Rae, Beverly - Saving Mandy [Night Runner Werewolves 3] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Special Edition) Read Online Free PDF Page A

expression. “Naw. My Mandy’s a little girl. She lives with her mother in another town. Hell, another state.”
    My Mandy? Revulsion roiled her stomach.She may have been his Mandy when she was a little girl before he’d left her. But she wasn’t his Mandy now.
    “I was just a young girl when you left my mother and me. But that was a long time ago. I’m a grown woman now.”
    His stark appraisal scanned her from top to bottom. “Well, well. Look at you. Yeah, you did grow up.” His leer crept into his tone. “You grew up real good, too. I bet you’ve got a pack of horny hounds after you.”
    She swallowed the bile rising to her throat. “I came to see you. To get to know the father I never had.”
    He stepped back, holding his hands in front of him, and almost dropped the bottle. “You came to visit me?”
    “Yes.” She glanced behind him into the dimly lit interior. Papers lay strewn over most of the battered and torn furniture. An older television set flickered in one corner of the small living area. A scrawny cat licked one of the many dirty dishes filled with half-eaten food. “May I come in?”
    “Fuck, no.”
    She’d expected many different answers, but she hadn’t expected an outright refusal. “What?”
    He waved the bottle in the air. “I said, fuck, no. I didn’t ask you to come, and I ain’t asking you to stay.”
    She caught the door, keeping him from slamming it in her face. “Are you serious? After all these years? After coming all this way, you don’t even want to sit down and talk?”
    Her goal of knowing the man who’d left her, of finding out about his life and trying to understand him died a quick death. Her mother, Jimmy, and the people of Lost Hills were right. Her father was a loser.
    “I said no and that’s that. Got it? Now get off my porch and go on home.” He cackled, enjoying her reaction, and pushed her hand off the door. Aiming for her, he flicked his cigarette into the air and shoved the door closed.

Chapter Three

    Mandy stared at the door, unable to believe what had happened. Her father had closed the door on her, literally. But what now? Go home and try to forget his rebuke?
    “I’m sorry, Mandy.”
    She pivoted toward Jimmy, her mind still refusing to make sense of what had happened. He stood at the bottom of the steps, his face a mask of controlled anger. “He just…I mean, how could he dismiss me like I’m some kind of door-to-door salesperson? Like I mean no more to him than a stranger?”
    Jimmy came beside her and pulled her to him. She didn’t resist, instead leaning against him for support. The now-familiar tingle speared into her, and she welcomed it like an old friend. A tear streaked down her cheeks, but she hid it from him, keeping her head on his shoulder. His strong arms enveloped her, comforting her, keeping her safer than she’d ever felt. He ran a hand along the back of her head, stroking her as he whispered soft words to soothe her.
    “It’ll be okay. You’ll be okay.”
    She closed her eyes, letting her body relax and her mind forget everything except the way Jimmy’s body felt. If she could’ve stayed wrapped in his arms forever, she would have. His gentle kindness gave her what her father had refused to give her.
    “You’re more than a stranger to him. You’re worse.”
    As much as she wanted to keep the world at bay, she opened her eyes and moved away, but not out of his arms. She couldn’t break their connection. Not yet. “What do you mean?”
    He wiped a tear away with his thumb. “Glen Garland’s an irritable, nasty coot, but I don’t think he would’ve treated a stranger as badly as he treated you. A stranger wouldn’t have meant enough to him.”
    She tried to understand, but her brain wouldn’t function. “Are you saying he does care about me?”
    His eyes softened as though they could ease the blow of his words. “No. Not in the way you want him to. I think seeing you brought up old memories and reminded him of