Still the One Read Online Free PDF Page B

whispered forever.
    Her reaction only hollowed his gut, sheared the edge off any control he thought he possessed. Involuntarily, he stepped toward her. For one hellacious, gut-twisting instant he wanted to drag her to him, kiss her and prove to both of them that there was nothing left.
    As if coming out of a trance, Kit jerked into motion. She shoved the basket against the washer face and shut the door.
    “Is that—”
    “No.” She flashed a brilliant smile, so brilliant it cut him to the core. “Looks like yours. Not yours.”
    Bull. He was tempted to call her on it, but he resisted.
    Where would that get them? Why had he thought he could ignore the past? Kit was his past. And he was good and pissed over her slingshotting back into his life. Hell.
    Rafe clenched his teeth against the razor-edged desire that slashed through him.
    Remember, he ordered, trying to escape the grasping hands of memory, of want, pulling at him. Ruthlessly he dredged up the rejection he’d felt when Kit had refused his marriage proposal. When he’d said forever, he’d meant it; she hadn’t.
    “What about friends? Tony’s friends?” he asked quickly, his voice rough, the words scraping his throat.
    “Can you think of anyone who might let Tony and Liz stay with them? Anyone who might hide them or know where they’ve gone?”
    “No,” she whispered, then cleared her throat. “Maybe you can ask his parents—”
    His cell phone jangled, and Rafe grabbed at it like a drowning man going for a rescue line. “Yeah,” he said, almost ashamed at the enormous relief that rolled through him.
    It was Porter, and as the cop spoke, Rafe’s jaw clenched tighter. The ambivalence he’d tried to shake off seconds ago surged back. Displeasure merged with concern. And his protective instinct, always deeper and stronger with Kit, roared to irritating life.
    “Thanks, Kent.” He disconnected, his hand curling over the phone. “We’d better get going if we want to make it back from Davis before midnight.”
    She started, taking a step toward him. Her soft scent curled around him. “What? You want me to go? Hel-lo! Just two hours ago you flat out told me you didn’t want me along on this case.”
    Rafe exhaled and turned to fully face her. “That was before I talked to my buddy at the OCPD.”
    She frowned.
    “He says the officer investigating Liz’s accident believed she wasn’t paying attention to her driving. That her accident wasn’t deliberate.”
    “But—”
    “I’ve dealt with this officer before, and I don’t trust his judgement,” Rafe said baldly. “Neither does Kent.”
    “Are you saying you believe what Liz told me? That someone ran her off the road?”
    “I’m saying…” He gentled his voice. “I don’t like the odds, Kit.”
    “So Tony was right,” she murmured.
    “Maybe. Kent said he also might have an idea about this Alexander person. And…”
    “And what?” Anxiety pulled at her features.
    He hated dumping all this on her at once, but she deserved to know what they might be up against. “I noticed a car behind me on the way over here. The same car, three different times.”
    She shook her head. “What—”
    “It’s possible you’re being tailed. I’ll know better when we leave here.”
    “Tony was right about that, too?” She sagged against the wall, her features wan and suddenly ravaged by fatigue.
    Compassion and protectiveness swept through him. His first impulse was to put an arm around her, but he stayed where he was, giving her time to absorb it.
    She stood quietly for a few moments, her fingers thrusting repeatedly through her hair. Fear, uncertainty skipped across her features then resignation. She straightened, her voice shaky. “I guess we’d better get going.”
    “You all right?”
    “Yes.” She wouldn’t meet his eyes, and Rafe couldn’t stop the hard squeeze in his chest.
    Fighting the vortex of memories, the emotion sucking at him, he pivoted and walked out of the room. “On