Read Online The Hunk Next Door by Debra Webb, Regan Black - Free Book Online

kitchen.”
    “No, thanks. You’ve done more than enough to help me tonight.” This time she was praising him and he shuffled his feet, apparently uncomfortable with the compliment. Interesting.
    “Let’s try again tomorrow.” He signaled to the Hamiltons’ house. “At my place.”
    She sighed. Being around her wasn’t smart. The vandals and Calder’s attacker proved that. “I can’t tell if you’re brave or a glutton for punishment.”
    “A guy could say the same about you,” he replied with a grin.
    No. Most men said different things about her. Aside from Deke, Riley was the first man who seemed to see beyond her title and badge. She caught the flash of cameras across the street and hoped her detectives were coming up with something useful.
    “Tomorrow night I have plans.” If she had the courage to explore a new path in her relationship with Deke. She’d been looking forward to the potential with the artist. Now, with a new neighbor bent on hovering, it seemed she might have a choice. Did she want one?
    Right now she wanted some quiet. “Thanks for your help, Riley.”
    He nodded, gracing her with a slow smile she found so much more attractive than his grin. “Be sure to lock your doors.”
    “I think that’s my line.”
    “Not tonight, Abby. I’m right next door if you need me.”
    Baffled by the temptation he presented, she escaped into her house, throwing the dead bolt and security chain. She didn’t need to look to know he’d waited to be sure she locked up.
    In the kitchen, she checked the lock on the back door and pulled the curtains. As she cleaned up dinner, her thoughts wandered between Deke and Riley and she told herself it was an exercise in distraction. It would be years before that horrible image of Calder under the ladder faded from her memory.
    Ruthlessly, she forced her mind to lighter issues. As much as she enjoyed Deke, Riley stirred some new, previously undefined feminine flutter. Her girlfriends would blame it on the tool belt, and they might have a point. He had good hands, too, broad and strong.
    And warm, she remembered, thinking of how he’d touched her when the ambulance arrived.
    She was smart enough to know better, wise enough to look past the handsome face and sexy features to the man underneath. Yet she entertained a purely physical fantasy as she headed upstairs to bed.
    What in the world was going on with her? The man was a stranger....
    And, with an unknown enemy haunting her, a stranger was the last thing she needed in her life right now.

Chapter Six
    “Sir, a call.”
    Deke set aside his novel. The sitting room where he chatted weekly with Abby had become his favorite place to plan and strategize. He watched the fire in the hearth, waiting until his assistant had pulled the door closed before dealing with the caller, “Yes?”
    “I went by, but she had company.”
    “Explain,” Deke replied. The news startled him at first. Abby never had company. He knew her habits as well as his own.
    “I drove by with the channel open and I heard voices.”
    This was no cause for alarm. Her company was likely just a brief visit with her neighbor. The older woman played mother to the entire block. She would have heard about the vandalism and come by to offer moral support.
    It couldn’t be allowed to continue. Deke needed Abby to come to him. He’d been waiting for hours for her to show up and cry on his shoulder—or in the manner more suitable to Abby—ask his advice. With the fear he’d incited among the citizens of her beloved town, he’d made himself her only friend in this dumpy, godforsaken place and his patience was growing thin.
    “I waited and then came in closer,” his employee continued. “Looks like the guy from one of those setup teams. The one who’s been working at the department. They looked pretty cozy.”
    The guy? Cozy? Deke’s hand clutched the upholstered arm of his chair. That couldn’t be possible. She wouldn’t take the risk. He’d