Assumed Identity by Julie Miller Read Free Book Online Page A

criminal? He certainly looked the part of a TV or movie villain with that scarred face and misshapen nose that indicated he’d seen more than one fight in his lifetime.
    But something about the sense of isolation that had fit him as tightly as the T-shirt he’d worn tugged at her compassion. She didn’t suppose he owed her anything, not even the courtesy of a proper goodbye. But she owed him everything. Bad guy or not, he’d been her hero. Robin swore to herself, not for the first time that night, that she would track down her mysterious savior and thank him properly for being there when she and Emma had needed him.
    “Maybe.” The detective seemed to consider her reasoning and then dismissed any option but his own. Lonergan was still a person of interest, if not a viable suspect, on his list. Spencer Montgomery glanced up at the K-9 officer and gave his orders. “Keep an eye on things until the CSI’s are done processing the scene. And keep those damn reporters out of everyone’s way. We’ll debrief later this morning.”
    “Yes, sir.” After he’d been dismissed, and the lead detective had returned to his conversation with his partner in her office, the brawny K-9 officer looked down at Hope, still frozen in place beside Robin, and winked. “Hans won’t hurt you, ma’am. Not unless I tell him to.” The officer’s teasing grin vanished when Hope’s eyes widened like circles rippling across a lake. He quickly raised a gloved hand. “But I would never give him that order. I just meant he only does what I tell him to. Ma’am?”
    “Hope?” Robin reached for her friend. “He was teasing you.”
    “I know.” But the tight press of her lips and ashy skin indicated that what she knew and what she believed weren’t the same thing. “He’s a cop. He’s a good guy.”
    “Maybe Officer Taylor could walk you and Emma home,” Robin suggested.
    “No!” Her friend’s answer was too fast and too succinct to be polite and her cheeks instantly flooded with embarrassment.
    “I don’t mind,” the big man offered. “Security is what Hans and I do best.”
    “No.” Hope’s gaze darted up to meet Pike Taylor’s, but then settled, almost deliberately, at the middle of his chest. “I mean, no, thank you. Officer Wheeler’s outside. She’s a friend. I’ll ask her.”
    Robin’s concern shifted from defending Lonergan to the situation at hand. The Hope she knew was a gentle, patient soul—not this skittish woman who was visibly shaking in her soggy slippers.
    “Hope?” She put a hand beneath Emma before touching her friend’s shoulder.
    Hope snapped her gaze to Robin. “I’ve got her,” Hope reassured her, hugging the infant in her arms. And though she sounded more like the friend Robin relied on, Hope’s gaze was darting from the officer’s chest down to the dog, where he lay on the floor, panting, while his tongue lolled out of the side of his long black muzzle. The shepherd looked completely relaxed and disinterested in the people coming and going around him. Her friend, however, seemed ready to bolt. “I’ll go find Maggie Wheeler. You still have the spare key I gave you?”
    “Yes. I’ll let myself in.”
    Hope forced a smile and flattened her back against the wall to scoot around the police officer and his dog. “Emma and I will be at home when you’re done. Good luck.”
    She’d disappeared through the heavy steel door to the parking lot before Officer Taylor spoke. “Did I do something wrong? Is she okay?”
    There was shy and tongue-tied, and then there was freaking out. Robin shrugged her confusion, then winced at the pain radiating through her shoulder. “I honestly don’t know. I’ve never seen her act like that before.”
    “Sorry I scared her. I would never sic Hans on her.”
    Robin nodded, adding her friend’s behavior to the list of things that perplexed her tonight. “I know.”
    “Well, we’d best be getting back to work. Ma’am.” Officer Taylor put his cap