Material Witness Read Online Free

wasn't going to have it tonight with him.
    “If you'll excuse me, I'll go catch a
cab and be on my way home. Alone.”
    Jake shook his head and sputtered.
“CJ, you couldn't be further from the Land of Oz. Cabs don't come to this
neighborhood, honey. They know better.”
    Cassie groaned inwardly. That would
explain the cab driver's behavior earlier when he dropped her off. Admittedly,
she didn’t frequent this part of town and was more thankful that the cab driver
knew how to get here than curious about his reaction. As neighborhoods go, the
street didn’t look ominous, but looks were deceiving.
    A crescendo of laughter had Jake
glancing over his shoulder to look at the man on the other side of the room. He
was the owner of the bar, Cassie recalled Jake saying.
    With his movement, Jake's jacket
gaped open, and she had the first glimpse of what this man hid behind his black
leather armor. A Beretta was tucked firmly inside a holster against his chest.
It was hidden well, but easy to find for someone trained in what to look for.
Cassie knew the gleam of the metal when she saw it. She knew the weight of it
in her hand and the smell of gunpowder when it ignited.
    Dark memories had her heart hammering
wildly in her chest. But the boisterous conversation on the other side of the
bar shifted her back to her reality. Cassie glanced in that direction, but she
couldn't see a thing past the wide expanse of Jake's shoulders.
    As Jake leaned his arm on the bar,
Cassie’s breath lodged in her throat. Her pulse hammered. And she wished to God
she hadn't been curious enough to look.
    * * *
     
    Jake saw terror flash across CJ’s
face. Great, she was finally beginning to understand how stupid it was for her
to be here. But just as he was about to lead her to the door, her arms abruptly
came up to his chest. She gripped his leather jacket, leaning into him as if
she were about to climb into his lap.
    Confusion mixed with heightened
awareness of this enigmatic woman suddenly so close to him.
    “Gun!” she screamed. With an
unbelievable force, Cassie yanked him forward to the floor until his body was
stretched over the length of hers. The air in the bar exploded into a spray of
bullets and flying glass shards. Chairs and tables tumbled over as people
screamed and scrambled for cover.
    The room and everything that was
happening exploded right in front of him and registered at lightning speed.
Primal instinct took over. Screams, bullets, breaking glass and the sound of
his own heart pumping were deafening. Jake wrapped his arm around CJ's waist,
shielding her body with his own as he slowly dragged her around the corner of
the bar to relative safety on the other side. She buried her head in his chest
as he encased her body, protecting her from the flying glass from the shattered
mirror behind the bar and the bottles of booze bursting with every hit from
bullets.
    It seemed to take forever for the
explosion of gunfire to stop. In reality it was probably less than thirty
seconds. But as soon as it started, it was over. It took another thirty seconds
for Jake to get his bearings once the massacre had ended.
    From outside, the cold wind whistled
through the blown out windows and brought with it the sound of tires peeling
out as a car sped off down the narrow side street. Before Jake even lifted his
head, he knew the car was gone. Whoever did this would go unpunished unless he
could find a witness.
    His chest tightened where CJ's face
pressed against his shirt. He didn't have to see her face to know she was
crying. Her fingers clutched his shoulders in a death grip and her body
shuddered helplessly beneath him.
    It would make it easier on this case
to have a witness, but Lord help him, he didn't want it to be this fragile
woman in his arms.
    # # #
     
    Chapter Two
     
    Cassie looked at the clock on the
wall as she sat downtown at Detective Jake Santos's desk in a cold metal chair
in the middle of an open room filled with desks and paperwork. It