Dying to Have Her Read Online Free PDF

been a way to close the door in his mind, though, so there had still been those nights, lying awake. He could picture her, always, in his mind’s eye. No one in the world had hair like hers, deep, dark auburn, richer than a fire at sunset. And her eyes … like a turquoise sea. And her shape, tall, statuesque.
    “No.”
    “Liam, you have to.”
    “No. I’d want way too much money. I’d want …” He thought for a moment, then named an outrageous sum.
    “Well, I’m going to be gumshoeing it for a fraction of that,” Bill told him wryly. “Shit. I should have left the department. Olsen could have called me in for half of that. But I told you—the producers are paying. Serena is their biggie now, especially with Jennifer Markham off the set.”
    “I still say no.”
    “What if something does happen to her, something you might have prevented?”
    Liam sat on the couch, his grip on the receiver so tight it might snap.
    Hell, he had been the one to walk away.
    Yeah, physically.
    Because she just hadn’t really been with him. He’d been involved to the neck; she’d been involved to her own convenience. Best to back away before he became another casualty along the path of Serena McCormack’s spectacular rise to worldwide domination.
    And still …
    If something were to happen to her that he could have prevented …
    “Where does Olsen want to brief me?”
    “Down at the station.”
    “At the station? What about the set?”
    “The set is closed down today and tomorrow. They’ll reopen after the funeral and the weekend. For now, Olsen wants to see you at the station.”
    “All right, I’ll go to the station. But I need to see the set. As soon as possible.”
    “That can be arranged right after you see Olsen. Who, by the way, has already informed Captain Rigger that he’s trying to bring you in.”
    Captain Rigger. Liam shook his head. The captain had managed the homicide unit as long as he had been with the force. Liam had first met him when he’d been a rebellious teen and the bodies of a friend and his entire family had been found in their house, which had caught fire. Liam had been the one to see the flames and call 911; Rigger had been the detective who tracked down the mother’s boyfriend when it was discovered that the wife and children hadn’t been murdered by the father, who was found with a bullet in his head, a gun by his hand. Forensics had proved that the father had been dead far longer than the mother and children.
    He had met up with Rigger again later when he was diving for the police. Rigger had been impressed with his work and brought him into the regular force. At that time, he’d had no interest in college. Rigger had, over the first years, subtly made him see the benefits to going to night school and taking the time to get a degree in criminology. Eventually, Rigger had brought him off the streets to homicide.
    He owed Rigger. And Olsen.
    “Dammit, Liam, you there?”
    “Yeah, I’m here. All right, you can tell Olsen I’ll be there in a couple of hours.”
    “Thanks. I mean it—thanks.”
    Bill rang off. Liam set down the receiver. “Shit!” he swore. “Shit!”
    He sat on his couch for several minutes, tight as a bowstring. Then he remembered what he was supposed to be doing that day. He picked up the phone and called Sharon.
    She answered with her usual endless cheer. “Are you coming for me?” she asked. “Hey, if you’re sorry that you asked a date along—”
    “I’m not sorry that I asked you. But I need to take a rain check. Something has come up.”
    “Oh?”
    “A case. It involves a lot of old friends. I’m really, honestly, sorry. Do you understand?”
    “Sure.”
    “There’s been a death at a television studio.”
    “Valentine Valley?”
    “How did you know that?” he inquired.
    “When I met you, I knew you’d worked on the last case that involved Valentine Valley. And Serena McCormack,” Sharon said.
    “Serena wasn’t really involved in that