Secret Sins by Lora Leigh Read Free Book Online Page B

to tell you that you’re going
     to be hearing from her lawyer. It seems she found another of her expensive purses,
     a Choo, I believe, clawed up, and used as a litter box. She’s none too happy. Perhaps
     you should contact that lawyer of yours now.”
    Snickering, she turned and left the office as Archer sat back in his chair in disgust.
    Dammit, he’d told Marisa not to bring that crap to the house. His cat, a chocolate-brown
     Maine Coon cat with the temperament of a rabid lion, hated her. Archer had warned
     her Oscar would shred anything she owned that the cat found lying around, but she’d
     refused to listen.
    She’d demanded he get rid of the cat instead, so she could move in.
    When Archer had refused, she’d arrived with her luggage anyway, and decided she was
     going to fight Oscar for her place in his life. She’d then thrown the cat’s pillow
     out of the bedroom, locked the door on him at night, and thought she would get away
     with it.
    Chuckling, he made a note to call his lawyer and let her deal with Marisa, if she
     ever actually decided to sue. Until then, he needed to talk to the coroner and wanted
     to head back up the mountains to where Katy Winslow’s body had been found.
    There had to be something, somewhere, that would give him a lead on the Slasher and
     the partner he had to be working with. The FBI hadn’t changed their profile, but they
     agreed the man killing the young women had changed after the death of the assailant
     who had attacked Rafer Callahan’s fiancée, Cami Flannigan.
    The FBI had yet to take over the case, though, because the minute they had tried to
     do so in the past, the killings had simply stopped. Of course, it had also coincided
     with the Callahans’ departure from the County.
    It had been Archer who had gone to the agency when the first victim in twelve years
     had turned up the summer before. The FBI was here, not that he knew who it was or
     where that person was, but he’d bargained for just that. An undercover agent rather
     than having the case taken over by the agency might give them a greater chance of
     finding the bastard.
    Opening the door and peeping in, Madge stared at him with a frown. “You have a call
     on line two from Lisa Corbin. She says it’s urgent.”
    A frown furrowed his brows as well as he picked up the phone and pressed the button
     to line two as Madge stepped back and closed the door.
    “Lisa, is everything okay?” He didn’t know her well, despite the years he’d spent
     vacationing with her family. What he did know was that she was Anna’s mother, and
     despite the distance he’d always seen between them, he’d always sensed the love she
     felt for her daughter.
    “No, it isn’t. You said if I or Anna ever needed anything, you’d be there for us,”
     she reminded him.
    Archer tensed, dread suddenly striking his chest as he felt the flesh down his spine
     begin to crawl in warning.
    “What do you need?”
    As he listened, disbelief, fury, and some dark, unknown emotion began exploding within
     him.
    “I’m going for her now, Lisa,” he promised as he rose from his chair and jerked his
     hat from the side of his desk. “Don’t worry, I’ll watch out for her.”
    *   *   *
    Lisa hung the phone up slowly before wrapping her arms across her stomach and releasing
     the sobs she’d been fighting to hold back.
    Again.
    “Not again,” she sobbed painfully as she felt her husband’s arms wrap around her,
     felt his tears against her cheek as they held each other. “Oh God, Robert, please,
     please don’t let me lose my baby again.”

 
    CHAPTER 3
    Anna was silent as Sweetrock came into view from the curve in the road that wound
     around the mountain. It wasn’t one of the more dangerous roads. The four-lane had
     heavy steel guardrails stretching along it, ensuring there were no winter accidents.
    The road itself wasn’t as elevated as most. Where they couldn’t cut through the mountain,
     excavation had