Cheyenne McCray - Point Blank (Lawmen Book 4) by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page B

sheepish. “The driver of the truck was pretty ticked off at me until he saw how badly the driver’s side door was smashed in and how I was pinned inside.” She sighed. “Of course my insurance paid for everything and my rates jumped even higher.”
    “I take it you’ve had other accidents.” Brooks raised the Maker’s Mark.
    “Bizarre things happen around me—I seem to draw them like a magnet.” She changed her voice to sound like an announcer at a football game. “Natasha ninety-two. Chance eight.”
    Brooks almost spewed the sip of his drink at the way she said it. He recovered and swallowed before he laughed.
    “Grandfather once said to me, ‘Natasha, you might as well never play the lottery.’” Natasha smiled. “I said, ‘Why, Grandpa?’ and he replied with ‘You waste all of your good luck getting out of all of your bad luck.’”
    Natasha smiled as she continued. “I prefer to think of them as educational experiences, not bad luck.”
    Brooks grinned. Natasha was engaging and amusing and he realized he was enjoying her company too much.
    Was this woman knowingly trafficking drugs?
    Maybe she was just a damned good actress.
    One way or another, he would find out, and he would do whatever had to be done.
    She smiled at him and it was like sunshine warming his body from head to toe. His chest felt tight. He didn’t know how the hell he was going to handle this case with the way she made things stir within him.
    Her attention turned from him to the people around them, as if she was searching for someone. Was she?
    He watched her, and she looked like she was deep inside her thoughts. In her eyes, he saw the same expression of concentration and insecurity he had noticed earlier in the surveillance photos. It touched him in a way he didn’t want to be touched.
    The evidence pointed toward her guilt, he reminded himself. Like what had been found in the statuettes with her fingerprints all over them.
    It would break Christie’s heart. After all that Christie had been through with her ex-husband who had laundered money for the cartel, why would Natasha become involved with those bastards?
    Many a formerly good person ended up on the wrong path. And whether or not she had started out as a good person, the proof of her involvement now pointed in the opposite direction.
    Katy showed up with the cheese plate and garlic fries. When the server left, Natasha turned her brilliant smile to Brooks. “Isn’t Trace and Christie’s baby the sweetest thing ever?”
    A grin came easy to Brooks as his thoughts rested on the adorable little one who had enchanted every person who met her. “She is a cute one.”
    “As Jessica grows up, Christie and Trace will teach her to call me Auntie Natasha even though I’m not her real aunt.” She picked up a piece of sliced cheese and a cracker. “I’m not sure I’ll ever have kids of my own, so I’ll live vicariously through them.”
    “You don’t want children?” Brooks ate a garlic fry.
    “Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know if I’m the mothering type.” She shrugged. “I do enjoy being around them, as long as I can give them back to their parents.”
    With Natasha’s sparkling personality, Brooks thought she’d be a great mother. “You might surprise yourself.”
    “Maybe.” She ate another cracker and piece of cheese, looking thoughtful again. “You know all about my small family. Tell me about yours.”
    “It’s not small.” The corner of his mouth lifted. “A large immediate family and an even larger extended family.”
    She looked intrigued. “How many sisters and brothers?”
    “Six sisters,” he said. “My parents are each from large families, too. My dad is one of seven and my mother is one of eight.”
    “Holy cow.” Natasha’s eyes grew wide. “I think it would be cool to have a large family. Can I borrow some of yours?”
    Brooks laughed. “Any time.”
    She grinned. “What was it like growing up with six sisters?”
    “It wasn’t a