Renegade Alpha (ALPHA 5) by Carole Mortimer Read Free Book Online

better he liked it.
    “Judo?” Callie looked at the throw mat in the games area.
    “I practice several martial arts.” He shrugged.
    “Disarm or attack?”
    He gave a hard smile. “I’ve been known to do a little of both.”
    “I’ll bet,” Callie acknowledged dryly, doing her best not to think about Lijah wearing only a pair of cotton trousers resting low down on his hips, the bareness of his chest dewed with sweat, dark hair tousled. “Finn Devlin’s?” She deliberately changed the subject as she paused beside six black-and-white photographs.
    Lijah deftly—from long habit?—threw his hat onto the old-fashioned stand in the corner before answering her. “We did some security work for him a few months ago.”
    Her eyes widened. “So you know him?”
    Lijah gave a derisive smile at her obvious surprise at him knowing the world-renowned photographer. “Yes.”
    “These photographs are amazing,” she murmured appreciatively before moving on to the original paintings on the next wall. “You have quite the collection here,” she added admiringly.
    “As I said, not what you were expecting,” Lijah drawled self-derisively.
    He knew what image he presented to the world. Deliberately so. Peter Morgan had helped him discover seventeen years ago that drawing attention to himself by the way he dressed, literally hiding out in the open, actually meant there was less chance of anyone making the connection between Lijah Smith and who he really was.
    Because he didn’t like who he really was, and had no intention of ever going back there.
    Callie’s question earlier as to whether or not he had any family that worried about him?
    None that he wanted to acknowledge.
    Or ever see again.
    “You miss your job,” he stated shrewdly as he recognized the excitement sparkling in Callie’s eyes as she continued to study his artwork.
    That excitement instantly faded. “Yes,” she acknowledged softly.
    “Once we catch this bastard, there’s no reason why you can’t go back. Why not?” he probed as she gave a very definite shake of her head.
    “That part of my life is over now.” Callie moved away from the artwork. “I need to find something else I can do, something that doesn’t come with a whole lot of memories I don’t want to be made to think about every day.”
    “You think about it every day anyway.”
    Yes, she did.
    Callie had been told during her brief counseling sessions that all victims of a crime felt this way. That they questioned themselves, over and over again, as to whether there wasn’t something they could have said or done to prevent what had happened to them.
    She couldn’t speak for other people, but she ultimately knew there was nothing she could have done to prevent what happened at the gallery that night. She had been tied up and helpless. God knew she had begged and pleaded with Michael to tell those men what they wanted to know. He had died anyway. Once he opened the door and let the other man into the gallery, there had never been the possibility of any other outcome. Because, as Lijah and Seth had pointed out, Michael had seen their faces and knew who they were.
    No, there was nothing Callie could have done to change the inevitable outcome of the night that was engraved so graphically in her mind.
    Which didn’t mean she didn’t still wish every day she could go back and do exactly that.
    “I haven’t had a chance to shower or shave since I got back, and I need to do both.” Lijah ran a hand through the heavy darkness of his hair. “Do you know how to cook?”
    “Yes, I know how to cook.” She gave Lijah a knowing smile. She didn’t mind him expecting her to cook. In fact, she would be relieved to have something normal to do after the strain of this past week.
    “Freezer’s full.” He nodded in the direction of the kitchen area. “Help yourself.”
    “Any preferences?”
    He arched one dark and mocking brow. “I’m the only person living here. If it’s in the freezer,