Read Online Fight for Her#3 by JJ Knight - Free Book Online Page B

sits next to me. “That they will learn about her?”
    I put my arm around her. “Not in the least.”
    “Do you think those people Colt knows would — would kill them?”
    I grip her a little tighter. I’m not sure what she’s asking. “Would you want them to?”
    She jerks like she’s been slapped. “No! I mean, will they?”
    “I imagine if Jax had planned to kill anybody, their bodies would already have vanished.”
    Maddie relaxes a little. “Okay.”
    “Let’s get out for a while. We’ll stay in super-public places. Big crowds.”
    She nods. “That’s fine.”
    “You want me to get Colt and Jo? More company?”
    “Not just yet. Maybe later.”
    I kiss the top of her head. “Anything you want.”
    We head out of the hotel and along the Vegas Strip. Maddie has lost all interest in everything. She doesn’t exclaim over the lavish hotels. She just walks along.
    “Let’s go in Caesar’s Palace,” I say. I’m feeling more concerned as we go along. She’s not acting anything like her old self. I know I’m impatient to see her better, but I can’t help it. I had so many ideas about how this weekend would turn out. Striker’s destroyed them.
    Maddie shrugs. We go inside the casino. Just like in New York–New York, the lights and sounds of the slot machines beckon.
    Maddie looks up, and I feel some hope she will snap out of her upset. We walk up to a machine with the image of a cowgirl on it. It’s a digital game. “Try this one,” I say.
    She sits down. Much better. I send up a prayer and a wish and a Hail Mary to cover all the bases to make this fun for her. We’ve had enough bad stuff.
    I stick a twenty into the machine.
    Maddie looks over the buttons and selects the number of lines she wants to bet on. The screen begins to roll with three rows of gems and cows and images of the cowgirl’s face. When it stops, she’s matched a few lines. The recording of coins hitting a tray is cheerful and encouraging.
    “See, you won some,” I say. She’s up forty cents or so.
    She hits the button again. I look around. The casino isn’t terribly full for midafternoon. The Roman theme extends to all the walls and ceilings with fake pillars and statues. A couple girls walk around with trays to take drink orders. Even though I almost never drink, I feel like one now.
    The machine makes coin-drop noises again, so I look down. Maddie’s turned the twenty into almost thirty. “Hey, who needs fighting?” I say. “I’ll spare my face and just let you place all the bets.”
    Maddie glances up with another small smile. I’ll take it. “Should we quit while we’re ahead? I would love to have a working phone.”
    “Absolutely.”
    She cashes out and gets her printed ticket.
    “Save it,” I tell her. “We can come back.”
    She looks around at the lavish ceilings. “It is pretty here,” she says.
    I steer her to the Forum Shops, where the Apple Store has her phone waiting. Maybe I’m asking too much for her to get over what happened right away.
    I’ll just need to be patient. And I can do that.

Chapter 16: Maddie

    It’s a relief to have a phone again. The sales guy tries to explain all the features, but I just want it back on my plan so it will load my backlog of messages.
    “It’ll probably take an hour or so to sync since we’re porting the phone number,” the man says. “Then you’ll be able to retrieve anything that’s on the servers.”
    “What about her old photos and things?” Parker asks.
    “You can send in her old phone to see what they can rescue from it,” he says. “The memory is probably fine inside.”
    Parker pulls his wallet out.
    “You don’t have to pay for my phone,” I say.
    “I want to,” he says.
    I’m not thrilled about this. I like my own control of things. Besides, now I have to wait for my messages and voice mail to be transferred to the new account. I’ve already waited most of the day.
    And if things don’t work out with Parker…
    “Hey,” he