Sleight Of Hand by Kate Kelly Read Free Book Online

her arms up to
his neck. "Now, you hold on, and I'm going to sit up. Okay?"
    Her arms tightened. "What if they're still
there?"
    "They're gone. Didn't you hear them peel out
of here?"
    His deep voice rumbled through his chest. For
some reason, the raspy sound reassured her. "Yeah. Maybe I
did."
    "Okay, here we go."
    He eased upright and cradled her against his
big body.
    "Am I hurting you?"
    "No." She dropped her arms away from his
neck. "I'm okay. I...oh."
    "What? What's wrong?" He pushed her hands
away from the front of her jacket.
    "My camera." She picked a broken piece out of
her lap and stared at it.
    "How about your chest? Take a deep breath and
tell me if it hurts."
    She looked at her broken camera, pulled it
from around her neck and held the crushed instrument out to him.
"It's broken."
    "I know, honey. Maybe we can get it fixed."
He took the camera from her and shoved it in his pocket. "Right now
I need you to tell me if it hurts when you breathe."
    "No. I'm okay. It was just my camera poking
into...." Her voice broke. Damn. She wiped a tear away with the
back of her glove. She hated crying.
    "Come here." He gathered her close to him.
"Go ahead and cry if you want. I guess I'd feel the same way."
    "You would?" It felt good to lean on him for
a minute. Solid and comforting.
    "My dad gave me a jack knife when I was
twelve." He rubbed her back in a circular motion. "A couple of
years ago, I thought I lost it and spent two days tearing my
apartment apart looking for it."
    She looked into his smiling eyes. "Did you
find it?"
    "Of course." He grinned. "I'd still be
looking for it if I hadn't."
    "Do you still have it?"
    "Yeah."
    "Can I see it?"
    His eyes softened as the timber of his voice
turned low and husky. "Yeah."
    He kept his arm around her as he rolled to
one side and dug the knife out of his jeans pocket. "It's not much
to look at it." He held it out to her.
    She took the knife and ran her finger over
the pebbly, black surface, then pulled open the blade and held it
up so the streetlight caught on the shiny metal. "I don't know much
about knives," she confessed and handed it back to him.
    He snapped the blade shut. "It's nothing
special."
    "Except your father gave it to do."
    "Right."
    "You must be close to him." She bit her lip,
hearing the yearning in her voice.
    "He's dead." He shoved the knife into his
pocket. "Let's go. We sit here long enough, those guys might come
back looking for us." He dropped his arm from her waist and gave
her a little push to help her to her feet.
    She looked up and down the empty street. A
man and a woman came out of the restaurant. When they saw her, they
waved, then walked off in the opposite direction. She looked from
Chance to the couple and back to Chance. The fog had grown so thick
close to the ground that they hadn't seen him sitting there.
    "Chance?"
    "Yeah."
    "That car, they were trying to run us down,
weren't they?"
    "Maybe they just wanted to scare us." He
moaned as he dragged himself to his feet.
    She grabbed his arm to steady him. "Are you
okay?"
    "I think I sprained my ankle." He
straightened to his full height and pushed his rumpled hair off his
forehead, but a persistent lock curled back down. One cheek dimpled
as he smiled crookedly at her. "Don't suppose you want to help an
injured man walk home?"
    She dragged in a cautious breath. Her chest
hurt again, but she didn't think it was because of the fall. No,
she edged back a step, this pain was new and definitely not
welcome.
    "I'll get the Blazer."
    "No." He grabbed her arm and stumbled against
her as she turned away from him. "Ouch. That hurts."
    She kept her hands at her sides and held
herself still, her heart beating hard in her chest. Despite the
raw, bitter wind, pinpoints of heat radiated over her skin wherever
Chance's body touched hers.
    She inhaled a cold breath of air to chase the
heat out of her voice. "That's why you should wait here and let me
get the car."
    "There isn't a chance in hell I'm going to
let you