A Woman Without Lies Read Online Free PDF Page A

with wide, haunted eyes. He started to protest, then sagged against the crutches, unable to argue with the dark memories in her eyes.
    “How did you know what I was afraid of?” Derry asked.
    “I’ve been there,” Angel said simply.
    She stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. Derry closed his eyes and smiled.
    “It’s good to have you home again,” he said softly. “The pills are on the kitchen counter.”
    “Do you need any help in the bathroom?” asked Angel as she turned away to get the pills.
    “If I get stuck, I’ll holler for you,” said Derry , grinning crookedly. “Almost like old times, huh?”
    Angel laughed sadly and shook her head.
    “Some homecoming,” she said.
    Smiling, Derry swung his body between the crutches, heading for the downstairs bathroom.
    “Watch the loose tile in the hall,” Angel called after him.
    “I know, I know. I’ve lived here longer than you, remember?”
    Hawk walked closer as Angel went to the kitchen cupboard and got a glass. She filled it with water and turned around.
    Hawk was so close that he startled her.
    “You live with Derry ?” Hawk asked, his voice bland.
    “Only in the summers,” said Angel.
    She set aside the glass in order to wrestle with the cap on the pill bottle.
    “The rest of the year I live in Seattle ,” she continued. “I come up whenever I can, though. Especially on Christmas.”
    Angel’s hands paused as she remembered the first Christmas without her family. Without Grant. Christmas was the worst time for memories and regret and rage.
    She and Derry spent the Christmas season together, knowing that the other would understand if tears rather than smiles came in response to carols and presents.
    But Angel wouldn’t think about that now. Tears couldn’t bring back the dead.
    Beneath Angel’s white-knuckled grip, the cap popped off the bottle and fell to the floor.
    Hawk retrieved the cap with a smooth, rapid motion. He had seen both the sadness and the . . . courage . . . in Angel’s face. He wondered what thoughts had caused her such deep unhappiness.
    Or is Angel simply pretending to feel sadness and determination? Hawk asked himself. Has she found my Achilles heel where other women have failed?
    Has she somehow sensed that there is nothing on earth I respect except the guts it takes to climb out of the deep holes life drops you into?
    “Thank you,” said Angel, her voice tight as she took the cap from Hawk’s lean fingers.
    “Have you lived with Derry long?” he asked.
    “Three years,” Angel said.
    She shook a pill out into her palm.
    “During summers and holidays,” Hawk said, his tone almost neutral.
    Something in the tone of Hawk’s voice brought up Angel’s head sharply. Drifts of pale, soft hair curled around her breasts in sensual contrast to black silk.
    “Didn’t Derry tell you?” Angel asked. “We were all but raised together.”
    “Yes, he told me. Very convenient.”
    Angel shrugged. “Our families lived next door to each other during the summers, and our fathers were brothers in all but blood.”
    “Yet you live in Seattle most of the time?”
    “I’m a U.S. citizen.”
    “When you marry him, that will change.”
    “Marry who?” asked Angel, startled.
    “ Derry ,” said Hawk, watching her with cold brown eyes.
    Angel’s response was just what Hawk had expected, a denial of involvement with Derry .
    As Angel moved her head in a reflexive, negative gesture, a subtle fragrance drifted up from her hair to Hawk’s nostrils. They flared, drinking her scent. Desire ripped through him, but Hawk did not show it. A man who showed need to a woman was a fool.
    Hawk hadn’t been a fool since his eighteenth birthday.
    “I’m like a sister to Derry ,” said Angel.
    “In all but blood,” Hawk added blandly, repeating Angel’s previous words, not believing her.
    “Exactly,” agreed Angel. “ Derry and I are family.”
    She turned away and set the pain pill next to the glass of water on the counter.