Charlie's Angel by Aurora Rose Lynn Read Free Book Online Page B

or would she change her mind at the last moment? Had she been serious about picking him up at his place or had he mistaken the reciprocating hunger in her eyes?
    Seated behind the steering wheel of his Mercedes, he had the distinct conviction that Roxie was skilled at eluding anyone she chose. Should he take a photo of her on his cell phone and send it to his law enforcement friend to check her out? Maybe she was a criminal on the run.
    He started the car and pulled smoothly from his parking spot. Roxie, a criminal? He didn’t think so. Her innocence had struck him from the outset. If she wasn’t on the run, what was she doing and why had she given him the slip? Why had she hesitated momentarily before answering her boss about where she’d been during her break? Was she running from something? If so, from what?
    He’d been in law fifteen years and had learned that people ran from all manner of things, whether they were real or imagined. Did he really want to get involved with someone who was so clearly hiding something? But then, one night of sex wasn’t getting involved. It was merely scratching the itch he had for this woman who intrigued him. She was so very sexy, feminine and playful. He’d loved how she’d pulled his glasses down his nose to look into his eyes. She wasn’t afraid of the truth.
    Charlie jumped on the freeway and thanked his lucky stars the traffic was moving smoothly. He could only hope that Otis Rowter didn’t know where Roxie lived and wasn’t following her.
    As the sun dropped lower in the early evening sky, the shadows across the I-10 Freeway lengthened. He gripped the steering wheel with white-knuckled fingers. How could he have let Roxie get away so easily? Who would have thought she would dart out the back? If she was in danger from Rowter, how could Charlie help her if he wasn’t with her? Did Roxie know the former convict threatened her safety? Charlie had seen men like him before and prosecuted them. They went postal at the slightest provocation. He hoped Roxie could handle herself, yet he wondered. She was beautiful, spunky and intelligent, but if faced alone with a mad ass like Rowter, would she really be able to take care of herself?
    * * * *
    It had been easy to leave Charles Vernon behind in the diner. Roxie hefted her duffel bag in hand and hurried down the street. She’d changed from her uniform, but even so, she smelled the grease from the burgers and fries on her skin and in her hair. Continually glancing over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t being followed, she unlocked the door to her apartment building and yearned for one thing. One long shower to rid herself of the odor from work.
    An odd feeling stopped her and forced her to glance over her right shoulder then her left. She saw nothing out of place. Hurriedly, she locked the door from the inside, but like a bad taste in her mouth, the feeling of being watched persisted.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
    After he arrived at his rented condo, Charlie showered. It had never felt so good before to rid himself of the salty sweat. He dressed in a dark gray two-piece suit with a navy blue tie and a gold tiepin given to him several years before by his law professor. She’d told him he’d go far, and it was her way to honor his achievement of being her best student in the thirty years she’d been teaching. He stroked the gold lightly but affectionately. She’d known and appreciated his drive and determination to make something of himself.
    Charlie glanced out the second story window at the quiet neighborhood and the parking lot that was filling up quickly as people arrived home from the jobs to which they commuted—often long distances. The sun was casting its last purplish-orange shade as it set like a stately queen into its bedchamber. Far away, he heard the roar of a motorcycle but ignored the sound, which quite possibly came from the nearby freeway.
    His eye caught the distant sparkle of water. The Pacific