No Limits Read Online Free PDF Page B

any show of meekness—especially when it would be just that, a show.
    “Please, call me Micky,” she said as she coolly extricated herself from his hold and sat back in the booth. “I apologize for intruding on your evening, and for keeping you from your nightcap.”
    “You’re not intruding, chère. Not at all.”
    Chère. It sounded so faux when he said it, so Big Easy. She smiled as if finding it charming. “Thank you. It’s just that I’m having no luck in finding her. The cel number I have for her isn’t working. And she wasn’t at home when I stopped by.”
    She left out the part about Lisa’s curtain-peeping neighbors being of no help. For all she knew, they were this man’s good friends and had already told him about the new girl in town nosing around.
    He took a long moment to respond. She wasn’t sure if he was using the time to fabricate a story or deciding if he believed enough of hers to help her out. If he didn’t, she’d go home and face the music playing there.
    She’d be fine without her father’s approval. Definitely fine without his choice of a husband. Life would go on even if she had partied herself out of a job, though she would need time to come to terms with defending her life, with reconstructing her future from the salvaged remnants of her past. Lisa could help her get started. Lisa had always been the practical one of the two, Micky the impetuous other.
    “I would love to put you in touch with our Lisa,” Judge Landry was saying.
    “Unfortunately, neither Terrill nor I have seen her since Monday.”
    Just like that. No warning. No preparation. No easing her into the truth. No change to his tone of voice as if he was worried or mourning or simply used to her running off. She hoped her face registered at least some of the shock that had stolen her voice because she couldn’t think of anything to ask. “I don’t understand,” she finally came up with. “Are you tell ing me you don’t know where she is? Or just that she’s not home right now?”
    The judge reached for his drink, eyeballed her over the rim of the glass as he sipped. “I remember you now. You’re the one who wasn’t able to make it to the wedding. You know, that was a big disappointment to our girl.”
    The ceremony had been a small private affair in New Orleans, one with very little notice—the couple couldn’t wait—and Micky hadn’t been able to reschedule a trip to Italy on behalf of Ferrer.
    She’d paid for the couple’s honeymoon as a wedding gift, knowing that the long weekend in St. Barts—the only time Terril had been able to take off from work—hardly made up for missing her best friend’s important day.
    Lisa had told her not to worry, and Micky hadn’t, because she had never heard the other woman sound so happy, as if her entire world had been out of balance until Terrill had set it to rights. “It was a big disappointment to me, too. I would have been there if I could.”
    “What was it I heard?” he asked, frowning. “You took a trip to Europe instead?”
    What was he trying to do? What was he implying? “The trip was work and had been planned for months. There was nothing I could do.”
    “The way the newspapers reported it, work wasn’t all that kept you busy while you were there.”
    The old codger. He’d known who she was al l along. She was not going to get into that indiscretion with this man. Her irritation mounting, she crossed her arms, crossed her legs. “You haven’t answered my question, Your Honor. Do you know where Lisa is, or don’t you?”
    He looked her straight in the eye. His eyes were hard, dark, and suddenly cold. “Neither Terrill nor I have any idea.”
    “Are you looking for her?” Micky asked, her stomach beginning to ache. “Is there anything I can do?”
    “You can tel l me if you’ve heard from her.”
    “Would I be here if I had?”
    “I don’t know. Would you?”
    Unbelievable. “You mean would I come al l the way down here and act