Tag, You're It! Read Online Free PDF Page A

woman who sees every man through a filter of bitterness?"
    That eyebrow inched up again, but the mouth wasn't reflecting humor. The mouth trembled, just a bit, before she pressed her lips together. Worse, he could see the doubt in her eyes. Before he could identify what he was feeling as guilt, get past the shock, and decide what to do about it, she bounced back.
    "Good try, Svengali," she said. "And thanks for convincing me I'm right. You knew exactly what type of people you were hooking up with, which tells me you're an ends-justify-the-means kind of guy. You ought to be more careful who you jump into bed with."
    "Climb in here and give me a chance to improve my record."
    She smiled then, for the first time, and Tag shook off the feeling he'd seen her somewhere before. The smile took her face to pretty, even if what that smile said about him wasn't.
    "The only thing I want from you is your absence," she said. "And since I don't trust you enough to let you loose, I guess I'll have to take care of that myself."



Chapter Three
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    ALEX PUT THE GUN DOWN NEXT TO A TABLE SET under the single window by the door, and unhooked a radio microphone.
    "Now what are you up to?" Tag wanted to know.
    "Talking to you turned out to be a waste of time. That doesn't mean the questions went away." She held up the microphone, gave him a minute.
    He just smiled at her, eyes sparkling, handsome as sin, looking so sincere she wouldn't have been surprised to see his eyetooth glint.
    If he hadn't been shot at by questionable associates, fallen out of an airplane, and pointed a gun at her, she'd beany sob story he dished up. And wasn't that pathetic, considering she'd almost married the biggest con man this side of Pluto?
    "MLR1 to Casteel Base," she said, shoving her ex-fiancé back into the dungeon of her brain, where he was eternally tortured for his sins. Tag Donovan she was keeping right where she could see him.
    "MLR1, this is Casteel Base. Hey Alex," Matt Harrison said. "How's the wood holding up? I was worried about you with the snow."
    "Has he actually met you?" Tag muttered.
    She ignored him. "Everything's fine, Matt. How's the best sheriff this side of the Mississippi?" This time she slid a glance Tag's way. A smug glance.
    He still looked like he could have cared less, but she knew he was thinking crap, the guy on the other end of the radio is the local cop .
    "Great, now that I get to talk to you," Matt said, and her smirk turned into a heavy sigh.
    They'd had a casual romance during the second summer of her four years in Colorado. She was still trying to convince Matt it was over.
    "Listen," she said, "there's a man here, says his name's Tag Donovan."
    "A man?" She could all but see Matt jumping to his feet, a scowl on his honest, square face, his protective instincts going into overdrive. "How the hell did a man get there?"
    "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
    "Try me."
    "He fell out of a plane." And before Matt could pepper her with questions, she told him the rest. He was predictably stuffy about it. And insulting.
    Judging from the way he bit off each individual word, she suspected he might be angry, too. "You shouldn't have gone anywhere near him."
    Nope, not angry, she concluded. Pissed off. "It's not every day a man drops out of a plane," she pointed out.
    "So you're saying you were curious?"
    "Isn't there some saying about curiosity and cats?" Tag asked, grinning.
    "Mostly I figured there was a good chance he was dead so I didn't have anything to lose," Alex replied to Matt. Her response to Tag was visual.
    "And when he wasn't dead, you felt compelled to save his life?" Matt asked.
    "Would you have done differently?"
    "I'm not a woman living alone with help a day away."
    Alex took a second, the rage in Matt's voice making her rethink any objection to his macho attitude. "He's tied up."
    "In her bed," Tag yelled.
    "Do you want to die today?" she hissed at him.
    "A day away, remember? He can't kill me until