Tag, You're It! Read Online Free PDF

tomorrow. And he won't kill me anyway, he's a cop."
    "He's not above beating the crap out of you. And I imagine there'd be something I had to do outside when he got here."
    "You're a cold, mean woman."
    "And proud of it."
    "Alex?" Matt said. "I'm sorry. Over."
    "No you're not." But at least he was calm enough to observe radio protocol.
    "I'm sorry I got mad. But you should have called me beyou went anywhere near that guy."
    "If you're done criticizing, maybe you could check him out," she said to Matt. "He might not be the mass murderer you think he is."
    "I'll do more than check him out. I'll take him off your hands."
    "You won't be able to do that until tomorrow," Alex said. "In the meantime, run him and see what's what, okay? Over."
    Matt asked for Tag's name again, and Alex repeated it.
    "Spelled just like it sounds," Tag said, adding after she signed off, "he has a crush on you."
    "Worried?"
    "Grateful. I figure that means he'll get back to you right away, and once you learn I'm not a threat you can untie me."
    "Let me know if he does," Alex said, and set to layering on snow gear, starting with wool socks, quilted pants, and a down vest.
    "Where are you going?"
    "Out."
    "You're going to leave me here all alone? Trussed up like a Christmas turkey?"
    "If the rope fits," she said with a half smile. "I have to go take care of Jackass before it gets full dark."
    "I'm afraid to ask. But whatever Jackass is, I'm willing to bet it's male."
    "Jackass is my horse."
    Tag caught the affection that crossed her face, no more than a flicker, and realized he was learning to read her. It went a long way toward restoring his confidence.
    "I put him in the stable, but he needs to be fed and rubbed down, and there's nobody else to do it."
    "Why do you live all the way out here, anyway?" he asked. "Besides your complete disdain for other human beings."
    "Now I'm supposed to get all defensive, right? Prove you wrong by untying you?"
    "Not yet, but that was the ultimate goal."
    "Well, gosh, I'd love to accommodate you, but my complete disdain for other human beings is too strong. Not to mention the fact that you're keeping secrets."
    "You haven't exactly answered my questions. Why a cabin in the middle of nowhere?"
    Alex took off the hiking boots she was wearing and tugged on a pair of heavier ones, then stood and went to the row of pegs by the door. "I'm out here on a grant to study mountain lions."
    "Sounds dangerous."
    "Only to the cats," she said, taking a shearling coat off one of the pegs and shrugging into it. "The farmers and ranchers will kill them off, given half a chance, because the lions go after their livestock."
    She pulled a knit hat over her hair, winding the long ends scarflike around her neck. "See how I don't have any trouble telling you what I'm doing because it's the truth?"
    That was the mistake most people made, Tag knew, thinking that telling the truth was the right thing to do when it was a hell of a lot smarter to keep your mouth shut. There were people out there who could twist the most harmless scrap of information into a weapon. He'd learned that the hard way.
    Alex picked up her rifle, slung it over her shoulder, hesitated for a second, then clipped the satellite phone to her belt. "Rest up, Irish," she said. "When I get back I'll see if I can whip up something more appetizing than oatmeal. I'm leaving the dinner conversation to you. Make it interesting."
    ALEX BUSTLED AROUND THE CORRAL, DOING HER EVE chores the same way, in the same order she'd done them every night for the last four years. It felt good, comforting, considering the rest of her life had taken a sharp left turn from normal. Okay, more like she'd gone a whole planet away from normal. Things couldn't be weirder if she'd been beamed up by aliens.
    Sad to say, the weirdest part of all was having a man in her bed. A man who was tied up and naked, except for his boxers, and leaving him those had been more of a struggle than she cared to admit. And, all