Killing Casanova Read Free

social life full. Tonight could have been my last chance before he goes back to LA.”
    Cassie shook her head again. “I’m sorry, Jana. I just couldn’t listen to him blame this girl for wanting to go out with him because he had hooked up with her and then changed his mind. He probably made out with her until he got tired of her, or got a better offer and then decided she was crazy or smitten because she misunderstood his intentions for her.”
    “He told you that?” Jana asked, clasping Cassie’s arm in her hand.
    “No,” she sighed. “I guess I kind of assumed that was what he meant when he said some girl was either trying to seduce him or punish him.”
    Jana laughed again and pulled Cassie to her feet. “It sounds like you have known a few Casanovas of your own.”
    Leading Cassie through the crowded bar to the swinging doors and into the parking lot, Jana wrapped one arm around Cassie’s shoulders and headed them toward the sound of departing vehicles.
    “Yeah, a few,” Cassie muttered as Jana pulled the keys from her pocket.
    “I don’t know Jake very well,” Jana said, unlocking Cassie’s door. “But from what I’ve heard, he’ll either make you have feelings you can’t fight, or he’s the one your mama always warned you about.”
    Cassie frowned again and waited for Jana to start the old truck. As Jana backed out of Mcgoo’s parking lot, Cassie sighed again. “Either way, Jana,” she said sadly, “if I were you, I’d run for my life.”

Chapter Three
    “Yake!” The screech of Heidi’s voice topped the highest volume setting on his car stereo. Jake kept his eyes on his phone, fingers flashing in quick movements between the Facebook and Twitter apps as he filled his dance card. His mother had frowned when she had called it that, but she had also promised to keep Heidi off his back long enough for him to take care of it.
    “Yake, can you hear me? Are you okay?”
    Heidi was talking to him, even though her tongue struggled to say his name.
    “I’m fine, Heidi.”
    With a firm smile, he watched carefully to make sure the panic in her eyes faded from the other side of the car window. Heidi was mildly autistic; both her questions and the answers she expected to hear were literal. She did not ask Jake if he was all right because she was irritated that he was ignoring her; she asked because she was genuinely worried that he didn’t answer because something was wrong.
    Heidi scowled disapprovingly, and then put her hands on her thin hips. She was seventeen and had the dark eyes and long, lean figure that his mother still had even though she was in her late forties. Even with that frustrated look on her face, Heidi was beautiful, and the reality of it frightened him every time he looked into her deep blue eyes. His mother had always told him that God protected special spirits like Heidi’s from the destructive powers of the devil; that’s why Heidi’s mind was so sweet and clear. She was an angel with human wings.
    Jake frowned even as he thought of his mother’s starry-eyed description. Human angels should not have been given the type of body that attracted the scum he knew were waiting out there for sweet innocent girls like his sister. The dark swirling lights of the dance club he had just been making arrangements to visit flashed across his mind.
    Jake cast that thought aside as he turned off his stereo and rolled down the window separating him from Heidi, reassuring her with the removal of the barrier. The spark of light dancing in her eyes poked at him again as he silently justified his night games. He was just going to let a few lucky women feel … special … for a little while; he would never take advantage of someone like Heidi.
    He pulled the keys from the ignition and then motioned for Heidi to step back from the car door as he opened it and unfolded his long legs from the bucket seat. Stepping from the car and slamming the door, Jake stood his six-foot two-inch figure up