Her Last Chance by Toni Anderson Read Free Book Online Page A

accepted
compassion or help, especially not from him.
    They stared at one another,
emotions shimmering in her eyes, his heartbeat thudding angrily in his chest.
He bit down on words that wanted to spill out. What were they both so scared
of?
    The elevator dinged and he stepped
away, but not before she swept a scathing look over his frame and tossed her
hair over her shoulder with a derisory flick. Like he was nothing. Like he was
no one. He almost smiled. One thing was for certain, she knew how to push every
one of his buttons. He stuffed his fists into his pockets, waited for her to
exit in front of him.
    They made their way through
security, then to his car, their footsteps echoing across the plaza and ringing
off the tall building. The Stars and Stripes snapped in the brisk wind and
Marsh welcomed the chill on his skin. A foghorn sounded across the bay,
mournful and sad. New York, New York.
    Josephine caught her heel and
stumbled slightly, but Marsh caught her arm. Some primal triumph pumped through
his blood when she didn’t shrug away. Pathetic. He was totally pathetic. What
he needed to do was use his brain and figure out how to catch this killer.
    A thought struck him. “Are you
listed in the phone book?”
    Frowning, she shook her head. “I
can give you my number—”
    Marsh already knew her number. He’d
chosen not to call it because he was a stubborn ass. “Assuming this is the same
guy from your childhood, how did he know where to find you?”
    Traffic was light, the air faintly
tinged with brine.
    A puzzled expression creased her
brow. “I’m not listed anywhere. I have a website, but it doesn’t give my address.”
    That’s what he’d been afraid of.
    “You a registered voter?”
    She shook her head and they carried
on walking. “Elizabeth is. I don’t vote.”
    Marsh shook his head, pissed.
People died for the right to vote and it irritated him when they didn’t bother.
But it wasn’t important right now.
    She walked around to the passenger
door of his car. “Politicians are all the same anyway.”
    He ignored that sentiment because
she was probably right. “He might have hired a professional to track you down.”
Marsh wondered if it would give the investigation a lead or waste more time.
    It was better than nothing.
    A siren whooped, a flash of red
light in the distance.
    “He could have gotten my name from
the newspapers all those years ago. They reported everything in all its glory.”
Josephine climbed into the car, closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. “Can we
stop talking about this now? I have a headache.”
    Looking at her strained profile, he
kept silent and started the engine. It responded with a smooth purr and he
pulled out onto the almost empty street, heading toward the Village. They
didn’t speak. Not even when they reached the relative quiet of Grove Street.
    Parking the car, he cut the engine,
but Josephine didn’t stir.
    The glow of streetlights swept over
her face and gilded her with gold. The gentle rise and fall of her chest told
him she was asleep and a kernel of satisfaction moved inside him because he
knew damned well she wouldn’t have slept if Agent Walker had driven her home.
Though what the hell that said about his sex appeal he didn’t know.
    He wanted to lean over and brush
his lips across hers. She wasn’t as cold as she wanted the world to believe and
some days it broke his heart, how ruthlessly she pushed people away. Since the
day he’d first seen her, she’d stirred a ferocity inside him that no one else
skimmed, no one else even guessed existed.
    A strand of hair fell across her
cheek. Gently he brushed it aside, absorbing the soft skin and ignoring the
ache in his body. What he felt for her wasn’t just physical; that’s why it
scared him. She opened her eyes slowly and for a moment he thought he saw his
conflicted desire reflected in their depths. She jerked at the door handle and
got out.
    He blew out a breath before
following her, stopping