Tempting Evil by Allison Brennan Read Free Book Online Page A

shaking.
    No, Grandfather, I don’t want to go. Don’t make me leave.
    Grandma Lottie started crying. She ran around the corner, saw Aaron. Her eyes widened and she gathered him into her arms.
    “I love you, Aaron. I’ll always love you.” Her tears soaked into his cheek and shirt. He wanted to tell her he loved her, too, but he couldn’t talk.
    “Aaron!” his mother called.
    Grandma Lottie ran into the living room with Aaron around her neck. “We can sue for custody. We can fight for him.”
    Mama laughed. “No judge is going to give grandparents custody over a baby’s own mother.”
    “He’s not a baby anymore, Ginger,” Grandma Lottie said. “He’s a little boy and you’re going to ruin him.”
    Anger flashed in his mother’s eyes. “Ruin him? No more than you ruined your own son. Give me my boy.”
    “Joseph!” Grandma Lottie shouted at his grandfather. Aaron’s ears were ringing. “Joseph, do something!”
    “Give him to her.”
    “No!”
    “Lottie, please.” Grandfather sounded like he was going to cry. Mama said real men didn’t cry. “Think of Aaron, this isn’t helping him.”
    Grandma Lottie sobbed. Mama pulled him from her arms.
    They left without another word.
    “Is this good?” Aaron said to Stan, his voice thick for reasons he didn’t understand.
    Stan put a hand on his shoulder. “Very good, son.”
    Joanna came into the kitchen. She looked at him, gave him a half smile. “You’re up early, Mr. Miller.”
    “John.”
    “John. Right. Sorry.” She poured herself some coffee, added cream and sugar. “I was going to take the Trotskys and the MSU kids breakfast and lunch and make sure they don’t need anything else. The NWS anticipates more snowfall this afternoon, and I want to meet up with Wyatt and the boys as soon as possible.”
    “I can check on the guests,” Stan said.
    “No, no problem, seriously. It’ll only take me a few minutes.”
    “Why don’t you take John here?” Stan suggested.
    “It’ll only take me a minute—”
    “I’m a little concerned about the Sheriff’s fax, Jo,” Stan said.
    Aaron looked at Joanna. “What fax?”
    She waved her hand as if it were nothing. “A couple convicts who escaped from prison. Tyler—Sheriff McBride—thinks they’re in the area, but as you know from this weather no one is getting through.”
    “Do you have a description?”
    Stan pulled copies of the mug shots from a drawer. “Here you go.”
    Aaron looked at the pictures, frowning.
    “Recognize them?” Stan asked.
    Aaron shook his head. “I’m glad to say no, I haven’t seen them.”
    Stan put the pictures away. “Jo, just to be on the safe side.” He nodded at Aaron.
    “I have my bear spray,” she said.
    Does she not want to be with me?
Aaron watched her eyes, tried to read her mind. Why didn’t she like him? What was she hiding? Did she have something going on with this Sheriff Tyler McBride?
    He stared at the knife next to the diced potatoes.
    Blood dripped from the tip. He had it in his hand. Below him was Rebecca Oliver, her arms and chest sliced up, blood seeping into her sheets, her big blue eyes staring at him.
    Why Aaron why Aaron why…
    He closed his eyes, swallowed, carefully said, “I’m happy to help.”
    Stan smiled. “Good. Let me get you a snowsuit. I think you’ll fit comfortably into one of my old outfits, before I put on this extra twenty pounds.” He patted a stomach that didn’t look all that large. “Jo?”
    She nodded. “Great.”
    The tension fell from Aaron’s body. The blood was gone from the knife.
    She did want him, after all.
             
    After Tyler told Wyatt about the escaped convicts, he called the lodge. The phone rang repeatedly, before a breathless Trixie answered.
    “Moosehead.”
    “Trixie, it’s Tyler McBride.”
    “Hi, Tyler.”
    “Is Jo around?”
    “She’s taking breakfast to our cabin guests.”
    Tyler’s chest tightened. “Alone?”
    “Alone?” she asked as if he’d asked if