The Kiera Hudson Prequels 2 Read Online Free Page B

It would probably spoil our friendship, and I really didn’t want to do that. So looking away from the fire and back at her, I smiled and said, “So where do you think you’ll be posted to when we leave training school?”
    Kiera shrugged as if half expecting me to ask her something else. “I don’t know.”
    “ I don’t mind where I get sent, as long as it’s not the Ragged Cove,” I said with a shudder.
    “ Where’s that?” Kiera asked.
    “ On the furthest tip of the coast,” I said. “Apparently, the town is miles away from anywhere.”
    “ You make it sound like some kind of ghost town,” Kiera half smiled. But I could see by the way her eyes sparkled in her pale pretty face that I had caught her interest and imagination.
    “ It might as well be,” I said, dropping my voice to a whisper.
    “ What do you mean?” she asked, leaning in close across the table. I caught the faintest hint of the shampoo she had used on her thick, black hair and the soap she had used on her soft skin. It was more intoxicating than the wine. I felt a sudden urge to tell her how crazily happy she made me feel, but instead, I leant back in my chair and said, “I’ve heard that most of the new recruits sent to the Ragged Cove don’t stay long.”
    “ What, they quit the force?” Kiera asked, her eyes shining so bright.
    “ Some say they just disappear,” I whispered. “Never to be seen again.”
    “ Have these disappearances been investigated?” Kiera asked, her practical self as always.
    I glanced back over my shoulder to make sure the waitress wasn’t standing close by. Then, looking back at Kiera, I said, “Some say there has been a cover-up.”
    “ A cover-up?” Kiera breathed. “By whom?”
    “ The senior management team. The top brass at force headquarters,” I continued to whisper.
    “ And who told you all this?” Kiera asked.
    “ Constable John Miles,” I told her.
    “ Sparky, you mean?” she asked.
    “ I know his nickname is Sparky because he isn’t the brightest officer on the course,” I explained. “But I’ve heard other officers talking about the Ragged Cove too. The rumours are all the same.”
    “ Well, if I’m to be honest it’s just the kind of place I’d like to get sent to,” Kiera said, sitting back in her seat.
    “ Now, how did I know you were going to say that?” I smiled.
    “ The whole place sounds like one big mystery waiting to be solved,” she said.
    “ It sounds like a whole lot of trouble to me,” I told her.
    “ We might both get sent to this town called the Ragged Cove,” Kiera smiled at me.
    “ I don’t think that will happen,” I said, not even wanting to hope for such a thing for one moment. Any future disappointment would be crushing.
    “ Why not?” Kiera asked with a shrug. “You and I would have the mystery of the Ragged Cove solved in no time.”
    “ Phillips can’t seem to bear the thought of me and you texting each other,” I reminded her. “You don’t think he is going to send us to the same posting once we leave training school, do you?”
    “ If the rumours are true about the Ragged Cove, then what two better officers to send?” Kiera said, with a half-smile.
    “ And that’s the very reason they won’t send us,” I said, staring back at her.
    “ And what’s that?” Kiera asked.
    “ If what Sparky and the other recruits say is true, our senior officers don’t want the mystery of the Ragged Cove solved, they just want to cover it up.”
    Kiera sat and looked at me as if deep in thought. I looked at how the firelight made her raven black hair shimmer almost blue, and how her red lips looked so very kissable.
    I suddenly pushed my chair back from the table and stood up before I let the wine make me say something stupid – something I would later regret. “I think I might just go to bed.”
    “ Really?” Kiera said, sounding a little surprised.
    “ I’m dead beat,” I lied.
    “ Me, too, I guess,” she said, standing