Nemesis (Southern Comfort) Read Online Free PDF

I’m sorry. But why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”
    “It wasn’t, uh, planned,” Sadie hedged, jostling forward as someone bumped her from behind.  The loud yelp from the vicinity of her feet drew her attention back to the schnauzer.
    “Good Lord.  Let me get this dog out of here before he gets trampled.”    Kathleen corralled the enthusiastic animal and reacquainted him with the crepe myrtle to which he’d previously been tied.
    “Sorry,” she reiterated again, then just stood back and looked at Sadie.  “I can’t believe you’re really here.”
     
    SADIE felt the tears prick before she could stop them.  It had been ages since she’d been home, not since the day following her grandma’s funeral, when her aunt and uncle had reluctantly assumed guardianship and she’d been whisked off to Colorado.  She and Kathleen had kept in close contact through the years, getting together for the odd spring break in college or random extended weekend after graduation, but since Sadie had gotten so caught up in Rick and his life and Kathleen had made detective here in Charleston, their real communication had withered to a few calls every month and increasingly irregular e-mails.  Nonetheless, Sadie still considered Kathleen the best friend she’d ever had. 
    “So how are you?  How’s Rick?” Kathleen asked.
    To Sadie’s horror her bottom lip started to tremble.  “He’s not… we’re not…”  She gestured vaguely to her ring-less finger.
    One look at her friend’s face had Kathleen’s eyes shooting fire.  “Is there an investment banker somewhere in Denver that I need to hunt down?”
    And like all the times past when Sadie’s heart had been aching, Kathleen’s unwavering loyalty made everything better.  “I thought your job was to put killers in jail, not join their ranks.”
    “ Yeah, well.  It’s scumbag season and I haven’t quite filled my quota.”
    Sadie ’s spirits lifted, the weight of her previous uncertainty sliding off her shoulders. It was so damn good to be home. “While that may be, you can save yourself the airfare, because I walked out on Rick.”
    “No shit?” Kathleen asked, brow raising.
    “No shit.” 
    “Well I’m pretty sure that calls for a drink.  I never liked him much anyway.”
    Kathleen wrapped a supportive arm around her shoulder and steered her toward the bar. 
    “So do we hate all men or just want to shamelessly use them for their bodies?” she asked as they bellied up. 
    “Um, neither?” Sadie said on a little laugh.  She knew that she couldn’t hold anyone else in contempt – let alone a whole gender – just because she’d allowed one man to damage her self-esteem.  And really, that was at least as much her fault as Rick’s.  Presenting a widely edited version of herself hadn’t been honest or fair to either one of them.  “Right now I’d really just like a beer.”
    “ That,” Kathleen nodded with approval, “can be arranged.” Then she raised a hand to grab her brothers’ attention.
    And Sadie’s heart gave a little flip.  The last time she’d seen the twins they’d been thirteen-year-old hellions in ill-fitting suits, awkwardly avoiding eye contact across the fresh dirt of her grandmother’s grave.  The two frighteningly attractive men whose piercing gazes both turned her way surely could not be the same obnoxious boys who’d driven her crazy.
    Well, Declan had driven her crazy. Rogan actually hadn’t been all that bad, other than helping Declan set mice loose in her bedroom one night and hogging the mint chip ice cream before she and Kathleen could get to it.  They’d always been like… flip sides of a coin, she guessed.  Impossibly connected, yet opposite.
    With no doubt which one was tails. 
    But nonetheless, those boys bore no discernible resemblance to the men that appeared before her.  They’d been skinny and dirty all the time, unruly hair always in their eyes, and their feet seemed far too