Arranged for Pleasure by Lacey Thorn Read Free Book Online Page A

Liam.”
    “And we plan to keep you that way.” He stood up, his hands going to his hips, feet braced apart as he glared down at her. “If you hate me, then so be it.”
    She leaned forward, letting her hands rest on his hard thighs. “I don’t hate you, Liam.” She glanced over at Rafe. “I don’t hate any of you. I’ve just never been very good at waiting for something to happen.”
    Rafe laughed and nodded his agreement. “God, I could give you a hundred examples of stupid stuff she did while we were kids.”
    “Stupid!” She slapped her hand toward him, catching him in the chest.
    He caught her hand, pulling it to his mouth, kissing across the tips of her fingers. “I love you just the way you are, Kat. Wouldn’t change a thing.”
    “I might change a few,” Liam muttered.
    Kat lifted her brow as she glanced back up at him. “Really? Such as?”
    Liam gave a long drawn out sigh. “There are far too many to list, Kat.”
    “Ha!” Kat exclaimed while Rafe’s husky laugh sounded beside her. “You guys suck.”
    “I’ll suck any part of you you’d like me to,” Liam offered.
    “Is everything about sex with you?”
    “When it involves any part of you, I certainly hope so.”
    Kat snorted and shook her head. “As much as I enjoy sex, we can’t spend all of our time engaging in it. What happens when your leave is over, and we still haven’t found this person? Who stays with me then?”
    “We won’t leave you here unprotected,” Rafe swore.
    “You can’t make that promise, Rafe. None of you can, and we all know it.”
    “She’s correct,” Liam interjected. “But I still won’t agree to use you as bait.”
    “We’re going in circles, and we’ll keep going in them until you admit I’m right and start to listen.” She shoved to her feet, pushing Liam aside as he reached for her. “I’m not asking to do anything stupid. I’m just saying it’s past time to come up with a plan to draw him out. Tara has gone over and over all the unsolved crimes. If this person helped Juliana, then he remained silent when she was sent away to the hospital the first time. There’s nothing out there that makes us think he continued killing once she was gone.”
    “But you don’t know for sure,” Rafe countered. “He could have gone somewhere else. He could have moved closer to where she was being kept.”
    “Tara checked all that. River even expanded the search and looked for similar unsolved crimes spreading over the entire state and all those bordering. If they were so close they killed together, it only made sense he would have wanted to stay connected to her. Wouldn’t he want to let her know if he killed another one without her?” Kat paced the floor as she spoke. “But Juliana had no visitors. No one ever came to see her, not even family.”
    “The Marinos are a piece of work,” Rafe said with disgust.
    “They’re not all bad.” Kat shrugged. “The chief of police has always been nice.”
    “You thought Raymond was nice too in the beginning,” Liam added.
    “He was,” Kat vowed. “He really didn’t seem like a bad person when we all first met him. I’m not sure when it all started going wrong in him. I don’t even think River could tell us for sure.”
    “What about the other sister? Isn’t she married to the mayor?” Rafe asked.
    Kat nodded. “I’ve seen her here and there, but never really spoken to her.”
    Liam nodded his head. “Okay.”
    “Okay, what?”
    “Okay, I agree with you,” he told Kat. “I think we have to be missing something though. I want all the photos, all the research, every piece of information we’ve gathered. We’ll weed through all of it again, see if anything new jumps out at us.”
    “And if it doesn’t? What then?” Kat demanded.
    “Then we make a plan,” Rafe said and Liam nodded.
    The door opened before Kat could respond. Her eyes flew to Adrian as he stepped inside. His face was a cloud of anger.
    “What?” Liam demanded before