Hinekiri Read Online Free PDF

street of Sloan. Mrs. Bates, a local busybody, was making her presence felt, her booming voice cutting across the chatter each time she demanded to see Luke. Tony, who was manning the desk, looked ready to bolt and the din in the tiny waiting area was enough to give a man a headache. There wasn’t a spare seat in the house and they were two deep at the reception desk. At least with this many bodies inside the police station, it wasn’t as easy to see the peeling paint on the walls.
    Richard pushed his way through, trying to avoid Esmerelda Bates. No such luck. The woman didn’t miss a thing.
    “Richard Morgan. About time. I want to see someone in charge.” She pushed her bulk through the waiting people and planted her feet in front of him.
    “I’m on holiday, Esmerelda. You’ll have to talk to Luke. I’ll tell him you’re waiting.” Richard dodged to the left and escaped before she had time to demand he take care of her personally. Esmerelda had always been a busybody even at school and her mind was as narrow as the alley between the police station and the flower shop next door. It always amazed Richard that she’d caught a man given the sharpness of her tongue and her propensity to gossip. Of course, she’d alienated her son because he’d dared to walk a different path than the one she’d decreed. Yep, escape was definitely the wisest course.
    Richard strode past the reception desk and out to the rear offices without looking back. He opened the door leading into Luke’s office and quickly slammed it shut again, cutting the roar of the crowd.
    “Bad out there.” Richard shook his head. “There were so many people at the crop circles, the Sloan Women’s Division have set up a stall. Ted Morrison is selling tickets at his gate.” He sank onto a chair in front of Luke’s desk.
    “That’s the least of our problems.” Luke rummaged through a drawer and pulled out a sheet of pain tabs. He swallowed them down dry. “Dad, can you take Janaya and Hinekiri to Robbie’s Car Parts? I was going to drop them off, but the situation has escalated. I have to see Mrs. Bates. According to Tony, she’s refusing to leave.”
    And his son looked excited about that, Richard thought.
    “As long as I can stop in at the company first for ten minutes or so,” Richard said, standing again.
    Hinekiri sidled up to him, grasped his arm and fluttered her gorgeous eyes at him. She smelled of lemon soap and the outdoors. Richard wished they could spend time alone to give him a chance to ask her out for dinner. Call him old-fashioned, but he didn’t intend to ask a woman for a date while in his son’s presence.
    “Janaya can stay with you, Luke,” Hinekiri said. “Richard and I can handle the shopping.”
    Richard grinned. Good idea.
    Janaya straightened abruptly, frowning at them both. “No. Absolutely not. I’m coming with you. What if something happens to you? What if the Torgon arrive?”
    Richard’s good humor fell away, replaced by a frown. Who were the Torgon? Hinekiri was in danger? He opened his mouth to ask but Hinekiri spoke.
    “All right,” she said in a snippy tone. “I’d like to point out I’ve been managing okay on my own for some time. You sure know how to rain on a girl’s parade.”
    “Huh?” Janaya peered out the small office window. “Rain? It’s not raining.”
    “Never mind,” Luke said. “Just go. Out the back way. And take this.” He unlocked and retrieved a gun from his bottom drawer. After handing it to Janaya, he stood and circled his desk to open the door that led to the corridor and the rear entrance of the police station.
    Richard followed Luke and the two women. Why had Luke given them a gun? Were they on witness protection? What the hell was going on?
    Luke stopped on the steps without warning.
    “Told ya they’d try and sneak out the back,” a short, skinny man crowed. He shoved a fluffy microphone in Luke’s face. “Can you comment about the aliens? Is there any truth