Little Girl Lost Read Free Page A

drink.
    As she moved, the low curved neck of her T-shirt flexed and Max caught a hint of colour above her right breast. She had a tattoo. He couldn’t see it clearly and had no idea what the image might be. Max wasn’t a fan of tattoos, but that hint of colour was nothing if not sexy.
    Max turned his eyes back to his own glass and let out the breath he had unconsciously been holding. From the moment he’d seen the Harley, he’d been afraid it meant trouble in his town. He was right. This girl was trouble, but not the sort of trouble he’d expected.
    Tia kept her gaze on her beer glass as she turned it slowly in her hands.
    The problem with the Harley was that it attracted all sorts of attention. She’d stayed in the mine compound since her arrival two weeks ago to avoid notice. Just her luck. Her first visit to the town and she runs into a cop. She took another drink, knowing this would be her first and last beer. Ordering a second would simply guarantee that the cop would be breathalysing her the minute she swung her leg over the bike. That would be a joke. She seldom drank much, and certainly wasn’t stupid enough to step onto the Harley when she was drunk. Nor was she stupid enough to give a cop any chance to pull her over. She knew enough about cops to stay well away from them.
    ‘Can I get you another beer or something to eat? The food here is pretty good,’ the grey-haired barmaid asked.
    Tia shook her head. She had planned to grab a burger, but she wasn’t going to stay here with the cop. She’d get something to eat later, back at the mine mess. She drained the last of her beer and stood up. Keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the bar in front of her, she slung her jacket over her shoulder and picked up her helmet. As she turned towards the door, she couldn’t resist casting a quick sideways glance at the cop. He was making no attempt to hide the fact that he was staring at her. Her defences rose. Tia had no illusions about her looks. Men found her attractive. On more than one occasion she had been forced to use her looks to get herself out of trouble. But things were different now. She wasn’t that same girl any more. She didn’t like to be stared at. And certainly not by a cop. She had good reason not to like cops.
    She walked out of the bar. Standing beside her bike, she shrugged into the leather jacket. Her helmet still in her hands, she slung one leg over the Harley and looked back at the pub. The cop was standing in the doorway, watching her. He was tall and fit. A few years older than her. During the quick look they had shared in the bar, she’d decided he was quite handsome, with tanned skin and dark eyes. He wasn’t one of the fat pigs she had met in the past, but he was still a cop. And cops were the enemy.
    Tia pulled the helmet over her head, feeling an unexpected relief when she knew he could no longer see her face. She slipped on her leather gloves and hit the Harley’s starter. The engine roared into life. She felt the bike vibrating beneath her, like some animal waiting to be let loose.
    She couldn’t resist. She gunned the engine and spun the bike, sliding the rear wheels and sending a small shower of loose gravel flying in the general direction of the pub. Then she roared off down the street, a hair’s breadth over the limit. In her mirrors she saw the cop still standing in the doorway of the pub, watching her taillight fade into the darkness.
    She smiled as the hog carried her back towards the mine.

Chapter Two
    Sarah Travers wished she was coming home under different circumstances. It wasn’t going to be a happy homecoming. Maybe that’s why she hadn’t told her parents she was arriving on this afternoon’s train. She had left her bags at the station and decided to walk into town. She wanted to take the time to remind herself of everything she had left behind more than three years ago.
    The huge arc of blue sky was somehow different here to the huge arc of blue sky on the coast.