Sugar Baby. Karen Young

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СКАЧАТЬ the Jeep Cherokee to a stop at the front door, he scrutinized every departing customer, but still no Claire. Hell, he might not even recognize her. It had been five…no, more like six years since he’d seen her and then it had been for only a few minutes. But as much as he’d resisted it all these years, the picture he had of her was pretty clear in his mind. And God knows, he had resisted it.

      A small boy darted through the automatic doors and behind him was a woman in a long denim dress. Mack knew her instantly. Six years, and not much had changed, he thought, feeling a little kick in his gut. She was a tad slimmer. And maybe slightly taller than he recalled. Her hairstyle was different, too. Pulled back tight like that, she must be trying to look like a librarian, he decided. But its rich auburn color was exactly as he remembered, as was the disconcertingly candid look of her wide gray eyes as she stared right at him.

      There was no warmth in that look.

      She hurriedly opened the back door of the Jeep Cherokee before he could get out and hustled the boy inside. Mack beat her to the passenger side only because his legs were six inches longer than hers. Hers, however, were extremely interesting from what he could see when she stepped to get into his Jeep. They were long and shapely. God, yes, he remembered Claire Woodson.

      He also remembered what she’d done. She’d wrecked his brother’s marriage. She was heartless and selfish. She had spent the last two years throwing up every obstacle possible to keep Carter’s son from knowing his grandparents.

      Beautiful she might be, but he wasn’t going to be taken in the way Carter was.

      He waited for her to tuck the tail of her dress inside, then closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side. He drove away from the entrance before glancing over at her. “I wasn’t sure you’d recognize me.”

      She wasn’t looking at him; instead, she seemed to be studying the people in the parking lot as he drove through. “I recognized you.”

      Her interest in the pedestrians puzzled him. “You find something especially interesting about the folks shopping at Star-Mart?”

      “What?” She spared him a glance. “Oh, no, not really.”

      “You’re looking for someone in particular?”

      “Someone, yes,” she murmured, her eyes busy again.

      She was acting nothing like he’d expected. Where was the hostility that was so palpable in every telephone encounter they’d had since he had made that initial call over a year ago? Her eyes were darting everywhere. She seemed distracted, even fearful. She was pale. But that might be natural in a redhead.

      “What’s this all about, Claire?”

      “It’s going to sound like something out of a movie when I tell you…” She turned to see that Danny was safely belted in before settling back herself. She took a deep breath. “I’m afraid that Danny and I may have stumbled into a nightmare.”

      “If this is about the weekend with my parents, you’re overreacting, Claire. They’re going to do everything they know to make you and Danny feel welcome. They don’t want to alienate you, they just want to get to know Danny. And you.”

      She was shaking her head as he finished, rubbing her temples. “It’s not that. At least, right now it’s not that.” She glanced over her shoulder once more. Danny was scrutinizing the town of LaRue with the intensity of any child in a new place. “It’s something a lot worse. Danny thinks he witnessed—” She shook her head. “This is going to sound so crazy!”

      “Just say it and let me decide what’s crazy.”

      “He was on the balcony of the hotel while I was talking to you on the phone and he claims he saw a man shoot somebody.”

      He stared at her. “You’re kidding.”

      She dropped her head against the back of the seat wearily. “Don’t I wish.”

      “He saw a man get shot?”

      “He says he did.”

      “Kids say things.” He looked in the back seat where Danny sat with his nose practically pressed against the side window. “He’s an only child. They say lonely kids have big imaginations.”

      She was again rubbing her temple. “Being an ‘only’ doesn’t necessarily make him a ‘lonely only.’ And he does have a vivid imagination, but this time I think he actually witnessed what he says he did.”

      Mack snorted. “A murder at the White Hotel?”

      “Yes.”

      “You called security, I assume.”

      “I called the front desk after Danny kept insisting that he wasn’t making up the story.”

      “And they said?”

      “Pretty much what you just said, ‘Murder at the White Hotel? No way, lady.’”

      “Nobody believes me,” Danny piped up from the back seat.

      “I do now, honey,” Claire said, reaching back and giving his knee a pat. She turned, looking at Mack. “We called you because someone tried to grab him in the store a few minutes ago. We were afraid to get back in the car in case the man was watching us.”

      Mack stood on the brakes, swearing, and stopped at the curb with a jerk. He turned in his seat, one arm draped over the wheel. “You’re telling me somebody actually tried to snatch Danny in front of all the customers?”

      “That’s right.”

      “So where is this guy? What happened to him?”

      “No one knows. He just disappeared.”

      “If he was ever there.”

      “Danny says he was there. He screamed. Everybody in the whole place heard him and—”

      “And nobody in the place saw this mean ol’ molester?” Mack said sarcastically.

      Claire breathed in deeply. “That’s right, Mr. McMollere.”

      “Jeremy saw him,” Danny said, ever helpful.

      “Jeremy.” Mack met the boy’s eyes in the mirror.

      “My new friend.”

      “You’ve already made a friend in LaRue?”

      “Uh-huh. At Star-Mart.”

      “And he saw the bad guy, too?”

      “He sure did!”

      “Where were you two when this happened?”

      “We were in the Nintendo stuff.”

      Mack glanced at Claire. “Without your mom?”

      Danny seemed to sense sticky territory ahead. “Jeremy said it was okay,” he said cautiously. “Our moms were just a coupla aisles СКАЧАТЬ