Take the Key and Lock Her Up Read Online Free PDF Page A

in trouble. He’d foolishly turned his
     truck around and headed to the location she’d given. Since she was a cop, he’d left
     his unregistered gun hidden in the door panel of his truck before going into the basement.
     He’d gone back to his truck to grab the tire iron only once he’d realized she must
     have been locked behind one of those doors.
    Turns out, the little vixen hadn’t needed his help since her backup had arrived right
     after him. And now he was caught up in this mess, wasting what precious little family
     time he had before his next assignment.
    After Detective Jones had escorted Devlin out of the basement, he’d led Devlin to
     a patrol car to take him to the police station for an interview. Devlin had told Jones
     exactly what he thought of the offer and promptly turned around and headed to his
     truck. It was at that moment that Jones’s boss, Lieutenant Drier, had arrived. He’d
     quickly assessed the situation and asked Devlin to wait to answer a few questions
     after Drier spoke to Jones and the officers at the house to get an update.
    Sticking around had been the last thing Devlin wanted to do. But he’d reluctantly
     agreed. With his father and four brothers living here in Savannah, he didn’t want
     to give the local cops an excuse to involve his family, or to start digging into his
     carefully constructed and mostly fake past. Instead, what he needed to do was placate
     the cops, without giving them any useful information. Then he could go on his way and spend some time
     with his family before he had to leave again. He didn’t plan on saying much. The less
     the police knew about him, the safer it was—for all of them.
    So now, here he waited, while Detective Jones leaned against a patrol car on the other
     side of the driveway, pretending to watch the activity at the house even though he
     was obviously keeping an eye on Devlin.
    A group of three men and a short woman with shoulder-length brown hair separated from
     a larger group at the back corner of the house and headed Devlin’s way. He straightened.
     The woman, O’Malley, was too far away for him to see her face clearly. But the tantalizing
     details were burned into his memory.
    A full lower lip that fairly begged to be kissed. Dark, expressive eyes that were
     far too serious for someone who couldn’t be more than twenty-five or -six. Her pert,
     slightly upturned nose, a smattering of freckles across the bridge, and slightly fuller
     curves might have been flaws in some men’s eyes. But Devlin thought her perky nose
     and freckles made her more interesting. And even though he’d enjoyed plenty of women
     who fit the traditional definition of beauty, he’d always been a sucker for a woman
     with curves. A real woman, who didn’t starve herself to live up to some false society
     standard of the perfect body.
    He didn’t have to work hard to fill in the rest of the details. The feel of her full,
     soft breasts pressed against his chest was a memory he wasn’t likely to forget anytime
     soon. But even though she was one hell of an attractive package, it wasn’t her looks
     that had struck him so intensely back in that basement. It was the way she looked at him, as if she wanted to see past the façade he presented to society and was staring
     right into his soul. For the space of a few breaths, he’d felt laid bare, as if she
     had peeled back the layers and seen him for who he really was. Since every single
     thing he did was with the intention of hiding those layers, he should have felt uncomfortable
     beneath her scrutiny. Instead, he’d felt a connection unlike anything he’d felt in
     a long, long time. Thirteen years to be exact.
    Too bad she was a police officer.
    Walking beside her was the detective who’d handcuffed Devlin back in the cell—Eddie
     Tucker, “Tuck” to his co-workers. Devlin had gleaned that particular detail as he’d
     eavesdropped on Jones briefing Lieutenant Drier when he’d