MARKED (Hunter Awakened) Read Online Free Page B

doing
that, but I hadn't complained too much. I was completely wrung out.
Not only had I not gotten much sleep last night, but before I'd
checked out, I'd gotten another visit from my favorite detectives.
This time they'd had a name for me: Rufus Dietz.
    I hadn't really been shocked at who it was,
but I had to admit that I had been a bit surprised that the cops
had bothered to ask me if I'd known him. Either they hadn't done
their homework or they'd wanted to know if I'd admit to the
connection before Rufus and myself. I didn't have any problem
sharing. I'd done nothing wrong. I'd told them everything,
including the incident at the club. Detective Thomas had seemed
amused by that, but Linden hadn't even cracked a smile.
    Instead, he'd just kept after me asking
question after question until, finally, I'd snapped at him and
asked if he was more concerned about prosecuting the pedophile
who'd attacked me or the person who'd saved me from said attacker.
I'd seen Linden's eyes flashing at that, but Thomas had stepped in
and told his partner that it had been time to go. I'd been so
pissed after the pair had left that I'd buzzed for a nurse and told
her to get me the paperwork so I could go home whether the doctor
cleared me or not.
    Now, I was sitting in my living room, trying
to ignore the shocked reactions each time a new applicant walked
into the room. Not only was my cheek still a little swollen from
Paul hitting me, but I had a lump on my left temple from where I'd
hit the car, and my other cheek was scraped from when I'd fallen in
the parking lot. The palms of my hands were also a little scraped
up, but they were at least as easy to hide as the bruises on the
back of my head from where my hair had been pulled.
    It was five o'clock and I'd reached the last
of the potential candidates. While I'd given each of the six
previous ones a smile and told them I'd be in touch, I knew that
none of them were going to work, just as I knew that this new one
wasn't going to be the one either.
    The first man had looked good on paper.
College graduate, three previous clients who'd provided glowing
recommendations. Then I'd seen the names of the people he'd guarded
before. All three were middle-aged former stars known for trying to
recapture their youth. The moment he'd looked at me, I'd known
exactly why those women had given him such high praise, and it
definitely had more to do with his physique than it did with his
ability to be a bodyguard.
    I doubted he and his previous clients had
spent much time outside the bedroom. He'd behaved like a perfect
gentleman with me, not even a hint of a leer on his handsome face,
but I'd seen the way his eyes had flickered over me, as if
wondering what I was wearing underneath my sweater and jeans, and
if it would be an improvement over his prior clients.
    The second man who came in had been in his
mid-fifties and had looked completely lost when I'd talked about
various clubs or made references to various aspects of the movie /
television business. Apparently, he'd spent most of his life
guarding CEOs and trust-fund babies. Unfortunately, I needed
someone who knew the business enough that if I said we had a three
o'clock call time, he wouldn't need me to explain what that meant.
I had enough on my plate at the moment that I didn't have the time
to train someone.
    Applicant number three had been a baby-faced
eighteen who'd kept calling me ma'am. He also hadn't been able to
look me in the eye more than once, and that single time had been
enough to make him blush a bright red. Number four had been more
interested in telling me how much he'd loved all of the movies and
TV shows that I'd been in than in actually applying for a job.
    Five had talked to me like I was an idiot,
citing his numerous college degrees as if a BA in physics was
really going to be relevant to what I needed. I was still trying to
determine if the attitude had been because I was young, female or
an actress, but it didn't really matter.