Bad to the Bone (Wicked Reads) Read Online Free PDF Page A

next
step in her life would be. She could quit her job and travel. There
was enough insurance money from Tommy’s premature death from a
brain hemorrhage to last her five lifetimes. She could start her
own business. Or maybe go back to school and get her law degree.
She’d secretly dreamed of being a shark prosecutor. Tommy had
laughed when she’d told him her secret, and he’d said she didn’t
have the temperament for it. So, she’d gone for a teaching
credential like he’d suggested and now hung out with six-year-olds
all day.
    Her ire rose. She had a backbone. She was
smart. Maybe she was cut out to be a crackerjack prosecutor.
And maybe she’d find out.
    As soon as she put the key into the door,
Olivia knew something was wrong. She pushed it open and swore up a
storm. From where she stood at the end of the small hallway, she
could see that her kitchen was a shambles. The rest of the house
probably was as well. She knew enough not to go inside. She closed
the door, got back into her car and called the cops.
    “Olivia,” Detective Josiah Ames said, leading
her to a foldout chair in the garage. “With nothing missing, this
screams of an act of vengeance. Any idea who would do this?”
    Olivia shivered. She had no clue. She looked
up at Jos and, despite the fact someone had trashed her house in a
fit of anger, she gave him her full attention. He had a Robert
Redford-in-his-heyday quality. That rugged, blond, Harvard look.
There was a time when Jos had made her feel like she was the only
girl on the planet. For a two-timing-son-of-a-bitch, he’d aged
well. He had the good grace to blush under her narrowed glare.
“Howz the wife and kid?” she asked a little more harshly than she
meant.
    Josiah looked down at the floor, then
answered. “Ann and I have been separated for three years.” His dark
brown eyes rose to hers. “The divorce will be final next week.”
    Served him right. “So much for knocking up
your fiancée’s best friend on prom night, then having to marry her,
huh?”
    He had the grace to wince.
    And she had the grace not to rub in what had
been the most humiliating and painful incident of her life. It had
been classic high school drama. Just two months before she was
going to marry her knight in shining armor, he’d fucked her best
friend. A wave of guilt washed across her conscience. Tommy had
been her rebound relationship. She’d married him to spite Josiah.
Tommy was no fool. He’d known, but loved her anyway. And for that,
she was grateful. Their love wasn’t one of those epic romances, but
it worked for them. Now Tommy was dead, Josiah was getting a
divorce, and the one man she wanted most couldn’t commit to a damn
doctor’s appointment much less a relationship.
    Josiah touched her hand. “Liv,” he softly
said. With nothing left to lose, and her anger suddenly gone,
Olivia looked at him. “I’m so sorry.” His eyes told her the truth.
It took him eleven years to tell her, but he was as sorry as a man
could be.
    She smiled, placed her hand over his, and
squeezed it. “No hard feelings if you can tell me who did this to
my house.”
    He stood and looked over at the tech guys
coming out of the kitchen. “We lifted a few prints,” the lead tech
said, “We’ll see what comes up.”
    Josiah turned back to her and said, “Look,
you can’t stay here tonight. Why don’t you come stay at my place? I
have a spare room with its own bathroom—”
    Olivia was about to decline when she sensed a
presence behind her. She turned to see Vaden staring hotly at her
from the edge of the open garage. Her heart dropped to her feet,
and her belly buzzed as if a swarm of bees had been let loose
inside of her. He was dressed in street clothes. What was he doing
here, on his day off? Carefully, she kept her composure. “I
couldn’t impose like that, Jos—”
    He squeezed her hand and flashed his
Hollywood smile. “No imposition at all. We have eleven years of
catching up to do.” He looked