One Good Man. Julie Miller
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Название: One Good Man
Автор: Julie Miller
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература
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He rushed to the couch to save her a few steps. He picked up the cane and held it out to her in both hands like a peace offering. “I’m sorry,” he said gently. “The commissioner is expecting a report from me in the morning. What would you like me to say?”
He couldn’t tell if the resentment that flared in her eyes was because she needed the cane or because he’d gotten it for her. Her gaze locked on his chest, and he wondered if she was staring at his badge or merely glaring daggers through his heart.
“Tell him to call me himself next time.”
She curved her long, elegant fingers around the polished wood. Mitch tightened his grip. She stumbled half a step and might have fallen if their hands hadn’t been locked together around the cane. “What does it take for me to prove to you I’m one of the good guys?”
She tilted her chin to an arrogant angle and taunted him with her stormy gaze. “You can’t.”
A silent battle of wills heated the air between them, leaving Mitch with no clear answers except the discomforting realization that he wanted to blot that sensuous smirk off her bottom lip. His pulse raced at the challenge of softening those lips with his own, and loosing the tightly controlled fire that cooked inside the proper Ms. Maynard.
Appalled at the pattern of his thoughts, Mitch jerked away from her. He raked his fingers through his short hair, angry at her for making him feel those things, and remorseful at seeing her use the cane to maintain her balance.
Jackie had turned him inside out like that. She claimed to like his rough ways, his guard-dog devotion to her. But in the end, she’d chosen class and money over the love he could give her.
He was a smarter man now. It had taken him years to see through all of his wife’s games and learn to let her go. The notion that this cool, haughty princess could conjure up the same desires after only one meeting irritated the hell out of him.
“I’m assuming you can find your own way out, Captain. Since you so easily found your way in.”
He fisted his hands to squelch the urge to swat her retreating royal backside. Instead, he used her dismissal to spur him out the door to do some real police work and supervise the two uniformed officers.
What a hell of a day, he thought, thinking up and tossing aside ways to tell the commissioner to stuff this Maynard family lackey job without losing his promotion.
What a hell of a day.
Chapter Two
“Cassandra, dear, you know I have only your best interests at heart.”
Casey switched the telephone receiver to her left ear to mask her frustrated sigh, and wondered why Jimmy’s reassurance made her feel silly instead of safe. “But, Jimmy, why did you send the police here out of the blue last night? You know how I feel about—” she paused to find a word to emphasize just how frightened she’d been “—strangers.”
James Reed made an exasperated sound, and she could envision him checking his watch on the other end of the line. “Mitch isn’t just any cop. He’s one of the three finalists I’m looking at to name as my assistant next year. He’s a good man.”
He’s a force to be reckoned with, thought Casey.
She rested her forehead in her hand and massaged the tension in her scalp. She hadn’t slept well at all, and it wasn’t just because of the pain radiating through her right hip and up into her back from the exertion of wrestling with the man. His broad shoulders and stocky chest beneath that tailored wool coat, and his stubborn attitude, made her think of a gladiator in a suit and tie.
A fearsome opponent. A formidable ally. But last night she hadn’t been able to decide whose side of the ring he fought for.
“I don’t care if he’s Eliot Ness. Why did you send him here?”
A double dose of aspirin and a hot pad had dulled the physical ache to a tolerable level. But her mind had raced through to the early hours of the morning trying to pinpoint why Mitch Taylor’s unexpected visit had left her feeling so edgy.
Perhaps it was his voice. That deep, masculine sound had held too much challenge, too many taunts. His eyes, maybe. She remembered a gentle brown color like the expensive bourbon her father used to sip at night in front of the fireplace.
But there’d been little gentleness in the way he’d looked at her. As if she were guilty of something more unforgivable than assaulting a police officer.
Hearing Jimmy talk around the answers she sought didn’t help.
“Have you seen the paper this morning?” he asked.
Casey wrapped her chenille robe around the high collar of her flannel nightgown. The winter air didn’t worry her so much as the chill in Jimmy’s voice.
“No. Judith’s not in yet. I don’t feel like venturing out to the gate myself.”
“I didn’t want to panic you. It could be nothing.”
Her heart beat a quicker tempo at his particular choice of words. “Sending a detective busting through my doorway when you know I’m here by myself is your idea of not panicking me?”
“I just wanted to double-check that you were all right.”
“Stop treating me like I’m a little girl. Tell me—”
“You’re still my god daughter. I promised Jack and Margaret I’d always take care of you.”
“Mom and Dad would have given me a straight answer by now! I’ve half a mind to call them and ask them to come home.” The silence at the other end of the line made her regret her flash of temper. “I’m sorry, Jimmy. I know you mean well…”
“You can’t call them,” he interrupted her apology.
Casey tried again. “I know they’re not due to return from Europe for another three months, but I can track them down.”
“No, you can’t.”
As a child, she’d been reprimanded in that very same voice. But she was no longer a child. “Dammit, Jimmy, you can’t dictate—”
“Emmett Raines.”
If he wanted to punish her for her outburst, he couldn’t have said a crueler thing.
She thought of the framed Olympic silver medal in the hallway, and how she could have had a gold one from four years later beside it. She thought of her parents, once pretending to be dead and hiding away in a place unknown even to her so they could stay alive. She thought of tomorrow’s Thanksgiving holiday and how she’d be spending it alone. Again.
Because of Emmett Raines.
“What about him?”
A door off the kitchen slammed, startling her before she slipped СКАЧАТЬ