Seduced by a Dangerous Man Read Online Free Page A

tossed it on the table. Butch started to complain, but Henry silenced him with a glare.
    “Got a call about the results of an anonymous tip. One of Zak’s bookie’s partners was found murdered this morning. He had Zak’s wallet and cell phone.” Henry said it casually, but I knew his interest was anything but.
    “Um… ok. What does that have to do with me?”
    “Those items were just sitting on a table, like they wanted to be found. Funny thing, Audrey, but as of last night, you were a person of interest.”
    “Interest in what?” I demanded. Trying to remain calm wouldn’t have done me any good, and I consoled myself with the thought that anyone who was being casually accused of murder would have some kind of reaction.
    “I know you had something to do with Zak’s disappearance. I don’t know how you got the warrant quashed, but I’m not so easily fooled by your innocent girl act.”
    “Ever consider that the warrant was dropped because it was baseless?” I raised an eyebrow, cockier than I actually felt.  
    “You know what I think? That outlaw you’ve been sneaking around with had something to do with it, too.”
    “For the millionth time, I haven’t seen him.”
    Butch was shaking his head slightly, and I felt a glimmer of hope. Dissention in the ranks could only be good. “Let it go, man,” Butch said. He looked at me. “Think my order must be ready.”  
      Henry shot his friend a nasty look that nearly had me cowering. Butch busied himself with his soda, but he didn’t look happy. Maybe he was as tired of stalking me as I was of being stalked.  
    I took a deep breath. Perhaps this was my chance to change Henry’s mind, convince him he was chasing smoke. “I’m sorry about your friend, but I have no idea where he is.” And because I was focused on the semantics of that, I managed to sound convincing. Zachary was dead. I was one of two people who knew that for sure, but I didn’t have a clue what had happened to him since his death, and I sure didn’t know his final resting place. Corbin had taken care of all of that.
    The scratch-off lotto players at table twelve were looking around. They were on a fixed income, but they tipped better than most.
    I went to see what they needed, notepad at the ready, but excitement had my thoughts in a rush. It was better not to dwell on the fact that I was excited about the appearance of another dead body.  
    It had to be Corbin’s doing. The timing gave it away. The cops wanted to see me, and the next day someone turned up, drawing attention away from me.  
    I just hoped he hadn’t actually killed someone for me. It was a chilling thought, all the more so because Corbin had sworn to me that he didn’t want to do that anymore.  
    Was that why he’d disappeared? Had he done something horrific, something unforgivable, and now was afraid to face me? He’d been obligated to go… wherever he’d gone. If that job had demanded murder, there weren’t too many ways around it, regardless of how motivated he was.  
    … Or if I’d become the stand-in for morality, and if he’d been unable to stop killing, he might not have believed there was a place for me in his life, and vice versa. On several occasions, he’d said I should run away from him.
    I chewed my lower lip and tasted iron. Instead of blurting that I loved him, I should have convinced him that I didn’t care who he was or what he did. Should have convinced him that the present was all that mattered—
    “Did you hear me?” The elderly woman tapped her checkbook on the tabletop.
    I had no idea what she’d said, but it seemed obvious. “The check, right?”
    “We want to know what the dessert special is.” All three of the women were giving me funny looks, like I was the one with violet hair and bedazzled cat-frame eyeglasses and lip liner so far around my mouth that it looked like a high-water mark.
    “Blueberry cobbler,” I said.  
    “We’ll share one. Three spoons. Now, we