Dangerous Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page B

her knee and fumbled for a way to get out of here.
    “I asked about Kendall’s phone and you went all squirrelly on me. What’s the deal?”
    She forced her body to be still. Jake didn’t look as friendly. Now he acted like a dog angling to sneak off with the Thanksgiving turkey.
    “Oh, nothing. Just remembered that someone promised to call me. No big deal.” She smiled so tightly her cheeks ached.
    “The look on your face says it’s a big deal.”
    She chewed on her bottom lip until a sharp pain stopped her. Damn. She’d been doing that so much today. It hurt. “It’s not, um, a big deal…for you, I mean. For me, it’s a, um, very, very big deal.”
    She mentally smacked herself upside the head. Man, she sucked at lying. Even Chris looked at her as if she were some crazy lady. “Did you get anything to drink? Suzie here makes a great iced coffee.” Now she babbled.
    She glanced at Chris, silently beseeching him for help. He looked at her like she had two heads. Suzie wouldn’t even make eye contact.
    “I’m okay. Now, about Kendall’s phone, do you know what happened to it?” His tractor-beam gaze drew her in.
    “It’s not here at the restaurant.” Ugh, why couldn’t she just shut up?
    “How do you know it’s not at the restaurant? Did you look for it? Why would you do that?”
    “Um, curiosity?” There went the nervous leg jiggle again.
    He slapped his papers on the bar and leaned away from her. “Really? What was it about the phone that made you so curious?”
    Her tongue stuck to the roof of her dry mouth. She couldn’t think of anything that even remotely sounded plausible. No way could she tell Jake about the killer’s threats. She couldn’t risk her family. What could she say? Jake stared her down, making her feel about an inch tall. She wished he’d start talking again.
    “I thought I might find you still here.” Hank’s deep baritone broke the silence.
    He walked into the bar and tossed a set of car keys in her general direction. She caught them automatically. There were benefits to growing up with brothers, such as the no-look catch.
    “Parked your Jeep in the lot. Sorry we had to keep it last night.”
    Hank fixed Jake with a straight stare. The two men sized each other up. If either had a measuring stick, no doubt this was when they would have broken it out. Men.
    “Sheriff Layton.” Jake nodded toward the man in uniform.
    “Call me Hank.”
    The statement was friendly. The tone was not. Hank didn’t offer his hand to Jake in greeting. Either Jake didn’t notice or he didn’t care about the slight because he went on as if nothing awkward had happened.
    “OK, Hank. I was just talking to your sister about Kendall’s missing phone. It seems Claire was searching the restaurant for it. Did you ask her to do that?”
    “No.” He turned and looked at her. “Claire, why were you looking for a phone? And why did you ask me about whether we found one last night?” His testy tone was as effective as an interrogator shining a light in her face.
    Both men stared at her. They had to know she hid something. What was she supposed to say? Maybe she should come clean? But where to start?
    She weighed the benefits of telling versus the killer’s threats. Her palms became clammy at the reminder of last night’s terrifying phone call. Once again, fear and panic boiled within her.
    No one in the bar moved. Her gaze jumped from one person to another before landing on Jake. His face softened and he gave her an encouraging nod. She had to tell. Too much was at stake to keep it to herself.
    Harvest’s assistant manager Jorge Sanchez burst into the room, stopping just inside the doorway. “Claire!”
    “Not right now, Jorge.” She steeled herself for whatever the fallout would be for not speaking up about the phone call sooner.
    “But, Claire, your Jeep is on fire.”
     
     

Chapter Four
     
    H eat slapped Jake across the face. From the doorway, he watched the Jeep burn like a bonfire