Chasing Adonis Read Online Free Page A

not on his breath.”
    “So he likes to get drunk before he beats her up,” Shane
concluded.
    “Either that, or she started nagging him while he was
nursing the mother of all hangovers. You know how these things go.” Andy clapped
his thumbs against his fingertips, forming the illusion of birds’ beaks.
“Yakkity-yak-yak all the time. Finally, after one too many comments like,
‘You’re drunk again,’ and ‘Who were you out with this time?’ our friend over
here couldn’t take anymore and hauled off and—”
    “Beat her within an inch of her life,” Shane finished in a
clipped tone.
    Andy dropped his hands to his sides, and his face colored a
dozen shades of red before he looked away. “Sorry, Detective. I shouldn’t have
gone on like that.” 
    He stole another glance at Adara Berros strapped to a
gurney, oxygen mask literally breathing life into her. “Why not? You’re
probably right.” Straightening, he swerved his attention back to Andy. “Any
witnesses?”
    The sergeant shrugged. “Not a one. Does that surprise you?”
    “Not really.” People rarely wanted to get involved in
domestic disputes, no matter how ugly.
    Time evaporated, and Adara’s ashen face transformed into
that of his sister, Cassia, as he’d last seen her—lying on a similar stretcher,
both eyes swollen shut, blood crusted around a split lip, and the dark stain
seeping from the hole in her chest.
    Order of protection, my ass. A goddamn useless piece of
bureaucratic red tape.
    Shane shook his head violently, hoping to erase the visions
of Cassia the way his nephew would erase a drawing on his Etch-a-Sketch.
    The EMTs lifted Adara into the back of the ambulance. “We’re
outta here,” one said as he closed the double doors. “Anything else you want
from her, you’ll have to visit College Hospital to get.”
    “Yeah, okay.” Shane’s focus remained glued to the small
window cut into the ambulance’s right rear door. Nothing met his gaze except
plastic IV tubing, white boxes labeled with red crosses and blue lettering,
packages of latex gloves marked Large, and medical supplies he didn’t
recognize. “Thanks.”
    He and Andy stepped toward the curb while the EMTs climbed
into the vehicle. Sirens blaring, the ambulance drove off. Once the
ear-splitting wail faded to a screech in the distance, Shane turned to Andy.
“Let’s get the bastard’s statement.”
    He turned to question the man left behind.
    But the man was gone.
     
    ~~~~
     
    At College Hospital, Shane headed straight for the emergency
room. Bypassing the waiting area where dozens of people already sat like
wounded sheep, he strode toward the front desk. One dark-haired nurse, white
scrubs decorated with dancing images of Pooh and Tigger, sat beneath the
glaring white lights, gaze focused on a computer monitor. He stopped there and
laid his badge on the gray-speckled counter. “I’m looking for the woman who
came in about a half hour ago. Alleged hit and run?”
    The nurse looked up, her penciled brows forming apostrophes
over her neon blue-shadowed eyes. “I’m fine. Thanks for asking, Shane.”
    Damn. He hadn’t recognized her with her hair tied up.
Heather Lansky, space kitten extraordinaire, was just a file clerk. Thank God.
He wouldn’t trust Heather to care for a houseplant. But her presence now
wouldn’t make his current task any easier. “Come on, Heather,” he said. “Cut me
some slack. I’m not a morning person.”
    She fluttered her hands, and a dozen bangles tinkled in the
quiet hallway. “You’re not an evening person either, based on the outcome of
our date last week.”
    “We never had a date last week.”
    Her lips opened in a wide o, and she cracked her
ever-present gum with a loud snap. “I rest my case. You promised to meet me at
Generations and buy me a drink, remember?”
    He blinked, waiting for some third-rate actor to jump out of
hiding and tell him he was on some new practical-joke-hidden-camera television
show.