Wanted: Mom and Me by Kayla Daniels

Author:Kayla Daniels [Daniels, Kayla]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin Treasury
Published: 2011-06-03T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

“Oh, for heaven’s sake! How many times do I have to show you? You have to push the control key at the same time. Here.” Cole’s white-haired secretary leaned over his shoulder and jabbed two crooked fingers at the computer keyboard.

The departmental budget figures scrolled onto the screen.

“Uh, thanks, Mildred.” Cole sheepishly hunched his shoulders. “Don’t know why I can’t seem to remember that.”

Mildred Simmons had worked for a long line of Creosote County sheriffs. Her exact age had been mysteriously purged from department personnel files while they were being computerized a number of years back, but the general assumption was that she’d already been around for a while by the time Warren G. Harding was president.

No one who worked with her, however, would dare hint that Mildred consider hanging up her Dictaphone and start enjoying a well-deserved retirement.

She fixed Cole with a reproving frown. “All it takes is a little concentration,” she said. “Use your noodle!” She poked the side of his skull, sounding like an exasperated schoolmarm. “What’s got into you today, anyway? Every time I come in here, you’re staring off into space, woolgathering.”

Without giving him a chance to reply, she turned to march back to her desk. When she got to the doorway, she fired back one last piece of advice. “Best clear those cobwebs out of your brain before some criminal gets the drop on you”

Cole propped his chin in his hand and watched the door shut behind her with a curt click. Mildred was right. He was going to have to snap out of it, and soon.

With a muffled curse, he forced himself to focus on the screenful of budget figures. But over the steady hum of the computer, he kept hearing the tortured, halting cadence of Elise’s words when she’d told him about Victor Dominick yesterday.

Cole was convinced she’d told him the truth. No one could have artificially injected the raw fear he’d heard in her voice while she described Kelsey’s narrow escape from death.

No one could possibly have faked the revulsion that shuddered across her pale, pretty features whenever she mentioned Dominick’s name.

Cole stared at the computer monitor, but all he could see was the silent, desperate pleading in Elise’s eyes when she’d finished her story. Begging him not to betray her.

Damn it, what was he supposed to do? Pretend he wasn’t sworn to uphold the law? He gave up on the computer, tipped back his chair and propped his feet on the desk while he wrestled with the fix he was in.

He was beginning to wish he’d never started poking around in Elise’s past. Or Elizabeth’s past—whatever the hell he was supposed to call her now.

A brusque rap on the door didn’t give Cole quite enough warning to remove his feet from the desk before Mildred stuck her head back into his office. She aimed a disapproving look over the tops of her spectacles. “There’s an Elise Grant out here to see you.”

Cole hastily lowered his feet to the floor.

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