Dark Knight: A Loveswept Romance Classic Read Online Free PDF

further information on Logan Blackstone?”
    There was a brief pause. “You have specific concerns?”
    “He’s had training above and beyond any local police department, even Detroit.”
    “Curiosity, Giardi?”
    “Caution, sir.” She knew he didn’t buy that. Still, she had opened the subject. And she was curious enough to pursue it. “Your daughter had a contact with a former Detroit cop in New Mexico, didn’t she? Vince Gerraro Ithink his name was. He’d have been on the force the same time as Blackstone. Might be worth a call.”
    “Unless you have a specific concern, I don’t have the man power to put on that right now. You do have him contained, don’t you?”
    She clamped her jaw tight. “Yes, sir.”
    There was another brief pause. “I’ll see what I can dig up.” It wasn’t a promise, but it was more than she’d hoped for. “You know better than anyone that we’re stretched pretty thin.”
    “Apparently not as thin as I’d thought.”
    This time the pause wasn’t one of consideration. There was no attempt to mask the hard edge to his tone. “There was no time to send the latest report through me. There is a messenger already en route to you, direct from the base site near the compound. It should be at station two in three hours. Can you rendezvous?”
    Scottie glanced over her shoulder at the cabin, thinking of the man chained within. Station two was the location where she’d hidden the snowmobile. The round-trip would take her out of the cabin for approximately six hours. With less confidence than she should be feeling, she said, “I’ll be there.”
    “I will update you again tomorrow by this link at twelve hundred hours. The link won’t be operational at any other time. If you don’t hear from me by then, clear out.”
    Scottie wondered how in the hell he expected her to clear out of a snowbound cabin with two hundred-plus pounds of recalcitrant hostage in tow, but didn’t voice the question. If necessary, she’d find a way. And Del knew it.
    That measure of trust should have eased some of the continued sting that Del’s abrupt reentry had delivered. It did. But not enough to make it go away. She wasn’t sure what that was going to take, but now was not the time to analyze it. Her emotions had been on more of a roller coaster in the past twenty-four hours than she’d allowed in many years. She wasn’t ready to look too deeply at anything more at the moment.
    “Yes, sir,” she replied, then disconnected the call.
    She tucked the phone back in her pants, then took advantage of the growing light to run a quick reconnaissance of the cabin. Satisfied that all was as usual, she went back inside.
    Without wasting time, she immediately pulled on her parka. She grabbed three protein bars, stuffed two in her pocket and peeled the other as she walked determinedly into the bedroom.
    “I will be gone for six hours. You might want to eat this.” She held it close enough for him to take a bite. She’d purposely not focused directly on him, but the intensity of his gaze eventually pulled hers in.
    “No bacon, huh?” The humor in his tone didn’t reflect even a ripple of emotion in his flat eyes.
    “Sorry. All out. Take it or wait until this afternoon.”
    “At which time I will have a different menu selection?”
    She glared at him. “You have about thirty seconds. Decide.”
    He lifted his head the fraction of an inch necessary and took a bite. Scottie watched strong, white teeth clamp down on the chewy bar and tear off the end. She fought the urge to pull her fingertips farther away. When he clamped on the last inch or so, she let go, butwas unable to tear her gaze away from the workings of his jaw. When he swallowed the last bite, she swallowed as well … in relief.
    “I don’t suppose I get water rations with this?”
    Scottie wanted nothing better than to walk directly out of the cabin and straight down the mountain, but she couldn’t. Without looking at him again, she