Lovers and Madmen(Sasha McCandless 4.5) Read Online Free PDF

Clarissa.”
    “Right again. His hammer was a Craftsman Professional.
Clarissa was killed with a DeWalt,” she said in a neutral tone.
    “So. Vickers/Moravian stole Nick’s hammer,
planning to kill Clarissa with it. Nick replaced it with a DeWalt and he killed her?”
    “It does seem farfetched,” Sasha said.
    “But he had motive and opportunity. And if he had
a hammer—means.”
    Sasha shrugged.
    “Talk to me,” Connelly said.
    She shook her head. “I really can’t. Believe me. I can’t. ”
    They looked at each other for a long moment, and
she watched as frustration warred with acceptance on his face.
    She was bound by ethical obligations that he neither
understood nor appreciated. In fact, she knew many of her legal
responsibilities and commitments to her clients didn’t sit right with Connelly.
But she thought— hoped —they’d reached a point in their relationship where
he’d support her anyway. She realized she was holding her breath.
    Finally, he sighed. “Okay.”
    It was just one word, but it allowed her to
exhale.
    “Just, please, will you take Kathryn to the
airport and make sure she gets on that plane? She obviously hates me right now.
She’s still at least a little bit smitten with you.”
    “Smitten?” he repeated.
    She watched him suppress a smile.
    “Smitten. A smitten kitten,” she said, leaning in
and nuzzling his neck.
    She felt his body yield to her at once, inviting
her to draw closer.
    Upstairs, the water shut off.
    Sasha jumped to her feet.
    Connelly groaned and stood as well. He gave Sasha
a long, hungry look.
    “We need to get this smitten kitten on her way.
You’re driving me crazy,” he said in a husky voice. He trailed a finger along
her arm.
    She shivered. She knew the feeling.
    “Tonight,” she said as she focused on keeping her
knees from buckling.
     

CHAPTER 6
     
     
    Sasha raised her head at
the soft rapping on her office door.
    “Come in.”
    Naya pushed the door inward and poked her head
through the opening. “You have time to talk to your favorite legal assistant?”
    “Only legal assistant,” Sasha reminded her and
pointed toward her guest chair.
    Naya flashed her a smile. “Actually, I thought I’d
go with you to Whole Foods, so you can get your shopping done for your big
surprise.”
    Sasha checked the time.
    “It’s only ten thirty.”
    “So? Jake’ll let you keep your stuff in the fridge
until the end of the day. Besides, you wait too long, you’ll be frantically
fighting off some other crazy lady for the last wheel of brie or some crap.”
    “Okay, if you want to tag along. I’d love the
company.”
    She saved the motion to compel she’d been drafting
and checked her phone to confirm her detailed ingredient list was on it.
    Grocery stores inspired a confused dread in Sasha.
She usually ended up wandering around with no clear goal in mind, then she
would get frustrated, throw an assortment of unrelated items into her basket,
and check out. Only to find when she returned home that she had nothing that
she could turn into a meal.
    Not this time. She’d mapped out this meal with the
precision of an engineer or an architect. Ingredients listed and
cross-referenced with the grocery store layout; recipes ready; a timeline for
prepping each course. She’d handled trials with less preparation.
    She shrugged into her coat and followed Naya
across the hall to her office.
    “You up for some P & T gossip?” Naya asked
over her shoulder.
    P & T—Prescott and Talbott—was Pittsburgh’s
most prestigious law firm and their former employer. After Sasha had left to
start her own practice, she’d spent months wooing Naya, who was both a friend and
the undisputed best legal assistant at the firm.
    Naya had come to work for Sasha six months’
earlier but managed to remain as plugged into the firm’s unofficial information
network as ever. Sasha, in contrast, tried to keep her contacts with the firm
to a minimum. It was hard to believe she’d worked