I'll Never Let You Go (Morgans of Nashville) by Mary Burton Read Free Book Online Page A

sipped her beer. “You don’t seem to have a lot of friends at Rudy’s.”
    “No.”
    “Why?”
    “I investigate cops. Doesn’t win me many points with the rank and file.”
    She traced the rim of her cup. Ah, that explained the man’s comment in the bar. “Does that bother you?”
    “No.”
    His attention shifted to her palm and the scar slashing across it. She closed her fingers, resisting the urge to explain. Whatever she told him would be a lie. She never told the truth about her past, which still shamed her. How could she explain that she was a smart woman who had stayed with an abusive and, ultimately, murderous man? The less said, the better.
    “Seems they’d want to weed out the bad apples.”
    Alex’s expression didn’t change, but somewhere inside him she thought she saw a door close and lock. “You would think.”
    They both hid behind walls. Guarded secrets. Good. You leave mine alone, and I won’t dig into yours . “So, we’re two very simple people.”
    The corner of his lip tipped into that grin. The ice melted for a moment, and that unfamiliar pull of desire flowered again. Some would have embraced it. Leah likened desire to a tiger’s dangerous beauty.
    “I think we’re two people who’re fairly bad at dating and don’t like to talk about ourselves,” Alex said.
    His directness charmed her. And that scared her. Being charmed led to liking, which led to desire, which equaled vulnerability. Her nerves stretched tighter and tighter. “Then why’re we here?”
    A shrug. “I was curious about you. And Tracker likes you. He’s a good judge of character.”
    Secrets, sadness, and shame banged on the wall so carefully built. She sipped her beer, which now tasted flat and lifeless. “Ah.”
    “So what about you?”
    “I’m fairly straightforward. Raised in Nashville. Both my parents have passed. Got my vet degree in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee. Enjoying the single life.”
    He leaned forward, as if a bullshit meter had clanged in his head. “How did you get the scars on your hands?”
    Cut to the chase. This guy didn’t waste time or mince words. No need to look down to see the deep slashes that crossed both palms. “Are you this nosy on most first dates?”
    “No.” No apology. “They look like defensive wounds.”
    “Nothing so dramatic,” she lied.
    No adult had ever asked about the scars on her palms, or the ones on her arms. They might have stared, but they hadn’t asked. Once a little girl in a grocery store had asked her about them. She’d looked as if she’d believed in fairy tales, Santa Claus, and the tooth fairy. Monsters under her bed could be chased away with a mother’s kiss. Leah couldn’t bring herself to tell the girl real monsters walked among them. “It was an accident.”
    “Okay.” Alex tapped a finger on the table, as if forcing back more questions that, eventually, he’d ask. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
    She kept her hand on her beer glass, refusing to tuck it in her lap. “I’m not upset.”
    “You’re pale now.”
    She moistened her lips. “Just been a long day.”
    “It’s my job to be nosy.” That smile appeared again. “Sometimes it’s hard to shut off.”
    “No worries.”
    Alex Morgan was the kind of guy who’d unearth all her carefully buried secrets. And when he did, what would he think of her? What kind of woman, what kind of fool, would willingly lay down with a monster? The idea that he’d see her as less or weak scraped the underside of her scars.
    Her phone buzzed, startling her. With a grateful heart she dug her phone from her purse and read the message. “It’s from my clinic. I’ve got to go by the kennel to check on one of the dogs.”
    Alex looked more curious and disappointed. If his job was to sniff out lies, then he surely knew this was no fib. Their clinic took emergency calls, and this was her night on call. “You can’t eat first?”
    “No.” She gathered her coat, anxious to step