Cavanaugh's Surrender by Marie Ferrarella Read Free Book Online Page A

amended in the next breath, remembering.
    His automatic response was “no” because as a rule, he never double-parked. Aside from it being against the rules, he liked his car, and that was a good way to get it nicked and dinged. But this evening he’d made an exception because there’d been no spots and he thought he’d be finished and out in no time. But he’d obviously miscalculated.
    “That was your car I blocked?” he asked incredulously. Wow, what were the odds?
    “That was—and still is—my car,” she told him. Why wasn’t he moving? “Could you come down please and move your car?” It really wasn’t a request.
    Logan could see that begging a couple of minutes’ indulgence, until he was at least finished with this side of the floor, was just not going to fly in this case. So he dropped his hand away from the door he’d been knocking on, nodded and said, “Sure,” just as the door in front of him opened.
    This time, the responding tenant was definitely not a rumpled, grumpy old man. It was a barefoot blonde wearing the tightest cutoff denim shorts he’d ever seen. The white T-shirt she had on told him that she didn’t believe in bras.
    “Yes?” she asked in a small, soft voice. She looked from him to Destiny and then back again, making no secret of the fact that she preferred talking to men.
    Holding up his badge and police ID, Logan flashed what one of his sisters referred to as his “bone melting” smile at the woman in apartment 3D.
    “Detective Cavanaugh with the Aurora P.D., ma’am. I need to ask you a few questions, but first I have to tend to something else. I’ll be right back, I promise,” he said, sounding as sincere as a preacher on Sunday. He held up his index finger as if that somehow reinforced the fact that he wanted her to just hold on for a few minutes until he could get back to her.
    “What’s this about?” the woman asked, calling after him as he walked into the elevator right behind Destiny.
    “I’ll explain everything in five minutes,” he called back, raising his voice as the elevator door slid closed, cutting him off from the blonde. “Sorry about the car,” he told Destiny, turning his attention to her and never missing a beat. “I thought I wasn’t going to be here long.”
    “I guess it’s a night for surprises,” Destiny quipped dryly, saying the words more to herself than to him.
    But something in her voice managed to catch his attention. As the stainless-steel door opened and she stepped out, Logan caught her by the elbow before she could get too far.
    Startled, she turned to look at him quizzically. Now what?
    “Do you have anyone?” he asked her.
    No, not anymore. The words seemed to echo in her head, draining her soul. Shaking it off, she stared at him.
    “What?” she demanded.
    “Do you have anyone to talk to?” he elaborated. “Someone to stay with or to have them come over and stay with you?”
    Destiny raised her chin, the barricade she kept around herself growing a little higher. “Look, I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking, but I don’t need a babysitter.”
    That meant the answer was no, Logan thought. The woman had already said that her sister was her only living kin. With her gone, that left no one to call family. He had no idea what that was like. All of his life, from his very first memory, he’d always had siblings and cousins, and now that he knew he was a Cavanaugh, he had enough relatives to populate a small city.
    Despite the fact that there were times he felt as if he would have traded his soul for some privacy, for an island of time alone with his thoughts and away from well-meaning relatives, he knew that if he had to endure that on a full-time, daily basis, it would have eaten away at him.
    “I didn’t say that you did,” he told her, his voice low-key. “But if you want to wait around for a bit while I finish knocking on these doors to see if there’s anyone willing to talk and tell me if they saw or heard