Dangerous Alterations Read Online Free PDF Page B

bury a body, don’t you?”
    “Bury a body?” she echoed.
    With a sniff, Leona cut through Tori’s inquiry. “That’s what we do with dead bodies in civilized places, dear. Leaving them to litter the sidewalks as they do in Chicago is simply not done here.”
    Tori’s laugh echoed over the sound of the next jet as it hurtled its way down the runway just beyond the bank of trees that framed the back edge of the parking lot. “One of these days, Leona, I will get to the bottom of your issues where Chicago is concerned.”
    “Issues?” Leona groused. “I have no issues.”
    Rose snorted.
    Leona stamped her foot. “Rose Winters, enough!”
    Tori held up her hands. “Ladies, ladies, please. I’m … I’m touched that the three of you made the drive out here just to make sure I’m okay. It means more than you could ever know. But I’ll be okay. Really.”
    “Of course you will be. Your sweet Milo would have our heads if you weren’t.”
    Milo.
    Inhaling the much-needed sense of calm that invariably came with the mention of his name, Tori leaned her head against the seat.
    “He would if he knew .”
    Just like that, Leona’s public summation made mincemeat of Tori’s calm.
    “Milo doesn’t know that tomcat is in town?”
    She closed her eyes against the disbelief in Margaret Louise’s voice.
    “Our dear Victoria didn’t want to upset him.”
    So much for confiding in Leona …
    In a flash, Margaret Louise was around the car and sitting in Tori’s passenger seat. “It’s not ’bout being upset, Victoria. It’s ’bout sharin’ your troubles with the man you love.”
    Was Margaret Louise right? Had she made a mistake in not telling Milo about Jeff’s trip to South Carolina?
    Leona tsked under her breath. “Twin, get with the program, will you? Victoria didn’t tell him because she didn’t want to get him all green-eyed. Though, if you ask me, every man could stand to have his hold on a woman shaken from time to time. Keeps them more attentive.”
    “I’m not worried about him being jealous,” Tori protested.
    “Then why didn’t you tell him?”
    She met Rose’s questioning eyes, saw the uncertainty in her own reflected in them.
    The ring of her cell phone saved her from having to offer an answer she didn’t have. Peeking down at the display screen, she felt her mouth go dry.
    Jeff.
    Suddenly, the distraction her friends had provided with their unexpected appearance was over. She could no longer ignore the reason she was there in the first place.
    “It’s him, ain’t it?” Margaret Louise asked.
    She inhaled deeply, then nodded and reached for the phone.
    “He can’t hurt you no more, Victoria. Remember that.”
    Margaret Louise was right. The days of trying to piece her life back together again were long gone and she was better than ever.
    “I can do this,” she mumbled before flipping the phone open and holding it to her ear. “I’ll be there in two minutes.”
     
     
    She could feel his eyes inspecting every nuance of her body just as surely as she could see Margaret Louise’s pale blue station wagon tailing her from three cars back. “So … um … how was your flight?”
    It was the safest question she could think of at the moment—something relatively innocuous to keep her from giving him a similar once-over. Besides, she already knew the way his dark blond hair curled at the point where it met his ears. And she already knew the way he used his emerald green eyes to wow the female population.
    It was how to forget him that she’d fought so hard to learn only to throw it all away in a moment of misguided kindness.
    I am an idiot …
    “It was good. But sitting here now, next to you, is even better.” His deep voice tickled her ear and she tightened her grip on the steering wheel in response. “You look great. Amazing, actually. The south certainly agrees with you.”
    “It does.” Swinging her gaze upward, she noted the way Margaret Louise sped up as Tori approached an