The Beautiful and the Damned Read Online Free PDF

vents. She
     still couldn’t remember where she’d been going or who the car belonged to. Reaching
     for the glove box, She pulled out an insurance card, and everything came rushing back
     at the sight of James Donnely’s name and address.
    He was still out there.
    She almost stalled out the engine in her haste to back up from the cliff. She didn’t
     want to look at the dashboard clock, but her eyes betrayed her. Almost two hours had
     passed.
    Cyn forgot to breathe as she looked for any sign of James, scanning the edges of the
     trees bordering the highway. It wasn’t until she’d gone six exits down that she finally
     spotted him. His cheeks and ears were red, but he didn’t seem to be any worse for
     wear.
    You got lucky.
    “Thanks for letting me borrow your car,” Cyn said, comingto a stop beside him. “Why don’t you get in and we’ll go grab a cup of coffee before
     you get on your way back home?”
    He nodded absentmindedly, and she let him climb behind the wheel. Once he seemed coherent
     enough to drive, Cyn directed him to the nearest gas station and pumped him full of
     hot coffee and stale doughnuts. Then she told him to forget about their little diversion
     and not stop again until he made it safely home.
    As she started to walk the four miles back to her apartment and the sky turned the
     color of pink ash, the lonely highway stretching out in front of her was a reminder
     of just how long the trek back was going to be. Maybe I should flag down another ride.
    But before she could do anything, a car came up behind her.
    “Hey,” the cop from Sleepy Hollow said, sticking his head out the window. “Need a
     ride?”
    ~  ~  ~
    “You didn’t call me.”
    He had to repeat himself because Cyn was concentrating so hard on trying to breathe
     normally that she didn’t hear him the first time.
    “Huh? Oh . . . yeah.” She forced her fingers to relax their death grip on the door
     handle. “Sorry. I don’t have a cell phone.”
    She made her shoulders move up and down in what she hoped was a convincing shrug.
    He guided the car toward the Hampton Falls exit ramp, and Cyn silently counted down
     the seconds until she could make her escape. Just hold it together a little bit longer.
    “Why would you want me to call you anyway?” Only two more stoplights to make it through.
     Time to stop letting him ask all the questions.
    She even managed a grin.
    “Since I’m here on vacation, I thought you could show me around.”
    Is he trying to ask me out on a date?
    Cyn pulled down the back of her wig and looked out the window. The diner was straight
     ahead. “You can just drop me off up here.”
    “At the diner?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Why don’t I take you home?”
    Cyn wasn’t about to lead him straight to where she lived. He might be just a harmless
     guy asking her for a date, but he was still a cop. “I’m meeting a friend for breakfast.
     So . . . thanks . . .”
    “Declan,” he reminded her.
    “ Right. Declan.” He pulled into the parking lot, and Cynhad to remind herself not to go running from the car the instant he stopped.
    “No problem. Just be careful.”
    Cyn paused, one hand on the door handle. “Be careful?”
    “The first time we met, that kid was being an asshole to you, and now, the second
     time, you were stranded on the side of a highway.”
    Cyn forced a smile. “I guess it’s a good thing you’re here, then.” She got out of
     the car before he could reply but returned his wave when he pulled away.
    “Yup. It’s totally a good thing that a cop from Sleepy Hollow is here in Hampton Falls,”
     she said under her breath as his taillights grew smaller and smaller in the distance.
     “Nothing could make me happier.”

C HAPTER S IX

    Y ou look like shit. Get any sleep today?” Lenny tossed a pile of cold cigarette butts
     from the bucket next to the back door and sat down on the stoop, wedging a phone book
     under the door to keep it open.
    “Yeah. Tons.