JOSS: A Standalone Romance (Gray Wolf Security) Read Online Free Page B

texted him.
    We can communicate through text messages, I wrote.
    He made something like a groaning sound, but then nodded.
    “I like to spend some time alone with McKelty after a long day. You don’t mind keeping yourself entertained for the rest of the evening, do you?”
    I shook my head, almost relieved if I was honest with myself.
    “We have a routine,” he continued. “I have breakfast with my daughter every morning, take her to school, and then pick her up myself every day. Normally we go back to the office together then hang out together all evening. I don’t do babysitters or nannies. The last guy I hired thought that was odd—”
    I shook my head, then made a gesture with my hand to show that I thought it was fine, whatever was good for him.
    He buried his hands in the front of his pants and studied me a moment longer. Then he sort of sighed. “Anyway, maybe we can discuss what happens next in the morning before I get McKelty up for school.”
    He was just as anxious as I was to call this day over. I turned and let myself into the bedroom he’d assigned me, wishing I’d brought my bag up from downstairs. I’d briefly thought of grabbing it when I walked through the foyer the second time, but I had left it.
    The room was nice, almost bigger than my entire cottage back at the compound. Not that I needed much these days. Hell, I was happy just to have a place to lay my head. When I was a kid, it was often that we had to sleep in the car or, when that got repossessed, in a shelter with our few belongings tied to our wrists and ankles so that they wouldn’t get stolen. This was absolute luxury compared to that.
    I walked over to the windows and discovered that they looked down over part of the first floor’s roof. From there I could see the top of the garage and a large portion of the front drive. I could even see a small piece of the back yard if I twisted and strained enough.
    I turned and looked at the bed. It was tall and wide, covered in a soft comforter that was likely twice as expensive as the one that currently sat on my bed back at the compound. I’d certainly be comfortable until this job was done.
    The house was quiet when I slipped out to retrieve my bag. I had it in my hand and a clear walk to the stairs. But then I heard voices and curiosity got the better of me. I thought they were in the long sitting room into which the entry way opened, but when I peeked around the corner I realized they were enjoying the early fall evening from chairs on the long, wide stone deck.
    “Why is she here?” McKelty asked her father.
    “To watch over us.”
    “Why?”
    Carrington leaned close and kissed his daughter’s forehead. “Because I thought it was for the best. That’s all you really need to know, my love.”
    “How long will she stay?”
    “Until we don’t need her anymore.”
    “Why doesn’t she talk?”
    I saw a cloud move over the father’s face at that question. I knew it was a problem for him. It was one issue I’d consistently come up against in other cases, too, but my targets almost always came around to it once they understood that it wouldn’t prevent me from doing my job. Some were even grateful for the silence after all the noise in their normal days. However, I got the impression that wouldn’t be the way it would go with this case.
    “I don’t know,” Carrington said slowly. “Sometimes things happen to people and they respond to it in odd ways. Maybe that’s what it is with Joss.”
    “Like when mom died?”
    I saw the tension come into Carrington’s shoulders, the narrowing of his eyes. That was a touchy subject with him. I’d have to remember that.
    “Hey, why don’t you sing me a song,” he suddenly said. “You didn’t get to sing at school, right? So sing to me now.”
    The little girl suddenly brightened, jumping to her feet and beginning one of the most beautiful renditions of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ I’d ever heard. I started to turn away,