Read Online Secret Life Of A Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks - Free Book Online Page A

heaved a sigh as she sat at the table. There was no point in denying it. “All-right. I invited him to dinner, but he never returned my call. That doesn't mean I wasn't planning to eat with you.”
    Latoya sat across from her. “Girl, I know when three's a crowd. I would have left you alone with the mystery man. But you say he never called back?”
    “Nope.” Lara heaped some salad into their salad bowls. “And I left two messages on his voice mail.”
    “Maybe he didn't get them.”
    “I'm not calling him again. That would sound desperate. And I'm not desperate. At all.” Liar. She had really wanted to see him again.
    LaToya drizzled balsamic vinaigrette over her salad. “That jerk. I'm tempted to call him myself and give him a piece of my mind.”
    “No!”
    LaToya smirked, then strode toward the refrigerator. “I have the perfect solution for this. Wine. It's multi-purposed. We can toast your heroic feats and drown our sorrows over disappointing men all at the same time.”
    “I'll drink to that.” Lara stabbed at her salad. The food looked and smelled great, but her appetite was lacking. Damn that Jack. He didn't make any sense. He'd risked his life to help her, and now, he couldn't even return her call?
    LaToya brought two glasses filled with white wine to the table. She sat and raised her glass. “A toast. To my best friend, a real hero.”
    “I'm not a hero. It's bad enough to hear it at work, but I don't want to hear from you, when you know the truth.”
    LaToya scowled at her. “Yeah, girl, I know the truth. If it wasn't for you, I'd still be a clerk in a convenience store in some town no one's ever heard of. You kept me going when I didn't think I could. You are my hero.”
    Lara's eyes misted with tears. She'd first met LaToya when they'd shared a hospital room together after her car accident. LaToya had been shot during a robbery at the convenience store where she worked. Whereas Lara had lived a pampered life before the accident, LaToya had struggled to survive years of abuse. “You hated me at first.”
    LaToya smiled. “I thought you were a spoiled little white girl. Miss Teen Louisiana.”
    Lara winced. “And I'm sure it didn't help matters when my mom came to visit wearing a tiara and sash.”
    LaToya laughed. “Your mom is wack, girl.”
    “That's for sure.” Lara's mom was still entering beauty pageants at the age of fifty-two. “You helped me, too, you know. It would have been so much harder to rebel against my family and follow my dreams if I'd been all alone. I don't know what I would have done without you.”
    “To us.” LaToya tapped Lara's glass with her own. “The two most bad-ass rookie cops in the big city.”
    “To us. Live long and prosper.” Lara recited their favorite toast, borrowed from the Vulcans on Star Trek.
    They ate in silence for a while, and Lara's thoughts drifted back to Jack. The rascal had altered Mr. and Mrs. Trent's memories so that their statements made her sound like a hero. And she had to make sure her story matched theirs. “I have to go see the department shrink.”
    “That's probably routine procedure.” LaToya scooped some potatoes into her mouth.
    “I suppose.” Lara pushed her fish around the plate. “I'm kinda worried about it. I mean, what if I tell the doctor my story, and he realizes I'm lying?”
    “He won't question it. Not when it confirms everything the Trents said.”
    Lara sighed. “I'm not at all comfortable with everyone thinking I'm a hero.”
    “Get over it already. That's why we wanted to be cops, remember? We wanted to catch the bad guys and make a difference. Besides, no one's going to believe that some strange guy magically appeared to save the day.”
    Lara set down her fork. “You believe me, don't you?”
    LaToya's brown eyes softened, and she reached forward to touch Lara's hand. “I do. I watched you in the hospital when you struggled to learn how to read and write again. I was with you when we both struggled