Read Online Ex-Con: Bad Boy Romance by Shiloh Walker, M. S. Parker - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Shiloh Walker, M. S. Parker
Tags: Romance
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who I was or what I was doing. Being pissed off was a natural reaction.”
Carly sniffed. “Mrs. G, don’t encourage him. He’s already incorrigible.”
Mrs. G.? I guess it suited her better than The Grande Dame of the Modern Mystery. I remembered seeing that title on one of her books.
She smiled at the both of us. “Then he should fit in just fine with you. Oh...oh, dear. Carly, excuse me, would you?”
Carly gave a reply, but I didn’t hear what she said. Something else had caught my eye. Unconsciously, I’d moved to put my back to the wall when I’d rejoined them, and now I had full, nearly unrestricted view of the room before us. I didn’t know what to call it, exactly. It wasn’t a living room, at least not like one I’d seen before. This wasn’t where people flopped and watched TV at the end of a long day or shared a beer or three with friends. It was too classy, too elegant for that.
It was also big enough to hold a good forty people, more as they mingled in and out of the hallway and the dining room. A dining room holding a table long enough to seat the entire population of the city.
My gut tightened as I realized somebody out there was looking in our direction with a whole lot of rage.
As if they’d picked up on my tension, Ryan and Jake moved closer. They’d been holding people at bay from a distance of two feet, giving Carly and her friend the illusion of privacy, but now they closed that gap. Jake bent towards me while Ryan stood at his back, facing the crowd, searching for whatever was bugging me.
“What is it? What do you see?” Jake asked.
“I don’t see anything,” I said, shaking my head. Instinct had me echoing his low tone. I didn’t bother looking at him as I continued to skim the room, trying to keep it subtle and low-key, the way I’d seen them doing it, but I doubted I pulled it off half as well.
“Tone it down,” Jake said softly, clapping me on the back and giving me an easy smile. “Look at me, smile. Do it now.”
I did. The smile felt forced.
“That’s it. Whatever it is...”
The smile froze on my face as I caught sight of someone familiar moving toward us.
If the sky had opened and lightning had cracked down on me out of the blue, it would’ve been less of a kick in the ass.
The man striding my way was a blast from the past, and not a happy one. Not that I had many happy ones, but he was one of the worst.
He’d been younger – barely out of high school – the first time I’d seen him, but not the last time. The last time I’d seen him had been just over a year ago, when he’d shown up for my parole hearing, and thrown every bit of his considerable weight as an upcoming young detective with Louisville Metro Police Department behind keeping me incarcerated. The parole board had decided to give me a chance and he hadn’t been pleased.
Every day since I’d gotten out, I’d expected to see him riding my ass and just looking for a chance to throw me back behind bars, but it hadn’t happened.
Judging by the look on his face now, he was about to make up for that.
As Detective Dale Mitchell came to a stop in front of me, I pulled my hands out of my pockets. Ex-cons don’t do well having their hands in their pockets when there’s a cop around, trust me. Hands where I can see them , and all that jazz.
“Well, well, well,” Dale said, an ugly smile twisting his face. “I thought that face on the video clip flying across the web today looked damn familiar, but I told myself you had a doppelgänger or something.” He paused, and then added with a sneer, “Doppelgänger means double.”
“I know what it means, Detective.”
He rubbed a hand over the neat growth of his beard. When I’d first seen him, across a courtroom as he stared at me with hatred, he’d been a skinny kid with a face full of pimples and tears in his eyes. The only thing that hadn’t changed in the passing years was the hate. I couldn’t exactly say I blamed him.
I killed
Carly sniffed. “Mrs. G, don’t encourage him. He’s already incorrigible.”
Mrs. G.? I guess it suited her better than The Grande Dame of the Modern Mystery. I remembered seeing that title on one of her books.
She smiled at the both of us. “Then he should fit in just fine with you. Oh...oh, dear. Carly, excuse me, would you?”
Carly gave a reply, but I didn’t hear what she said. Something else had caught my eye. Unconsciously, I’d moved to put my back to the wall when I’d rejoined them, and now I had full, nearly unrestricted view of the room before us. I didn’t know what to call it, exactly. It wasn’t a living room, at least not like one I’d seen before. This wasn’t where people flopped and watched TV at the end of a long day or shared a beer or three with friends. It was too classy, too elegant for that.
It was also big enough to hold a good forty people, more as they mingled in and out of the hallway and the dining room. A dining room holding a table long enough to seat the entire population of the city.
My gut tightened as I realized somebody out there was looking in our direction with a whole lot of rage.
As if they’d picked up on my tension, Ryan and Jake moved closer. They’d been holding people at bay from a distance of two feet, giving Carly and her friend the illusion of privacy, but now they closed that gap. Jake bent towards me while Ryan stood at his back, facing the crowd, searching for whatever was bugging me.
“What is it? What do you see?” Jake asked.
“I don’t see anything,” I said, shaking my head. Instinct had me echoing his low tone. I didn’t bother looking at him as I continued to skim the room, trying to keep it subtle and low-key, the way I’d seen them doing it, but I doubted I pulled it off half as well.
“Tone it down,” Jake said softly, clapping me on the back and giving me an easy smile. “Look at me, smile. Do it now.”
I did. The smile felt forced.
“That’s it. Whatever it is...”
The smile froze on my face as I caught sight of someone familiar moving toward us.
If the sky had opened and lightning had cracked down on me out of the blue, it would’ve been less of a kick in the ass.
The man striding my way was a blast from the past, and not a happy one. Not that I had many happy ones, but he was one of the worst.
He’d been younger – barely out of high school – the first time I’d seen him, but not the last time. The last time I’d seen him had been just over a year ago, when he’d shown up for my parole hearing, and thrown every bit of his considerable weight as an upcoming young detective with Louisville Metro Police Department behind keeping me incarcerated. The parole board had decided to give me a chance and he hadn’t been pleased.
Every day since I’d gotten out, I’d expected to see him riding my ass and just looking for a chance to throw me back behind bars, but it hadn’t happened.
Judging by the look on his face now, he was about to make up for that.
As Detective Dale Mitchell came to a stop in front of me, I pulled my hands out of my pockets. Ex-cons don’t do well having their hands in their pockets when there’s a cop around, trust me. Hands where I can see them , and all that jazz.
“Well, well, well,” Dale said, an ugly smile twisting his face. “I thought that face on the video clip flying across the web today looked damn familiar, but I told myself you had a doppelgänger or something.” He paused, and then added with a sneer, “Doppelgänger means double.”
“I know what it means, Detective.”
He rubbed a hand over the neat growth of his beard. When I’d first seen him, across a courtroom as he stared at me with hatred, he’d been a skinny kid with a face full of pimples and tears in his eyes. The only thing that hadn’t changed in the passing years was the hate. I couldn’t exactly say I blamed him.
I killed
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