ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVENGE Read Online Free Page B

a cup of coffee.” He was aware of the other woman staring at him, suspicion in her eyes.
    “Is this the man McGarrity was talking about?” the woman asked.
    “What man?” Jake asked. “Who’s McGarrity?”
    Anne shook her head. “This isn’t him.”
    Jake turned to the other woman and offered his hand. “I’m Jake Westmoreland. A friend of Anne’s from New York.”
    “Margaret O’Neal.” Her hand brushed his lightly before retreating. “Anne doesn’t look like she wants to see you.”
    “It’s been a long time. I wanted to apologize for what happened the last time we met.”
    “What happened?” Margaret and Jake were the only ones talking, but at least Anne was listening. She hadn’t walked away.
    “Anne left before I could say goodbye.” He spoke to Margaret, but his gaze remained fixed on Anne. She stood with her arms folded, her body angled away from him, her shoulders stiff with tension. “I’ve always regretted that.”
    “We don’t have anything to say to each other,” Anne said.
    “We have a lot to say to each other. I came two thousand miles to talk to you. Please don’t turn me away now.”
    “You can’t say no to a man who says please.” Margaret touched her friend’s shoulder. “A cup of coffee can’t hurt.”
    Anne’s eyes telegraphed the word “traitor” to her friend, but she kept silent. She glanced at Jake. “One cup of coffee, then you leave me alone.”
    “One cup of coffee.” He wouldn’t leave her, though. He couldn’t.
    “Call me,” Margaret said, and left them, smiling to herself.
    Anne moved closer to Jake. “Now you’ve done it,” she whispered.
    “Done what?”
    “Everyone will think you’re the long-lost boyfriend who broke my heart.”
    The words were so melodramatic they were almost comical, but he felt the pain behind them. “Is that what happened, Anne?” he asked, his voice as gentle as he could make it.
    “No!” Her eyes sparked with anger, the energy in them a jolt to his system, a glimpse of the woman she’d been. “But it’s what people want to think. They think I don’t know about the stories they’ve made up to explain me, but in a town this small, gossip always eventually gets around to everyone. They say I came here all the way from New York to recover from a broken heart. It’s the reason I don’t date anyone now. The reason I won’t talk about my past.”
    “It’s a good story,” he said. Maybe part of it was even true, but he didn’t say this. He didn’t want to risk making her angrier.
    “That’s the only reason I let them think that. It’s a good story.”
    “Have coffee with me and tell me your real story.”
    “You already know my real story.”
    “Then maybe it’s time I told you mine.”
    Her gaze met his, sharp and questioning. “Come with me,” he said. “Listen to what I have to say and then decide how you feel.”
    She hesitated, then nodded. “All right.”
    She insisted on taking her own car, and led the way to a coffee shop tucked between the library and a church. At this time of day the place was practically deserted, and they settled into a pair of upholstered wing chairs, facing each other across a low table. She cradled her coffee cup in both hands, legs crossed, back straight, elegant even in her schoolteacher’s denim skirt and turtleneck sweater. “Tell me your story, Jake,” she said. “Or should I call you Jacob?”
    “I always liked the way Jake sounded when you said it.”
    “But Jake West wasn’t your real name.”
    “No. But Jake West was close enough to Jacob Westmoreland my handlers thought I wouldn’t get confused in a tense situation.” He shifted, balancing his coffee cup on the arm of the chair. “I wasn’t even supposed to be there at all. I was auditing the accounts at one of your father’s companies, looking for some proof of mob connections. I needed some more information so I made a personal visit. Completely unauthorized, but when I hit it off with the