Wanted: Bodyguard. Carla Cassidy

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       Chapter Two

      Lana stared at him as if he’d suddenly begun to speak Martian. “Is this some kind of a joke? Am I being punked?”

      He wrapped his long fingers around his coffee cup and shook his head. “I wish it were a joke, but to the family of his victims it’s damn-straight not funny.”

      “If you all believe that he’s killed these women, then why isn’t he already under arrest?” she asked, struggling to make sense of everything.

      “Lack of any real evidence,” he replied.

      She stared at him in confusion. “I don’t understand. If you don’t have any evidence against him, what makes you think he committed the murders?”

      “Right now our case against him is strictly circumstantial. He knew all the victims. They all worked out at the gym where he works. He fits our profile, but unfortunately he has a solid alibi for one of the murders, and that has complicated things.”

      “I read about this in the paper, along with a warning that women should be careful about whom they work out with in the local gyms. But if you don’t have anything but circumstantial evidence, maybe he isn’t guilty after all,” she replied, still unable to believe that the man who had helped her light her pilot light on her furnace when it had gone out last fall, the man who had fixed her garbage disposal when it had gone on the fritz, could possibly be a cold-blooded killer.

      “He’s guilty all right. We all know it, and it’s just a matter of time before he’s arrested. But we think he’s working with a partner.” Riley lifted his coffee cup to his lips, and when he lowered it, he cast her a brash grin. “Now let’s talk about our honeymoon plans. I’m thinking maybe a beach setting. I love a girl in a bikini.”

      Lana didn’t like him. He was cocky and arrogant and wasn’t even trying to make this as painless as possible for her. She broke eye contact with him and instead looked at Haley, who was smearing the last of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich across her plate.

      She got up from the table, grabbed a dishrag and quickly cleaned up the mess, then got a box of cookies out and gave her daughter one of the wafers.

      Haley smiled and held it out to Riley. “Daddy, you want a cookie?”

      “No, thanks, kid,” he replied.

      Lana threw the dishrag into the sink and then turned to face him once again, her lips thinned with displeasure. “Haley, her name is Haley, not kid. Apparently you don’t like children?”

      He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Kids are okay. As long as they’re other people’s kids.”

      She really didn’t like him. “Is it too early to ask for a divorce?”

      He grinned. God, the man had the sexiest smile she’d ever seen. Despite her dislike of him, it created a wave of heat that swept over her and undulated in her stomach. “Ah, don’t be like that. I promise I’ll grow on you.”

      “Like fungus?” she retorted. “I don’t like you, Agent Kincaid, but I realize it’s important that I do my civic duty. I would appreciate it if you would get on with whatever you need to do and be as unobtrusive in my life as possible.”

      He eyed her with open amusement and got up from the table. “I just want to let you know that you’ll miss me when I’m gone.” With that he picked up his coffee cup and ambled out of her kitchen.

      “Bye-bye, Daddy,” Haley said. “See ya later.”

      “Not Daddy,” Lana retorted a bit crossly. She returned to the table and wrapped her hands around her cup, trying to digest everything that had happened in the last thirty minutes.

      Greg Cary a serial murderer? She couldn’t wrap her mind around it. There had to be some sort of a mistake. He’d been her neighbor for the last six years. He’d been a bowling buddy of her husband’s, a man who participated in the neighborhood watch program. Everyone in the neighborhood liked and respected Greg.

      Surely if he were a criminal Joe would have known. Her husband might have been many things, but he’d been a terrific cop.

      Thoughts of Joe brought with them a sliver of residual grief. He’d been her childhood sweetheart, the only boy she’d dated through high school, the only man she’d ever been intimate with. When they had married she’d thought they’d be together forever. She’d never foreseen the rocky road ahead and his untimely death.

      His life insurance policy had been enough to pay off the house and put a little nest egg away. For the last year Lana had managed to eke out a simple living with the sale of her handcrafted jewelry.

      “Mommy, I want down.” Haley raised her arms to get out of the booster seat.

      So much for getting any work done today, she thought as she lifted Haley to the floor. The rest of the afternoon would consist of her chasing Haley and making sure she didn’t get into Riley’s way.

      Thankfully, for the remainder of the afternoon Riley stayed in the guest bedroom with the door closed and Lana alternated playing with Haley and preparing the evening meal. She’d decided to do hamburgers out on the grill. That and a bag of chips was all Mr. Hot FBI Agent was going to get.

      At six o’clock she took Haley to the backyard and sat her in the shaded sandbox where she loved to play, then cranked up the grill.

      As she waited for it to get to the right temperature, her gaze drifted to the house next door. Was it possible that beneath Gary’s affable, pleasant outward personality lay the dark soul of a killer?

      Despite the warm July air, a chill snaked up her spine. How many times had she read about serial killers and how their neighbors were stunned and appalled to discover that the good old boy next door was actually a crazed murderer?

      She supposed there was no danger as long as Gary didn’t suspect the truth—that she was cooperating with the FBI to bring him down. Even though she didn’t like it, she understood how important the pretend marriage was in this scenario.

      Gary would never have believed that she’d allow a boyfriend СКАЧАТЬ