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

something, maybe we could go out afterwards, catch a cup of coffee. Talk,” he emphasized. The elevator stopped. A moment later, as if it first had to pause, the door to the lobby opened.
    She walked out of the building’s glass doors ahead of Logan. Her first thought was that he was hitting on her, but that cocky expression she’d noticed earlier on his face was absent. And to give him his due, he did sound sincere. Since he was Sean’s son and she dearly loved the man, she gave Logan the benefit of the doubt. After all, since he was Sean’s son, maybe a little compassion had rubbed off on him.
    She realized, in a moment of weakness, that she appreciated the offer. But that still didn’t mean that she wanted him hovering around her, possibly witnessing her break down.
    “I’m not going to do anything stupid or drastic,” she assured Logan.
    Logan shrugged as if that had never crossed his mind. “I’m just in the mood for some decent coffee. By definition that means not the kind that comes in a paper cup,” he told her.
    She’d never been discerning about her coffee. As long as it was black and hot, that was all that she required.
    “I’ll be fine,” she insisted, then softened a little as she added, “But thanks.”
    “No problem,” he murmured. He caught himself wondering, just for a split second, what she was like without all that barbed wire around her.
    She watched him get into his vehicle. A moment later, he turned his ignition key and the car came to life. With his eyes all but glued to the rearview mirror, he eased his car out slowly, going backward one inch at a time. Traffic was light at the moment, but that was subject to instant change, even at this hour of the evening.
    Clearing her vehicle, he pulled up the handbrake. Logan allowed his engine to idle as he waited for her to get into her car and pull it out of its current parking spot.
    “I’ll take a rain check,” Destiny impulsively called out through the open passenger side window just before she peeled out of the spot and seamlessly merged into the flow of cars.
    She didn’t stop until she came to the next light. It was red, but the color barely registered with her brain in time.
    She was too busy upbraiding herself.
    A rain check? What the hell had possessed her to say that? Was it just to establish some kind of connection with another human being, subconsciously comforting herself with the knowledge that she didn’t have to be alone if she didn’t choose to be? That she could establish some kind of contact with another human being anytime she wanted to? And that if she was alone, it was because she chose to be that way.
    Words, she was playing with words.
    It didn’t make the empty, gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach go away.
    She vacillated between being numb and being shattered.
    “Oh, Paula,” she murmured under her breath, blinking back hot tears. “What did you go and leave yourself open to?”
    No matter what the answer to that was, if her sister had openly invited her killer into the apartment or the person had let himself in with a copy of her key, Paula was still dead.
    She was still not coming back.
    Paula had always been a delicate, small-boned little thing, and even if she hadn’t been drugged, she wouldn’t have been able to fight her attacker off if he had been any larger than a small field mouse.
    “I tried to get you to take self-defense classes,” Destiny angrily shouted into the emptiness, the feeling of helplessness snowballing into outrage and fury. “Why didn’t you listen to me? Why the hell didn’t you ever listen to anything I said to you?”
    It seemed to her as if, up until these past two years, anytime she’d made a constructive suggestion, Paula would turn around and do the exact opposite.
    And yet, she knew her sister had always loved her. Loved her as fiercely as she loved Paula.
    A lot of good that did either of them now, Destiny thought sadly.
    With a sigh, she stepped on the gas.
    *