Coming Home to You (The Rockport Beach Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

band of Mayberry losers?”
    “Piss off. Why didn’t you shoot him when
you had the chance, Annie Oakley? Do you even have a permit for that thing?”
    Erin throws her hands in the air and lets
out an exasperated sigh. I can’t take it any longer. I realize I brought this
on myself, but there is no reason why I have to sit here and listen to them
argue with each other. I’ve had a hell of a night and this is just adding to my
anxiety.
    “Get out! Both of you! Leave now!” I
shout and it startles not only the two them, but also Bella.
    “What?” Erin asks completely astonished.
    “Yeah, you heard me. Leave. I can’t do
this right now.”
    She stares at me wide-eyed and confused.
I know she thinks I shouldn’t be alone, but if she stays, if Finn stays, I’m
going to feel the need to keep it together. I can’t let either of them see me
falter any more than they already have.
    “Fine,” they both respond in unison, but
leave unwillingly as Finn tells me he’ll be parked outside whether I like it or
not.
    Just before stepping out the door, I run
my fingers along my throat and feel the swollen ridges Jason’s fingers left.
Finn’s eyes dart to my neck and he shakes his head.
    I slam the door before either of them can
see the tears.
    Damn it, Beck. Maybe I do need you.

 
Chapter Four
Beck

 
    “I think I have a lead.”
    I look up as Ryan approaches my desk, one
hand on his hip, the other waving a file in my direction in excitement. The now
confirmed rape and murder of Jane Donovan last weekend has stumped us all for
the past week. We’ve had no leads, no clues, nothing. Nobody has even come
forward to report her missing. Her work colleagues barely knew her and short of
a quick visit to her apartment in Brookline, nothing’s jumped out. It’s been
frustrating as fuck and definitely something I don’t need hanging over my head.
Especially when the captain is banging on with a we need to get these crime solving numbers up , rampage.
    “Really?” I ask, looking up at him.
    Ryan raises an eyebrow at me; something
he does when he’s either pissed or thinks I’m being a smart ass. In this case,
I’m going with the former.
    “Really, Detective Asshole,” he says,
sarcastically
    I smile back. Yep, pissed. “Alright, spit
it out then.” He throws the file on my desk, as though trying to make a point
and I can’t help but ask, “Something bugging you, Ryan?” Falling into the chair
on the other side of my desk, I grin at my friend as he leans back, hands
behind his head and scowls at me. “You look as though you haven’t gotten laid
in a week or something.”
    “I haven’t,” he growls. “But that’s not
what’s bugging me.”
    “No?”
    “No, smart ass,” he says, leaning
forward. “What’s bugging me is the lack of information about this Jane
Donovan.”
    “I thought you said we had a lead?”
    Ryan crosses one leg over his knee and
stares at me. “No, I said, I have a
lead. Big difference, dickhead.”
    I roll my eyes. “Alright, just fucking
spit it out already.”
    Ryan sits up. “So, you know how no family
has reported her missing?” he starts. I nod in response. “And that we haven’t
been able to find any family either?”
    “Yes, none of this is new here.”
    This time it’s Ryan rolling his eyes at
me. “Well, I started digging a little deeper, had the boys go back and look
over her apartment again.”
    “And?” I ask, just wishing he would get
on with it. Ryan has a habit of being overly dramatic when he wants to prove a
point. I get the feeling he’s been watching too many crime dramas and sometimes
forgets he’s not actually on TV or in front of a camera.
    “Well,” he says. “It turns out Jane
Donovan isn’t her real name.”
    “What?” I ask, sitting up straighter now.
This is news.
    “No,” Ryan says, smirking at me. “It’s
actually Jane Dixon. Donovan is her mother’s maiden name, which she started
using after an ex-boyfriend went all