Read Online Night Huntress 02.5 - Happily Never After by Jeaniene Frost - Free Book Online

banged open. Her heart sank when she saw it wasn't Chance. She'd stayed up all night, but there had been no word from him. Her stomach seemed formed into a perpetual knot of anxiety, and the look on Robert, Paul, and Ritchie's faces as they strode inside only made it worse. It was just a few minutes after two. Her place didn't open until five. Whatever they were here for, it wasn't dinner.
     
    "Frank, Steven, Ed, get outta here," Robert ordered.
     
    Her three chefs gave her an apologetic look as they exited out the back. Isa straightened her shoulders, trying to calm her sudden onslaught of fear. Where was Chance? God, had something happened to him? Had he gotten caught trying to get Frazier away? What if they'd both been hurt—or worse?
     
    "What's going on?" she asked, glad her calm voice belied the lurch in her stomach.
     
    Robert smiled as he came across the room. Ritchie and Paul took up flanking positions on either side of the restaurant's entrance. Robert gave her a kiss on the cheek, and it was all Isa could do not to wipe it away with her butter-smeared hands.
     
    "Just wanted to see my wife-to-be, is all. Nothin ' wrong with that, is there? You workin ' hard, baby? Not for long. Once we're married, you're quitting this job, but don't worry. Paul's taking over runnin ' the place, so you won't have to slave here anymore, but your family's restaurant will still stay in business."
     
    Anger blossomed in her. Oh, she could just imagine how Paul would take over the running of this place. More laundering would get done here than across the street at the dry cleaners. If Isa would have had a gun at that moment, she'd have shot Robert where he stood.
     
    "This is my restaurant, and I'll work here as long as I want to."
     
    Robert slapped her. It wasn't a hard blow, but enough to make Isa's cheek sting.
     
    "You listen to me," he said, voice low and resonating as he seized her shoulders and pulled her near. "I've been real patient with you, Isa . A true gentleman, because a man needs to be considerate of the future mother of his children. I let you work here when you should be with my sister planning our wedding. I let you tell me we're not having sex until we're married. I let your miserable brother live when by all rights, I shoulda put a bullet in his head when I caught him snooping around my house. I let all those things happen, but I will not let you disrespect me in public. You got spirit, kid. I like that, but there's a time and a place. Don't make me remind you again."
     
    Isa touched her cheek, almost abandoning her promise to Frazier right then, because she would not, could not pretend to be this man's fiancée—his property —a single moment longer. She even opened her mouth to say the words, but then a voice stopped her.
     
    "Take your hands off her."
     
    Relief flooded through Isa . It was Chance! He wasn't hurt, thank God, and… why did Paul just drop his gun?
     
    "You're dead," Paul breathed. His face was stark white, and his hand shook as he made the sign of the cross. "I shot you in the head and threw your weighted-down body in the river!"
     
    Isa's eyes bulged at that.
     
    "I am dead," Chance agreed calmly behind her. "And yet I'm still standing here. Makes you wonder how, doesn't it?"
     
    Ritchie seemed equally shaken. He crossed himself too, and Isa heard him mutter the familiar Latin incantation: "In nomine Patris , et Filii , et Spiritus Sancti…"
     
    Even Robert looked like he'd seen a ghost, which sent a chill up Isa's spine. No one was denying Paul's statement that he'd shot Chance in the head. That wasn't something you'd walk away from afterward, but here Chance was, announcing that he was dead and yet he still wasn't going anywhere. Could he have hypnotized them into thinking Paul had shot him? Was such a thing even possible?
     
    Isa swung around to look at Chance, and there was something in his gaze that froze her. She remembered the cool feel of his skin on hers, the way his