Read Online Conduit by Angie Martin - Free Book Online Page A

do
you?”
    Nathan and Stephen both shook their heads. “We’ll be right
here when you’re done,” Nathan said.
    Cassie turned on her heels and matched Emily’s brisk pace toward
the bar. When they reached the bar, she asked, “So what do you think of my new
man? Handsome, isn’t he? He’s the most successful chiropractor in his office
and he drives a Porsche—”
    “And his wife thinks he’s playing poker with friends
tonight,” Emily said.
    Cassie whirled around to face Emily. “Did you say wife?”
    Emily placed her empty wine glass on the bar. “I’m sorry. I
picked up on it when I shook his hand. He’s worried Jim might call his house
because his wife thinks they’re together.”
    “Jim’s his best friend.” Cassie shook her head in defeat. “I
guess that means I’m not going home with him tonight. I really need to start
checking court records on these guys before the first date.”
    “I’m sorry, Cass. Four dates with the same guy is a major accomplishment
for you.”
    “That’s just plain mean.”
    “But you were practically married to this one! If you really
like him you could always start a polygamist colony.”
    “Hey, he might have proposed tonight if you hadn’t ruined it,”
Cassie said. She sighed and looked in Stephen’s direction. “I guess I’ll finish
out the night and tell him off when he takes me home. No need to raise a stink
in the midst of this company.”
    Emily smiled. “Good girl.”
    “And what about you?”
    “What about me?”
    “You could do worse for yourself than Nate,” Cassie said in
a quiet tone. “Poor sap’s drooling all over you. I’m sure the gossip mill will
be churning first thing tomorrow morning. Good thing Trisha isn’t here to see
it.”
    “According to him, Trisha is a distraction.”
    “Everyone knows that,” Cassie said. “Including you.”
    Emily opened her mouth to respond, but no words came out. Someone
watched her, but it was more than a feeling of eyes crawling over her. An
invisible person stood right next to her, invading her personal space and
snooping around her mind. Emily rubbed her arms, which had chilled in just a
few seconds.
    Cassie touched Emily’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
    Emily ignored her question and looked around the room. She
took inventory of all the people she could see, but no one seemed out of place
among the small groups of overdressed legal moguls discussing business and
touting victories. Studying the faces in her immediate vicinity, she recognized
quite a few of the people, and those she did not know appeared harmless.
    “Emily?”
    The invisible entity still by her side, Emily’s airway constricted
and her breathing shallowed. The walls pulsated and closed in on her mind,
though the person posed no danger. Their warm presence comforted her, but the
close confines in which they held her also alarmed her, throwing her into panic
mode. She needed to find the source of the disturbance and end it.
    She continued scanning the room. A man with a purple bowtie
stood out in another group of lawyers to her left. A large laugh bounced
through the room, coming from a gangly man at least a head taller than the
others around him. Her eyes followed him as he jetted about the party, joining
in the conversations of others for a few seconds before moving to invade another
group.
    Emily’s eyes landed on an ostentatious woman, whose
feathered boa adorned her red dress. The woman chatted with those around her
while waiting in line at the bar in the back of the room. The invisible person
pulled Emily in the direction of the woman, but there were too many people at
the bar to know who called to her. No matter where Emily looked, her eyes always
went back to the woman.
    “Let me get you some water,” Cassie said.
    Emily gave a slight nod and turned to say something. Before
she could open her mouth, the woman in the red dress moved in her peripheral
vision. Emily swung her eyes to the bar, now in full view.
    A man