Read Online Outsider by Diana Palmer - Free Book Online

with embarrassed guilt. He was glad his friend was looking the other way. He knew, as Hunter didn’t, why Sarina had nothing to do with men. But it raised another question. How had she managed to get involved with Bernadette’s father, after the pain he’d caused her?
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    W HEN HE GOT TO R ITTER ’ S office, the silver-haired elderly man wasn’t alone. He had Alexander Cobb’s family friend, Jodie, in his office as well. The young woman was flushed and traces of anger were still visible in her eyes.
    Ritter gave Colby a look that promised retribution at a later date, but he didn’t say a word about Bernadette at the moment.
    â€œMiss Clayburn has just quit her job as Brody Vance’s assistant,” Ritter said with a wry smile, “so we’re rehiring her as a computer expert. Cobb says she’s on a par with cybercrime experts in his agency,” he added. “I’d like to put her to work doing extensive background checks on certain employees.”
    â€œWe’ve got a member of the drug lord’s team working here, haven’t we, sir?” Colby asked Ritter.
    â€œAlmost certainly,” Ritter replied. “After what happened in our own warehouse, I’m convinced that we’ve still got an illegal shipment of drugs hidden somewhere as well. We had a close call.”
    â€œColby and I had a closer one,” Hunter murmured dryly with a smile at Jodie Clayburn. “If Miss Clayburn hadn’t driven that car right into one of the drug smuggler’s accomplices, Colby and I would both be dead right now—and so would DEA senior agent Alexander Cobb.”
    Jodie smiled. “I still can’t believe I did that,” she pointed out. “I’m much better at fighting crime with computers than cars.”
    â€œThat’s what you’ll be doing from now on,” Ritter told her, and outlined her salary and responsibilities.
    She accepted the new job at once, and thanked Eugene. Hunter walked her out to her car. She could finger the female member of the drug smuggling team, who was Brody Vance’s girlfriend, and she’d actually planted a bug for Cobb under the woman’s table at a local coffee house and obtained evidence of drug smuggling. Cara had been arrested, but Jodie was in danger. Cobb was taking her down to his ranch in Jacobsville for a few days for safekeeping. It was Brody Vance who’d let Cara Dominguez into the warehouse parking lot in the first place. He’d bailed Cara out of jail, and pretended innocence. But Ritter knew he had to be involved somehow.
    Ritter sat back in the conference room chair and glowered at Colby Lane when they were alone.
    â€œI know,” Colby said on a sigh. “I’ve been unreasonable about the child. But there’s an excuse, even if it isn’t much of one.” He got up, pulled the drawing Bernadette had made out of his pocket, unfolded it and placed it on the polished wood surface of the boardroom table in front of Eugene Ritter.
    â€œSo? It’s a drawing,” Ritter said, puzzled, as his blue eyes met Colby’s dark ones. “The child has talent. Why are you showing it to me?”
    Colby’s face tautened. “That—” he put his finger on the man in fatigues with the machine gun in the drawing “—is the SOB who shot my arm to pieces in Africa! And this,” he added, indicating the path between two tall trees, “is where it happened.”
    Ritter frowned. “You told the child?”
    â€œI told her nothing,” he returned curtly. “I’ve told no one. There were eight other people with me in Africa, including Hunter, who saw it go down. None of them ever discussed it with anyone else, much less a little girl!”
    Ritter sat back in his chair heavily. He didn’t know what to say.
    â€œThe day I first saw her, in the hall here, she came right up to me and said that if I hadn’t moved so