Love or Justice Read Online Free PDF Page B

held his stomach as he threw his head back and laughed.
    Laurie tried not to laugh, but between Cheyn’s raucous laughter and Dante looking like he was about to kill Cheyn with his bare hands, she couldn’t keep it together. She almost choked on her toast.
    “Hey David, did you hear this? It wasn’t the boss that fended off those two men, it was Laurie.” Cheyn pushed away from the table, conveniently out of Dante’s reach.
    Dante sent his eyes skyward. He pulled his hands through his hair and glared.
    “Well, no, Dante had one of them, I just hit the other one.” Laurie stopped talking when Dante turned his glowering expression on her.
    Cheyn laughed for several more minutes until he wiped tears from his eyes. Dante crossed his arms and stared at him across the table. Finally, Cheyn’s laughter petered out to a chuckle.
    “We appreciate you saving the boss’ life. Even if he did yell at you. Yelling at the poor girl who saved you, not very nice, man, not very nice.” Cheyn shook his head at Dante.
    “Are you done? I have to explain the rules to her, go over the MOU, and show her the safe rooms. Cheyn, she can’t eat with you making her laugh like that. She’s about to choke.” Dante turned a deeper shade of red, as he pushed Laurie’s coffee toward her hand.
    “Then you’ll be able to return the favor and save her life.” Cheyn winked at Laurie.
    Laurie erupted into a fresh burst of laughter, sputtering as she tried not to spit eggs everywhere.
    Dante’s scowl darkened.
    “All right, all right. I’ll go to bed. Miz Laurie, it was a pleasure having breakfast with a bona fide hero. I will see you later tonight.” Cheyn gave her a wink and a little salute.
    He clapped Dante on the shoulder as he walked past, chuckling the whole way out of the room.
    Laurie took a gulp of coffee, still smiling.
    “He seems nice.” She looked up at Dante, trying to hide her grin behind the rim of coffee cup.
    Dante tried not to smile back at her as he leaned forward onto the table. He coughed and shifted in his seat.
    “Don’t ever believe a word he tells you about anything.” Dante looked at her, then his gaze darted away and then back again.
    “Okay.” She shook her head. “What rules do you have to tell me?”
    He cleared his throat and adopted a serious expression.
    “The most important rule is that you do what we ask you to do. For instance, if I say ‘stay in the closet until I come get you,’ you need to stay in the closet until I come and get you .”
    Laurie’s smile faded a tiny bit, but Dante continued.
    “This is just a safe house. You won’t stay here for long. Once the DA has interviewed you, and you’re accepted into the program, you’ll be relocated somewhere else. The DA left for Washington, D.C. on business. He might call to talk to you over the phone, but he won’t be able to interview you until he gets back. In the meantime, we’ll get all of the paperwork together so you can enter the program.”
    “Do I get to choose where I live?” Laurie wrapped her hands around her coffee cup, and found comfort in its familiar warmth.
    “No, but I need as much information from you as possible so we can find a suitable place for you to live. While you’re here, and whenever you’re in a safe house, you should never be outside, unless you’re with us. If a car pulls into the driveway, we go out to see who it is. You stay in here, until we bring that person inside. If someone ever comes up to the door, we answer—not you. We have internet here, but we don’t want you contacting anyone. Do you have any family I should contact?”
    Laurie’s gaze drifted down to the table.
    “No.”
    “Your mom, dad—aunts, uncles?”
    Laurie took a deep breath.
    “No,” Laurie said. “My mom and dad died in a car accident with my little brother. I think my dad has a brother, but they live in Oregon and I’ve never met them. I don’t have any family here.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    Laurie looked up at him.