Read Online Kill Me Again by MAGGIE SHAYNE - Free Book Online Page B

night.”
    â€œI should call Bryan.”
    â€œBryan?”
    â€œOfficer Kendall.”
    He tipped his head slightly to one side as he studied her face, making her wonder just how badly bruisedit was. She must look awful. Silly pajamas, bed-hair, tearstains and bruises to boot.
    â€œAre you and he…?”
    â€œOh, no. Just friends. Less than friends, really. We were held at gunpoint together a few weeks ago, along with his fiancée, Dawn.”
    His brows went up.
    â€œTotally unrelated incident,” she said.
    â€œBusy little town, this Shadow Falls, isn’t it?”
    â€œLately it has been. What scares me is the way they say these things happen in threes, right? So this makes two. What the hell could be next?”
    â€œMaybe it’s already three—if my killer and your intruder are two different people.” He looked around the room. “I think we should keep this to ourselves for now.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œMy instincts are telling me that I know what to do, and that keeping quiet is it. And I trust my instincts.”
    â€œWhat if I don’t trust your instincts?” she asked. “What if I have some instincts of my own to follow?” And even as she said it, she knew what those instincts were telling her. Pack up the dog, grab her escape kit from the safe-deposit box in Burlington and run as fast and as far as she could. She had always known this day might come.
    Aaron sank back, looking a little daunted. “All right, I’ll try logic, then. We don’t know how that guy found you. We don’t know if he’s related to what happened tome, or if he is, where he’s getting his information. How did he know I was alive, or that I’d left the hospital, or that you were the only contact I had in town? How did he know to come looking for me here? If there’s a leak, it’s got to be either at the police department or at the hospital.”
    â€œI see the logic there, but I already told you, this has nothing to do with you.”
    â€œYou can’t be sure of that.”
    â€œI’m as sure as I need to be. The life I’ve built here is over, Aaron. I hoped I could help you, but I don’t see how I can. I’ve got to disappear.”
    He lifted his brows, looking at her as if he’d never seen her before. “You’ve got a whole lot going on under the surface for an English teacher, lady.”
    â€œMaybe I do.”
    â€œStill, you agree that staying here tonight is a bad idea, right?”
    â€œStaying here at all is a bad idea,” she told him. “And you’re right that I need to leave here tonight. But not with you. Just like Harvey Trudeau, I have to do it on my own.”
    He frowned as if he couldn’t understand her. “The way I see it, we’re in the same boat here. Someone’s after you, and someone’s after me. Maybe the same someone, maybe not. But dammit, we can help each other.”
    She looked at him, her eyes narrowing. “Why would you want to help me?”
    He held her gaze for a long moment, letting her lookher fill, as if he truly had nothing to hide. “I don’t know. I have a feeling I’m… supposed to.”
    She tipped her head sideways, the way Freddy did when he heard a sound and didn’t know what it was.
    â€œLook, you seem to like this life of yours pretty well,” he said. “Why give it up for good if you don’t have to? Isn’t it worth at least trying to stay?”
    She thought on that and finally nodded. “What do you suggest…we…do?” The word we felt foreign on her lips.
    â€œLet’s go somewhere else for what’s left of the night. Tomorrow we’ll pick up those disks you’ve got stashed off-site—a smart move on your part, by the way—and then…well, then we’ll figure out our next move.”
    She searched her soul but couldn’t trust what she found