Read Online Hot Pursuit by Christina Skye - Free Book Online Page B

need to go now.”
    Taylor frowned at the officer beside Jack. “Are you arresting this man?”
    â€œNo, ma’am. Just completing our report, the way he said.”
    â€œYou’d better
not
arrest him. Mr. Broussard saved my life, and I want that on the record. No matter what he says, he saved my life.” Her voice broke. “Whatever force he used in there was absolutely necessary.”
    Jack felt something work at his chest as he listened to her angry, impassioned speech to the police officer. Taylor didn’t realize that he was only doing the hard, dirty job he was trained to do, and Jack couldn’t enlighten her.
    She strode closer, blocking their way. “I’m prepared to offer a statement if necessary.”
    â€œI’ll be sure to note your observations.” The officer nodded at Jack, and they resumed walking.
    â€œYou’d better,” Taylor called. “Otherwise, I’ll be calling the mayor tonight. The newspapers, too.” Jack could feel her eyes burning on his back as they passed Harris Rains, who was giving a wild and entirely fictional account of his “ordeal” to a female officer.
    â€œHey, Broussard. I’m going to thank you somehow,” Taylor called loudly.
    Jack raised a hand and gave a two-finger wave, while the officer beside him smiled. “Now that might be seriously worth seeing.”
    Jack was pretty sure it might be worth seeing, too.
    Â 
    Ten minutes later Taylor was sitting in the back of a cruiser with an attractive female police lieutenant, repeating that she was fine and didn’t need to go to the hospital.
    But her hands were trembling, and both of them knew she wasn’t as cool as she seemed, which only made Taylor more tense.
    â€œThe clerk told us this was yours.” The lieutenant held out Taylor’s purse.
    â€œIt’s mine. I threw it at one of those men.” Taylor gripped the purse tensely, feeling sick.
    â€œLook, you’ve been through a life-threatening experience, Ms. O’Toole. You also took quite a fall. You should be seen by a doctor.”
    â€œI just want to go home.” A few feet away, two medics were lifting a body bag. Taylor swallowed hard and looked away. “Did you see the store? Those bodies?” She shook her head. “We all could have died. I’ve seen it in my mind a hundred times. I’ve written hostage scenes without a second thought.”
    â€œYou’re a writer, Ms. O’Toole?”
    Taylor nodded and ran a hand through her hair. “
The Forever Code.
Someone got tossed off a roof in that one. But I didn’t get it right at all. I never knew how it feels from the inside.”
Or how it hurts.
    â€œIt’s not neat and pretty.” The officer frowned. “Sometimes the crimes we see don’t even make sense. Books are supposed to make sense, but life often doesn’t, I’m afraid, and the random crimes can be the hardest to accept. Now about that medical attention?”
    But Taylor wasn’t really listening. She was remembering how Jack had looked when he’d come after her, his eyes calm and cold.
    What a story, she thought.
    What a man.
    Across the parking lot, Harris Rains was talking with a perky reporter who anchored the local evening news. Rains was describing how he’d helped subdue one of the wounded suspects while Jack was out in the back corridor.
    Like hell he had. Rains had been petrified when she’d last seen him. The man couldn’t have subdued a hamster. “Rains is lying,” she said. “He did nothing.”
    The policewoman smiled grimly, as if this was no surprise. “In the heat of the moment, people often get carried away with their stories.”
    â€œJack Broussard saved those people. He saved me, too. If he hadn’t come after me, I wouldn’t have escaped.” Taylor took an angry breath, feeling sick as she listened to Rains’ outpouring of