Read Online Murphy's Law by Lisa Marie Rice - Free Book Online Page B

gleamed. He liked police work, but he loved computers with a passion verging on the aberrant. Dante was sure he’d just made Loiacono’s day.
    Dante turned on his heel with dignity and walked carefully down to the communal bathrooms where he relieved his stomach of last night’s liver.

 
    Chapter Five
     
    Don’t be misled by facts.
     
    Southbury, Massachusetts
     
    The good news was that the doorbell ringing didn’t hurt so much anymore. The bad news was that it was his sister, Lou, at the door.
    Nick opened the door and stared at Lou, hating her because she looked so good. She was dressed in one of her usual designer outfits in some bright jewel color and not a hair on her dark head was out of place.
    “I used to think of you as my big, handsome brute of a brother,” she said idly from the doorframe. Her huge dark-blue eyes, so remarkably like his own, looked him up and down, taking in his unshaven chin, tousled hair and bare chest. “But I guess brute just about covers it now. Do your eyes hurt?”
    “Everything hurts,” Nick answered shortly. “Why?”
    “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that shade of red outside a fashion magazine before. How come I haven’t seen you? I was worried.”
    Nick leaned against the doorjamb negligently, as if he were relaxed and had nothing else to do and not as if he’d fall down otherwise. “Had an out-of-town exhibition game.”
    “Well, that’s no excuse for disappearing. Can I come in?”
    “Can I stop you?” Nick countered, and turned away.
    Lou sucked in a breath and Nick winced, knowing what she was seeing on his bare back. The pain of the bruises had lessened, but even he had whistled when he’d seen the blues and greens, slowly turning yellow at the edges, in the mirror. There was even a little black here and there.
    Lou had seen him in this shape before, but Nick knew she never got used to the sight.
    “Christ,” Lou muttered behind him, and Nick hobbled more quickly into the living room. The lecture was coming. Any minute now.
    He wished he could fortify his system with alcohol, but he’d probably exceeded his body’s yearly quota.
    “You can turn around, Nick,” Lou said acidly. “You don’t have to hide. I’m not going to say anything. If you want to beat yourself to a pulp, week after week, that’s your business.”
    Nick slumped down into the sofa and Lou sat disturbingly close. Lou might hold off for a minute or two, but he wasn’t counting on it. She hated hockey, and said so. Often. To her, it was basically pro wrestling with a stick.
    Lou’s sharp eyes narrowed. “Listen, I swore to myself I wasn’t going to ask, but…how are you?”
    “You were right the first time. Don’t ask.” Nick felt weary and depressed.
    “Too late.” Lou kept her voice light. “I already did.”
    “I’m fine.” Nick pursed his lips and studied his knees. “Just fine.” He looked up to see if Lou was buying it. Unfortunately, her mind was even sharper than her eyes.
    “Uh-huh,” she said dryly. “Spill it.”
    He didn’t have any choice. Lou was as tenacious as a bloodhound. He heaved a sigh. “I…it’s like this.” Nick started to tell her everything—the concussion, the medical tests, the doctors, the enforced retirement, Faith—but to his horror, his throat seized up. His tongue became a useless muscle in his mouth.
    I can’t play hockey. Ever again.
    The words were there but they simply wouldn’t come out. It was like looking at a train wreck. You saw the smoking ruins, could hear the cries of the wounded, but words simply couldn’t describe it.
    Lou was watching him with her I-love-you-but-you-exasperate-me look and she was probably about five seconds from tricking it out of him. Nick had never, ever been able to out-think his sister Lucrezia.
    He struggled up from the couch and went to the bookcase, where he picked up a sheet of business-grade paper, folded three times to fit into an envelope. One lousy sheet of paper that had