Read Online Echoes by Laura K. Curtis - Free Book Online Page A

up?”
    â€œIn the slums in Atlanta.”
    â€œI never thought about Atlanta having slums. It seems so clean and pretty.”
    He chuckled, a low rumble of sound that heated her blood despite the soft breeze off the ocean. “The board of tourism would be happy to hear it. But in reality, Atlanta’s just like any other city.”
    â€œHow did you get out?”
    â€œThe same way as any other kid in my neighborhood with an iota of ambition. I joined the Army straight out of high school. Learned a lot about the world and myself in my six years in, one thing being I have little talent for—and less patience with—politics. And I’m not good with rules. So I left. Came home and joined the Atlanta PD.” Callie could hear the warning: he knew how to investigate. She chose to focus on another aspect of his story.
    â€œI can’t imagine the police department being any less political or rule-oriented than the military.”
    â€œIt’s not. But if you don’t care about rank, and you’re good at your job, you can fudge the rules and avoid the politics.”
    â€œI don’t understand.”
    â€œThere are two tracks in most police departments. In one, you go from foot patrol to radio car and so on up to detective in Vice, Homicide, or wherever you want to end up. That one is based on talent, drive, and determination. On the other hand, you also take a series of civil-service exams that take you from sergeant to lieutenant to captain and so on. You pass the exam, you gain the rank. But if you want that rank to mean something, you want to be able to take advantage of it, you have to make nice with the powers that be. Me, I didn’t care about that.”
    â€œThen why did you leave?”
    â€œI lost my peripheral vision.” He touched the scar slashing down his face. “Knife fight. I didn’t want to spend my life doing paperwork, so I took partial disability. An Army buddy had retired and opened a charter fishing service down here, so I joined him. It was supposed to be temporary, but it didn’t turn out that way.”
    â€œAnd you got married.” She hadn’t meant to say it, to bring the missing woman into their conversation, but she could feel herself getting sucked into his story. His regret and longing for his old life sat beside them in the sand, and she needed to push them away before they became part of her own sadness. Adding Nikki’s presence reminded her of all the reasons not to sympathize with him.
    â€œYeah.” They sat in companionable silence, listening to the swish of the waves. “You should go back. It’s not safe here.”
    â€œBack to the hotel, or back to New York?”
    â€œTo New York. Barring that, upstairs.”
    â€œWhy? What’s so dangerous?”
    He gestured at the inky water. “The island is like the sea. Beautiful on the surface, even clear down to the sandy bottom. But beauty isn’t innocence. Sea urchins, lionfish, even man-o’-war jellyfish are gorgeous but deadly.”
    â€œCynical.”
    â€œRealistic.”
    Callie yawned. “I guess I could head back to bed.”
    â€œGood idea. What time should I pick you up to go to the station?”
    The station. Right
. Somehow, in the susurrant darkness of the beach, she’d forgotten about that. Despite their discussion of danger—and her own, deliberate prodding of the open wound Nikki must represent for him—the gendarmes, the DNA, the dead body, even the mysterious photograph that had started her whole journey had seemed very far away. For a few minutes, she’d been a tourist, sharing the sand with a sexy stranger. She let the fantasy go with a sigh. “After breakfast? Say ten thirty?”
    â€œEating with the boss again?”
    â€œHe’s helping me with a history of the Paradis.” Again she wondered about the tension between the two men.
    â€œSure.” Mac walked her back up