Read Online Unleashed by Jami Alden - Free Book Online Page A

it came to girls, but somehow he knew if he was obvious enough to ask her out on a date he’d get shot down. His brother Ethan, already a stud in the making as a sophomore, advised Danny to appeal to her brainpower.
    “Chicks love it when they think they’re helping you.”
    “She will be helping me,” Danny reminded him. Going into finals he had a C–, unacceptable in his, and more importantly, his father’s view.
    “Good. Get her over to help you with a problem set, and once you get done with the math, ask her to help you solve an even bigger problem.” Ethan’s lewd grin and rude hand gesture made them both laugh.
    Ethan was right. Two weeks before their calc final for the semester, after a lot of coaxing and pleading, Caroline had relented and agreed to help him prep for the test. He’d nearly blown it when he’d offered to pay her.
    For that he’d gotten a stony stare and a curt, “Just because I’m on scholarship doesn’t mean I’m a charity case.”
    Back then she hadn’t wanted anything from anybody.
    Funny how Danny couldn’t remember what he had for lunch two days ago but he could remember exactly what Caroline had worn the first time she came over to his house. Jeans, slim fitting but not too tight, tapering down to converse high-tops with a close fitting navy T-shirt tucked into the waistband. Her waist length dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her dark eyes had filled with suspicion when he told her they’d be studying in his room.
    He ignored it, playing it off as no big deal as he led her up the stairs to his bedroom.
    “God, you’re a slob,” was her only comment.
    “It’s not that bad.” He’d made the bed and shoved his dirty clothes in the hamper in preparation.
    Not good enough for Caroline, who immediately went to his desk and started to straighten. “I can’t work in here if it’s not organized.” Books, papers, notebooks, pens, were lined up, stacked, and organized while Danny watched from behind her. Satisfied, she’d turned around startled to see him so close.
    She’d jumped back with a gasp. Another cliché. She’d tried to move around him but he didn’t budge. Her furious blush and nervous lick of her lips told him what he’d hoped all along: despite her ambivalent appearance and apparent disdain for dumb jocks like him, Caroline had it as bad for him as he did for her.
    That night was the first time he kissed her. The first of many “tutoring” sessions interrupted by frequent makeout breaks, nights that left him aching and frustrated, relieving himself in the shower after Caroline drove away in her beat up Camry.
    Yet he managed to pull his C- up to a B+ by the time the semester was over.
    Danny’s wry smile faded as he stood in the kitchen Caroline had shared with her murdered husband. What the fuck was he doing, waxing sentimental about a girl who had played him out and dropped him like a bag of shit when she didn’t get her way?
    He made his rounds through the rooms of the bottom floor, searching the kitchen, the living room, and the media room for any hint of the evidence Caroline had referred to. He searched behind every picture and along the floorboards for any sign of a hidden safe, but found nothing.
    When he got to the office, he spent awhile hacking Caroline’s password so he could install keystroke tracking software, a sniffer program on her network, and a mirroring program so he could access her computer from his own. Caroline’s fastidious organization skills were as evident there as they were in the rest of the house, making the office remarkably easy to search. The contents of desk drawers were meticulously maintained, documents and papers arranged neatly in clearly labeled folders. Unfortunately Danny didn’t run across any file folders labeled “Anne Taggart.”
    But he did find something else that piqued his curiosity. A stack of business cards and brochures promoting Caroline’s Custom Closets, offering customized closets and