Maggie's Man by Alicia Scott Read Free Book Online Page A

Just the noise was
enough to send her running. She chewed her lower lip. No immediate plans flared
to life in her mind. She risked another glance at Cain.
    He didn't look immediately dangerous. His
fingers were thrumming against the wheel, his brow furrowed as if he was lost
in great thought. Prison break probably did require a certain amount of
concentration. Or maybe murder did.
    "Do you … have you … killed a lot of
women?" she ventured after a bit.
    "Women? No. According to the prosecution,
I murdered Kathy because she was sleeping with my brother. They called it a
crime of passion." His lips twisted ironically, his fingers drumming
slightly faster on the wheel.
    "Was she?"
    "What?"
    "Sleeping with your … your brother."
    There was a small pause. His face was perfectly
expressionless, not hard, not scowling, not angry, not anything.
"Yes," he said finally. "She was."
    "Oh." Her gaze slid from his face to
his hands. His fingers had stopped tapping the wheel. Now he clenched the wheel
tightly and his knuckles had gone white. So he wasn't as calm as he sounded. So
he wasn't so cold. She glanced at him again, wanting to understand more though
she had a feeling she shouldn't.
    "And that's why … that's why you think you
have to kill your brother," she finished for him.
    He glanced at her, his expression not obsessive
or maniacal. In fact, he looked abruptly tired and worn. "I don't want to
kill him," he said. "I just think it may be the only way."
    Maggie didn't know what to say to that and a
strained silence filled the cab.
    "You can't imagine it, can you?" he
asked suddenly. "I must sound so insane to you."
    "I don't think murder is particularly
sane," she admitted. "It sounds as if your brother and girlfriend
made a mistake. Well, okay, so they betrayed you, and well, that must have hurt
a great deal. But by seeking revenge, you're only prolonging your own pain and
denying yourself a fresh, new future."
    "Well said, Maggie, well said."
    She risked a brave smile. "So you'll
abandon your quest?"
    "No."
    "Oh."
    He smiled abruptly; she had the strange
sensation that he was toying with her. "Of course, you wouldn't understand
sibling rivalry, would you, Maggie? It sounds as if your brothers are knights
in shining armor who are already riding to your rescue as we speak."
    "They'll help," she stated with
absolute confidence. "We're actually half siblings, related through our
father. He disappeared in a plane crash when we were still children, so our
grandmother invited us to her dairy farm in Tillamook for the summer. We'd
never even met until then. C.J. lived in L.A., Brandon lived in London and I
lived in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Our paths never would've crossed—my grandmother
is a very wise woman. By the end of the summer, we'd become so close we took a
vow to always be there for one another. 'One for all, all for one,' that kind
of thing. We've always held to it."
    "My brother will come after us, too,"
Cain said at last, his gaze riveted on the windshield. "But not with quite
the same intent."
    Cain backtracked abruptly. "But we were
talking about the chief of police." Maggie thought his voice was rough,
but he cleared his throat and when he spoke again, the tones were the cool,
determined tones she'd come to expect. She shook her head, slightly bewildered
by the change in topic. "The chief of police has limited resources,"
Cain continued unperturbed. "He can't barricade the entire city—it would
require too much manpower. So the state police start patrolling I-5 and the city
police scour Portland. Where else do they go, Maggie?"
    "I … I don't know."
    "Sure you do, it's common sense. Next they
check out logical places for me to go. I have no real supplies or money. It's
not like I had a fancy or sophisticated prison break. I simply insisted on
representing myself for the appeals process. While the prison legal department
handles filing all the affidavits for prisoners, they can't represent me at
trial, only I can. So for