Miami Midnight by Maggie; Davis Read Free Book Online Page B

live?”
    “The newspaper.” He ran a hand over his face. “I told them I wanted to talk to the reporter who was at the fashion show today.”
    Gaby’s shoulder hit the doorjamb to the living room and she winced. “The newspaper doesn’t give out that information!”
    The shadow of his hand lifted to loosen his tie. “They do to me.” He slipped the tie off and pulled his wet shirt away from his body.
    His words chilled her. She remembered what Dodd had said about drug dealing in Miami. She looked around for something to use as a weapon. In the dark, there was nothing. “Don’t come one step nearer.” It was a mistake to sound so obviously terrified, but she couldn’t help it. “Stay right there!”
    He paused. “God, don’t panic. Look, are you alone in the house?”
    Gaby shuddered. With one backward step she would be inside the living room where she could slam the door shut and lock it, leaving him on the sun porch. Another crash of lightning hit the island, bathing them in instant white light.
    She lunged for the living room. The shadow moved at the same time, catching the door with his hand. It banged back on its hinges as he stepped after her into the living room.
    In the old high-ceilinged sala the storm was reflected in the mirrors and on the white walls as a bright, flickering gloom. Gaby backed away from him and the coffee table caught her behind her knees, painfully. If only her mother weren’t unconscious upstairs and could somehow manage to help! If only the neighbors weren’t so far away they couldn’t hear if she screamed! If only—
    “Miss Collier?” She could make out the shadowed planes of his face. “Miss Collier, I saw you this afternoon. You were there, standing under the trees.”
    She kept backing away, thinking frantically of the kitchen. The front door. A dining room window she could crawl out of. He had seen her in the garden when he was closing a drug deal . Oh, God, she supposed she was some sort of a witness! Had he come there now to kill her?
    She stumbled into something, a chair, and doubled over it with a gasp. “I wasn’t there, it was someone else!”
    “You were there.” He moved toward the sound of her voice. “I saw you come up from the path in the trees and then you—” A tremendous crack of lightning interrupted him. “You ran away before I could stop you.”
    “Not me,” she cried. “It wasn’t me!” Her blindly groping hands discovered the obstacle wasn’t a chair. It was the couch. She couldn’t seem to get around it.
    She saw his white-sleeved arm lift as he ran his hand through his hair. “Do you have a towel? I’m getting everything wet.”
    She clutched the arm of the sofa. Towel? He wanted her to bring him a towel! “Get out!” She no longer cared if she sounded frightened. “If you don’t go away, I’m going to call the police!”
    “The police?” He stepped forward again. “Look, that’s exactly what I want to talk to you about. I know newspaper people, Miss Collier,” he said urgently, “and how they go after a story. I don’t want you picking up on something that—” He hesitated. “—that means absolutely nothing.”
    She pushed hard against the couch, trying to move it out of her way. “I’m not a real reporter, I’m a fashion writer!” She knew now he was there to threaten her. “You’ve got the wrong person,” she went on breathlessly. “I’m not interested in drug deals or any—”
    The words died in her throat.
    Drug deal . Oh God, she’d actually said it!
    He stood perfectly still. “Jesus,” she heard him say under his breath, “that’s all I need.”
    Abruptly, lightning and thunder crashed right over their heads. Gaby had a wild, irrational thought that there was something unnatural in the way the light danced around his dimly outlined body. Her senses screamed that he smelled of rain, wet clothing, expensive cologne. Menacing. Leanly powerful. Inescapable.
    There was something else, too, she