Read Online Love Inspired Suspense April 2015 #2 by Dana Mentink, Tammy Johnson, Michelle Karl - Free Book Online Page A

you?”
    â€œNever had much to say.”
    â€œOkay, well, I am going to find him and make sure he is arrested. No one is going to take away my child, do you understand that?”
    Mick found he was holding his breath at the sheer ludicrous magnificence of what he’d just heard. It tickled something inside him, whirling around like a feather. “Yes, I do.”
    â€œGood. Please don’t tell me I’m silly or crazy for trying it and most of all, don’t tell me to leave it to the police.”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œAnyway, I am going to the Pick and Pack to find out who that person was who bought the bag full of snack cakes because it seems like that might be a lead.”
    â€œYou figure they’ll tell you?”
    â€œI have a source.”
    Her chin was up, mouth in a determined line that made her look all of about eighteen. He hid a smile. “Fair enough. I’ll try not to cramp your style by following too close.”
    â€œYou’re not going to try to talk me out of it, or order me to go home?”
    â€œNo, ma’am. Not my place, and you told me bossing wasn’t polite.”
    â€œWell, it isn’t.” She sighed, brushing a speck of something off the dashboard. “Look. I’m sort of a direct type, so I’m just going to say it. I know you feel guilty about my sister’s murder. You blame yourself. I did, too, for a while, and maybe part of me still does judging by the way I blasted you at Aunt Viv’s, but Tucker is the one who killed her. You don’t need to trail around as my personal bodyguard. This isn’t your responsibility anymore.”
    He shifted a fraction on the seat. “I appreciate that.”
    â€œAnd I’d really rather that you didn’t. I’ve got police all over the place, and they don’t seem to like you or Mr. Donaldson very much.” She took a breath. “You make things harder for me.”
    â€œCan’t leave.”
    She cocked her head, a strand of hair falling across her cheek. “Why not?”
    Mick looked away at the ribbons of cloud floating across the moon. “I used to have this sense, back in Iraq, a sort of twinge that started up in my gut. Sometimes it was as if I could feel the bad guys coming.” He slid his gaze back to her. “Got that feeling now. Can’t walk away.”
    â€œI don’t want to be cruel, but your sixth sense didn’t kick in about Tucker.”
    He wondered if she knew that it was a knife he had twisted deep in his own gut many times over. A breeze toyed with the collar of her jacket.
    â€œYou’re going to follow me anyway, aren’t you?”
    He nodded.
    â€œFine. I’m to going to get some bags of flour while I’m at the Pick and Pack,” she said over her shoulder as she got out of the car. “They’ve got a sale, and I think best when I bake bread, and if I’m going to find Tucker before he finds me, I’m going to need to do a lot of thinking.”
    Her small silhouette looked slight against the darkness. In a moment, she’d revved the motor and taken off. As he followed, he tried to understand Keeley Stevens. Could the woman think she would be able to find Tucker and have him arrested all by herself with no skills, no training, nothing but a passion to succeed? He smiled in the darkness and thought of his mother. She approached every situation with confidence, never imagining that failure was an option. His father still had the crooked pots from her ceramics phase.
    He recalled the day the dog had torn apart Cowboy Pete, his favorite toy. His mother had gamely rounded up a sewing kit, and though she’d never put thread to needle, she reconstructed Cowboy Pete’s body. His missing eye was another matter, solved when she’d found a bead from one of her necklaces and glued it in the hapless cowboy’s empty socket. Cowboy Pete had never quite looked the same. Funny how Mick