Changing Times Read Online Free PDF Page A

helping a friend with his business.” He clipped his
words off one by one as though there were a deficit in his vocabulary budget.
    “Would that friend be Nolan or Micah?”
    His lips stretched in the semblance of a smile. She could
tell her questions were irritating him. “Yes, I was helping Micah.”
    All his terseness did was to intrigue her more. “And what
does Micah do?”
    “Among other things, he’s a bounty hunter.”
    “Bounty hunter?” Micah had seemed so gentle in spite of his
actions that evening that she couldn’t see him in the role Tony described.
Maybe she had judged them as sane too quickly. Poisoned by silver ? A
bounty hunter ? None of this added up to normal .
    Tony nodded with a smile. “It’s not such an uncommon job and
it isn’t like that reality show. They just pick the really high-profile cases
to show. Usually it’s a safe job. Bondsman calls Micah, Micah picks up the bad
boy or girl, Micah gets paid. This particular one just happened to get a little
rough. We knew going in that it might be, so Micah asked me to join him.”
    “A little rough…? You were shot and poisoned.” Carly pressed
her line of questioning. Something lurked on the edges of his voice as though
he left deliberate holes in his answers. They sounded complete, but her
scientific mind couldn’t find the natural sequence. Cause and effect had to be
in there somewhere.
    “Yeah, but you should see the other guy.” Tony’s grin this
time was definitely feral.
    She sucked in a breath and tried one more time. “But why
silver?”
    “You don’t want to know the answer to that.” The flash of
his teeth sent a distinct chill through her system, immediately stopping any
sensual interest that had flared between them earlier. She decided the better
part of valor would be retreat.
    “Well.” Carly cleared her throat again. “I was just on my
way to look for the kitchen. Can I get you anything?” At his negative shake of
the head, Carly turned to leave the room.
    “Doc?” Tony’s voice stopped her and she turned to face him
again. “Thank you.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    “Doc?” She got as far as the door this time before his voice
stopped her again. “If you want to come by the shop sometime, call me first so
I can set aside some time to meet with you.”
    “Thank you, I may do that.”
    “Say, Doc?” Again, he stopped her before she got out of the
door. This time she turned with a slightly exasperated smile. “What’s your
name?”
    “Carly Chambers. Good night, Mr. Pantera.”
    “Tony.”
    “Goodnight, Tony.” Carly smiled as she left the room. She
wandered down the hallway toward a flight of stairs. Fortunately, this one
ended in the kitchen. Obviously those were the “servants’ stairs” from when
this house had been built.
    Carly got a drink of water and wandered around the spacious
house for a few minutes. There was a low murmur coming from another bedroom and
she recognized the patter as being a local radio station. There was no sign of
the other two men and Carly wondered where they were. She shrugged and found
her way back to the bedroom Micah had shown her to earlier. Carly lay down on
her side and within moments was asleep.
     
    When Carly woke this time, she knew it was late in the
morning. She sat up and stretched. There was a knock on the door and it opened
to admit Nolan who carried an aromatic cup of steaming coffee.
    “Hello, Carly. I brought you some coffee and breakfast will
be ready in about fifteen. I can bring you some clean clothes if you’d like?”
    “That would be great.” Carly couldn’t help but like this
particular kidnapper. He wasn’t that much taller than she was and seemed to be
a nice guy in spite of his profession and the growling thing. Nolan was true to
his word and reappeared in her room a few minutes later with a pair of jeans
and a clean shirt.
    “These might fit you. I’ve brought you a belt because I know
my waist is bigger than yours is. Sorry, I