Shelby's Secret (Once a Marine, Always a Marine Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

because he understood she was sending her messages to him.
    She loved him.
    Only him.
    But she doesn’t, you little turd. She sings for everyone else but not you. She doesn’t see you.
    “But she does.”
    She could , the voice whispered. You showed her what we can do. You showed her that we’ve been watching. All these years.
    “I showed her. I showed her how her first song was about us. About how much our love means to her.”
    Now you need to show her more. She needs to understand what we are to her.
    “Yes.” He nodded. The voice was making sense again. Not belittling him like it usually did. Shelby was what was important, and controlling the mean voice that told him he wasn’t good enough. The voice that sounded so much like . . . he didn’t want to think about him .
    He gave himself a quick slap to the side of the head, just to make sure he was still in control. The sting was small compared to what might happen if the voice took over. Then it would make him do things. Worse than he’d already done. Things that made his reflection in the mirror all dark and hazy, like he wasn’t even there. Just the voice.
    But he was back in control.
    And he had work to do.
    He whistled as he pulled away from the curb. Just another tan car in a desert landscape.

    ***

    “Want to tell me what that was back there?”
    Shelby pulled her gaze from the odd mix of new businesses and abandoned warehouses that populated downtown Phoenix. Expensive cars mixed with the homeless on Seventh Avenue as they headed away from the police headquarters and back to the mansion on the Camelback Mountain. “I did grow up here, Madge. It was inevitable that I’d run into someone I knew. Eventually.” She just hadn’t counted on that person being big, muscled and pissed off.
    “Tell me about Detective Mike Hanson. He couldn’t keep his eyes off you,” she said.
    “You tell me all the time that men can’t keep their eyes off of me,” Shelby said. Her tone was dismissive, even though the long looks made her uncomfortable. But she’d learned to deal with it. The constant presence of fans was something they never told you about when you became lucky enough to reach stardom. The stares. Eyes watching everything she did, undressing her, envying her, assessing her—sometimes finding flaws and other times simply adoring.
    “Don’t play possum with me, young lady. His eyes said all kinds of things, and none of it was the normal stuff you’ve dealt with.”
    Shelby sighed. “He loved me once. More than life, he’d said.” She could feel moisture welling up in her eyes, and that response ticked her off because there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about the situation. Looking away from her manager, she blinked rapidly to keep the tears from falling. Oh sure, she’d laughed it off back in the little room, but when he’d walked into that room with the Chief—well, she’d been glad she was sitting.
    “We can talk about it later, honey. But I want to know about him, especially if he’s working the case.” Madge took one of Shelby’s hands and squeezed.
    Honestly, the woman was more like a second mother, especially since she’d lost her own at a young age. “Thanks for understanding,” she choked out. One lone tear broke loose and scalded a path down her cheek. He’d looked even better than she remembered. He was still huge, especially in the shoulders, and his hair was still black as night. Not a single gray hair yet to mar the shine. And those green eyes of his. Like a forest just before the dawn, deep and mysterious. All courtesy of a fiery Italian mother.
    He wasn’t magazine pretty, but his rugged features blended together, making him look like some ancient king who battled alongside his men and not from a throne. He’d always made her heart flutter just with a look.
    And those lips. Dear God. They were still as magical as she remembered in her dreams. She knew he’d meant the kiss as a punishment, as a final goodbye of