Read Online Chill by Stephanie Rowe - Free Book Online Page A

Cort would be in danger. As would his pregnant wife, Kaylie.
    He couldn’t do that to them. Not again. No one else was going to die because of his heritage. No one he cared about.
    He owed it to Cort and Kaylie to slide back into the darkness and disappear forever.
    One car headed around behind the building to cruise the back lot. One pulled into a parking space and its headlights turned off. The third began to drive very slowly along the cars toward the rental car.
    Checking license plates.
    Shit. He couldn’t leave Isabella in there. He took a step toward the bar, then thought of Cort and his pregnant wife. They hadn’t asked to be put at risk. Isabella had. She’d chosen that life, and the payback was a bitch.
    Cort and Kaylie and their baby were the innocents. Not Isabella.
    “Don’t risk them,” Luke muttered to himself. He couldn’t afford to get involved—no matter how great she smelled, no matter how much he wanted to protect her. Too much at risk. Despite his best efforts to stay unconnected while in Alaska, he realized he’d failed on some levels. His choices were no longer just about him.
    The third car paused behind Isabella’s, and then Luke checked out the car that had parked next to the front door of the bar. The doors opened and men got out from each side. They were dressed in black, nearly blending into the night. They began to head up the steps into the bar.
    Luke whipped out his phone and punched in Cort’s number. His friend answered on the first ring. “You gone for the night?” Cort asked.
    “Guys in black coming in. Spread the word that they’re bad news and make sure no one gives them anything. Get a warning to the girl, but don’t make contact yourself. Then get the hell out of there beforeanyone approaches you. You don’t know me. No one does. I’m a ghost.”
    “On it.” Cort disconnected without a question.
    Luke knew the questions from his partner would come later, but for now those men would get nothing but cold, silent stares when they went inside. One thing Alaskans were great at was loyalty to their own and distrust of outsiders.
    Luke could vanish, and there would be no record of him inside that bar.
    As for Isabella…he swore and forced himself to turn and walk toward his plane.
    Helping her would trade her life for Cort and Kaylie’s.
    A trade-off he couldn’t stomach.
    Isabella Kopas was on her own.
    Isabella propped her elbows on the bar and dropped her forehead to her palms. “Okay, Isabella, think. ”
    She’d totally screwed up with Luke. What had happened to her grand plan not to tell him about his dad until he was on the plane with her back to Boston? She’d been so rattled by his appearance and by her reaction when he’d touched her. And then, when he’d rejected her so quickly, she’d been desperate to hang on to him and she’d blurted out the truth.
    The intensity of his reaction to his father had stunned her. Yes, she’d been expecting resistance, but the pain in his eyes…after seeing that, she’d had to let him go. She understood that kind of anguish. Those kinds of secrets. But she hadn’t wanted to walk away, and not just because she wanted his help. He was so compelling she’d wanted to stay, to talk to him, to have him hold on to her again.
    She rubbed her hand over the wrist he’d been gripping so tightly. When he’d grabbed her…her first instinct had been to pull back, but after he’d released her, she’d wanted to beg him to hold on again, like he was an anchor.
    The bartender slapped his palm on the bar. “Your friends are coming in the front door.”
    “My friends?” Isabella whirled around and met the steely gaze of a man she’d never seen before. He was wearing a dark suit, and he was flanked by two others just like him.
    He smiled.
    Isabella was too stunned to move for a split second. How could they possibly have tracked her here this fast? What kind of network was involved?
    “Back door is behind the bar,” the