Last Night Read Online Free PDF Page B

of underwear he'd forgotten. The shirt had more wrinkles than crepe paper and it was a little tight. He'd probably used water that was too hot again.
    The doorbell rang and he flicked on the porch light as he opened the door. For a moment he stood there like a cigar-store Indian. "Well, I ' ll be damned. "
    "Hello. " Dana's voice was low, uncertain.
    "Garth sent you? " he asked, half-hoping she ' d come on her own and she wasn't Garth ' s client.
    She nodded and he took one step back to let her in, wishing he ' d shaved. Look at her! The black robes that made her look like Mother Superior were gone. She was wearing a slinky blue number that fit her cute ass like shrink wrap. Those God-awful glasses were history. Her eyes shone a luminous green. And serious as hell.
    Okay, Garth said she was in trouble, but come on. This was Dana Hamilton. Blackmail? Over what? Making personal calls on the court ' s phone? Better yet, she ' d fudged on her taxes and the IRS would be on her cute tail if the informant turned her in to get the government reward.
    "Garth explained? " she asked.
    Not nearly enough. "A little. "
    "I have some reservations about our being able to work together. "
    That got him. He stabbed at the air between them with his finger. "Don ' t be such a tight ass, Dana. " Honest to God, why couldn ' t he control his temper? More and more he lashed out and was disgusted with himself later. "Go ahead, say what you mean. You must be desperate to be knocking on my door. "
    She glared at him, her eyes telegraphing what she couldn't bring herself to say. Finally, she looked at the toes of her pumps. " Garth said you were the best, or I wouldn ' t be here. I ' d like to hire you. "
    " I don ' t know if I want to work for you. " He leaned one shoulder against the doorjamb. " I don ' t like being treated like shit. "
    There was a moment of total silence, punctuated by the sound of the surf breaking on the beach and the wind rustling through the palms. The night was balmy, slightly warmer than usual, and filled with the scent of the tropical flowers that grew along his terrace, separating his home from his neighbors.
    " I ' m … sorry. I was rude to you today at lunch. "
    All right. He'd gotten to her. She'd apologized, but only because he ' d forced her. And she was pissed—big time—about it. That meant she'd had no choice. She really did need him. His stomach chose that moment to rumble like distant thunder.
    He grabbed her arm and steered her back outside. " I ' m starving. Let ' s run down to Coconut Willie ' s and talk. I'm supposed to meet someone there in an hour anyway. "
     
     
    D ana held on, her hands gripping the Porsche ' s seat as Rob drove down the highway. Really, this was more terrifying than bungee jumping. If she didn ' t need help so desperately she ' d tell the creep to drop dead. But she needed Rob Tagett.
    Hard as that was to believe. He looked nothing like a detective in his grubby cutoffs and a T-shirt that was two sizes too small. She would have to work with him. That ' s what happened when you made a bargain with the devil the way she had two decades ago.
    Now she had to rely on a man who ' d already proven how much damage he could do to her career. Was she crazy? Probably, but Garth had convinced her. She had the queasy feeling that she was going to regret this.
    They drove along the blacktop road into the outskirts of the old sugar mill village of Kahuku. Wooden homes with rusted tin roofs, roadside vegetable stands with hand-painted signs, boarded-up company stores. Somehow the twentieth century had bypassed Kahuku, leaving a vestige of the island ' s plantation days.
    They pulled into a roadside tavern. Tourists never stopped at grass shacks like Coconut Willie ' s, Dana thought. It was on the water, but the battered vehicles in the parking lot and the toilet seats haphaz ardly nailed to the exterior discouraged tourists who happened to venture beyond their territory to this stretch of the north