Colby Velocity Read Online Free PDF Page A

unashamed. Wayne was reliable and she had slept with him. But that was history. History Leland Rockford had no need to know. She hadn’t communicated with Wayne in three years…other than the occasional e-mail.
    â€œThat should make life a lot simpler.” Rocky plucked a cold French fry from his plate and popped it into his mouth. “For the case anyway.”
    Kendra let the innuendo slide. She moistened her lips, shouldn’t have stared at his, but it was difficult not to. He had very generous lips for a man. Everything about him was a contradiction. His appearance gave away nothing of his past life. His slow, methodical manner of conversing totally belied his state school academic record. The man was incredibly smart and far more insightful thanhe apparently wanted anyone to know, including his current partner.
    And yet he didn’t seem to get how this was going to play out. “Nothing about this investigation will be simple,” she warned. “This is a community filled with secrets and powerful people who know how to keep the important ones—unless it benefits them somehow to share those secrets. We’ll have to dig deeper and work harder for every single detail.”
    Rocky propped his forearms on the table and leaned forward. “Good thing neither of us is the type to surrender without a fight.”
    She resisted the impulse to recline deeper into the faux leather of the booth to regain those few inches of distance he had claimed. He’d done this at the hotel when he’d insisted on opening the door to her room and seeing her inside before going to his room next door. He’d gotten closer than he’d dared before, had looked her directly in the eyes and spoke quietly as if what he had to say wasn’t to be overheard. That it was somehow intimate. Maybe it was her imagination but she hadn’t noticed him doing that before.
    She would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that he’d made her shiver. Something no other man had done with such ease.
    Quite possibly she was making too much of it. She’d had zero sleep and Yoni’s murder had her onan emotional ledge. She stared at her untouched food. Her appetite was AWOL. But she needed to eat. Coffee alone wouldn’t keep her on her toes.
    She kept replaying every moment of last night’s meeting with Yoni. What had she missed? Had he said anything at all that should have clued her in to the fact that he was in imminent danger?
    How could she call herself a private investigator when she’d completely misread the urgency in a potential client she knew so well?
    â€œYou shouldn’t beat yourself up.”
    Kendra blinked. So now he was a mind reader? “I was just—”
    â€œThinking how you should have seen this coming?”
    Definitely a mind reader. “Maybe.” Surely she’d missed something relevant in last night’s meeting. Something he’d said…
    â€œHe failed to tell you everything.”
    She wanted to challenge that assessment. To defend her friend…she had known Yoni as well as anyone who’d worked with him could have. But logic told her that Rocky had pegged the situation. Yoni had been worried enough to contact her, to draw her from her new life. Yet he hadn’t once mentioned fear for his safety…only for his professional reputation.
    â€œIt’s possible he had no idea the source of thethreat would go this far,” she proposed. “Frankly, his murder may prove unrelated to his reasons for coming to me. There’s no way to guess.”
    â€œBut you don’t believe that,” Rocky suggested with equal conviction.
    â€œNo.” Rocky was her partner in this assignment. Choosing not to be completely honest served no purpose. “I believe there is more…that he didn’t tell me.” It pained her to say as much, but it was true. “If that proves the case, then he had a compelling