Zack (Armed and Dangerous Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

no man had ever measured up to Zack. She had often wondered if perhaps her memories had become distorted, and that he wasn’t half the man she remembered him to be. But after today, she knew the truth.
    He was twice the man she remembered.
    Crap.
    God, seeing Zack was sending her imagination into overdrive. “Let me know if you need anything.” Luke interrupted her thoughts as he hit his Stetson against his leg. “I mean it.”
    “I think one of the best decisions I’ve made was hiring you.” Skylar had no problem smiling at his genuine concern. Luke never made her feel like she couldn’t take care of herself because she was a woman. He simply watched her back as he would for any man. She patted the cell phone in its holster at the waistband of her jeans. “I’ll call you first thing if something comes up.”
    “I expect you to.” He had two phones holstered on his belt. One was a phone she’d provided—she gave each one of her men a cell phone to make sure she could reach them at any time when they were on duty or in case there was an emergency. The other phone on Luke’s belt was no doubt for personal use.
    “Promise.” She laid her hand on his forearm as he grasped the door handle, and he paused. “Thanks for caring.”
    Luke opened the door and she let her hand drop away. “Just watch your ass, Skylar.”
    She nodded and he walked through the door and shut it behind him.
    Almost mechanically, Skylar drew the Smith & Wesson from the holster at her side. She slid it into a hidden drawer beneath an end table next to the couch. Her thoughts immediately turned from Luke’s concern to Zack and she rubbed her temples.
    She’d had almost a decade to ready herself for the possibility she’d see Zack again. But nothing had prepared her for today. He’d filled out in a hard, masculine way that made him sexier than ever. Even that scar he’d gotten from the fight with his stepfather made Zack’s features more rugged and heartbreaking.
    “Get a grip, Sky,” she muttered, and then stomped her boot on the tile, the sound echoing through her empty living room. Damnit! She hadn’t thought of herself as anything but Skylar since Zack had left her all those years ago. Only Zack had ever called her Sky. “Not Sky. Skylar, Skylar, Skylar, Skylar.”
    A combination of anger, frustration, and sadness raged through her like a dust storm. How dare he? How dare he come back and do this to her again?
    She stopped by an end table beside the rich leather couch and traced her fingers over one of her dad’s bronze Remington sculptures. She looked down at the extremely valuable sculpture named Outlaw.
    Outlaw. The way Zack had stolen her heart, he was just as much of an outlaw.
    Skylar snatched her hand away from the sculpture, feeling as if it had burned her. The heat of her anger increased and she curled her fingers into her palm. Did everything have to remind her of him?
    She pinched the bridge of her nose. The memory of his goodbye was as vivid as the images from the day they’d met.
    Her heart had ached for him as she’d gone to him at the sheriff’s department. This time he wasn’t leaving the jailhouse as a sheriff’s deputy.
    This time he’d been arrested for almost killing a man.
    His stepfather.
    The bastard who’d married and physically abused Zack’s mother hadn’t pressed charges. Instead he’d fled the state taking all of Zack’s mother’s cash with him.
    When Skylar had met Zack outside the county jail just outside of Bisbee, Zack had looked so angry that she’d taken an involuntary step away from him. Hurt, then more anger had flashed in his eyes.
    “Don’t shut me out!”
    Skylar squeezed her eyes closed at the memory of her own plea. How hard it had been to talk. How her breath left her like someone had punched her right in the gut.
    She had asked him to stay.
    Begged him to talk to her.
    And he’d walked right past her and ignored her as she called to him. One tear after another had rolled