Careless by Cheryl Douglas Read Free Book Online Page A

eyebrow. “When did this
start?”
    “About three weeks ago.” Tori took another
sip of the alcohol to coat her dry throat. She could only imagine how he made
his suspects feel during an interrogation. She was the victim in this case and
still he made her feel like she’d done something wrong.
    “The police have been investigating?”
    “I guess so. Luc tried to use his influence
to get them to step up the investigation, but Derek told them he didn’t have
the resources to put another man on it.” She shrugged. “That’s when Luc decided
to hire you.”
    Mike frowned. “I’m surprised it wasn’t
given higher priority. Derek knows you, he likes you, and the department sure
as hell wouldn’t want to deal with the backlash if something happened to you on
their watch.”
    Tori took a bite of celery and chewed
before responding. “To tell you the truth, I got the impression Derek thought
we were all overreacting.”
    “Why would he think that?”
    There was no way to sugarcoat the situation,
and she knew he would find out the dirty details sooner or later, so she might
as well come clean now. “I think he just assumes it’s a jilted lover tryin’ to scare
me.” She took another bite of celery, trying to buy a little more time. “He’s
probably right.”
    “According to my father, this guy mentioned
a tattoo...” He gripped his black Waterman pen tighter. “In an intimate place?”
    She tried to look into his eyes, to pretend
his inquisition wasn’t rattling her, but she couldn’t. “Only someone who’d seen
me in the buff would know about that tattoo.”
    He leaned forward, his light blue eyes
darkening with indiscernible emotion. “I trust you didn’t have it when we were together ?”
    He made the last word sound like an erotic
caress and she had to resist the urge to squirm in her seat. “No, I got it a
couple of weeks later.”
    She’d had a few too many drinks and she was
still reeling from their one-night stand when she and her girlfriends went out
and tied one on. One thing led to another, and she spilled her guts to them
about her night with the sexy lieutenant. When she woke up the next morning
with the brand, she was mortified, but she didn’t have the nerve to eradicate
the mistake, so she simply learned to live with it, hoping her future lovers
wouldn’t question her about the ink decorating her body.
    “You wanna tell me about it?”
    “No!” She would die of embarrassment if he
ever saw what he’d driven her to in a moment of weakness.
    “Fine... moving on. I’ll need to see these
letters.”
    If there was any way she could have denied
his request, she would have, but she knew the letters were an integral part of
this case, and she just wanted this nightmare to be over. “Fine, but they’re at
my place. I can have them to you tomorrow.”
    “I’d rather get them tonight. The sooner I
can get started on this, the better.”
    She scowled. “Don’t you sleep? Are you
gonna stay up workin’ on this all night?”
    “If I have to.” He brought the soft drink
to his lips. “I take my job very seriously, Tori. Whatever I have to do to
apprehend a suspect, I do it. If it means workin’ around the clock, sacrificin’
sleep, food, sex... that’s what I do.”
    She knew he threw the last part in just to
taunt her, but she wasn’t used to letting anyone one-up her, so she said, “I
seem to recall you let your phone go to voice mail the night you were
entertainin’ me. Weren’t you workin’ on any important cases back then?”
    He gripped his glass tighter. “Yeah, I
was.” His eyes fell to the cleavage spilling out of her denim dress. “But I
couldn’t seem to tear myself away from you.”
    It seemed her plan was backfiring when her
mouth and brain reached an impasse. “I… uh...”
    Mike grinned when he knew he had her.
“What’s wrong, baby? You don’t want to remember, or you can’t seem to forget?”
    She hated him for being so smug and so
intuitive.