On Pins and Needles Read Online Free PDF

contacted?”
    â€œThere’s a number I can call to have word sent out to the ship and then my parents will have to contact me when they can.”
    â€œThen that’s what you’ll have to do.”
    Just like that, Megan thought. He gave the order and she was supposed to follow it.
    But she’d had a lifetime of role models who bucked authority at every turn and it wasn’t easy for her not to follow in those same shoes. Some thing about just the way he’d given the order made her feel contrary.
    â€œI don’t see why I should have to bother them,” she said. “My parents didn’t have anything to do with whatever happened here any more than I did.”
    â€œThere’s someone buried in your backyard,” Josh said with forced patience, explaining the obvious and then adding to it. “And in the grave, along with the skeleton, is a news pa per dated June, eighteen years ago. That puts the time of death at the exact month, the exact year that your parents high tailed it out of town. Those are a whole lot of reasons why I need to talk to them.”
    â€œThey didn’t hightail it out of town. They left because of a strong social con science and a belief that they could make a difference in the world. Nowhere in that are they the kind of people who would bring harm to another human being, let alone bury them in their backyard and hightail it out of town. ”
    â€œEven good people can do bad things under certain conditions, Megan.”
    She tried not to like the way her name sounded being said by that deep voice of his for the first time.
    â€œMy parents don’t do bad things under any conditions. They wouldn’t even hurt a fly. In fact, if one gets indoors, they chase it around until they can catch it in a cup and set it free outside. They’ve pro tested for the rights of people who are being abused or neglected ortreated in any way unfairly. They’re against doing bad things.”
    â€œI under stand that it’s impossible to believe the worst of your own family. But the fact is, someone was buried in your backyard at the same time your parents opted to take to the road. Now that may be circumstantial, it may be purely coincidental, but I’ll still need to talk to them about it.”
    â€œWithout condemning them with premature conclusions,” she said as if it were a condition she was applying.
    â€œI’m not condemning anyone and I don’t have any premature conclusions. I’m just beginning at the be ginning.”
    She couldn’t refute that reasoning, even though the contrary part of her still wanted to. Besides, she knew when she’d lost a fight.
    But that didn’t mean she was just going to roll over without getting a little some thing in return.
    So she said, “Say please.”
    â€œSay please?” he repeated, sounding partially amused again and partially in disbelief of what he was hearing.
    Then he leaned across the corner of the table, putting his extraordinarily handsome face within inches of hers. They were almost nose to nose and he was near enough for her to smell the lingering scent of his after shave and a sweet ness on his breath as he said, “In case it’s escaped you, I’m the law around here. I don’t have to say please when it comes to this. If you don’t do what I tell you todo I can charge you with obstruction and put your little fanny in jail.”
    Megan angled her chin upward in answer.
    It was an act of defiance. But what she hadn’t factored in was that that act of defiance also accidentally put her mouth in close proximity to his. So close that it suddenly occurred to her that he could kiss her without much more effort.
    And the trouble with that realization was that once it was there in her head, it left her unable to think about anything else.
    Until she reminded herself that they were in the middle of a tug-of-war.
    â€œSay please anyway,”