The Hunt for Snow Read Online Free

remember.”
    Cyndi giggled. “She didn’t remember today.”
    I grinned behind my glass. “I’m really not angry.” I paused, wondering what their reaction would be if I told them who showed up in my office today.
    “So what is it?” Belle scratched her nose and leaned forward in anticipation.
    I wasn’t going to get out of telling them. I set my glass down. “Max came by today.”
    Silence fell in the kitchen, the only sound the ticking of the wall clock. Belle cleared her throat. “My. And how does that make you feel?”
    Cyndi snorted. “Okay, Doctor Phil. Let Oprah take over.” She leaned toward me. “So…how does that make you feel?”
    I grinned. “You both are idiots. He claims I need to be at the conference because my people need me.”
    I watched my friends as their faces registered what I’d said. Belle’s face shuttered and she leaned away from me. She didn’t want to tell me Max was right.
    “He’s right,” I said.
    “Oh, thank God,” Belle said.
    I glared at her. “I spent too much time blaming everyone else for what went wrong. Only one person was responsible.”
    Cindy patted my arm. “Naomi.”
    I nodded. “Max believes she has plans to come after me at this conference.”
    “The Accords—” Cindy shouted.
    “Are useless,” I concluded. “She will attempt something. I need to be prepared for whatever it is. And Max is under a compulsion.”
    “He fought it once,” Cinderella murmured.
    Shock ran through my system. “How did you know that?” She looked away, but not before I saw the guilt there. “How did you know?” I asked her again.
    She bowed her shoulders, and I noticed the sympathetic look Belle gave her from my peripheral vision. “He came to see me afterward.”
    I sat up straighter, but Belle shook her head. “Not like that,” she said. “He knew you were my friend. Max grieved for you, Snow.” She looked at me. “He didn’t know if you survived because he couldn’t remember much under the compulsion. The fact that he was able to break it says volumes about the way he feels about you.”
    I wanted to scoff. To tell her not to be ridiculous. But I could tell she believed every word she was saying. She believed Max had feelings for me. And from the look on Belle’s face, she believed it, too. I was in way over my head. Tomorrow I’d be walking straight into a viper’s nest.
    I grimaced. We could talk about Max much later. Right now I wanted to glean as much information about Naomi as I could. I put my game face on, reached under the granite bar and unstrapped one of the many guns I had hanging around. I laid it on top of the bar and smiled.
    Cyndi and Belle groaned. “You are the only woman on Earth who has guns in every room in the house. You’ll never get married and have children if you keep threatening to shoot people.”
    “Exactly,” I said. “I’m too busy running to get pregnant.”
    Belle drained her wine glass. “Well, the difference between you and me is that I’m never too busy to practice.” She grinned and set her glass in the sink.
    “I wonder about her sometimes,” Cyndi said. “She’s scary brilliant, but a complete man-izer. Is that even a word?”
    “I don’t think so,” I said, “but it’s an apt description.”
    I watched as Belle walked away, her long tangled chestnut hair swinging against her waist. “Buy her a hairbrush, would you, Cyndi?”
    She grinned and bowed. “Your wish is my command. Now…” She pulled me up out of the seat. “I have a dress for you to try on.”
    “Right now?” I whined. “But I have lots of weaponry to clean.”
    “I just saw you clean them the other day. Stop complaining. You promised.” She led me by the arm into the living room.
    “If it’s bedazzled I might become homicidal.”
    She paused a beat in her step. “Belle!” she screamed. “Hide the guns!”
    A chortle of laughter rang out that made me very, very nervous.
     
    I managed to balk at trying on the dress, giving