Read Online Awaken to Danger by Catherine Mann - Free Book Online

question and simply
    stated, "Seems mighty coincidental to me, her railing giving way."
    "Could be an accident."
    "Or it could be someone trying to kill her before she remembers what happened."
    "Do ya' think?" Reis quirked an eyebrow.
    What an ass. But being openly antagonistic in return wouldn't get the answers he needed. "Excuse me for
    being slow on the uptake, but I fail to see what's so damn funny."
    Reis rocked back in his chair underneath an autographed photo of Pele. "What's so damn funny?
    Watching you, Major. I've seen you work a crisis without flinching, with a calm I'd expect from someone
    more seasoned. But when it comes to a woman, you're just as human as the rest of us."
    Well hell. While it might be true—all right, was true— what did this have to do with anything? He'd be
    irritated if he didn't admire the guy's no-bull attitude and sharp eye. "Call me Cro-Magnon, but it pisses
    me off when a woman— any woman—is in danger. It's my job to protect. I can't turn that off just
    because I'm not in combat."
    "That's the only reason I'm not chewing your ass for thinking I'm idiot enough not to have considered the
    possibility someone may have tampered with her balcony. There're plenty of reasons somebody may
    have been angry enough to whack Owens over the head. His gambling habit. Or maybe Nikki Price had
    a jealous ex-boyfriend who didn't much like her getting busy with another guy."
    An understandable possibility since thinking about Nikki dating other guys tossed acid onto his already
    burning raw gut even though he had no claim to her. He kept his hands loose, his face impassive. He'd
    mastered the blasé look with his new command duties.
    Funny thing, though, Reis was giving him exactly the same blank expression. The investigator's words
    about ex-boyfriends being to blame shifted in Carson's head, settling into place a second before Reis
    leaned forward, elbows on his desk.
    "So I guess you won't be surprised to hear you're on my suspect list, as well, Major."
    How damned ironic that in spite of years of working to hide his attraction to Nikki, the agent had pegged
    it so fast.
    If he was doing such a piss-poor job of keeping his emotions under wraps, then maybe it was time to
    confront this dogged attraction head-on with Nikki after all.

    * * *
Nikki jogged alongside her brother, her running shoes pounding pavement with dogged determination.
    She shot puffy clouds of air ahead then plowed through the vapor. Too bad her cloudy memories weren't
    as easily dispersed.
    Thank goodness Chris didn't want to talk because she had too much energy to work out. Instead, she
    kept her Walkman headset in place, hoping exhaustion and WWII era tunes— The Andrews sisters at
    present—would soothe her frustration over having her life hijacked.
    She missed her apartment and independence. However as much as she wanted to return to her place and
    simply invest in a kick-ass security system, she couldn't forget her mother's strained face and difficult
    pregnancy. Her father was due home in another week. She could put her own needs on hold for a few
    more days.
    Cars chugged past in the sleepy neighborhood, some turning around and taking detours for ongoing road
    construction, but she felt safe enough in the late afternoon with her brother alongside. Even Carson
    couldn't expect her to hole up inside indefinitely.
    One foot in front of the other, she willed the runner's high to overtake her so she could block out the
    resurrected yearning to be with Carson, a light harmonic melody pulsing through her ears and thrumming
    in her veins. A swelling, sentimental ache she'd finally acknowledged the night she decided to break things
    off with Gary...
    Nikki thudded along the planked boardwalk stretching toward Beachcombers Bar and Grill.
    Flight-jacket-clad bodies with dates packed the back porch, twice as many undoubtedly inside if
    the dull war was anything to gauge by. Finding Gary could take hours in this wash of