Holding Out For A Hero. HelenKay Dimon

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ stalking me now.”

      “Of course not.”

      “Harassing a federal officer is illegal.” He nodded hello to the judge’s clerk when she stuck her head out of an office. “Sorry. We’ll keep it down out here.”

      Deana waited until the younger woman disappeared again before whispering. “You’re overstating my actions a bit, don’t you think?”

      Oh, he had done a lot of thinking about Deana. The woman was a walking contradiction. Round face, high cheekbones, big green eyes and long near-black wavy hair that fell below her shoulders. Five-six and slender. An objectively beautiful woman. That part suited Josh just fine. The rest of her, not so much.

      She possessed a demeanor chilly enough to freeze steel. Her serious affect and ever-present blank stare made her appear far older than the twenty-nine years he knew her to be. But that wasn’t the oddest thing about her. Even now the woman hid most of her potentially impressive body under a pile of clothing. A long-sleeve navy blazer with a collar cut high enough to strangle. The only piece of skin exposed above her waist, other than her hands, was a thin slice of wrist…with a watch shiny enough to advertise incredible wealth.

      Somehow Deana Armstrong lived her whole life in informal Hawaii and yet insisted on dressing as if it were winter at a convent in Nebraska. Few people wore full business suits in Hawaii except him and anyone else in a federal law enforcement position, most opting instead for a more casual look. Certainly no one without a job dressed anything other than casual. And the one thing Deana didn’t do was work.

      “Is this a good place?” she asked.

      He glanced around the empty hallway leading back to a restricted corridor to the judge’s private chambers. “Depends on what you want to use it for.”

      “Excuse me?”

      He pointed to the back corner of the wall above the emergency exit and her head. “Security is watching.”

      “I don’t care about that. I’m here because I’ve been trying to reach you.” She rubbed her palms on her knee-length skirt.

      He tried not to stare at the legs peeking out of all that buttoned-up stuffiness. “And?”

      “You haven’t called me back.”

      Clearly the woman didn’t tune into not-so-subtle hints. “True.”

      “Are you available now?”

      If she asked him two days from now the answer definitely would be no. He planned to be free of all ties by then, specifically those related to his work at the DEA. No reason not to get an early start on that. “No.”

      “In a few hours or tomorrow?”

      “Still no.”

      She crossed her arms over her middle. “If I didn’t know better I’d say you were ignoring me.”

      He thought about lifting his fists toward the ceiling in victory. “We’re finally understanding each other.”

      Chapter Two

      Deana was two seconds away from strangling him. She had hoped Josh would be reasonable. At least give her a chance to explain. Instead, he hid behind a heaping pile of attitude.

      If she hadn’t needed his help she would have shoveled a load or two right back on top of him. But that wasn’t her style. Not in public anyway. She had a persona, a role, and she would play it even while her insides burned.

      Then there was the problem with their past run-ins. Thanks to her decisions more than two years ago, she had to take hesitating steps here. Hiring every expensive lawyer she could find to fight Josh Windsor and question his credibility had seemed like a good idea at the time. Now her actions proved to be a liability.

      Back then she had made sure to know about every aspect of Josh’s life, down to his family history and bank account balance. With his rawness and “knows his way around a bedroom” style, she figured disgruntled men and women would line up to turn on him. That didn’t happen. Seemed Josh walked all over the line but rarely crossed it to the point where someone with standing in the community had any information that could help her.

      Their adversarial relationship then and her island hopping to Kauai and back to find him now made the entire courthouse scene all the more frustrating. She had better things to do than hunt down an angry man and try to talk some sense into him.

      “I need your help.” Getting those words out almost killed her.

      “With?”

      “Ryan.”

      Josh started shaking his head before she got to the second syllable of her nephew’s name. “No way.”

      Not an unexpected reaction but still not helpful. “Listen to me.”

      “Your nephew is in jail, Ms. Armstrong.”

      The conversation had seemed much easier when she practiced it in her bathroom mirror. “That’s true.”

      “He’s not getting out.”

      She closed her eyes on a wave of paralyzing sadness. The type that kept her locked in her house curled up on a couch some days. “I am well aware of Ryan’s current residence and the reason for it, thank you.”

      “Then you also know I’m not a defense attorney.”

      When Josh took a few steps back she thought he was signaling the end of their conversation and cutting out. Instead, he leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the hallway. Probably hoping to put as much space between them as possible in the six-foot-wide area.

      The distance allowed her to take a quick look at her opponent. This was not the first time she indulged in a peek since meeting Josh years before. Wide shoulders and all, she hated him then. She needed him now. That made all the difference.

      And whether he wanted to admit it or not, they could help each other. She read the papers, heard all about Josh’s legal issues. His latest actions on the job had angered the higher-ups at the DEA and landed him in the middle of a huge mess. For a guy who lived his life as if he had nothing to lose, he was about to lose something big.

      Well, she had something to offer as an alternative. He needed to fill the hours. She needed a miracle. It was as perfect as their strange relationship would ever get.

      “I don’t need more attorneys. Ryan has enough legal representation for four people right now.” And she had the outrageous legal bills at home on her desk to prove it. All that money and still a guilty verdict. Kind of killed the theory about how juries could be swayed with purchased experts. Certainly not how it worked in the Hawaii courts from her experience.

      “You’re not asking me to chip in for Ryan’s expenses, are you?” he asked.

      “Of course not.”

      “’Cause you don’t strike me as a lady who needs a loan.” Josh’s eyes wandered with his comment.

      She refused to fidget under his visual tour up and down her СКАЧАТЬ