Secret Sins by Lora Leigh Read Free Book Online Page A

Wayne cleared the emotion in his throat.
     “Cami, Rafer’s fiancée, and my Amelia used to be damned good friends until I learned
     Amelia was getting mixed up with them.” He pushed his fingers through his brown-and-gray
     hair with a grimace. “Terrified the hell out of me. I may have even made her hate
     me, the way I jerked her home and forced her to disassociate with the Flannigan girl
     she was such good friends with.”
    Wayne looked away for a moment, obviously torn about how he had handled the matter.
     Wayne’s sympathy and attempts to help the Callahans were one reason why Archer found
     it hard to believe he was a suspect.
    “Ah, hell, it beat having her raped and murdered,” he bit out angrily on a hard breath.
     “But that’s neither here nor there. How are we going to handle this? We have to figure
     out who that bastard is and where he is or we’re going to have company. Something
     that hasn’t been accomplished in twelve years.”
    Archer pursed his lips thoughtfully as he leaned forward in his chair, his arms bracing
     on the desk. “Well, Wayne, I’m not sure at the moment. I do know I don’t want ‘help’
     invading my County.”
    The FBI was, of course, already there and had been for a while now. Not that they
     were finding anything more than Archer had.
    “My God, that’s the last thing we need,” Wayne agreed, his gray eyes darkening with
     anger. “It would become a three-ring circus. But if we don’t have any leads at all,
     then how will we stop it?”
    “We’re just going to have to figure out a way to draw the Slasher out,” Archer stated.
     “I’m working on a few ideas. Give me a few days and we’ll go over them and see what
     works.”
    Wayne nodded, though he didn’t appear in the least relieved. “Let’s hope those ideas
     are at least working ideas,” Wayne grunted sarcastically as he rose to his feet. “Is
     that the best you can do, Sheriff?”
    “Considering the girl we found the other night had no known connection to any of the
     Callahans, I seem to just be at a dead end,” he growled in frustration.
    “No connection at all?” Wayne murmured, surprised. “But they’ve always been the Callahans’
     past lovers.”
    “Not this one.” Archer shook his head firmly as he lifted one hand to rub at his cheek
     thoughtfully. “Like many of the other women in Corbin County, she was polite to them,
     but that was it. She and her boyfriend had just rented an apartment in town and she
     was scheduled to start business courses in the fall. But she was definitely in no
     way connected to the Callahans.”
    Wayne breathed out roughly before shoving a hand in a pocket of the summer-weight
     gray slacks he wore. “Let’s just get this done without any damned outsiders coming
     in,” Wayne ordered broodingly. “I really don’t relish that kind of hassle.”
    Not that Archer did, either.
    Archer watched as the County attorney left the office, the door slamming behind him.
     Almost immediately it reopened and Madge entered with an irritated look. “You know,
     he saw me coming with that coffee. He could have left the door open.”
    The tray holding a thermal pot and a ceramic cup proclaiming FAVORITE SHERIFF thunked down on his desk as Madge straightened and propped her hands on her hips.
     “I don’t like your friends, Sheriff.”
    “I never said he was my friend, Madge,” he pointed out with a grin.
    She smiled back at him then, causing Archer to pause, his hand reaching for the cup.
     That smile was enough to make a grown man shudder in fear. The pure glee in her light
     blue eyes was enough to make him turn, tuck his tail, and run.
    Hell, he pitied the man that ever married her.
    “What is it, Madge?” he asked as she continued to stare down at him with that damned
     Mona Lisa curve to her lips.
    “Well, you had a call while you were in your meeting,” she informed him.
    “Did I?”
    “Uh-huh.” She nodded. “Miss Lonhorne called. She told me