Read Online Return to Mystic Lake by Carla Cassidy - Free Book Online Page A

for a moment, he forced himself to change the track of his brain. He couldn’t think about Marjorie as a desirable woman now—he had to think like an FBI agent who had just nearly been killed.
    The scent of freshly brewed coffee drew him down the short hallway and into a kitchen that had a small table for two, a short counter and a built-in desk that was obviously her workstation. A laptop was on top along with an all-in-one printer/fax machine and phone. She’d probably spent more money on her work equipment than in the entire furnishings of the house.
    She turned from the counter as he entered the room. “Coffee is ready,” she said.
    Her lips pressed tight and her shoulders were tense. Her face was unusually pale. Her blouse had dirt streaks, and a button was missing, and her hair was a riotous mess of shiny red-gold strands.
    She looked like a woman who had been to hell and hadn’t yet fully realized that she’d really made her way back.
    He walked over to where she stood and placed his hands gently on her slender shoulders. “Sit. I’ll get the coffee.” She opened her mouth to protest, but he quickly slid his finger over her lips. “Trust me, I got this.”
    She nodded and walked over to the table where she crumpled into the chair as if the weight of the world was on her shoulders.
    Jackson turned to face the counter and opened the cabinet door above the coffeemaker, unsurprised to find the three cups nestled side by side. “Cream or sugar?” he asked as he poured the brew.
    “Black is fine.”
    When he turned back with the cups in hand, she was once again sitting upright, the paleness gone and her eyes glittering with a hint of anger. Good, he needed her angry and hopefully not at him. Anger channeled in the right direction would make them both driven to find answers.
    He set one cup before her, then took the seat across from her and wrapped his hands around the warmth of his cup. “Tomorrow I want you to get the names of every single person here in Kansas City who knew the motel where I’d been set to stay. First thing in the morning, we’re going to check out John Merriweather’s alibi for tonight. He’s the only person we interviewed here in the city.”
    She nodded, her eyes gleaming with a steely strength he found ridiculously hot. “And then we head back to Mystic Lake and continue our interviews there, along with checking any alibis of people we interacted with there today.”
    She took a sip of her coffee and her gaze remained locked with his. “Was this like what was happening in Bachelor Moon and the case you were pulled off?” She set her cup back on the table.
    “Nothing like what happened tonight. None of the people working that case came under any kind of a threat. Tonight wasn’t just a scare tactic, it was attempted murder.”
    Her eyes paled a bit. “I know and I darn straight want to find out who was behind that gun.”
    Jackson grimaced with frustration. “I wish I would have been able to get a glimpse of the car.”
    She smiled at him and for a moment he wanted to get lost in it, in her. “You couldn’t cover the window and me at the same time. I’m grateful you made the decision you did.” Her smile faded. “I just wish we knew if we’ve shaken up somebody here in Kansas City or somebody in Mystic Lake. It would be easier to investigate if we only had one place to look.”
    “Shame on Amberly and Cole for living in two places and making this more difficult on us,” he said wryly. He broke their gaze, glancing around the room in an effort to stay focused on the case and not how much her smile had warmed him or how soft her lips had been beneath his fingers.
    He noticed a red light blinking on her telephone answering machine. “It looks like you have some phone messages. Maybe you should check them out, make sure one of the calls isn’t from our motel visitors. It would be a boon if our perp was the chatty type.”
    She took another sip of her coffee and then got up