Stillwater 03 - Dead Right by Novak Brenda

Author:Novak, Brenda [Novak, Brenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408924174
Publisher: Mira
Published: 2007-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Madeline sat with Hunter in a corner booth at Two Sisters, with her back to the door. Two Sisters did more breakfast and lunch business than dinner, but this was Friday and at six-thirty it was fairly crowded.

Madeline kept her face averted from the people sitting at the other booths and tables. They’d just finished a meal of meat loaf and mashed potatoes and were settling in for coffee and pie. But she didn’t want to see anyone she knew. She was still reeling from the events of the day. Stillwater had always seemed so safe. And yet suddenly, everyone and everything looked different.

As a result, she felt jumpy, defensive, even a little lost. Hunter was forcing her to question everything she’d once believed.

“You’re sure you want me to stay?” he asked.

Was she? She was caught in the middle of some dark mystery that seemed to have no solution. If he continued to search for the truth, she’d have to accept whatever he uncovered—good or bad. And she already knew what he thought might’ve happened.

But if he left, would she be able to pretend that nothing had changed?

“Are you going to answer me?”

She still longed to feel his hands on her. What they’d shared earlier wasn’t nearly enough.

“I don’t know what to do,” she admitted, running a finger back and forth over the smooth handle of her coffee cup. Where was her confidence? Her faith in those she loved? She remembered her father sitting her down at the kitchen table to tell her that her body was a temple, that she should never let anyone defile it.

Those were not the words of a pedophile.

“Do you trust me?” Hunter asked softly.

She stirred a spoonful of sugar into her coffee. “I don’t even know you.”

“Is that what you think?”

No. She hadn’t known him long and wasn’t familiar with the details of his personal life, but she trusted him instinctively. Or she wouldn’t have done what she’d done with him out in that field. Maybe it was because they’d skipped the usual small talk of strangers and jumped right into subjects that affected them on the deepest levels. Maybe that was why their relationship had progressed at such lightning speed. But she knew he was smart, he was a leader, he’d do a thorough job, and he wouldn’t hurt her if he could help it.

That was a reasonable start, wasn’t it?

“I’d like you to stay,” she said.

“Then I should move to the motel.”

“Because…”

He met her gaze, and it was almost as if she could watch every detail of their earlier encounter played out in the reflection of his eyes. “Because you know what’ll happen if I don’t.”

She was fighting so many battles at once, part of her felt it wouldn’t be so bad to concede that one. What was one torrid affair in thirty-six years?

But the saner part of her knew she might not be capable of making the best decisions right now.

You’re a fool if you get involved with him…

What if

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