Broken Toy [Suncoast Society] (Siren Publishing Sensations) Read Online Free Page A

time?”
    That chuckle again. “Nope.” His tone turned serious. “But I do appreciate you not fighting me on this, Gabe. This is for your own good.”
    How many times had she heard that growing up? “Yeah, if you say so.”
    She got on the road and, fortunately, made the northern turn off Alligator Alley before the sun got too low in the sky and she had to drive directly into it. She hadn’t been this way too many times, and even then always for work, with no time to sightsee.
    Not that she was into sightseeing. That was an unproductive waste of time.
    She stopped for dinner on the road, hit a Publix for a couple of things so she wouldn’t have to leave the condo first thing in the morning to find breakfast, and finally made it to the condo a little before nine that night. The sun had already set and the last purple light still struggled to hold on to the landscape.
    From what she could tell in the darkness, the condo complex looked tidy and well kept, with her twelve-year-old Honda apparently the oldest and least expensive car parked anywhere.
    She unlocked and opened the door before punching in the code on the alarm pad. Her nerves felt unsettled for a few minutes while she quickly walked through the condo and checked it out. Nothing apparently out of place. It was neat and tidy, albeit the air feeling a little on the stale side. She found the AC thermostat and bumped it down a smidge, noting how it immediately rumbled to life.
    Two bedrooms, two baths, the kitchen opening into the living and dining room area. A closet off the kitchen held the washer and dryer units. A small, private screened balcony looked off into a large swath of darkness she suspected would prove to be a golf course in the light of day.
    Not bad.
    Unfortunately, it grated at her.
    Admittedly, the condo felt homier than her own did. She’d never been to Walker’s home despite several invitations, but suspected the vacation unit was an extended reflection of both his and his wife’s personalities. It felt comfortable and casual, with IKEA furniture and warm photographs on the walls.
    When she examined one of the prints, a beach at sunset, she realized it was a mate to a smaller one hanging in his office, along with several others. Now she wondered if he or his wife were the photographer.
    The flat-screen TV looked huge compared to the tiny one she had at home, and they had a full cable package, including all the premium movie channels. A DVD player and stereo rounded out the electronic ensemble, with the wireless cable modem set up located there as well.
    The kitchen was fully stocked with dishes, cookware, and cutlery, but the spotless refrigerator sat empty. She rinsed and filled the ice cube trays and set them back in the freezer. She wondered at the expense of a glass-topped oven in a property they didn’t use all the time before she caught herself.
    Stop it. Not everyone’s as cheap as you.
    You don’t have to be cheap. Not like Maria’s looking over your shoulder. You can afford to treat yourself better than you do. You deserve it.
    No, you don’t.
    Stop it. Just stop it.
    She blinked and looked up, trying to kill the inner voices holding an all-too-common verbal jousting match in her brain.
    Heading downstairs to get her things from the car, she resigned herself to making the best of the situation.
    Besides, she had her work laptop.
    Walker hadn’t explicitly said anything about her not doing work online.
    It was on that thought she smiled as she set to work getting her things unloaded and unpacked.

Chapter Four
     
    Friday morning, Bill started his day with a cup of coffee and the morning news on TV as he suffered through his treadmill time. A shower, banana, granola bar, another cup of coffee, and he was good to go.
    For a change, he got out of work a little early on a Friday afternoon. He’d had to talk to a witness over in west county, and decided to make a quick stop along the Cape Haze peninsula to check in with Laura