Bite Me (Woodland Creek) by Woodland Creek, Mandy Rosko Read Free Book Online

speak more than a couple words at a time to each other. It was driving him insane.
    “I’m sorry about your father,” Jake said.
    From the corner of his eye, he saw as Alice snapped her head to the side to look at him.
    Fuck, maybe he shouldn’t have brought it up, but it was too late now.
    It was several years too late to offer his condolences, but he wanted to do it. “I, ah, heard about it a couple of years ago. I’m sorry.”
    Alice looked away much more slowly than when she’d originally looked to him. “I guess he brought it on himself. Kind of like me.”
    “Don’t say that,” Jake said, shutting his eyes. He was half annoyed and half in despair that she would even make a connection like that. He didn’t ever want her to think she deserved something like that.
    The way her father had gone was just…bad.
    Jake could remember feeling insanely angry at the man. When he’d learned he was the reason why Alice had even fallen into the life she had, that she’d had to take up his bad habits to clean up his debts, well, it had been easy to forgive her and do everything he could to make sure she got away.
    He’d almost succeeded. Alice was right. The statute of limitations was up, and he sure as hell hadn’t been able to track her down because he’d followed her thefts. Mainly because she hadn’t been stealing.
    If it wasn’t for Bobby, she could be living the life he’d wanted her to live, back when she first told him how she’d fallen in with such a crowd. Back when he’d wanted to risk his cover, his life, everything, just to get her out.
    Being so deep under had colored his world view for a while, and meeting her…he’d needed to save her.
    Alice blew out a long breath. “Well, at least they gave us extra blankets and pillows.”
    Jake laughed.
     
    *****
    Jake had requested that he be alerted every time there was so much as a knock at the front desk, so they’d given Jake a radio, like the ones the cops all wore on their shoulders.
    He wasn’t wearing it, but Alice still liked to pretend and imagine what it could possibly look like if he did. What would he look like if he were in a uniform? Probably really good. He’d looked really good, even when he’d been thinner, posing as another gangster wannabe.
    She hadn’t been able to see through him at the start, but eventually she had. He’d given away too much to her for her not to know something was up.
    When the radio crackled and the officer at the front told them their sandwiches had arrived, Alice tensed. Her fight or flight instinct was back up and flaring, and it was mostly on the flight side, as per usual.
    But nothing happened. No gunfire sounded, and when Jake went to check everything out first, he came back with a soft smile and a couple of bags. “We’re invited to eat with our hosts. Wanna come and sit with me?”
    Alice got to her feet. “Sitting with a bunch of cops? How could I resist that?”
    “Not a cop anymore.”
    “You’re cop-ish enough.” Jake actually laughed at that. It felt good to make him laugh. Felt almost normal.
    It was a little awkward sitting with two people in blue uniforms. One was a dark-skinned man, and the other was a buff-looking woman with her hair pulled back in a tight bun. The delivery guy was still there, and that made Alice insanely nervous until she reminded herself she wasn’t in the city anymore.
    Small towns. So long as television and books hadn’t lied to her, then that at least meant everyone knew almost everyone else around here. Bobby wouldn’t be able to hire someone to pretend to be the delivery boy in Woodland Creek, and these cops were talking to the kid like they knew him.
    They tipped him and sent him on his way. The guy must’ve been in late high school, or just starting off in college, because there was definitely something of interest in the way he looked at her and Jake. Nothing suspicious, not really, but he was smiling, as if he was excited just to be there. This was