Target by Lisa Phillips Read Free Book Online Page A

good.”
    “You want to eat on the couch? There was a movie in the bag.”
    “Sure. What movie is it?”
    “Dirty Dancing.”
    Liam got a look at her, wide eyed with her lips twitching. “We don’t have to watch it.”
    Andrea smiled. “I’m game if you are.”

Chapter 7
     
     
    CAISEY GRASPED AROUND in the direction of the coffee table and found her phone. She swiped to take the call and put it to her ear, all without opening her eyes. “Yeah.” Her voice was like Barry White, so she cleared her throat. “Lyons.”
    “It’s Burkot. We got a body, found an hour ago. Preliminaries indicate its Kiera James.”
    Caisey rubbed the grit from her eyes and tried to focus on Andrea’s living room. “Text me the address.”
    “Stern and Wing are on their way to relieve you. They’ll cover Ms. James until you and Liam are done at the scene.”
    Which meant they would also be the ones drafted to tell Andrea her sister was dead for sure. Was it wrong to want the body to be some nameless, faceless person? Anonymity didn’t make it better that someone was dead, but it would hurt Andrea less. Caisey hung up and sat up. Life was like a runaway freight train sometimes. It didn’t matter how fast you ran down the track, trying to get ahead of it. Eventually it hit you.
    “Is something wrong?”
    Caisey shifted and looked over the back of the couch. “Liam and I have something to do this morning. Two other agents are coming to take you to work.”
    Andrea cinched her robe tighter around her. “Is it Kiera?”
    “As soon as I know for sure, I’ll tell you.”
    “I’ll make the coffee. You’ll want a cup to take with you, its cold out.”
    Caisey watched her head for the kitchen. It was either deep denial or unrelenting strength that allowed Andrea to focus on what Caisey needed when Kiera might be dead. Between Andrea and Caisey’s Grams it felt like everyone had overcome something in their lives. How had they managed to hold on to hope? And their sanity. Even Jenna, who lived with Caisey along with her son—Caisey’s godson—held down a great job at a spa and raised her son alone. Support system or no, Jenna was still a single mom and yet she’d never once complained.
    How did they all do it?
    Caisey hit the bathroom to change into fresh clothes and just got done brushing her teeth when the doorbell rang.
    Andrea moved to answer it, so Caisey tugged on her arm. “Let me get it.” She stopped two feet back from the door, hand on her weapon. “Who is it?”
    “Who do you think it is?”
    She rolled her eyes and opened the door to Liam, who handed her a half-gallon of chocolate milk on his way in. “Andrea only has half and half.”
    Caisey shuddered and shut the door. Coffee wasn’t coffee without chocolate in it.
     
    **
     
    Andrea held her coffee to her lips, her cheeks warm. Liam stared at her a lot, like he was doing right now, in the kitchen. As though she didn’t all the way make sense to him. And why was that? Not that she was complaining, he wasn’t hard to look at.
    “Have you ever taken a yoga class?”
    He did read women’s fiction. She’d found that out last night. Now she wanted to know if she was right about his on-again-off-again thing with a yoga instructor. It had happened way too many times for her to assume he wasn’t already involved with someone way more interesting—and flexible—than her.
    His lips twitched. “Uh, no. Why?”
    “Nothing.” Andrea shook her head. “Never mind.”
    His eyes were shadowed in the harsh light of her kitchen. “You sleep okay?”
    Andrea hadn’t particularly, but she said, “Sure.”
    Liam frowned, but Andrea didn’t want to know if he didn’t believe her because she looked awful or she had a crease down her cheek or something else equally embarrassing. Being caught up in this with these two FBI agents, she’d realized at two a.m. that they carried the weight of what they did.
    They actually felt Andrea’s grief. Not the same way she did,