Leaving Annalise (Katie & Annalise Book 2) Read Online Free

and I didn’t even tap the brakes as we changed trajectory for a downward plunge. I felt crazy alive. As we approached the first turn, I slowed the truck to a nearly reasonable speed and snuck a glance at Nick. He was still staring at me.
    “What?” I asked.
    “I’m just waiting for you to answer my question.”
    We rounded the bend and the Caribbean Sea spread out before us under the spotlight of the full moon. The moonlight turned the night sky from black to a blue suede. The trees on either side of us were ghostly in its light, but I knew them by their silhouettes. A stately kapok. A cluster of giant mahoganies. The spidery arms of a flamboyant, and the deceptively smooth-looking tourist tree that by day flaked like a sunburn.
    “We’re going to my house,” I said.
    “The one you live in or the one you bought?”
    “Emily didn’t miss a detail, did she? No, we’re not going to Ava’s.” That’s where I was living until my contractor finished the work at Annalise. Crazy Grove had promised to have me in before summer, and it appeared he’d just make it.
    “Em told me about your boyfriend,” Nick prodded.
    Ex-boyfriend, as far as I was concerned. It was none of his business, though, so I didn’t respond.
    “Are you in love with him?”
    “How about we play the quiet game? First one to break the silence is the loser,” I replied.
    Nick appeared to roll his eyes, but with only my peripheral vision I couldn’t be sure.
    I drove on, swinging left again onto Centerline Road. Just for fun, I gave the truck a little more gas and reveled in the sight of Nick bouncing up and down. Fifteen sadistically perfect minutes later, we pulled up the dark driveway to Annalise with the moon’s beacon pointing the way to the most beautiful place in the world.
    “Jesus, is this your house? It’s amazing,” Nick said.
    “You lose,” I said.
    Five of my dogs met us in the side yard, barking joyfully. The sixth, my German shepherd and personal protector, Poco Oso, was back at Ava’s place. Nick rolled down his window and talked to them, which drove them into a fever pitch. “Highly suspicious new person,” they announced. I parked my truck under the immense mango tree on the near side of the house.
    Now what?
    My flight had seemed like a great plan until we landed at our destination. I felt a little airsick. Nick wasn’t suffering, though.
    “Here,” he said, handing me a Kleenex.
    Mortified that my mascara had run, I started to mop at my face.
    “Don’t do that!” Nick shouted.
    I jerked back. “What?! What did I do?”
    “That’s not for your face. It’s for you to read.”
    My forehead formed its familiar pattern of a bazillion furrowed lines and I consciously tried to erase them before they became permanent. “What is it?”
    Nick searched with his fingers for the dome light and punched it on. “Read it, Katie.”
    It wasn’t a Kleenex. It was a crumpled cocktail napkin with writing on it.
    Oh.
    The napkin.
    I couldn’t believe he had kept the damn thing. My mouth fell open. Fly-catching position, I realized. I shut it.
    Nick ran his hand back through his hair.
    Ah, the hair scrub, I thought. He was nervous.
    I read the words written in blue ballpoint pen above, below, and around the Eldorado Hotel & Casino’s logo.
    Can’t happen now/you stop my heart
    I want to do this right
    Wait for me
    I smoothed the soft bar napkin and tried to take it in. When we’d talked last summer in Shreveport, he had only gotten through the “can’t happen” part before I launched a defense in my weapons-of-mass-destruction mode. My brain struggled to process the new information.
    “Stop my heart”—that was good, right?
    Mine felt like it had just stopped, as a matter of fact. I searched his face for information.
    He said, “Can I tell you what I should have said in Shreveport, Katie? What I meant to say?”
    I nodded, because I didn’t think I could even speak. Strong fingers of emotion were wrapped around my