Nobody's Fool by Sarah Hegger Read Free Book Online Page B

woman thing.
    â€œNow, get your ass down here.” There was a tense pause, then his jaw went granite. “Please?”
    Pathetically easy, but rather satisfying all the same. Holly hopped down the steps and followed him into the parking garage.
    There weren’t many cars and all of them were expensive. She skirted a vintage Bentley and paused in midstride to admire the lines on a cherry-red Ferrari.
    Josh bent down to open his car and she stopped dead in her tracks.
    â€œThat’s your car?” She burst out laughing. This was priceless.
    â€œWhat?” He ruffled up. “It’s a nineteen sixty-seven series one and a half XK-E Jaguar.”
    Holly laughed harder, and he raised his voice over the sound of her cackles rebounding around the parking garage. “It might interest you to note that Enzo Ferrari said it was the most beautiful car ever built.”
    â€œOh, I’m sure he did.” Holly gasped to get her breath back. “Because that, my friend, is a penis on wheels.”
    â€œGet in.”

Chapter Six
    Holly had to admit the XK-E was a thing of beauty as they growled their way out of the parking garage and onto the streets. The recent downpour had done nothing to dampen the atmosphere. There were people everywhere as Chicagoans enthusiastically joined the tourists in painting their town red. Summer in Chicago: one festival after another and a constant party in between.
    She tried Emma and got her voice mail. Now she had two sisters MIA. Maybe she should try the police unit Emma had called. And say what? She didn’t know where to start. Until this moment, she’d never regretted not forking out the extra money for a smartphone.
    The man next to her had one of those, pimped out and bristling with information. Siri probably flirted with Josh Hunter, too. Holly fought back the helplessness and stared out the window.
    The car roared through the street, Lake Michigan a mysterious glitter on one side. People everywhere getting on with a good night out and so far removed from the despair pressing her.
    On the opposite side of the road from the lake, towering monoliths of glass loomed over their older stone brothers. Somewhere among these buildings wandered Portia, alone, sick, and penniless. The black hole pressed closer.
    She wasn’t going to cry. She didn’t cry.
    Holly blinked her eyes furiously and fixed her gaze on the buildings. New condo developments sprang up, as always, but for the most part it was the same.
    Josh maneuvered like a typical native. You didn’t so much drive in Chicago as aim. The rule of the road was more along the lines of he who dares, and accomplished with a single-minded determination to add to the prevailing chaos. The result was a gridlock onto the highway that kept them there for long precious minutes.
    She needed a distraction or she would climb out of the car and start swinging.
    Holly stole a look at her companion. Part of her mind refused to wrap itself around the fact that she was here, now, and with him. And he was being useful. Holly tensed as a taxi swung across two lanes to come to a brake-grinding halt two hairs from their left bumper.
    Josh didn’t flinch, which meant he was either immune or brain dead.
    She needed to get a grip here and relax. He was helping her. She didn’t have to like it, but if it meant she might find Portia sooner, then it was all that mattered.
    â€œSo.” Holly winced as a large delivery van pulled so close she could see up the driver’s nose. “You seem to have done rather well for yourself.”
    â€œYou sound surprised.” He glanced in her direction while playing chicken with another driver for a small gap in the traffic ahead of them.
    â€œNo.” She unclenched her fingers from the side of her seat. In school, lots of other kids—and by that she meant girls—would look at Josh and see only the pretty package. She’d always known a lot more lurked