Outsider Read Online Free

“I haven’t had any contact with Sarina for seven years, so the kid couldn’t have found out from her mother. And if you’ve never told Nikki,” he finished, letting the remark speak for itself.
    â€œBernadette knows things,” Hunter said. “I don’t know how. Maybe there was a shaman in her ancestry somewhere.”
    Colby frowned. “I thought she was Hispanic.”
    â€œSarina doesn’t talk about her ancestry,” Hunter said, hoping he could avoid any revelations about Bernadette’s background. He didn’t dare let on. Sarina would kill him.
    â€œDo you know who her father is?”
    Hunter turned toward the door. “No,” he said. It was true that he hadn’t, and he’d never really thought about it…until now. This was dangerous territory. The whole Apache nation was small enough to make it easy to find relatives on the reservations. He couldn’t tell Colby that Bernadette’s ancestry was Apache, and he’d almost let it slip with the shaman remark. Hunter didn’t want Colby asking questions. He still had cousins at a reservation back in Arizona. “I’ll be back in an hour or so. Hold down the fort.”
    Colby patted the cell phone at his belt. “If there is an attack, I’ll ring you.”
    Hunter made a face on his way out.
    Colby made the rounds of the executives. One made an immediate impression, and it wasn’t a good one. He was assistant head of human resources, a real jerk named Brody Vance who had delusions of importance. He had an administrative assistant who was very nice. She was going with a local DEA senior agent named Cobb, according to Hunter. Colby had met her during a raid at the company warehouse the previous night, when she’d driven a car through machine-gun fire to save Cobb’s life—and his and Hunter’s. She was quite a woman.
    He rounded a corner, and there was Sarina. But she wasn’t alone. There was a tall, dark, handsome Latin, about Colby’s age, with her. He was leaning lazily against the wall with his arms crossed, and the two of them were in earnest conversation. They were so engrossed, and he was so intent on them, that he didn’t notice the little girl running toward them until she called to the man.
    â€œRodrigo!” she laughed. “Are you coming to my birthday party when we have it?”
    â€œOf course!” he replied, holding out his arms. He caught her up and whirled her around, laughing deeply. “How could I miss all the cake and ice cream?”
    â€œYou’d miss me, too,” she chided. She kissed him and linked her arms around his neck. “Dear Rodrigo, whatever would me and Mommy do without you?”
    â€œI’ll make sure that you never know!” he teased, hugging her back.
    Sarina checked her watch. “We’d better go. We still have to stop by the grocery store on the way home. Are you coming over for supper?”
    He shook his head. “Thanks, but I have a meeting.”
    â€œI forgot.”
    He shrugged. “Another time.”
    She smiled at him in a way that made Colby’s teeth set. “Another time,” she said.
    The man she’d called Rodrigo bent and brushed a careless kiss across her cheek. “Take care of my best girl,” he told Sarina, winking at the child.
    â€œI always do,” she replied warmly, waving as he went off down the hall.
    Sarina and Bernadette turned together and there was Colby, blocking the aisle, glaring at both of them.
    â€œThere’s that awful man again,” Bernadette said with a cold glare.
    â€œBernadette, we don’t make rude remarks about people we don’t know,” Sarina said gently. Not even when they’re richly deserved, she thought silently .
    â€œSorry, Mommy,” Bernadette muttered under her breath, but she didn’t stop glaring at Colby.
    Sarina took her hand and walked toward Colby. She stopped