Taken by the Beast (The Conduit Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

his hand to indicate his body, and I couldn’t argue there. He was dressed down, in a gray t-shirt and corduroys; his pistol dangling visibly from his hip sure as hell didn’t hurt. He was, indeed, not the type of guy you expect to wait for you. But I wasn’t going to tell him that.
    I lifted my eyebrows and grinned. “Did you really just use the phrase ‘toot my own horn’?”
    “I know. It’s sexier than you thought, right?”
    Coming from him, yeah, just about anything would be sexier than I expected. But the whole situation was still strange. I mean, this was Lulu’s little brother. I basically watched him grow up. He’d at least traded in his tastes for earth worms for expensive coffee. And seeing how we were flirting shamelessly, apparently my tastes had changed, too.
    “Who said this was a date?” I asked, half toying with him and half genuinely not sure if I wanted to commit to that idea.
    “Nobody,” he admitted, plunging a stirrer into his coffee and twirling it. “But nobody came out and said the sun was up, either. Doesn’t mean we don’t need shades. We’re both grown now, Char. Let’s not pretend we don’t know what’s going on here.”
    He bit his lip, which was admittedly much sexier than I would have liked it to be.
    “I’ve been busy,” I said, trying—and failing—not tostare at him. “That’s why it’s taken me so long. It’s not because—” I cleared my throat. “I don’t know if Lulu told you, but I got off my ass and actually found a job.”
    Well, the truth was that I
fell
on
my ass and got the job, but he didn’t need to know that.
    “She said something about it,” he answered, his tone firmer than I expected.
    “Something wrong?” I asked, leaning in ever-so-slightly.
    “That night club, right?” he asked, running a hand through his hair.
    “That’s the goal,” I answered. “The truth is, it was barely a pit in the ground when I got there. The guy who owns the place wouldn’t know contemporary from alt contemporary if the theming slapped him in the face.”
    Dalton’s eyes glazed over, and he blinked. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    “Which is why
you
shouldn’t open a night club, either,” I said with a reprimanding point of my finger. “But I’ve made good headway since I got there. I actually need to get back before long. Tonight is the grand opening, and there’s—”
    “I don’t think you should work there anymore,” he said, then he swigged his coffee again.
    I narrowed my eyes. “Excuse me?”
    “I mean, I’m sure you’re good at what you do—great, probably. But I’ve been around since the last time we’ve seen each other, Char. I know things now—things I sometimes wish I didn’t. Places like that and girls like you … they don’t mix.”
    Suddenly, I felt acutely aware of what I was wearing, of every inch of exposed skin and every fleck of makeup. I was right back there with that drunkard, being judged by my clothes and appearance.
    “
Girls like me?
What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
    “I’m sorry. That came out wrong.” He shook his head and pushed his coffee aside. “This case I’m on … it’s getting to me more than it should.”
    “The girl on the missing poster?” I asked.
    “I’m not really allowed to talk about that,” he answered.
    “Do you have any idea who did it?” I asked, my heart racing. He knew about this more than I did, and we were both avoiding the elephant in the room—that the missing girl looked a helluva-lot like me.
    “There are a lot of awful people in the world, Char.” His hand fell and hovered over his pistol. I wondered if he even realized he was doing that. “And they tend to congregate in those sorts of places … clubs...the nightlife scene.”
    “I meant it when I said I could take care of myself,” I said, splaying my hands across the table. “It’s cute that you’re worried about me. Really, it is. But if you’re curious about what