Read Online To Trust a Stranger by Karen Robards - Free Book Online Page B

cautious, law-abiding nature, out of options. The decision had been made: she was going to go with his suggestion.
    “I need to get home. Sid's usually back by three.”
    “No problem. Let's go. Let me grab some gloves.”
    “Gloves?”
    “I don't want to leave fingerprints all over your garage when I break in.” He was already heading toward the bedroom again.
    “Oh.” Her voice was small. She couldn't believe that she was actually going to take part in a crime. The thought was scary. She'd never even so much as filched a quarter from the collection plate at church before.
    He was back in a moment, stuffing a pair of black knit gloves into the pocket of his jeans. “All set?”
    Julie nodded and turned toward the door. As she did, she saw Josephine, almost hidden behind the recliner, happily worrying a magazine that she held between her front paws. That corner of the room was strewn with shredded strips of newsprint and glossy magazine pages. Julie remembered the pile of reading material that had earlier waited beside the chair, and her eyes widened. There was nothing left but confetti.
    Apparently following her gaze, Debbie saw the same thing. “Damn it, Josephine!”
    Josephine looked up at that, bright-eyed, tail wagging, the picture of innocence-if it hadn't been for the strips of shredded magazine dangling from her mouth.
    “Hold on a minute,” he said with a sigh, and swooped down on the offender. Josephine was scooped up without protest, and borne off toward the back of the house, her adorable pom-pom of a tail still wagging furiously.
    “What did you do with her?” Julie asked with some trepidation when Debbie returned, minus the poodle.
    “Locked her in the bathroom. There's not much she can get into in there, I don't think.” He opened the door, then stood back to let her precede him outside.
    The steamy heat felt good, Julie thought, and realized that she had been cold, from nerves or his air-conditioning, she couldn't be sure which. The jasmine-laden night air wrapped around her like a lover's caress, and she welcomed it.
    “Even if she did chew up your magazines, you're lucky to have her. I've wanted a dog for years. Sid won't hear of it,” she told him over her shoulder as she walked down the short front sidewalk toward his car. The street was deserted now, except for the insects that fluttered around the streetlight on the corner. Lights were on in the upstairs windows of two of the houses; a few night owls were apparently still up. Overhead, a pale sickle moon and thousands of pinprick stars gleamed ghostly white. All in all, and in spite of the fact that she was sick with some weird combination of betrayal and fear, it was a beautiful night.
    “Sid's smart.” There was a sour note to Debbie's voice that made Julie frown reproachfully at him.
    “How can you say that? Josephine is adorable.”
    A grunt was the only reply. He walked around the car to unlock her door for her, opened it, then waited for her to get settled inside before closing it again. Julie made a face as it occurred to her that, had the slight impediment of his sexual preference not stood in the way, Debbie would have been the kind of guy that women drooled over.
    Herself included.
    “I am so incredibly nervous about this,” she said as he got in beside her.
    “About what? Deceiving your husband or lying to the police?” His sideways glance was teasing as he started the car and pulled away from the curb.
    She frowned at him. “You're not helping.”
    He drove to the corner and then turned right. “As long as you stick to the story that you went to bed at the usual time, heard nothing, and have no idea what happened to your car, you'll be fine. With your husband and the police.”
    Julie grimaced. “Easy for you to say. You don't have to do it.”
    “You can always change your mind.”
    Julie thought about that, considered the consequences, and shuddered. “No. I'll lie.”
    “That's the spirit. Hang tough.”
    He