Trouble Walks In Read Online Free Page A

another taxi tries to run you over.”
    As they made their way to the safety of the other side, Maddy had a feeling that there would be more surprises where Ronan was concerned.
    That was the part that frightened her.

Chapter 2
    Ronan McGuire loved women, and until recently, he’d enjoyed a variety of them. All of that had changed when Maddy Morgan came roaring back into his life. The moment he’d laid eyes on her at his parent’s anniversary party last summer, it had been like a kick in the gut. She was as gorgeous as she’d been back in high school, and just as unattainable. As far as she’d been concerned, he had merely been the pesky brother of her best friend’s boyfriend.
    Ronan would see her around town when he went home to visit over the years, but nothing had changed and she was still out of his reach. Maddy and Rick had been practically joined at the hip for years. Ronan was many things, but a home wrecker wasn’t one of them. Rick had been a good guy and he seemed to make Maddy happy, so that had been good enough for Ronan. He had never considered himself the jealous type, but every time he saw the two of them together, the green-eyed monster would rear its ugly head.
    When had he first fallen for her? If he had to nail it down, it was when she punched out Billy Hollibrand in the school parking lot. Maddy was feisty—a take-no-shit kind of girl—and if you asked Ronan’s mother, that was exactly the type of woman he needed. Hollibrand had been the town bully, and when Maddy moved there in ninth grade, Billy made the mistake of trying to push her around. The jerkoff made fun of her curly hair and grabbed her ass. Two seconds later, the boy was on the ground nursing a bloody nose.
    A smile curved Ronan’s lips at the memory.
    â€œYo, McGuire.” His captain’s voice pulled him from his daydreaming. “You awake over there?”
    Bowser was lying in his bed next to Ronan’s desk, but he lifted his head and turned his brown eyes toward Ronan when the captain approached. If Ronan didn’t know better, he’d swear the dog was laughing at him.
    â€œWide awake, Cap.” Ronan adjusted his chair as Bowser settled his snout on his front paws again. “Can’t say the same for my partner.”
    Bowser whined and made a snuffling sound before closing his eyes. Ronan couldn’t really blame the dog—he was pretty beat himself. They had gotten back-to-back calls from two departments upstate. Not all of the counties in the state had K-9s, so he and Bowser helped out when necessary, lending a hand—or a paw—as needed.
    Both cases had been high-stress with even higher stakes.
    Luckily the little girl who had wandered away from her family’s campsite was found safely, and so was the teenager who got separated from her friends on a hike. She must have been the only teen girl in the tristate area who didn’t have a damn cell phone attached to her. Needless to say, it had been long days and longer nights, but both searches ended with happy parents.
    Captain Jenkins strolled over, hoisting his uniform pants over his belly. The guy might be out of shape and only a couple years from retirement, but he was one of the best cops Ronan had worked with. Jenkins and his partner, Saratoga, a sweet bloodhound with wide, caramel-colored eyes, were in-house most of the time these days. Saratoga was retired, but like all K-9s, she would live out the rest of her days with her partner and his family. In Jenkins’s case, that was only him.
    â€œWhy are you and Bowser here?” Jenkins settled his hands on his hips and pointed at Bowser just as Saratoga sidled over and lay down next to her friend. “You two have been goin’ nonstop for the past three days. You should have taken today off, and you know it.”
    â€œNo can do, Cap.” Ronan hit a few buttons on the keyboard and printed out his report from the last search.