Read Online Convincing Alex by Nora Roberts - Free Book Online

could shut her gaping mouth, Alex was swinging to the curb.
    â€œYou,” he said, stabbing a finger in her face. “Stay in the car, or I swear I’ll wring your neck.”
    â€œI’m not going anywhere,” Bess assured him after she managed to swallow the large ball of fear lodged in her throat. But before the words were out, he and Judd were out of the car and drawing their weapons.
    He’d already forgotten her, she realized as she stared at his profile. Before he and Judd had crossed the street, he’d put on his cop’s mind and his cop’s face. She’d seen hundreds of actors try to emulate that particular look. Some came close, she realized, but this was the real thing. It wasn’t grim or fierce, but flat, almost blank.
    Except for the eyes, she thought with a quick shudder. She’d had only one glimpse of his eyes, but it had been enough.
    Life and death had been in them, and a potential for violence she would never have guessed at.
    In the darkened car, she gripped her hands together and prayed.
    He hadn’t forgotten her. It infuriated him that he had to fight to tuck her into some back corner of his mind. There were innocent people in that store. A man and a woman. He could smell the fear while he was still three yards away.
    But he broke his concentration long enough to glance back and make certain she was staying put.
    He gestured Judd to one side of the door while he took the other. He didn’t have time to worry that the rookie might freeze. Right now they were just two cops, and he had to believe Judd would go with him through the door.
    The 9 mm felt warm in his hand. He’d already identified the weapons of the two perpetrators. One had a sawed-off shotgun, the other a wicked-looking .45. He could hear the woman crying, pleading not to be hurt. Alex ignored it. They would wait for backup as long as they could.
    He shifted just enough to look inside.
    Behind the counter, a woman of approximately sixty stood with her hands at her throat, weeping. A man of about the same age was emptying the cash register as fast as his trembling hands allowed. One of the gunmen grabbed a bottle off a shelf. He ripped off the top and guzzled. Swearing at the old man, he smashed the bottle on the counter and jabbed the broken glass toward his face.
    Alex had seen the look before, and he knew they wouldn’t be content with the money. “We’re going in,” he whispered to Judd. “You go low, go for the one on the right.”
    Pale, Judd nodded. “Say when.”
    â€œDon’t fire your weapon unless you have to.” Alex sucked in his breath and went through the door. “Police!” In the back of his mind he heard the sirens from the backup as the first gunman swung the shotgun in his direction. “Drop it!” he ordered, knowing it was useless. The woman was already screaming before the first shots were fired.
    The shotgun blew out a bank of fluorescent lights as the force of Alex’s bullet sent the man slamming backward. Alex was getting the second man in his sights when a bullet from the .45 slammed into a bottle inches above his head, spraying alcohol and glass. Judd fired, and stopped being a rookie.
    Slowly, with the same blank look on his face, Alex came out of his crouch and studied his partner. Judd wasn’t pale now. He was green. “You okay?”
    â€œYeah.” After replacing his weapon, Judd rubbed the back of his hand over his mouth. There was a greasy knot in his stomach that was threatening to leap into his throat. “It was my first.”
    â€œI know. Go outside.”
    â€œI’m okay.”
    Alex gave him a nudge on the shoulder. His hand remained there a moment, surprisingly gentle. “Go outside anyway. Tell the backup to call an ambulance.”
    Â 
    Bess was waiting beside the car when Alex came out some twenty minutes later. He looked the same, she thought. Just the same as he’d