Archer's Lady: Bloodhounds, Book 3 Read Online Free PDF

and his wife kept track of everyone in town, as well as those who made their homes nearby. Looking at their books will refresh my memory.”
    So she knew how to be discreet, then. “Show me.”
    It wasn’t far. They’d passed the jail the day before, but now Grace drew to a stop in front of it, pushed open the boarded front door and stepped out of the morning sunlight.
    It was the same as any of the dozens of jails he’d seen—two barred cells and a desk. The only thing that branded this one any different was the dead houseplant sitting on the edge of the dusty desk. “Did the sheriff leave or get taken?”
    “I’ve never seen a wife as sweetly cherished as Bess.” Not quite an answer. Grace reached for the plant and brushed a trembling finger along one brown, withered leaf. “They took her. He followed.”
    Suicide, nothing less. “The files are in the back office?”
    “Mmm.” She shook herself and circled the desk, headed for the door at the back. “I believe she kept them in a lockbox.”
    A safe. Archer’s hands clenched into fists. “Can you open it?”
    Grace glanced back at him, and that spark of challenge he’d only glimpsed the previous day had taken up residence in her unwavering gaze. “I can open it. I know the combination.”
    Not the sort of information anyone would have shared with her, either. “Good. I’d rather not have to dismantle it.”
    She studied him for a moment longer, and her lips twitched into a half smile as she turned away. “I’m sure you could,” she murmured as she disappeared.
    Following her afforded him a mouthwatering view of her ass in the air as she bent over in front of the safe, her nimble fingers working the dial. “Do they have a file on you in there, sweetheart?”
    “Of course.” A final twist of her wrist, and she reached for the handle. “Are you asking how much of it is accurate?”
    “Not much, I’d wager.” And he didn’t really give a damn.
    “It’s my second chance, Archer.” The heavy metal creaked as she tugged open the door. When she straightened, she held several loose stacks of paper balanced on two flat, expensive-looking books. “If there’s something about me you need to know, I won’t lie to you. But I ran this far to forget my past. It’s neither pleasant, nor anything I care to dwell on.”
    “I’m no threat to you,” he assured her. “Besides, it doesn’t work.”
    “Second chances?”
    “Forgetting.”
    She dropped the heavy stack of papers on the desk, kicking up dust that spiraled upward, dancing through the narrow beams of sunlight from the shuttered window. “Perhaps I’m better at it than you are.”
    No one was good at it—no one with half a conscience, anyway. Archer sank into the chair at the desk and glanced through the first few sheets of paper. “What do you think the vampires want?”
    Grace leaned back against the desk, close enough that her skirts brushed his wrist. “They took the strong men first. Quickly. The women…” She drew a shallow breath. “They took their time before coming back for more.”
    Judging from what Diana had told him, plenty of the bloodsuckers and ghouls had died during those raids. “Did you ever wonder why?”
    “I’ve done little else.” She closed her eyes. “I can imagine four possibilities. They could need them for blood. Or information. To be used as bait. Or—or as sport.”
    The first and fourth possibilities he’d already dismissed because of the inherent danger. Why would they risk themselves to obtain something they could easily get elsewhere? “Information, maybe, but what kind?”
    She shrugged helplessly. “This town is wealthier than some others along the border. More than a few of the families struck gold, but no one’s found more than dust in the river in nearly fifteen years. Of those who are left, no one is at all unusual. Except Diana. And me, I suppose.”
    “Diana told me her cover’s secure. She’s never left anything alive after a