Banged Up by Jeanne St James Read Free Book Online Page B

almost shot me thinking I was a burglar. It would have been nice if you’d warned me.”
    He thought he heard a chuckle, or it might just have been choking, on the other end.
    “It wouldn’t have been any fun, though. Maybe she’ll keep you on your toes, keep you from getting fat and lazy during your little recuperation.” His next response was dead serious. “I had her checked out.”
    “Now why doesn’t that surprise me? Actually, you beat me to it. I was going to call the Bureau today.” He placed the clip next to his parents’ framed picture. “So you know my sister is married and on her honeymoon?”
    “Yes. She married over a month ago. She told me, but I couldn’t inform you. It was sort of bad timing. First, you were too deep undercover. And then with your little mishap, well, I didn’t want you to be bothered.”
    Little mishap.
    “Right.” Mace gave a dry laugh. “Do you at least know who she married, where she went?”
    No matter how many times he’d tried to coax the information out of Colby, she’d clam up and tell him to find out for himself. She believed if Maxi wanted him to know, she would have told him. It was untrue. He wanted to explain it had to do with the circumstances of his career, but Mace decided it wasn’t worth arguing over. He had to pick his battles and he preferred the one where he worked on getting Colby comfortable enough with him to get naked.
    He smiled at the image. But his boss’ voice broke into his thoughts, ruining his fantasy.
    “Of course. I know everything. She married the banker who backed Ms. Parks’ atrocious project, the one on Shady Lane. That’s how your sister met Ms. Parks. Do you like her?”
    Mace ignored the question. “She’s horrifying with a gun.”
    “Yes, a Glock…”
    “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know everything. You’re too thorough.”
    “I have to be. Our lives depend on it, Walker. I assume you don’t want me to tell you everything about her. A mysterious woman is so much more exciting.” Mace heard papers rustling on the other end of the line. “I hope you’ll keep up your physical therapy—and I don’t mean naked romper room with Ms. Parks. Try to heal quickly. I might need you to replace another agent on assignment. He’s getting too personally involved.”
    “A woman?”
    “Mmm. Unfortunately, she’s on the wrong side.”
    “A fatal mistake,” Mace said. “But, of course, you know that. If possible, I’d like to stick around for a couple months.”
    “Until your sister returns from abroad?”
    “Is that where she is?”
    “Yes, her new husband has family in England. They decided to tour Europe.” The man laughed. “It has to be you want to wait around to see your sister. I can’t imagine you’d want to stay just to help Ms. Parks fix up her ugly, old house.”
    “It really isn’t so bad.” Did he actually just say that?
    “And she’s worth it even if it is, right? Maybe she’ll help you feel better. Have her help with your leg exercises.”
    Mace heard him chuckle. Perhaps a couple months around Colby would make him feel better. If she was willing. “Does Maxi even know what happened?” There was a telling silence. Of course not, otherwise his baby sister wouldn’t have gone off to Europe.
    She would have been worried sick. She would have put off her wedding, put her life on hold. Maybe it was better Maxi didn’t know.
    The man cleared his throat. “I’ll keep in touch.”
    Mace stared at the cell for a moment before snapping it shut and throwing it on the bed.
    Now that he knew his boss hadn’t called yesterday, he thought about Colby’s reaction. Why was she all shook up from one hang-up? Okay two; there had been one later in the evening. But he had gotten to the phone first and it had been just a quick click and a dial tone.
    Mace had played the second one off as another wrong number since Colby had been in earshot. He ended up telling her someone was trying to order Chinese food and had