Danger in a Red Dress Read Online Free

made a purchase—”
    Hannah smiled at Sophia and said loudly, “When you’ve got a minute, Sophia, could I get a cheese pierogi and coffee?” Because she couldn’t afford the cheese pierogi, but she definitely couldn’t afford Internet hookup.
    Mr. Nowak looked up from his paper, his sharp dark eyes fixed with hostile intent on Hannah. “Sophia, you keep cleaning. I’ll do it.”
    Man, Hannah had announced she’d been one old man’s friend , and Mr. Nowak thought she could corrupt his helper. She waited patiently while he warmed the pierogi and fixed her coffee.
    The brief illusion of security Mr. Dresser’s inheritance had offered had ended abruptly with her flash of temper. She had thought she might lose the inheritance. Instead, she’d lost the possibility of holding a job.
    Five months ago, fifty thousand dollars had seemed like a fortune. Now, even with frugal living, the legal bills to fight for her nursing certificate and the lack of income had reduced her fifty thousand dollars to twenty-two thousand. And with Jeff Dresser using his influence to slow the investigation of misconduct, she was going to have to do something besides the work she knew and loved. Retail, probably, which she’d done in high school, and thoroughly hated.
    “Here,” Mr. Nowak said. “I won’t charge you for the coffee.”
    Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. . . .
    Then he smiled at her in that knowing way.
    “I insist on paying.” She pushed the cup back toward him, because she’d seen that smile before, more times in the last five months than she wanted to remember, and on more men’s faces than she could bear to think about. And she was not giving this disgusting little troll of a man sex for a cup of coffee. Or for his free Internet. Or for fifty thousand dollars, either.
    His smile disappeared. “You come here every day—”
    The door chimed as someone came in.
    Mr. Nowak’s voice swelled. “Buying your cup of coffee, using my Internet, when everyone in this town knows you are a slut.”
    Hannah stiffened in humiliation and anger.
    He continued. “Everyone in this state knows you got money from poor old Mr. Dresser by—”
    A strange man spoke beside her. “Is there a problem here?”
    Mr. Nowak pointed a finger at Hannah. “She tried to steal from me. She tried to steal a . . . a . . .”
    “I’d be very careful, Mr. Nowak,” Hannah said steadily. “Very careful.”
    His gaze shifted to Sophia, then back to Hannah, then to the stranger. Hannah could almost see him thinking of the gossip if he brought charges, and he shriveled like a three-day-old party balloon. “Go on. Take the food. Take the coffee. Get out and don’t come back. You . . . you . . .”
    “Wait.” The stranger held up his hand. “If she was stealing from you, you should have her arrested. Shoplifting is a serious crime. But you can’t just bandy that charge around. That’s defamation of character. She could sue.”
    The last person to stand up for her had been old Mr. Dresser himself. Now, in astonishment, Hannah turned to look at the stranger.
    He was a fine-looking piece of man flesh: over six foot, whipcord thin, broad shoulders, dark hair, distinctive green eyes, her age or a little older. And he dressed like a wealthy businessman, in a conservative black suit with a dull gold tie.
    “She could sue, but she wouldn’t win,” Mr. Nowak blustered.
    “She’s a beautiful young woman,” the stranger said. “Juries always sympathize with a beautiful young woman.”
    “You’re a lawyer ,” Mr. Nowak said in revulsion.
    The stranger shrugged.
    Mr. Nowak started to say something ill advised, then with hard-won control changed his mind. “Sophia, come and take his order.” He disappeared into the back room.
    Sophia whipped around the counter and washed her hands, smiling brightly all the time. “What can I get you, sir?”
    “I’ll have a medium Earl Grey tea, hot, with a splash of milk.” He looked down at Hannah. “I