Fatal Flaw Read Online Free PDF Page A

it inside his desk drawer. She loved the idea of him finding that later. By the time he returned, she was sitting with her feet up on the desk and hands folded in her lap, the picture of innocence.
    As he crossed the threshold with the bags, he stopped short. “What’re you doing over there?”
    “Just waiting for you, my love.”
    He eyed her warily. “And that’s all you’re doing?”
    “What else would I be doing?” It took all her self-control not to descend into laughter. Messing with his need for rigid order was one of her favorite pastimes.
    Sam got up to take the bags from him and gloved up to fill them with the cards. Because the bags were too heavy to carry on her own, he walked her to the car she’d left illegally parked outside the Hart Building.
    Holding the car door for her, he leaned in for a kiss. “Gonna be a long day, huh?”
    “Looks that way.”
    “Here we go again.”
     
     
    Detective Jeannie McBride sat in the window seat in her boyfriend Michael’s bedroom, which overlooked a leafy street in the city’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood.
    “Coffee?” he said, handing her a steaming mug.
    She worked up a smile for him. “Thanks.”
    “Got any plans today?” he asked as he knotted his tie.
    “Nothing special.” How could she tell him it took all she had to get out of bed, to breathe, to eat, to function? Forget about sleeping. Every time she closed her eyes she was back in that yellow room, tied to a bed while a monster attacked her.
    How could she tell Michael that the thought of him or any man touching her made her sick? Or that the overwhelming love she’d once felt for him was gone? It had been replaced by numbness so deep and so pervasive she’d begun to wonder if she’d ever feel anything but nothing ever again.
    “Want to meet me for lunch?”
    Since that would require showering, getting dressed and leaving the cocoon of his comfortable home, she shook her head. “No, thanks.”
    He sat next to her and reached for her hand. “I’m worried about you, Jeannie. Every morning I wake up hoping this might be the day you start to feel a little better, but it seems to be getting worse.”
    “I need some more time.”
    “I hate to see you in so much pain. There has to be something we can do. Maybe that counselor Sam suggested—”
    “No,” Jeannie said sharply—more sharply than she’d intended. He’d been a pillar of strength and comfort in the dark days that followed the attack. He certainly deserved better than her snapping at him. “I’m sorry, but the last thing I need is to relive it all again.” Reliving it once with her lieutenant had been more than enough. Eventually, she’d have to relive it in court too. So no, a counselor was the last thing she needed.
    “Whatever you want.”
    He looked so tired and sad, which only added to her guilt over what she was putting him through. The days when they’d been blissfully happy and newly in love seemed like a long time ago rather than a few short weeks. She reached out to caress his face. “Maybe I should move back to my place. I’m not all that much fun to have around these days.”
    He took her hand and kissed the palm. “That’s not necessary. You feel safer here because of the security system. I want you to feel safe.”
    She didn’t feel safe anywhere. She was a cop, a homicide detective, and she’d been nabbed off the street in broad daylight. Would she ever feel safe again?
    “I had hoped you’d feel better once they caught him.”
    “I do.” How could she tell him that knowing her attacker was behind bars didn’t do a damned thing to erase the memory of what he’d done to her?
    “I thought you’d want to get back to work, back to something that feels normal.”
    What was normal anymore? In her eight years as a police officer she’d learned that you could lock up one monster but there were thousands more just like him roaming the streets looking for someone else to attack, someone else to change