Read Online Night Prey by Sharon Dunn - Free Book Online Page A

read. From time to time, one of them would read a passage out loud that they found funny or original.
    As a kid, she had kept the secret without ever asking herself why. Maybe she had wanted to maintain her father’s respectability. Embarrassment had been a factor. She’d feared too that the authorities might step in and separate her from her only parent.
    She had started to see what a normal life was like when she moved away to college and didn’t have to deal with her father’s craziness every day. Then she had come back home, and the trip to the emergency room had been the final straw that told her things needed to change.
    The emergency room people probably weren’t gossips, but they had seen the damage Richard Murphy had done to himself over the years. That someone else knew the secret had given her the strength to find help for herself, to confront her father and tell him that she couldn’t handle it anymore. Fine if he wanted to keep drinking, but it hurt too much to watch him slowly kill himself. Richard Murphy was never angry or abusive when he drank, he was just sad.
    Keith pulled onto the gravel lane that led to the center. He focused on the road, arms relaxed as he drove. Guilt had risen up in her when he had asked her about her father. Maybe it wasn’t right to limit contact. She had wanted to tell Keith, to explain, but she hadn’t been able to. Sharing this part of herself was still new and never easy. It was even harder with Keith, since her fear of him becoming an alcoholic like her father was what had caused her to turn away from him all those years ago.
    Her eyelids felt heavy. She rested her head against thewindow. He brushed a hand over her hair with a touch as delicate as butterfly wings. Even though the road was gravel, Keith drove so the car didn’t jostle very much. The fog of sleepiness filled her brain.
    She felt the car come to a stop and heard Keith talking to Cassidy through the open window, but the heaviness of fatigue made her awareness fade in and out.
    Her car door opened.
    â€œCome on, sleepyhead.”
    Her eyes burst open. His face was inches from hers. Keith smelled like the air after a cleansing rain. They were at her house.
    â€œKeith, I have work to do.” Her voice lacked commitment.
    â€œI’ve already taken care of that.” He held an arm out for her. “You’re not going to be much good to anyone anyway until you have had a couple hours sleep.”
    She stepped toward him. He supported her by wrapping an arm around her waist. “You haven’t had any sleep, either. You don’t seem tired. Is that some kind of military trick?”
    His body tensed. “Something like that.”
    More vague answers. They were both keeping secrets.
    He led her down the stone path. When they got to her door, he held up a key. “I got it from Cassidy. She is the only other person that has a key, right?”
    â€œSome of the volunteers have keys to the center, but not to my house.”
    â€œYou might want to collect those…considering.”
    Jenna shivered, considering that someone had promised to hurt her birds and was capable of breaking in. “All the volunteers are good people.”
    â€œThat might be true, but you don’t know who they know, who has access to their keys.” He unlocked her door and pushed it open.
    She trudged in. Her limbs felt weighted. “Okay, I am just going to take a nap and then I will get up. Can you tell Cassidy to come and get me if we have any calls to go out on? I don’t want her to have to handle those alone.”
    â€œIt’s been taken care of, Jenna.” The warm tone of his words comforted her.
    She turned to look at him. Even in the ragged cotton shirt and the paint-stained jeans, he was good-looking. Not to mention strong and capable. If he said everything was taken care of, she’d believe him. “Thank you.”
    â€œI’ll lock the door