Beautiful Maids All in a Row Read Online Free PDF

turned to me, hands on his hips. “Will you please drop the attitude? I’m serious.”
    “Well, that’s your problem. You’re always too serious. Should be careful about that. You’ll give yourself an ulcer.” The vodka bottle was still beside the chair. I picked it up and took a gulp.
    Luke frowned. “Is that your dinner?”
    “And breakfast, and lunch. It’s better than lobster. Want some?”
    He scoffed. “I’m fine.”
    “Your loss,” I said, taking another swig. He just shook his head, silently judging me. His favorite pastime. “Will you please stop staring at me like that?”
    “How am I staring at you?”
    “Like you’re better than me. You’re not. If you were,” I leaned in, whispering, “you wouldn’t be here.” I fell back in my seat with a triumphant grin. “You’re very brave to show up here, I’ll give you that. Stupid, but brave.”
    “Not going to make this easy for me, are you?”
    “No way in hell. You come, disrupt my life, make judgments about me, insult me, and you expect me to just welcome you with open arms? You’re lucky I don’t toss your ass out.”
    He scanned me up and down. “From the looks of you, you couldn’t lift a cat.”
    “Just let me run upstairs and grab Old Faithful. She’ll get you out of here right quick.”
    He shook his head. “You act so tough, but I can see right through you. Always could.”
    That was why I wanted him the hell out of my house. “Suck my dick.” I picked up the bottle, looking into his crystal-blue eyes, daring him to stop me. As I was about to take another swig, he took a step forward and smacked the bottle out of my hand. My mouth dropped open in shock. “You son of a bitch!”
    “What the hell happened to you? What the fuck happened to Iris Ballard?”
    The tears welled up in my eyes from those words. I’d been asking myself the same question every day for two years. “She died,” I said in a small voice.
God, please don’t let me cry in front of him. Anyone but him.
    Luke gazed down at me, sadness and pity filling his eyes. He bent down, his face so close to mine I could count his freckles.
    “No, she didn’t. You may wish she did, and you may be doing everything in your power to change that fact, but she is still alive.
You
are still alive.
He
died, you didn’t. And I know that if Hayden were alive today, and he saw you like this, it would break his heart like…like it’s breaking mine. Is this how you honor his memory? By living in a crumbling fortress, slowly killing yourself? You used to be fearless. You are the strongest person I know. But you’ve given up, and that isn’t like you. You’re a fighter. So fight. Fight with every damn thing you’ve got to find your way back to yourself. Fight.”
    Luke backed off then, giving me room to breathe. My breath escaped in short bursts. I couldn’t tell if I was incredibly angry or incredibly sad. I went with angry. I stood up, hands shaking, blood running red hot. “How
dare
you come into my house after two years and judge me? How dare you tell me how
my
husband would feel! And how dare you tell me how to cope. You can lecture me when
your
wife’s head is blown off in front of you. When you’ve been terrorized and stabbed in the gut. Until then, don’t you dare fucking presume to tell me what to do or how to behave.”
    He was silent for a minute, his face revealing nothing. Was he even listening to me? I glared at him, willing him to speak. I’d said my peace. I was done. Then, all of a sudden, he left the room. Not the reaction I’d anticipated. I didn’t expect to win so easily. I waited to hear the front door slam. It didn’t. Instead, he returned with his briefcase, slamming it on the coffee table. Opening it, he tossed files as thick as books with the FBI seal on them onto the table before closing the briefcase.
    Luke looked me square in the eye. No emotion, only business. “You’re right. I can’t know what you feel or how I’d react if I were