Lost and Found by Lorhainne Eckhart Read Free Book Online Page A

chest.
    “Yah, yah, got you , now you’re dead.” Maggie held her gun high over her head and jumped up. Then , what the hell… whack, whack —both the big guys battered her with paint balls. Maggie dropped her gun and covered her head with her arms to ward of f the stinging welts as they continued to fire, and she ran.
     
    * * * *
     
    Maggie limped and yanked a twig from her hair as she followed Diane, a short compact woman with a boyish brown cop cut , to her brand new Toyota SUV.
    “Jesus girl, you don’t mess around with those SWAT guys like that, they really take it personally.”
    Maggie said nothing , remembering how Diane mentioned this morning how the SWAT guys they were playing war with today, were the ones you sent into a problem scenario with the big guns—situations no one else wanted to handle. And for some reason , they took offense to Maggie hiding under the log waiting … their quote to Diane, “ …to ambush them.”
    They said it was nothing personal when they smiled and sauntered away a few moments ago. Assholes , Maggie wanted to yell at them, but stifled the urge when Diane yanked her from the small frame clubhouse of Sequim’s paintball club.
    Maggie snorted in disgust and massaged her battered shins while Diane drove out of the parking lot.
    “Maggie, how many times have I told you ? You don’t mess around with guys like that . They operate on their own agenda. They don’t believe the same rules apply to them. Remember our little stint? We didn’t follow the rules . Lord, when I think back on what you and Marcie did, gathering that marijuana for Dan, you’re lucky you didn’t end up in jail.”
    Maggie was aware, but she couldn’t honestly remember all the details when she helped Marcie get Dan’s marijuana. After his threats, it was the only way to protect her husband and Sam from being set up for some unspeakable crime. She was forgetting a lot of things lately .
    The n she remembered the SWAT guys talk ing about the incident at Waco this morning, and the fact it would never happen to them. Diane translated their meaning when Maggie questioned her as they left the clubhouse after gearing up. Many cops believed the same rules civilized societies deemed to live and abide by, didn’t apply to them. And even worse , a few of them honestly believed they were entitled to make up their own rules.
    “Oh , okay,” was all Maggie could say.
    “Are you all right? You know you still haven’t told me what happened yesterday.”
    “I did something stupid.” Maggie looked straight ahead through the unusually clean windshield.
    “Wait , don’t say anything yet.” Diane pressed the brake and pulled a U-turn on the fairly quiet highway, driving across two lanes , and into the parking lot of the Road Side Pub. “I’m pretty sure I ‘m going to need a glass of wine to hear this.”
    Maggie said nothing but chewed on that same piece of nail on her thumb as Diane pulled into the empty gravel lot and parked.

Chapter Eight
    “I can’t believe you did that.” Diane rested her forearms on the small corner table beside the warm fire blazing in the dining room section of the cozy pub. It was mid-afternoon on Saturday , so the dinner crowd hadn’t arrived yet. Except for the two guys watching the sports channel above the bar, they were the only two in the place.
    “You accidentally took a sleeping pill before going to his lawyer ’ s office?”
    “Ah yah, that would pretty much sum it up.” Maggie couldn’t remember Diane’s deep brown eyes ever looking more shocked.
    “Did you snore? Whoa, wait. What are you doing taking sleeping pills to begin with?”
    This was the part Maggie dreaded. None of her friends were aware she’d started taking pills for anxiety during the day and pills to sleep at night . Maybe that was why Richard kept calling. He must suspect something.
    “I didn’t want to tell you this. I meant to take Ativan for my anxiety, but I mixed up the pills.”
    “What!