Coming Undone by Susan Andersen Read Free Book Online Page B

instructed in a low voice.
    “Where did you get this stuff?” she asked as he tapped a fine nail into the doorframe.
    “From our maintenance foreman.”
    She gave him her best awed smile. “You are so clever!”
    He stood a little taller, but merely said, “If you’ll step over here to this side of me and continue holding the line taut I’ll fasten it to the brad.”
    She watched him tie the line around the nail.
    “There!” he whispered in satisfaction.
    She dashed into her room and grabbed her stuff. “Thank you so much!” she said as she rolled it out. “I’ll just stop at the desk and check out. Thank you!”
    “Um, wait a minute, Miss Morgan. I called the sheriff’s office when I went to Maintenance. You’re going to need to stick around to talk to them.”
    Uh-oh. But P.J. hadn’t spent time as a kid scamming tourists out of their spare change for nothing. She knew how to think on her feet. Giving him an earnest nod, she said, “Sure. Let me just check out and put my things in my car, then I’ll come back up.” She flashed him big, imploring eyes. “Please. Won’t you stay here to make sure he doesn’t get away? I want to put as many miles between me and this pervert as I possibly can, and I’m scared to death he’ll somehow find out that the sheriff is coming. God!” Allowing a little hysteria to enter her voice, she grasped his arm. “What if he gets away? What if he lies in wait somewhere to follow me again? ”
    Turner gave her a comforting pat. “No, no, that’s not going to happen. I’ll stay right here to be sure he doesn’t go anywhere.”
    “You are so wonderful. Do you want me to come back up here?” She glanced nervously down the hallway. “Or…maybe I could meet with the sheriff downstairs?”
    “My office would probably be the best place. Have the desk clerk direct you there and ask them to page me as soon as the sheriff arrives.”
    “Oh, my gosh, thank you, thank you! You’ve truly been my hero.”
    It took her only minutes to check out. She was on the road heading out of town moments after that, conveniently having failed to pass on the request to page the manager.
    Envisioning Jared’s face when he found himself all tangled up in red tape, she laughed as she hit the city limits and punched the pedal to the metal. Score one for the girl in the white hat.
     
    I T TOOK J ARED ALL DAY to track P.J. down. Sitting in the foliage-filled atrium of a downtown Red Lion hotel in Spokane, Washington, he ate a club sandwich while keeping an eye on both the entrance to the bank of elevators and the stairs that came down from the two interior balconies overlooking the lobby.
    Much as he hated to admit it, she’d caught him off guard. He didn’t know precisely how she’d conned the manager of the hotel in Pocatello, but her performance must have really been something, because the guy had been all over him the minute he’d opened the door to a peremptory knock. The damn sheriff had even been called in and he’d had to do some fancy dancing to avoid having his ass hauled down to the county clink. Luckily he had a copy of the contract that the agency had signed with Wild Wind Records.
    It hadn’t hurt, either, that P.J. had vanished. By the time Turner hauled him down to his office, only to discover the sheriff had been there for some time but P.J. hadn’t made an appearance at all and no one had been instructed to contact him, it was obvious he’d begun to suspect he’d been played. An involuntary grin tugged at Jared’s lips now.
    No shit, Sherlock.
    Not that he had much to chortle about, himself. He’d underestimated her. From everything he’d seen so far, he would have sworn P.J. would do just about anything to avoid turning the light of media attention on herself. She sure as hell kept dodging having to deal with all the bullshit her mother was spreading. And unless Jodeen Morgan had changed dramatically since their Denver days, he had to believe one session of