Kaleidoscope Eyes Read Online Free Page B

to
know!
Turn up your hearing aid!”
    His head was going to explode. Dan was sure of it. Just blow, right then and there, into a million throbbing pieces. He knew he should have taken two weeks for a honeymoon instead of one.
    He gripped the phone so hard his hand ached. “Ladies!
Please!”
    The two elderly women nearly jumped out of their skin at Dan’s bellowed exasperation, but he didn’t really care that he’d startled them. “All I’m saying is we’ve known each other long enough for you to remember that I. Am. Not. A. Sheriff!” He ground out each word with precise—and increasing—emphasis and volume. “Got it?”
    “Well, fine, Sher—
Deputy”
Aggie amended at Dan’s murderous glare. “Why didn’t you just say so before?”
    “Why didn’t …?” No point saying he’d been telling them that from the day they met over two years ago. They wouldn’t listen. Yup. His head was definitely going to explode.
    Sighing his surrender, Dan punched in Annie’s pager number.
    Sorry; Sis. But I need reinforcements.
    S EPTEMBER 8—A C ATTAIL D AY (A UBURN )
    Annie was dreaming.
    It was a nice dream too. No, make that a great one.
    She’d had the same dream off and on since she was a teen. A tall, handsome man riding a white horse. The breeze ruffled his short brown hair. Approval twinkled in those Belgian chocolate eyes as he studied her. The faintest tinge of raspberry shimmered around him as he reached down from the height of the horse’s back and held out his hand. Annie laid her palm in his—the fit was perfect—and his fingers closed, nestling her hand in warmth and strength. He wasjust about to lift her to the saddle behind him, and Annie was poised and ready …
    Her dream self frowned.
    What was that noise? Something sharp and piercing …
    Someone needed to make that noise stop.
    Her knight’s face lifted in a warm smile—a smile as familiar to Annie as her own. He pulled her onto the horse, and as she settled against him, he looked back over his shoulder. “Will you …?”
    She strained to hear the rest of his question. Longed to hear it. But that noise tugged at her.
    Ringing. Something was ringing.
    “Will I?” She laid her cheek against the back of his shoulder, so at home.
    His fingers brushed her face. “Will you …?”
    What was that ringing!?
    She gritted her teeth, ignoring the annoyance. “Yes? Go on.”
    He blinked. Then turned around and frowned. “Will you answer that darned pager?”
    Annie jerked awake, sitting bolt upright, heart pounding. She blinked as her knight’s image faded, then tried to focus on the bright red numbers of the clock on her bedside table.
    2:00 a.m.
    Not that that bothered her. Annie was used to pages or phone calls in the wee hours of the morning. Nor was it Kodi’s sudden restless pacing next to the bed, as though the dog knew before Annie answered who was on the line. Because she probably did.
    Calls at this hour usually meant one thing.
    Someone was lost.
    As much as Annie hated to think of someone wandering in the darkness, frightened, possibly injured, that didn’t really bother her either. Because she and Kodi were good at what they did. The best, some said.
    And what they did was find people. Bring them home.
    But what
did
bother Annie as another ring split the silence was one simple thought:
Killian’s gonna kill me.
    She pushed clear of the last vestiges of her dream—though she
really
didn’t want to—and freed her legs from the bedsheets. Perching on the edge of the bed, she grabbed her pager and read the callback number.
    It wasn’t search and rescue. Well, then who on earth was it?
    She considered ignoring it, but something about the number looked familiar. She grabbed the phone and dialed. Someone answered on the first ring.
    “Hello?”
    “Hi, this is Annie Justice. Someone paged me—”
    “Annie? It’s Dan.”
    She frowned. Why was he paging her at this time of morning? She grabbed the clock and peered at it again. Yep.