Merciless Read Online Free Page B

don’t know,” she said hesitantly. “It’s a hard issue to deal with. I thought I’d discuss it with our family doctor and see what he thinks, first.”
    â€œWise.” He drew in a long breath. “That’s a decision I’d have a hard time with, too.”
    She managed a smile. “Times have changed.”
    â€œYes.”
    She searched his black eyes and her body tingled. She looked away quickly. This would never do. She fumbled her purse back under her desk. “I was going to print out that brief for you,” she said, opening a file on the computer. “And you’re having lunch with the deputy sheriff in that potential federal kidnapping case.”
    â€œYes, we thought we’d discuss the case informally before lawyers become involved.”
    She gave him a droll look. “I thought you were a lawyer.”
    â€œI’m a federal agent.”
    â€œWith a double major in law and Arabic studies and language.”
    He shrugged. His dark brows drew together. “How did you manage college?”
    She blinked. “Excuse me?”
    â€œYou work endless hours and you have a small child,” he said. He didn’t add that he knew her finances must have been a problem, as well.
    She laughed. “I went on the internet. Distance education. I even got a degree that way.”
    â€œAmazing.”
    â€œIt really is,” she agreed. “I wanted to know more about a lot of subjects.” Her favorite was sixteenth-century Scotland. One of her other interests was Lakota history, but she wasn’t telling him that. It might sound awkward, since that was his ancestry.
    â€œSixteenth-century Scottish history,” he mused. He frowned. “You didn’t have a case on my brother, did you? That’s his passion.”
    She gave him a glowering look. “Your brother is terrible,” she said flatly. “Winnie Sinclair must have the patience and tolerance of a saint to live with him.”
    He glared at her. “My brother is not terrible.”
    â€œNot to you, certainly,” she agreed. “But then, you’ll never have to marry him.” He chuckled.
    â€œMy mother was a MacLeod,” she added. “Her people were highland Scots, some of whom fought for Mary Queen of Scots when she tried to regain the throne of Scotland after being deposed by her half brother, James Stuart, Earl of Moray.”
    â€œA loyalist.”
    She nodded. “But my father’s family were Stewarts with the Anglicized, not the French, spelling, and they sided with Moray. So you might say they united warring clans.”
    â€œDid your parents fight?”
    She nodded. “They married because I was on the way, and then divorced when I was about six.” Her eyes became distant. “My father was career military. He remarried and moved to the West Coast. He died performing maneuvers in a jet with a flying group.”
    â€œYour mother?”
    â€œShe remarried, too. She has a daughter…a little younger than me. We…don’t speak.”
    He frowned. “Why?” he asked without thinking.
    â€œI had a child out of wedlock,” she said. “When she found out, she disowned me. She’s very religious.”
    He made a rough sound. “I thought the purpose of religion was to teach forgiveness and tolerance. Besides all that, didn’t you just say she was pregnant with you when your father and she got married?”
    â€œWell, it doesn’t work out that way sometimes with religion, and the important point to her was that she was married when I was born. We were never really close,” she added. “I loved my father very much.” She cleared her throat and flushed. “Sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to speak of such personal issues on the job.”
    â€œI was encouraging you to,” he replied quietly. He studied her with open curiosity. “You love your son very much.”
    She