important to you.”
More probing. Didn’t the man ever let up? Was this some kind of a game to him?
“I don’t know how it is around here, but a missing little girl isn’t something we take lightly back in New Mexico,” she informed him tersely.
If she was trying to goad him into losing his temper, she would have to do a lot better than that, he thought. It took more than that to get under his skin.
“We don’t take it lightly around here, either,” he told her. “But I get the feeling that more is going on here.”
She shrugged, looking away. “I can’t help what you feel.”
He held the door open for her as they walked out. Common sense told him to back away from the subject. After all, this was just a temporary arrangement. With a good dose of luck, they’d find the little girl alive and then the detective with the improbable last name and soul-penetrating eyes would be on her way back to where she’d come from.
And even if the case wasn’t resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, Two Feathers would still be gone soon enough. There was no reason to trouble himself with the enigmas that she so clearly seemed to represent.
But, for reasons he didn’t fathom and—for now—chose not to explore, he didn’t want to go on as if it was business as usual. He wanted to understand exactly what was driving her. Was this personal? Did she know the woman whose child had been taken? Had they once been best friends who had lost touch until this horrible tragedy had brought them back in contact?
What, exactly, was it that made this case so personal for her?
And it was personal for her. He could see it in her eyes, in the way she conducted herself. Everything about her body language told him that this case was very personal to her.
He was surprised at his own reaction to this. Ordinarily, he wasn’t the kind who needed to have answers to everything unless it had to do with a case. But this went beyond that.
“You could try leveling with me,” he told her mildly. The wind had picked up and he turned up his collar to keep it from finding its way down his jacket and along his already chilled spine.
She stopped walking and turned to look at him. Her eyes were blazing. The phrase “beautiful when angry” suddenly popped up in his head. He’d always thought it was a stupid line—until now.
“What is it exactly that you want from me?” she demanded, her voice low but nonetheless heated.
His eyes held hers for a moment and then he studied her face, looking for something he wasn’t quite sure of yet. “The truth,” he answered without hesitation. “Nothing more.”
Kait laughed softly at his words. The laugh had no humor to it.
Nothing more.
Oh, but it was. It was so much more. More than she was willing to talk about, to volunteer. She could hardly bring herself to even think about it. Because there was a very real, near-paralyzing chance that that poor little missing girl could even at this very moment be being sold. Sold the way she had almost been sold by a grandmother who was so desperate for a fix, she was half out of her mind and willing to peddle her innocence away to the highest bidder—or any bidder at all.
Kait pressed her lips together. This detective she’d had the misfortune to be paired with wasn’t going to back off until she gave him some kind of plausible answer. While it rankled her to be forced to render any sort of an explanation for her actions, Kait reminded herself that he had saved her life.
In her book—the book that had been symbolically passed to her by Ronald Two Feathers—that meant she owed him, which in turn dictated that she provide him with answers to whatever questions he had. Just because he asked them.
She took a deep breath
She spared him a glance. Was it his imagination, or was that wariness he saw in her eyes? “Go ahead.”
“I get the feeling that this case is really important to you.”
More probing. Didn’t the man ever let up? Was this some kind of a game to him?
“I don’t know how it is around here, but a missing little girl isn’t something we take lightly back in New Mexico,” she informed him tersely.
If she was trying to goad him into losing his temper, she would have to do a lot better than that, he thought. It took more than that to get under his skin.
“We don’t take it lightly around here, either,” he told her. “But I get the feeling that more is going on here.”
She shrugged, looking away. “I can’t help what you feel.”
He held the door open for her as they walked out. Common sense told him to back away from the subject. After all, this was just a temporary arrangement. With a good dose of luck, they’d find the little girl alive and then the detective with the improbable last name and soul-penetrating eyes would be on her way back to where she’d come from.
And even if the case wasn’t resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, Two Feathers would still be gone soon enough. There was no reason to trouble himself with the enigmas that she so clearly seemed to represent.
But, for reasons he didn’t fathom and—for now—chose not to explore, he didn’t want to go on as if it was business as usual. He wanted to understand exactly what was driving her. Was this personal? Did she know the woman whose child had been taken? Had they once been best friends who had lost touch until this horrible tragedy had brought them back in contact?
What, exactly, was it that made this case so personal for her?
And it was personal for her. He could see it in her eyes, in the way she conducted herself. Everything about her body language told him that this case was very personal to her.
He was surprised at his own reaction to this. Ordinarily, he wasn’t the kind who needed to have answers to everything unless it had to do with a case. But this went beyond that.
“You could try leveling with me,” he told her mildly. The wind had picked up and he turned up his collar to keep it from finding its way down his jacket and along his already chilled spine.
She stopped walking and turned to look at him. Her eyes were blazing. The phrase “beautiful when angry” suddenly popped up in his head. He’d always thought it was a stupid line—until now.
“What is it exactly that you want from me?” she demanded, her voice low but nonetheless heated.
His eyes held hers for a moment and then he studied her face, looking for something he wasn’t quite sure of yet. “The truth,” he answered without hesitation. “Nothing more.”
Kait laughed softly at his words. The laugh had no humor to it.
Nothing more.
Oh, but it was. It was so much more. More than she was willing to talk about, to volunteer. She could hardly bring herself to even think about it. Because there was a very real, near-paralyzing chance that that poor little missing girl could even at this very moment be being sold. Sold the way she had almost been sold by a grandmother who was so desperate for a fix, she was half out of her mind and willing to peddle her innocence away to the highest bidder—or any bidder at all.
Kait pressed her lips together. This detective she’d had the misfortune to be paired with wasn’t going to back off until she gave him some kind of plausible answer. While it rankled her to be forced to render any sort of an explanation for her actions, Kait reminded herself that he had saved her life.
In her book—the book that had been symbolically passed to her by Ronald Two Feathers—that meant she owed him, which in turn dictated that she provide him with answers to whatever questions he had. Just because he asked them.
She took a deep breath
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