Protector (Copper Mesa Eagles Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

something.”
    Ellie’s heart was already beating madly, and she felt electricity zipping through her nerves.
    You should be calling the police and your insurance company , she thought. Not following someone you don’t know on a wild goose chase .
    This is stupid and probably dangerous .
    She knew she should drop Garrett’s case, get her insurance to pay for a new computer, and forget this had happened, but that wasn’t what she wanted .
    She wanted to find out who’d trashed her office, and who thought they could order her around like that.
    Garrett opened the door at the bottom of the stairs, and for the first time, Ellie realized that his inner forearm was bleeding. She tapped him on the shoulder and pointed, and he pulled his sleeve down.
    From where he opened the door before , she thought.
    They emerged into the narrow alleyway and Garrett walked to the sidewalk. When they got there, he took her hand, and Ellie’s head whipped around.
    “Pretend,” he murmured, and they walked down Main Street.
    She squeezed his hand and he squeezed back, big and warm and comforting.
    Pretend , she reminded herself.
    First they walked to a coffee shop. The owners waved to Ellie and she waved back as Garrett pulled her past the counter, toward the hall with the bathrooms, then past the bathrooms and out the back door, into a parking lot.  
    From there they went into the library through a side door and out through a different side door, down an alleyway, onto one level of a parking garage and out another, and into a grocery store.
    By the meat section, Garrett stopped, dropped her hand, and turned to face her.
    “The bathrooms are there,” he said, pointing. “Go into the women’s. Stay there for three minutes, and when you come out, make a left. If someone looks at you, just give them a professional nod and keep walking. They’ll think you’re from corporate or something. Leave through the loading bay and then go through the hedge and over the fence — it’s an easy fence, don’t worry — and follow the sound of the dryer. Knock once on the gray door next to the AC unit on the first green building.”
    Ellie blinked, holding her breath.
    Bathroom, loading dock, hedge, fence, dryer, green building, gray door by AC unit , she thought.
    “Got it,” she said, repeating it to herself.
    Garrett reached out and squeezed her shoulder.
    “You’re doing great,” he said.
    Then he walked through the swinging doors to the back of the grocery store.
    Ellie went into the ladies’ bathroom and stood there, staring at the toilet. She didn’t have to pee, but after two and a half minutes, she flushed the toilet, washed her hands, and walked out to the left.
    A kid, maybe sixteen, saw her and frowned, but she gave him a professional nod. He looked away, and Ellie almost smiled to herself.
    That was something she used almost every day. If you acted like you were supposed to be somewhere, few people would stop you.
    At the loading dock she descended the steps and walked across the asphalt. She looked left and right and stepped through a wide spot in an evergreen hedge.
    Right behind it was a simple wooden rail fence, and even with heels on, she was over it in half a second, looking around, as she brushed herself off.
    In front of her was a blue apartment building, a green one to the right. She could hear a dryer going, so she followed the sound until she saw a gray door next to an air conditioning unit, and Ellie raised her fist.
    This could be a very complicated way to murder you , she thought.
    She knocked anyway.
    A moment later, the door swung open and Garrett pulled her into the utility hallway.
    “Perfect,” he said, his hand still on her upper arm. He closed the door, and the hallway went dim.
    Suddenly, Ellie realized how close together they were, his hand still on her. For a moment she forgot everything that had happened that morning and looked up into his face, his golden eyes looking down at her, smiling.
    Her heart