Midnight Run Read Free

dangerous to touch. Like a snarling, wounded animal.
    “You’re bleeding,” she said.
    “I’ve got worse problems than that.”
    For a fleeting instant she wanted to reach out and offer comfort. Just as quickly, she shoved the notion away, telling herself that caring for him would not only be self-destructive, but dangerous. He was no longer a detective with the Salt Lake City Police Department. He was no longer a free man. And he was certainly no longer the man who’d stolen her heart.
    Jack LaCroix was a cold-blooded murderer.
    “Don’t shut me out, Landis.” He reached out with his uninjured arm and traced the line of her jaw with his thumb. “At least listen to me. Hear me out. That’s all I’m asking.”
    Angered by the contact, she slapped his hand away. She knew better than to trust him. He’d lied to her, taken her heart and torn it to shreds, then proceeded to turn her life upside down. She refused to put herself on the line again. Certainly not for a man who wouldn’t hesitate to do it all over again.
    “You could have left the country, Jack. What could you possibly want from me?” The instant the words were out she regretted them, realized she didn’t want to know.
    “You’re the only person I know who gives a damn about the truth,” he said. “At least you used to.”
    He stood so close she could smell the sweat and dirt and the lingering redolence of panic. His gaze pierced her so that she couldn’t look away. If she hadn’t known better, Landis might have been taken in. His bedroom eyes and whiskey-smooth voice could be very convincing. But she’d learned the hard way that he was a capable liar and master manipulator. She wasn’t foolish enough to fall into the same trap a second time.
    “I can’t help you,” she said. “I won’t.”
    Jack flinched, closed his eyes briefly. He looked miserable. Cold. Dirty. She watched, stunned, as a single drop of blood rolled off his fingertips and splattered on the floor. That he didn’t notice told her a lot about his frame of mind.
    “You’ve got to turn yourself in,” she said.
    Something dark flickered behind his eyes. “I’m a dead man if I go back.”
    “By the looks of you, you’re not far from that now. For God’s sake, you were under appeal. How could you be so stupid—”
    “Duke put a contract on me.”
    The words stopped her cold. Cyrus Duke was Salt Lake City’s most infamous drug kingpin. With roots running from Miami’s seedy underworld to his hierarchy in Los Angeles, he was powerful, ruthless and completely untouchable.
    “Why would Duke put a hit on you?” she asked.
    “He knows I’m going to take him down.”
    “You’re not a cop anymore. You weren’t a threat to him in prison. You’re certainly not a threat now.”
    “As long as I’m alive, I’m a threat. He knows I’m close to getting the goods to nail him.”
    Landis didn’t buy it. She wouldn’t even consider it. The repercussions were too far-reaching. Jack had every reason in the world to lie; she had every reason in the world not to believe him. “I’m not going to let you do this to me,” she said.
    “I’m going to nail him, Landis. I’m on to something big. I’m so close I can taste it. I just need a few hours to pull myself together. I need some dry clothes. Food. Money.”
    A hundred questions rushed through her mind, but they were jumbled by emotions and memories and the cold, hard fact that she didn’t want to get involved. “As an attorney, the only advice I can give you is to turn yourself in.”
    One side of his mouth curved. “Not my style, Red.”
    The endearment affected her, reached into her and touched a part of her heart she’d carelessly left unguarded. A heart that had once belonged to him—no holds barred. She cursed him for having that ability. She cursed herself for responding, wondering what kind of a person that made her. How could she feel anything but disdain for the man who killed her brother?
    “You’ll