Seduced by a Dangerous Man Read Online Free Page B

don’t want it too hot, but it should be warm enough that the ice cream melts a little.”
    I spent fifteen minutes attending to my job, all the while wondering if I should pump Henry for more information or if I should just avoid him. The best thing would be to find a way to smooth things over. For Rob’s sake. And my own sanity.  
    Henry had won. I didn’t have the resources or the connections to beat him. But I couldn’t give him what he wanted: Corbin. The helplessness made me angry. Avoidance, then. At least it would stop things from getting worse.
    But he and Butch were still sitting at my table. Time to move them along.
    “Apple pie,” Butch said when I walked over. “Don’t forget the smile.”
    I pulled my lips back from my teeth in what I knew was a grimace. I didn’t even pretend.
    “You were much more charming when I took you to the airport,” Butch said. “You never look happy anymore. You’re frowning from the moment you leave your house to the last second before you go to bed.”
    “You don’t think being followed everywhere has something to do with that?”  
    Butch looked down, unable to hold my gaze.  
    I put my hands on my hips and glanced over my shoulder to make sure Janet was out of earshot. “No dessert for you. Why did the cops want to talk to me?”
    Henry sat back against the red plastic booth and draped his arms along the top of the bench. All he needed was a piece of hay dangling from between his lips to complete the image of pure self-satisfaction. If Henry looked happy, then I would probably soon look sad.  
    “I recalled that Zak had called me the night he disappeared,” he said.  
    “So?”
    “He said he was worried about you and your friend. Said he was afraid for his life.”
    I felt the blood drain from my face.
    He pursed his lips and squinted his eyes. “Memory is a funny thing. As I was poring through your cell phone records again, I suddenly remembered the rest of my conversation with Zak that night. It jogged my memory. But lucky you, looks like a scapegoat conveniently turned up.”
    I turned their bill over and scrawled “ Have A Nice Day! ” on the back. A little proof in case Janet gave me a hard time about my attitude. “Pay at the register and don’t let the door hit you,” I said.
    Henry pulled out a ten-dollar bill and waved it at me. “Because you look like you’ve fallen on hard times.” When I didn’t move to take it, he put it under the dripping ketchup bottle.
    I left it for the bus boy.  

    ~~~

    By some miracle, I managed to make it to the end of my shift without incident. The relief of learning that I wasn’t going to be faced with human lie detectors was more than offset by my certainty that Corbin was back… and avoiding me.
    Avoiding me, but thinking about me. Looking out for me. Some women read too much into flowers and casual statements about the future—well, I was quite capable of obsessing over the way that Corbin had easily referred to us as having a future. Which was part of the reason I couldn’t give up on him no matter how hard I tried.  
    Me, I was ready to deduce declarations of love from the appearance of a convenient corpse. What the hell was wrong with me? Someone had died, and that was horrible, even if he was a bookie and who knew what else. I prayed that he hadn’t been sacrificed.
    The whole thing was overwhelming. The last fifteen hours had wiped me out. I would run the errands for Rob, then get some sleep. When I woke up, I was going to have a long, serious talk with myself.
    The grocery store parking lot offered a wide choice of spaces. Even after working a double, I was still finished before the nine-to-five crowds.
    Yawning, I grabbed a cart and wobbled into the produce section. After what felt like years of gray skies and dirty snow, the explosion of greens and yellows and reds of the fruit never failed to dazzle me. It was like I’d been living in black and white, then stepped into full