Rendezvous with Danger (Reunited Series) Read Online Free Page B

happened. Please, you’re lucky that man didn’t have a heart attack, or worse, shoot you.”
     Alandra’s jaw dropped. “Why do you always make it sound like I’m the one who’s wrong?”
    Natasha stood and tossed the wrapper from her sandwich into the trash. “Because you usually are.”
    “No I’m not. I just wanted him to stop coming to the hospital asking questions about me.  I’m trying to keep a low profile.”
    “And?”
    Alandra paused, glanced down at the burgundy carpet and then met her sister’s gaze. “And I wanted to ask for his help, but mainly I wanted him stop coming around here. You have to understand. If he keeps showing up looking as fine as he is, asking other nurses about me, they’re bound to get suspicious.”
    Natasha shifted her weight, put her hands on her hips and gave Alandra an “are you kidding me” look.
    Alandra ran her hands down her face and groaned. “Okay, I see where you’re coming from. Maybe I didn’t handle things right, but that doesn’t negate the fact that we’re married and were once very much in love. Damn, Tasha…” Alandra fought back tears and a sob that was clogging her throat. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see the look in his eyes. The hurt. The anger.”
    Quinn had once promised her he would love her forever. How could he have treated her like that? He had to know there was a good reason for her to stay away, but he didn’t give her a chance to explain, a chance to tell him how much she loved him and would have never stayed away if it weren’t necessary.
    Natasha walked from behind the desk. At five-nine with a medium build, she moved with the grace of a dancer. She placed her hands on Alandra’s shoulders. “Sis, I get you’re upset, but how would you feel if the roles were reversed? Had he arrived on your front step when you thought he’d been dead for a few years, you probably would’ve freaked out.”
    Alandra relaxed her shoulders. Her sister was right. What was she thinking just showing up? She would have been devastated if she’d believed Quinn had died in her arms and then he suddenly reappeared years later without a good reason for his absence. Shame wrenched in her chest. If only she would’ve handled the situation tonight differently, but what did it matter now? He wanted nothing to do with her.
    “So now what?”
    “I’m not sure,” Alandra said absently. “She had hoped to solicit Quinn’s help in finding the person who tried to kill her. But since she couldn’t count on him, she’d start tapping into her own connections. Contact those she knew she could trust.
    ****
    For the first time in days, the sun was shining in Arlington, Virginia, but for Vance Anderson, it might as well have been a cold, cloudy day with rain flooding the city. He stepped away from the kitchen window, removed chocolate chip walnut cookies from the oven and placed them on the cooling rack. Where most men took their minds off their problems by watching sports, or hanging out in bars, Vance baked. Today would have been he and his wife’s nineteenth-year wedding anniversary, and like every year, he spent the day remembering her, remembering what they once shared. Two and a half years ago, the day after her thirty-seventh birthday, Jody died from esophageal cancer leaving him and their two children to carry on without her. He would never forget that day because it had been the worst day of his life.
     He grabbed the last two trays laden with peanut butter cookies and placed them on the top rack of the oven. The nursing home, where he volunteered twice a month, would be the beneficiaries of the sweet treats that he would drop off later today.
    Tossing the oven mitts onto the granite countertop, he grabbed a beer from the doublewide stainless steel refrigerator. Spending time in the remodeled kitchen always made him feel close to Jody. He still remembered the day they picked out the top of the line stainless steel appliances. She was like a kid