For The Love Of Laurel Read Online Free

application on file.
    She had never been sure why she chose P.I. work. It had just seemed like a fun thing to help mark time until the Institution called.
    She stared at her blank computer screen, remembering the times she spent evenings in bars, rejecting and occasionally accepting advances from jaded, half-drunk strangers. She didn’t know if she was trying to get back at Adam or rebelling against her father.
    How childish her behavior seemed to her now. After being lucky for almost a year, fate caught up to her one night. She was pulled into an alley and nearly raped; if it hadn’t been for the Tae Kwon Do classes she took all through college, she knew she would have been.
    She never told anyone, but the nameless man who almost violated her told her she deserved it, the way she ran around. She’d felt shame and anger—anger at the slime who’d done it and the shame of thinking he was probably right. He had said something else, something her shock caused her to forget even though it seemed important. That ended her great adventure, but the taste of being her own woman, free of Gerald’s obsessive need to run her life, wouldn’t leave.
    She’d signed up for a couple of business courses, took advanced Tae Kwon Do classes—which she still attended weekly—and practiced daily. She also bought a couple of pistols and learned to shoot them. With money she had saved from her college fund, she’d finally rented an office and opened for business.
    “Your ten o’clock is here,” Sue announced. Laurel smirked. Sue liked to make it sound as though Laurel had appointments all day. Actually, this was her only client in two weeks, but if Sue had her way, no one would ever know it.
    Sue was a godsend. Laurel had met her in a bar when she sat on the barstool next to her. Sue nursed a beer and cried. After they’d both had a few, she told Laurel she was trying to finish college, but didn’t have the next semester’s tuition because her job didn’t pay enough. Something about her tugged at Laurel, and before she knew it, she was offering Sue a job. She warned Sue she wouldn’t have much to do, but she could spend her spare time in the office studying.
    “Please send her in.” She stood as her client entered and stopped in the doorway. Gloria Gunderson, nee Grant. She wore a powder blue suit. Her ash blonde hair framed a pretty face. She was small and slim. Laurel had been acquainted with her in high school. She was the cheerleader who got the quarterback and made no pretense of looking down her nose at people she felt beneath her—one of whom, for reasons Laurel could never figure out, was Laurel herself. Laurel ignored her then and wanted to ignore her now.
    “Gloria, come in,” she said, walking around the desk and extending her hand. Gloria gave it a firm shake.
    “Laurel, how are you? It’s been a long time. I heard about your father. I’m so sorry.”
    “Thank you. Please . . . sit down.”
    She sat in a leather chair next to Laurel’s desk and crossed her legs. Laurel couldn’t help noticing how shapely they were. She pulled her own skirt over her knees.
    “Nice office,” Gloria said. Laurel glanced around. She didn’t pay much attention to it anymore. It had become too familiar. A ficus and a rubber plant were about all the amenities she had, plus a silver tea and coffee service her father had given her as an office-warming gift, and which she had never used.
    “Thank you. How’s Brad?”
    Gloria gave a tinkling titter. “Oh, he’s old news. Be thankful you didn’t marry the star quarterback.”
    “I am. So what can I do for you?”
    “I want to hire you to spy on my current husband.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a compact. After opening it and glancing at her image as if to reassure herself she was still beautiful, she snapped it closed and looked at Laurel. “He’s fooling around, and I want proof I can take to court. I plan to divorce him, but he’ll fight alimony unless I can