Dangerous Read Online Free Page B

to renovate, then he moved into the dining room and kept on until he reached the living room at the front of the house. The bungalow was nearly a century old, but it had details like original crown molding and solid hardwood floors with character and small stained-glass windows on either side of the wood-burning fireplace. It was the historical details that had sold her on the house.
    “So you bought this place on your own?” he asked.
    “I didn’t win it in a lottery.”
    “You could have inherited it.”
    “My parents are still alive, but they’re real suburban people. I’m lucky they come into the city to visit me occasionally.” They’d done their best to stop her not only from moving into Chicago but from becoming a cop. “They wouldn’t live in the dangerous city on a bet.”
    “Are they wrong?”
    “Every place has its dangers,” Camille said, her mind going back to her own past. “Big cities aren’t the only places predators prey on their victims.”
    He frowned at her. “Are you speaking from experience?”
    “You could say that.”
    “So tell me.”
    “When I was a kid, a friend of mine went missing.” A guilt that never left her. The reason she did what she did. “Not a good outcome. What about your parents? Are they city people?”
    “They are. Not this city anymore, though. A decade ago, Dad was offered a promotion, but the job was in Cleveland, so my parents moved.” He narrowed his gaze on her. “But we were talking about you. Why do I get the feeling there’s more to that story about your friend that you don’t want to talk about?”
    Because he was correct. She’d never talked to anyone about Emily and what had happened the day her best friend had disappeared except for the therapist her parents had taken her to, and she wasn’t about to share now. “Why do you care?”
    “I like to know everything about the clients I work with.”
    Camille didn’t think so. He wanted to know about
her.
But why? He’d never called. There was no reason to think he’d retained any interest in her after four years.
    “I’m not your usual client. I’m not the victim.”
    “If you say so.”
    “So is that why you wanted to come here? So you could annoy me instead of help me find Sandy?”
    In answer, he pulled a laptop computer from his case. “I assume you still have your Internet connection. What about your router, or did they take that, too?”
    Thinking he still had a way with words that annoyed her, she said, “They just took the tower.”
    She indicated the bay area where she liked to work because of the great light. The surface of the old mahogany pedestal desk she’d found in a secondhand store held only the router and monitor.
    Drago set his laptop on the desk, lifted the lid, and turned it on. “Backup?”
    She shook her head. “Oh, they took that, too.”
    “I don’t mean a physical backup. Surely you use the cloud in case your computer bails on you.”
    “Well, yeah, of course.”
    “And I assume you saved any conversations you had with Angel.”
    She nodded. “I saved as much as I could. And I might be able to find him, get him to talk to me.”
    “Not a good idea. Remember, he’s been duped, and unless he’s stupid, he knows it. Give him time to cool off.”
    “We don’t have time.”
    “You said she’s not his type,” he reminded her. “Try to focus on that. Stay positive.”
    She would try.
    Watching Drago work, setting up the laptop to download her copy from the ether, she felt the pressure ease a little. “You seem pretty expert at this stuff.”
    “I know my way around a computer.”
    Like he knew his way around women? Camille wondered.
    What was she thinking? Drago was here for one reason, and he was making the situation seem a little less impossible. She was glad she didn’t have to work alone. Justus had assured her his brother was the man for this job. Truthfully, he seemed on top of things. Seemed to know what to do next. She had to believe that