Read Online Next to Die by Marliss Melton - Free Book Online Page A

shrapnel, he’d said, implying that there’d been an explosion.
    Ophelia’s eyes flew suddenly wide. “You’re crazy about him,” she exclaimed. “You have to be. Otherwise you’d never let him talk to you that way.”
    Penny tried to deny the truth, but she’d never been good at lying. “I admire him for his commitment to this country,” she answered unconvincingly. “Now leave it alone, Ophelia. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
    Thoughts glimmered in Lia’s jewel-like eyes. “Whatever,” she said airily.
    That wasn’t the reassurance Penny was looking for. “I mean it, sis. Don’t even look at him if you see him again.”
    “Okay,” said Ophelia, throwing up her hands.
    With a sigh of mistrust, Penny moved past her, en route to fetch her purse. “I’m going to the store to pick up pumpkins,” she said, expecting her sister to tag along. Ophelia had developed a habit of shadowing her lately. “Are you coming?”
    “No, I don’t want to miss
Oprah
,” she said.
    With a sound of disgust, Penny headed to the door. “Why don’t you work on your résumé?”
    “I’ll think about it.”
    Which was all she’d ever done with her journalism degree. “I’ll be back in an hour,” Penny added. As she shut the door behind her, she scanned the street, as was her habit, to make sure that Eric wasn’t stalking them.
    According to the FBI agent, Hannah Lindstrom, the FBI was scrutinizing all previous investigations. Penny had faxed them a copy of her father’s death certificate, which made reference to a hit-and-run. If the FBI could show that Danny Price was murdered, Eric might be arrested, and his freaky prank phone calls would come to an end.
    The sooner the better, Penny thought, slipping into her powder blue Toyota Matrix. As she backed out of the driveway, she sneaked a peek at her neighbor’s house.
    He’d closed the blinds in all of his windows. Now he was blocking the world out, hiding in his lair.
    What secret was he guarding? she wondered. She couldn’t just dismiss the question, any more than she could stop Joe Montgomery from commandeering her thoughts.

 
     
    Chapter Five
     
     
    Lia waited for Penny’s car to disappear before she stalked out of the house and across the adjoining lawns to the neighbor’s front door. Undeterred by all the closed blinds, she pounded on the oak veneer, tugged her sweater over her glittering belly ring, and waited.
    This Montgomery fellow didn’t realize it yet, but he was the first man Penny had shown an interest in since Brad, the fiancé who’d dumped her. And since half the reason Brad left was Penny’s devotion at the time to Lia’s rehabilitation, Lia figured it was her duty to set the SEAL straight.
    It took forever for him to answer. When the door yawned open, she wavered at the unfriendly look on his face. “I’m Penny’s sister,” she announced. Her training in journalism kept her voice strong and steady. “And I’m here to give you a reality check.”
    His bandaged eyebrow quirked, but he didn’t try to stop her.
    “Number one, Penny is the most selfless, hard-working, nurturing person you will ever have the privilege of knowing in your entire life.”
    His eyes narrowed, but she was just warming up.
    “That you could speak to her in the way you did, after what she did for you, staying up half the night to scrub your carpet, makes you the most selfish, self-righteous jerk I have ever laid eyes on. If you knew what Penny gave up for me when our father died, you’d be licking the soles of her feet.”
    She could feel the incredulity building in him, but she refused to back down. “Don’t even think about saying another word to her that is less than humbly apologetic. Who do you think has been raking your leaves and feeding your cat, for God’s sake? You need to wake up and get a life!”
    With that, she whirled away, chin angled into the air as she cut through his mulch bed to hike it back to Penny’s.
    Her pricked