Slow Heat by Lorie O'Clare Read Free Book Online Page A

investigate why anyone would have thought her guilty of a crime in the first place.
    Her father had told her enough times that if she wasn’t comfortable discussing her actions before doing them, then they probably weren’t honorable enough to do. Ignoring her parents’ often-repeated dialogue, Maggie went with her gut on this one. There had been something about Micah Jones.
    A man his size probably wasn’t afraid to do anything. Her brothers Aiden and Bernie were both just over six feet tall, although neither had the bulging muscles that Micah Jones did. Aiden and Bernie weren’t afraid of anything. Size had its advantages.
    Micah was more than just tall. She’d seen something in his eyes. They weren’t exactly green. Maggie remembered flecks of light brown mixed with the green surrounding his focused pupils. She would say they were hazel. Still, it wasn’t his eye color that had stuck in her memory as much as the way he’d looked at her. It was as if he’d been able to search deep into her soul and had learned every secret about her in the few minutes he’d talked to her in her office. Of course, if that were actually true, he wouldn’t have hauled her out to the front of the club like some common criminal.
    Maggie had been impressed with how Micah had handled Max, though. Max was a really large man. She’d never seen him look more dangerous than he had that day when Micah had sauntered in through the back door of the kitchen as if he’d owned the place. She and Max had formed a special bond that day. This entire mess sucked even more now because Max didn’t want to work at Club Paradise anymore. He couldn’t be associated with criminals through the terms of his parole. Maggie wasn’t a criminal, but Uncle Larry was still listed as the owner of Club Paradise.
    God help her! This entire ordeal was a serious mess. Part of her wanted to wash her hands of the club, too. But another part of her argued she’d invested too much time and effort to leave Club Paradise, which had been a dive when she’d first started working there and was now a successful nightclub.
    If Micah Jones was willing to do some work on the side, she would bet he’d be able to find who was behind making her look guilty of a crime she didn’t commit. As much as she loved her uncle Larry, she was starting to believe he had done something terrible involving the club. Maggie might be a good accountant, but she couldn’t see anything through her books that showed any illegal money entering the business.
    She’d found KFA’s business address off paperwork connected to her uncle Larry. She was still livid that he’d lied to her and said he’d kept his court date. If he’d just shown up like he was supposed to, none of this would have happened. But she was just as mad at herself for believing she could keep Uncle Larry out of trouble when trouble had been his middle name for as long as she could remember.
    The people at KFA had been willing to give her contact information for Micah Jones. The first step was done. Glancing around as she sat in her driver’s seat, she didn’t see any nondescript car parked anywhere along the long stretch of road where KFA was located.
    Maggie punched in the phone number for Micah Jones. It rang only once before he answered. She barely had time to gather her thoughts.
    “Hello, this is Maggie O’Malley,” she stumbled. Had the people in the KFA office already warned him she’d be calling? He didn’t say anything, so she forged forward. “Earlier this week you…” She let her words trail off. What did he do? Maggie bit her lower lip but then decided the heck with it. Why mince words? “Earlier this week you dragged me out of my office so that cops could take me to the police station and question me for twelve hours.”
    “Okay,” he said when she paused.
    “I want to hire you to find out who is really guilty.”
    “I’m a bounty hunter.”
    “You’re required to be a licensed investigator in