Stolen: A Novel of Romantic Suspense Read Online Free Page B

long moment, Lorna watched her, and Shay had to fight to not look away from those golden eyes—eyes too much like Elliot’s. Intense and soul-searching, the Winter siblings had a way of looking at you and stripping you bare.
    “Okay. If you’re sure.”
    It took another five minutes to get Lorna out of there.
    It took Shay another three minutes to shuffle her way to her office.
    Once there, she reached into her purse and pulled out the book she’d bought from the store.
    Not that she really
needed
a copy of this book.
    Shay had
written
the damn thing.
    She had forty author copies waiting in neat rows on one of her work desks. She’d been planning to send some of them to soldiers stationed overseas. Then she’d gotten into the car accident and it fell to the wayside.
    There was a problem with this book, though—that problem of the autographed sticker. And the autograph inside might read
Shane Neil
, but it sure as hell wasn’t
her
autograph.
    Touching it with the tip of her finger, she whispered, “Who in the hell did this?”
    The phone started to ring again.
    Glancing over, she saw a familiar name.
    Her assistant, Darcy Montgomery. Shay groaned. Talking to Darcy was the
last
thing she wanted to do. There had been a time when she’d loved calls from Darcy; she was one of her few connections to the outside world, but lately … hell. It was a chore.
    Not that she’d ever admit that. Darcy was something very rare in Shay’s world … a real friend. They’d met in college, but Darcy sure as hell hadn’t had a bulldog level of persistence back then. Well, she
had
, but it had been different. Back then, Darcy had been all about dragging Shay into the land of the living.
    She’d dragged her shopping. She’d been the one to convince Shay to stop hiding in baggy jeans, and even baggier shirts. She’d been the one to talk her into taking some self-defense courses, and
that
had led to her discovering that she actually almost enjoyed it. There wasnothing quite like sparring with somebody to get rid of pent-up aggression and fear. From there, she’d gone on to earn her black belt in tae kwon do and for a while, both she and Darcy had even gone to class together.
    So many of the
good
memories in her life were tied to Darcy, but lately, the woman just seemed to drag everything down.
    Sighing, she reached for the phone. The calls wouldn’t stop until Shay talked to her. And knowing Darcy, the woman was freaking out over the fact that she hadn’t answered.
    Deal with
that
problem first, she decided. Plus, she could multitask.
    Grabbing the phone, she answered with a curt, “Yeah?”
    “Hey, you!” Darcy’s voice, like always, was all bright and happy. Sometimes talking to her made Shay feel like she was trapped in a cheerleading training session—all pep and bounce and optimism. “What took you so long? You aren’t up and moving around, are you?”
    “No.” Shay had her ass firmly planted in her office chair. She just didn’t want to fricking
talk
to anybody.
    “You should be in your bed, with the phone on one side, books on your lap, and coffee on the other side.”
    “If I had coffee in bed, I’d spill it, and then I would have to sleep on the couch and my back would hurt even more than it already does,” Shay said, sighing. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Darcy, I need to get some work stuff done. I don’t really have time to chat for a while.”
    Chatting
was something that would have to wait until she’d figured out just what in the hell was going on. Not that she really felt like shooting the breeze anyway. Guilt nagged her, but she pushed it away. Even if she didn’t have a majorly weird problem going on, she hada book to finish, others to write, and she was going to fall behind, thanks to the damn wreck.
    “Oh, I know you’re busy. I just wanted to check on you … and …”
    Her voice faltered.
    “And what?” Shay asked.
Shit
. This wasn’t going to be a quick conversation,