Read Online With a Vengeance by Annette Dashofy - Free Book Online

gas mileage .” She added air quotes.
    “You don’t own a horse trailer.”
    She sputtered. “I can borrow one as long as I keep my truck.”
    “When was the last time you hauled your horse anywhere?”
    “I took him on a trail ride over in Ohio this summer.”
    “You didn’t haul him. One of your boarders at the farm did. When was the last time you hauled anything with your truck?”
    She hated it when he was right. The truth of the matter was she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a trailer—horse or otherwise—hitched to the back of her Chevy.
    “That’s what I thought.” Pete made no effort to disguise his grin. “Trade it in for a smaller car. Or even a little SUV. You’d make up the expense with the money you’d save on gas, not to mention the money you wouldn’t be paying to Bud Kramer.”
    She fumed in silence.
    “You can’t count on free rent from Rose forever, you know.”
    If Pete kept pointing out the painfully obvious, she might be getting free rent from the county jail for assaulting a law enforcement officer.
    He traced a circle on the tabletop with his finger. “Of course, you could always move in with me. I still have a spare room.”
    She glared hard at him, hoping he might mistake the flush in her cheeks for anger. The slight upward tilt of one corner of his mouth told her he wasn’t fooled. She reached over and punched him playfully. “We said we were gonna take it slow. Living under the same roof, separate rooms or not, isn’t slow.” Climbing to her feet, she added, “And I’ll keep my truck, thank you very much. I may need to sleep in it once Logan comes home and reclaims his room.”
    Pete stood as well, towering over her. He caught her hand, preventing her from backing away. Struggling to catch her breath, she let him intertwine his fingers with hers. Let him draw her closer. Felt the heat radiating from him. She lifted her gaze from the front of his shirt to his mouth. Remembered what it was like to be kissed by those lips.
    She slipped her free arm around his waist, ignoring the gadgets on his duty belt digging into her, and raised onto her tiptoes.
    “Chief, I—oh!” Nancy stuttered from the doorway. “Excuse me.”
    Pulling free of Pete’s hand, Zoe stumbled backwards, almost falling over the chair she’d been sitting in.
    “I’m so sorry.” Nancy flapped a sheet of paper at them. “I need your signature—I—can get it later.” She vanished down the hall still sputtering apologies.
    “Damn it,” Pete muttered.
    Zoe danced an awkward jig to keep from ending up on the floor. In the process she swung the chair between them. “I have to go anyhow. I need to run out to the farm before my shift. And then get a shower. And, well, I’ll talk to you later.”
    She made it to the hall before he called to her, “Wait.”
    Zoe stopped. Turned. “Pete—” A subtle change in his expression silenced her. No longer teasing. Or lustful. He looked…
    Worried. “Be careful.”
    She pictured Medic Two in the middle of the cuts last night, Barry Dickson’s dead body next to it, and shivered. “I will.” She started to turn away, but paused, meeting Pete’s gaze again. “You too.”

Six

      
    The old Chevy jounced up the rutted farm lane. Only the seatbelt kept Zoe from being flung around inside the cab. On her left, the burned wreckage of the mid-nineteenth-century farmhouse had been bulldozed and buried, leaving only a patch of barren dirt as its footprint.
    Zoe topped the hill and rolled down the other side toward the barn. She braked to a stop next to a familiar white pickup, slid down from the driver’s seat, and entered the large barn. Two dozen box stalls lined both sides of the structure, opening into a center riding arena. At the moment, only one horse stood tied outside its stall, its owner tightening the cinch.
    “Going for a ride?” Zoe said.
    Patsy Greene looked up. “Yeah. Care to join me?” Patsy was Zoe’s cousin, friend, and