Entranced

Entranced by Nora Roberts Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: Entranced by Nora Roberts Read Free Book Online
Authors: Nora Roberts
who?”
    He made a dismissive gesture and tried to keep his eyes off her legs. Whatever fragrance she’d dumped all over herself made his tongue want to hang out. “You look like a—”
    “Yeah.” Pleased, she grinned and turned in a saucy circle. “It’s my floozy look. Works like a charm. Mostguys don’t care if you’re pretty or not if you show enough skin and cover the rest with something tight.”
    He shook his head. He didn’t want to try to decipher that. “Why are you dressed like that?”
    “Tools of the trade, Donovan.” She shifted the oversize purse on her shoulder. Inside it, she carried another tool of the trade. “If you’re going with me, let’s hit it. I’ll fill you in on the way.”
    It wasn’t excitement he felt from her now. That she had banked. As she climbed into her car—and Lord, her skirt slithered up another inch—he caught bolts of anticipation, quicksilver streaks of fun. The kind Sebastian imagined another kind of woman might feel embarking on a shopping spree.
    But Mel wasn’t like any kind of woman he’d ever before encountered.
    “Okay,” she said as he settled into the passenger seat. “Here’s the deal.”
    She shot away from the curb, and her driving was as quick and competent as her explanation.
    There had been a rash of local robberies over the past six weeks. All electronics—televisions, VCRs, stereo equipment. A good many of the victims had been insured by Underwriter’s. The police had a few leads, but nothing solid. And since no single home had been hit for more than a few hundred at a shot, it wasn’t exactly number one on their hit list.
    “Underwriter’s is your average happy insurance company,” she commented as she winked through an amber light. “Which means they really hate to pay claims. So I’ve been working on it for the last few weeks.”
    “Your car needs a tune-up,” Sebastian told her when the engine made a gagging sound.
    “Yeah. Anyway, I did some poking around, and what do you know? Turns out there’s a couple of guys selling TVs and such out of the back of a van. Oh, not around here. They bop over to Salinas or down to Soledad.”
    “How did you find out?”
    She shot him a mild smile. “Legwork, Donovan. Miles and miles of legwork.”
    Despite his better judgment, his gaze dropped down to those long, tanned thighs. “I’ll bet.”
    “So I’ve got this snitch. He’s had a few unfortunate run-ins with the cops, and he’s a little leery. But he kind of took to me. Because I’m private, I guess.”
    Sebastian coughed, cleared his throat. “Oh, yeah. I’m sure that’s it.”
    “He’s got connections,” she went on. “Seeing as he did some time for B and E—breaking and entering,” she explained. “And some petty larceny.”
    “You have fascinating friends.”
    “It’s a good life,” she said, with a laugh in her voice. “He passes me some information, I pass him a few bills. Mostly it keeps him from picking locks. He hangs down at the docks. Strictly nontourist areas. There’s a bar down there where he happened to be tossing back a few last night. Got chummy with this guy who was already soused. My friend likes a drink better if somebody else is paying for it. They got intimate in that happy way drunks do, and he finds out this guy’s flush because he just hauled a load of electronic entertainment down to King City. Now, because they’re the best of friends, he takes my snitch around the back of the bar to this dump of a warehouse. And what do you suppose is inside?”
    “Previously owned electronics at a discount price.”
    Amused, she chuckled. “You catch on, Donovan.”
    “So why don’t you just call the cops?”
    “Hey, these guys might not be the James Gang, but it’s a pretty good bust.” Her lips were curved as she downshifted. “My bust.”
    “I suppose it’s occurred to you that they might be … uncooperative.”
    When she smiled again, something hot and beautiful leapt into her eyes.

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