Secrets Among the Cedars (Intertwined Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

a gun?"
    "No." His voice sounded like sandpaper scratching across glass.
    "What about a man by the name of Ezzo?"
    He stopped with the steak in his hand, half in the grocery bag and half out, and looked at her with bloodshot amber eyes. The three men, now huddled in the corner by the bread, scurried out of the store like cockroaches when the lights come on in the middle of the night.
    "Did I say something wrong?"
    "No." He shifted his attention from her face to outside the store and back. "Look lady, you don't want to go sticking your nose in places it don't belong."
    She put her hand high on her hip. "What do you mean?"
    "You're new here, right?"
    Kathryn nodded. He didn't have to know she was only here for the weekend.
    "There’re a lot of things you don't know about the way things are done in this town."
    "Like what?" She challenged him with an arched eyebrow.
    "We're kind of like the edge of the world. Ya know? If the world was flat. People come here with their secrets, and they leave 'em here. Those secrets are better left buried."
    "If you know something, you had better tell me."
    The man placed the steak in the plastic bag with trembling hands and glared at her. "Mind your business." Obvious fear hid behind his boldness.
    "What would you think if I subpoenaed you for the Superior Court in Georgia?"
    He gulped and his Adam's apple bulged. "You're a lawyer?"
    "You bet I am. Now what do you know?"
    "You'll have to subpoena me." He shoved the bag of groceries at Kathryn. "It's on the house."
    "Oh no, it's not!" She tossed thirty dollars at him. "Keep the change. And consider yourself subpoenaed." He didn’t have to know that she couldn’t subpoena him without having his name. Kathryn flung open the door and rushed out onto the sidewalk. She bolted around the side of the building to the parking lot, and the three suspicious men darted behind the building. She unlocked her car and found Sadie awaiting her return unharmed. Kathryn pressed the pedal to the floorboard. She had to get to the condo without someone following her.
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    Fifty feet out in the water at the end of the covered dock, Kathryn sat with Sadie by her side basking in the orange sunset. Katydids chirped in the grasses and fish splashed to the surface of the water feeding on bugs. Kathryn sipped coffee from a seashell-adorned mug, her mind drifting back to her run-in with the store clerk. He knew something. That gun was here in Cedar Key, and she had to find it. But what if she didn’t?
    She needed to call the D.A. and let him know she’d had no success yet. Why had she thought she could find the gun? Her investigators and the detectives hadn't been able to. Way to go, Kathryn.
    She'd made it look like the people who worked so hard for her didn't know what they were doing, and here she’d failed too. Daddy would be ashamed of her. But then again dear old Dad might not be. Hadn't he always told her that the way to get to the top was to use others as steppingstones? Taking others down for your own gain was always okay in Daddy’s eyes.
    That's what he'd done to Mom. She'd paid his way through medical school by working every job she could find. And what did he do to thank her? He cheated on her. Now he was married with a new family. The only way Kathryn felt she could get his attention and make Daddy happy would be to push her way to D.A. then to judge and then onto Supreme Court Justice. Then maybe he’d be proud of her? Maybe he might love her?
    Could she do it? There had to be something else she could do with her life. Something that really mattered. Putting away criminals mattered, yes, but there was so much hard work and no time for Kathryn to enjoy anything else. That's one of the reasons Zeke left her. Her job wasn't family-friendly. So he moved on.
    Kathryn brought her cup to her lips again with care and played with Sadie's ears. Dolphins glided across Daughtry Bayou. If only she could go with them. They seemed so carefree. Would she ever do