Chasing Daybreak (Dark of Night Book 1) by Ranae Glass Read Free Book Online Page A

you.”
    I sighed. “How much?”
    “Please, girl. I don’t want your money.”
    “Then what do you want?”
    “I need a new security system here in the shop. See, last month the books came up short by a couple of hundred bucks. I need to know who’s cookin’ the numbers, you feel me?”
    I nodded. “I assume you keep everything on your computer?”
    “Of course.”
    “All right, show me.” I really didn’t want to test my new keystroke recorder just yet, but I supposed it was a fair trade, much better than what I’d thought he was going to ask for. It was a good thing I’d packed my gadgets.
    I installed the device and turned it on.
    “There,” I said closing the computer back up. “We should have some answers soon. Now, for your part of the deal.”
    I took out one of my business cards, wrote Robert Welch’s address and the plate number on it, and handed it to him.
    “It was good to see you, Patrick.”
    He cringed. “Don’t let anybody hear you call me that. And Isabel, take care of yourself.”
    I nodded. “I will.”
    The office was quiet when I got back. I didn’t intend to stay too long, but I needed to change out of my tall leather boots into less conspicuous-looking footwear before the GA meeting. But whenever I stopped at the house, I had to check the machine. There was message from my mother wanting me to come over for dinner. Apparently, Phoebe had a new boyfriend Mom wanted me to discreetly investigate. Mom thought he was “shifty.”
    I sighed and jotted down his information.
    The next message was a man’s voice crackling through the machine.
    “Isabel. I just thought you should know I’m out on bail. We should get together, grab a drink. Maybe I’ll swing by your place some time.” Then the caller just laughed and hung up.
    A shiver shot up my back. I recognized the laugh. I’d heard it through a closet door just before a house was set on fire with Shane and me inside. It was Billy Young. I was on the phone with Reggie in a matter of seconds.
    He answered his cell with, “What’s up, baby girl?”
    “Reggie, were you gonna mention that the arsonist I helped catch was out on bail?”
    I could hear him sit up in his squeaky desk chair. “I didn’t know he was.”
    “Well, he called my place today. Said he’d stop by some time.”
    Reggie cussed. “You need me to get a car out there, keep an eye on things?”
    I thought about it. Suddenly, the gun in the small of my back felt really good.
    “Naw. I’ll let Shane know, but I’ve got pretty good security here. Just do me a favor and find the SOB, okay? And when you do, haul him in for harassment. I’ll press charges if I need to.”
    “Okay, sugar. You be careful now, a’right?”
    “Always am.” I hung up the phone.
    Shane walked in the front door a minute later with Mercy in tow. I could hear her annoying voice well before her face came into the office.
    Mercy had been young when she turned, only nineteen according to Shane, and she still acted like a permanent teenager. In a leaves-nothing-to-the-imagination red sundress and wearing dozens of bangle bracelets, she flowed into the room as if she were a movie star walking the red carpet. My hand twitched at my back, wanting desperately to shoot a few holes in her pretty face.
    “Isabel, so nice to see you again,” she said with a Southern drawl so strong that she could pass for Scarlett O’Hara in a remake of Gone with the Wind .
    I ignored Mercy. “Shane, Young made bail somehow. Slippery little weasel. Keep an eye out in case he comes snooping around here, all right?”
    That was when I noticed he was holding her hand. My trigger finger twitched again.
    “I will. But if you’ve got a second, we need to talk to you about the initiation next week.” He led Mercy to a chair in the sitting room.
    “Uh-huh,” I managed, sitting as far away from them as the small room would allow.
    “You see,” Mercy began, the words rolling out of her mouth like molasses, “the