Bounty (Walk the Right Road) by Lorhainne Eckhart Read Free Book Online Page B

island toward her. “Fair enough,” he said. “What do you want to know?”
    Now he had her on the spot. “What happened that made you leave the military?”
    “I was done.” He crossed his arms.
    “That’s not an answer. You were injured, is that why?” She gestured to his scars, and he turned his face away so she couldn’t see the damaged skin.
    “Shrapnel, we took fire transporting the wounded. I survived, end of story. Does my face bother you? Because it does bother some people.”
    She was shocked that he would suggest she could be turned off by something so silly as a scar. “No, God, no. You’re stunning.” Her face heated instantly when she realized what she had said.
    He frowned instead of smiling. “Tell me your story, Diane.” He slid his finger under her chin and lifted her blushing face so she was forced to look at him. She swallowed hard because she never blushed, at least not before she’d shared her shameful past with Sam this morning, even though what she shared had barely touched on the full story. She knew that the tasty bit she’d spilled had him looking at her differently, as if she wasn’t the tough chick who could take down a drug king, who could be a partner who had his back without question. He saw her as damaged, breakable. She knew it deep down in her bones, even if he wouldn’t admit it.
    “Not much to tell, really,” she said. “Boring life. I work as a cop, investigate drug kings, build a case against them and try to put those scumbags away for a really long time.” She swallowed again as his long fingers lingered, sliding around both sides of her jaw.
    “That’s not what I’m talking about, and you know it. Tell me about where you came from, your childhood, why you ran away. What are you hiding from?”
    She flushed again. “I don’t want you to think I’m weak or something.”
    “You must have a pretty low opinion of me if you believe I’d think that.” He dropped his hand and walked around the kitchen counter to lift the lid on the steaming pot of rice, giving it a stir. He pulled out a frying pan from a cupboard, poured oil in the bottom of the skillet, and turned on the burner.
    He turned away from her, and she couldn’t help feeling as if she were the bad guy here. Was he right? No, she didn’t trust people. She knew that. She had friends, and they talked about everything except her past, which she never shared with anyone. “I told Sam a little this morning. He knew I was having a problem, trouble speaking, so he brought out the beer, you know, liquid courage. It’s pathetic, but it helped. I spilled some of my story, not everything, but enough that he looked at me differently. He’s my friend. I’ve known Sam a long time, and we’ve been through what feels like a lifetime of shit. I regret telling him. He was uncomfortable. And if I tell you…”
    “I won’t think less of you. We all have secrets, Diane, and it’s what you do with them that makes you stronger. I’m sorry about your friend, but you are so twisted up that you’re not thinking clearly. Bottling things up for years at a time, forgetting them, it doesn’t work, because buried things always break through the surface eventually at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way.”
    He opened the fridge and lifted out a plate of cut-up raw chicken, tossing it into the hot oil. It sizzled and popped as he stirred and focused on cooking dinner for her, something no man had ever done for her, ever. He had changed the focus of his attention not in a way that dismissed her but in a way that gave her a chance to absorb what he was saying. She hoped that was it, anyway. She’d never met anyone like him. He was hard to read and so much like her. The realization sent an unsettling surge of awareness through her.
    “I didn’t know there was any other way,” she said. “I thought the way we lived was normal, even though deep down I always knew something wasn’t quite right. I didn’t