Undercover Bodyguard by Shirlee McCoy

Author:Shirlee McCoy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2012-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

“What do you think?” Ryder asked as he pushed the elevator button for the lobby.

“About Hunter?” Shelby asked, because she wasn’t sure how to answer.

Maybe she wasn’t the best judge of character, but she really didn’t think Hunter had hired someone to kill Maureen. Still, saying it felt wrong. As if by giving her opinion, she might prove the opposite to be true.

Wasn’t that how it always happened with her?

As soon as she decided someone was worth trusting, she was proven wrong.

“Who else? Did he plan his mother’s murder and come here to try to throw the police off his scent? Or is he as innocent as he says? Come on, Shelby Ann. I know you have an opinion. Share it.”

“Innocent,” she said, because she couldn’t seem to deny Ryder anything.

Which was another problem altogether.

“That’s what I think.”

“Really?” she asked as the elevator doors swung open, and Ryder pressed a hand to her back, urging her into the lobby.

She went reluctantly, bracing herself for what she knew she’d see.

There was no way Andrew had left without asking her about the cake again.

He wasn’t the kind of person to give up that easily, and Shelby was sure he was lying in wait somewhere, probably smooching his fiancée.

A sight she definitely did not want to see again.

“The way I see things, Hunter would have to be a fool to have come here to throw the police off his scent. He’s not a fool,” Ryder continued, apparently oblivious to her tension.

Why shouldn’t he be?

She shouldn’t be tense.

Not about seeing a man she didn’t love with a woman she didn’t like.

“What’s wrong?” he said, proving that he sensed more than she wanted him to.

“Nothing.”

“Something.”

“Okay. You want to know the truth? I’m sure Andrew is still lurking around here somewhere, and I’m not happy about it.”

“Andrew the ex with the Barbie-doll fiancée? Why do you care if he’s here?”

“Because he’s going to ask me about the cake again, and he’s going to keep asking.”

“So, just keep saying no.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“It is.”

“No. It’s not.” She rounded on him, looking into his dark eyes and almost losing her train of thought, because maybe he was right. Maybe it really was that easy.

“Why not? He’s your ex. He doesn’t have any power over you.”

“Of course he does. He was the last straw, Ryder. He proved what I didn’t want to believe, and now he expects me to pretend he did me a favor.”

“Don’t.” He touched her cheek, wiping away a tear she hadn’t even realized had fallen.

“Pretend he owes me a favor? I don’t plan to.”

“No, Shelby Ann. Don’t cry over someone who isn’t worth it.”

“I’m not. I’m crying for what he represented and what I’m never going to have. Dreams and forever and all that stuff my mother and grandmother and sister insisted I’d never find.

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