A Time to Die. BEVERLY BARTON

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ her life and her personal relationship with Bain. But she wasn’t about to be stubborn and difficult, not when it served no purpose.

      “Bain and I are friends. We go out occasionally. We enjoy each other’s company. But we are not lovers.”

      Only when Deke’s facial muscles relaxed did Lexie realize how tight his jaw had been. Had he been angry with her for not answering his question immediately, so once she acquiesced to his wishes, his anger had subsided? Odd. Very odd.

      Brushing aside any lingering tension between them, Lexie slipped off the bar stool, grabbed her cane and took a few steps toward the refrigerator. “I have frozen sausage biscuits that I can pop into the microwave. And if you’d like I can scramble—”

      A cell phone rang, but the sound was muffled, as if coming from another room. As they listened, Lexie recognized the ring tone as hers. “It’s mine,” she told him.

      “Where’s your phone?”

      “In my bedroom.”

      When she took a couple of tentative steps in that direction, he waved her back. “Stay. I’ll get it for you.”

      Unaccustomed to being ordered about as if she were a helpless child—not since she had completed her physical therapy and begun a new life on her own—Lexie stopped dead still and glowered at Deke Bronson’s broad back as he disappeared into her bedroom. She might have a slight physical handicap, but she despised being treated as if she were less capable than anyone else.

      Don’t get bent out of shape about it. After all, he didn’t know that she hated being waited on and catered to. Just fix breakfast.

      Before she had time to open the freezer compartment and remove the box of biscuits, Deke came out of her room with her cell phone to his ear.

      He had answered her phone. How dare he!

      “Yeah, yeah. Sure. We’ll meet you there in about—how long will it take us to get to the Bedell house? Okay. Twenty minutes. Okay. We’ll see you in forty-five.” He walked over to Lexie, held out her phone and said, “It’s Lieutenant Desmond.”

      She gave Deke a condemning glower as she grabbed the phone out of his hand. He lifted his eyebrows in a what-did-I-do? expression.

      “Bain?’

      “Morning, beautiful.”

      “Want to fill me in on what you told Mr. Bronson?”

      “Mr. Bronson? Not on a first-name basis with your bodyguard?”

      “No.”

      “I take it that there’s a problem?”

      “No, not really. I’m simply not used to having someone underfoot.”

      Deke came up beside her, reached into the freezer, removed the sealed box of sausage biscuits and took it over to the counter nearest the microwave.

      Bain chuckled. “I have a very preliminary report on the bombing, and since Ms. Bedell has given the Chattanooga PD orders to share all info with her, I’m heading to the big mansion on the mountain as we speak.”

      “Any excuse to—”

      “If you’re implying that I don’t have any real info and I’m using this as excuse to see her, then don’t go there.”

      “Is that what you’re doing?”

      Quiet hesitation, then an admission. “Maybe. Am I that obvious?”

      “Only to me, because I know how you feel.”

      “If I hadn’t gotten sloppy drunk one night and cried in my beer…”

      “It’s our little secret. I promise. So, see you in thirty minutes.” She ended their conversation, clutched the phone in her hand and walked out of the kitchen area.

      “Breakfast will be ready in about two minutes,” Deke called to her.

      “It takes twenty minutes to drive from here to Cara’s home, and you told Bain we’d be there in forty-five, which means I’ve only got twenty-five minutes to shower, do my hair and makeup and dress. I won’t have time for breakfast.” She made her way carefully into her bedroom, all the while expecting him to try to stop her.

      Once inside her room, she closed the door and released a deep breath. Don’t think about him. Just get ready.

      Twenty minutes later, with her hair in a ponytail, a five-minute makeup job coloring her pale face, and wearing stone-washed jeans, her favorite lavender cotton button-down and her lightweight quilted purple satin jacket, she was ready.

      Deke was standing in the middle of the living room—waiting.

      “Let’s go,” she said.

      He surveyed her from head to toe, then went over the same territory a second time, as if he thought he might have missed something the first go-round. He reached into his pocket and pulled out her key ring. “I commandeered your keys, since you won’t need them and I will.”

      “Why won’t—”

      “Because you won’t be going anywhere without me.”

      “Oh, yes, of course.” Lexie wasn’t sure how their arrangement was going to work out. This big, bad tough guy had been guarding her for less than twenty-four hours, and having someone shadow her every move was already getting on her nerves.

      When they passed the bar, he picked up a brown paper bag and handed it to her. Not giving her time to question him, he said, “Travel mug with black coffee, and a sausage biscuit wrapped in a napkin. You can eat on the way.”

      She accepted what he no doubt thought of as a gift. Be nice, she told herself. “Thank you.”

      “You’re welcome.”

      If she had expected him to smile, she would have been disappointed. Something told her that this man seldom smiled.

      I wonder why.

      When he opened the front door of the loft, she exited first and headed for the old freight elevator.

      She figured Cara was having as big a problem adjusting to having a bossy Dundee agent running her life as she was. Actually, Cara was probably having a bigger one. Since taking on the enormous responsibility of running Bedell, Inc., having it thrust upon her at the age of twenty-four, Cara had been forced to get tough fast and not allow any weaknesses to show. That was something they had in common—both of them had been forced to mature quickly and grow a thick hide, but deep down inside, they were lonely, soft-hearted women.

      AFTER GEOFF MONDAY told her that Lieutenant Desmond would arrive shortly to personally deliver a preliminary report about the bombing at Helping Hands, Cara had excused herself and rushed upstairs to her bedroom suite. Geoff had followed and now kept guard outside the door. When she’d dressed before breakfast, she’d put on her green sweats, intending to take her usual morning walk, never imagining that Bain would have anything to report this soon.

      Cara СКАЧАТЬ