Target by Stella Cameron Read Free Book Online Page A

Handicrafts, the butcher with the neon pig, missing a few of its pulsing bulbs. A single spotlight shone on a bouquet of giant yellow daisies in the window of Fabulous Flowers. Buzzard’s Wet Bar came up on their right. Lights shone inside but the place looked sleepy. Wet droplets became heavy enough to coat the windshield and Nick turned on the wipers.
    â€œI know I can’t stay at Poke Around for long,” Aurelie said. “But it’s fun and I’ve got to do something while I try to plan my life.”
    She had never given him even a tiny hope that she had other than sisterly thoughts toward him. “You don’t have to feel rushed about it,” he said. “We’ve all been lucky enough to have choices. Delia did that for us.”
    â€œUh-huh. The best thing we can do is forget we knew any other lives. Not easy at the moment, but it will be again.”
    He didn’t remind her that as long as he’d known them, she and Sarah had behaved as if they were born at ages thirteen and fourteen. They had never opened up about their beginnings, their parents, why they had run away from home, nothing, and whenever he had tried to press them for information they both responded with prolonged silences.
    His cell rang. He picked it up to check the readout. “Private number. Maybe I won’t answer it.”
    â€œHalf the people I know show up as private numbers,” Aurelie said.
    Nick put the phone to his ear, “Hello?”
    â€œYou’d better get out to the lab.”
    He frowned. “Who is this?”
    â€œSorry. It’s Matt. I called your place first.”
    â€œMatt,” Nick said. “What’s wrong at the lab? Is it a break-in?”
    Wherever Matt was, and Nick assumed it must be the Wilkes and Board labs, a siren sounded, growing closer.
    â€œJust get over here,” Matt Bordeaux said. “There’s been an accident.”
    Nick steered to the side of the road, beneath a trailing willow, and put the car in Neutral. Branches slithered across the roof. “What kind of accident?”
    Aurelia’s hand on his leg startled him. She met his eyes, questioning silently. He shook his head, but he squeezed her hand.
    â€œIt’s a bad accident, Nick?”
    Â 
    Twenty minutes away from downtown Pointe Judah, the land Delia had bought twelve years earlier couldn’t be seen from the road. Delia had cleared as few trees as possible and the light on top of the four-story building didn’t come into view until at least a quarter of a mile along the curving driveway.
    â€œWhy didn’t you ask Matt who had the accident?” Aurelie asked, knowing she was repeating herself.
    Nick shook his head and drove faster than he should.
    He had tried to drop her off at his condo before coming out here but she’d insisted on coming.
    â€œYou shouldn’t be here,” he said, also repeating himself. “Please stay in the car while I deal with things.”
    Sometimes it was best not to argue.
    They broke out of the trees and Nick slowed to a crawl. “Jeez, they must have called in every available emergency respondent from miles around.”
    That meant a big white van with no windows, two fire trucks, an ambulance and three police cars. Another car, this one unmarked, passed the Audi and went ahead to park next to the cop cars. The shapes of men and women moved purposefully among the raised beds of mist-wreathed roses in front of the building.
    Aurelia noticed a green van, this one small, its rear pulled up to the front doors. Lights shone on each floor of the building. And, as a shock of white light had suddenly flooded the top of the building, she noticed people on the roof.
    â€œDon’t call Delia or Sarah,” Nick said. He braked and turned off the engine without pulling all the way into a parking space. “Give me enough time to check this out. When I get back we’ll call them if we have to.”
    He