Getting Rid of Bradley by Jennifer Crusie Read Free Book Online Page B

back a piece of the
    brick wall. I saw it hit you. That’s why I dragged you into the alley.”
    “Oh.” Lucy digested the information. “So you thought you were saving my life while I thought you were
    mugging me.”
    “I didn’tthink I was saving your life, I...”
    “And then I beat you up. I’m really sorry.”
    Zack closed his eyes and then looked at Lucy again. “Listen to me carefully. Somebody is trying to kill
    you.”
    She glared at him. “Listen tome carefully. Nobody is trying to kill me, and if you looked at this logically,
    you would see that.”
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    “Wait a minute.”
    “There are two people standing against the wall. One of these people is a mild-mannered high-school
    teacher whose students all adore her. The other is a condescending police officer who grabs innocent
    women and drags them into alleys and who has probably alienated everyone in the greater Riverbend
    area. Now, which of these two people is most likely to be shot at?”
    “You,” Zack said. “My instincts tell me you.”
    “Your instincts stink,” Lucy said and blinked. “I’m sorry. I’m usually not rude. I’ve had a bad day.”
    “That’s all right,” Zack said. “People are rude to me all the time.”
    He shoved his notebook back in his jacket and stood. “Listen, we’ll argue about this later. Right now,
    I’m going to look around the outside of your house. You stay inside.”
    Lucy stood, too. “I beg your pardon?”
    “Inside. You. And the dogs.” Zack looked down at Heisenberg. “Stay. All of you.”
    Lucy put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Who do you think you are?”
    “Me?” Zack said on his way out. “I’m the guy who saved your life, so you owe me. Stay put.”
    He glanced back and grinned at her as he went out the door. Lucy said, “Listen, you, you didn’t...” and
    then he was gone.
    “Who does he think he is?” she asked the dogs. “He just comes in here, out of the blue, and tells me
    somebody’s been shooting at me, and orders me around. Just what I needed. Somebody else ordering
    me around.”
    Only she hadn’t let him. She’d fought back.
    And it really felt good.
    “I think I’m on to something with this independence thing,” she told the dogs. “I really enjoyed arguing
    with him.”
    Of course, it hadn’t had much effect on him. He’d just glared at her and charged on ahead. And he
    hadn’t been all that mad, anyway. A minute after the glare, he’d been grinning at her again. She pictured
    him again, those bright blue eyes heating her and that crazy grin scrambling her thoughts, and she had to
    remind herself that she was mad at him. “This is my problem,” she told the dogs. “I’m too easygoing. I
    should be mad at him. I should want tokill him.” She stopped on the last thought.
    He’d said somebody was trying to kill her.
    Who would want to kill her? That was ridiculous. That was something that happened on TV. A car
    backfired and kicked up a stone. People did not go around shooting guns in downtown Riverbend.
    He must be wrong.
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    Wrong, but gorgeous.
    She pictured him again, much against her better judgment. That grin, that swagger, those blue, blue eyes
    that connected with hers with such impact on her breathing. “The thing is,” she told the dogs, “even
    though I know he’s a policeman, he doesn’t look like a policeman. He looks like a very, very sexy bad
    guy.”
    She heard a noise in the vestibule and looked up to see Zack leaning in the doorway, and she blushed so
    hard she almost passed out.
    “You talk to the dogs,” he said.
    “Well, of course I talk to the dogs.” Lucy prayed he hadn’t heard what she’d said. “It’s not like I talk to
    plants or anything non-sentient.”
    “What I was going to ask was why you have such expensive locks on this place. You must