Mortal Danger Read Free

her lips together until they were off the dance floor. ‘Thanks for being understanding. I think I’ll go graze off the buffet.“
    “All right. I’ll fix you a plate.”
    “I can feed myself these days, you know.”
    “You’ve only got one good arm.” He kept hold of it, too, steering her toward the dining room where the buffet was laid out.
    Lily sighed. She didn’t want food. She wanted to get away from Freddie. From everyone, really, but that wasn’t possible, so she might as well suck it up and try to be pleasant.
    “Mother tells me you’ve finally quit that job of yours,” he said as they reached the buffet table. “I’m relieved. So is Mother. I’m sorry it took being wounded for you to see that—”
    “Wait a minute.” She jerked her arm out of his grip. “I didn’t quit the force because I got shot.”
    “Whatever the reason, I’m glad you’ve come to your senses. Police work is dangerous and exposes you to, ah, the wrong sort of people.”
    Like criminals, she supposed. Or maybe he meant other police officers. “I guess your mother didn’t have all the news. I’m still a cop. A fed, maybe, but still a cop.”
    “A fed?” He looked deeply suspicious.
    “FBI. You have heard of them?” She reached for a plate.
    Freddie never noticed sarcasm. His frown was thoughtful, not offended, as he piled food she didn’t want on her plate. “I guess that’s an improvement. You’ll be dealing more with white-collar crime, not murderers and thugs.”
    Lily’s lips twitched at the idea that FBI agents arrested a better class of criminal. She could have told him that she’d taken her only line-of-duty bullet after being recruited by the FBI, not before. She didn’t. He’d tell his mother, who’d tell Lily’s mother, who had jumped to the same conclusion—that Lily was in a safer job now.
    No point in rocking that particular boat. She looked at the plate in her hand, which he’d piled with enough food for three people. “I hope this is for you. I’m allergic to shellfish.”
    “Oh.” He glanced at the plate. “Forgot. Well, I can take it and get you another one.”
    “Never mind.”
    He didn’t listen, of course. He just started filling another plate. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you.”
    “Don’t go there.”
    He paused to frown at her. “I guess you think of yourself as taken right now. By, uh, that Turner fellow. The, uh…”
    Pig eyes, she thought. Freddie had greedy little pig eyes. “Lupus. It’s okay to come out and say it, you know. It isn’t a bad word.”
    “I was trying to be tactful. Tell me, is it true that they—”
    “Yes. Absolutely.” She glanced around. Who could she use as an excuse to escape?
    “You didn’t let me finish!”
    “Didn’t I?” All, Beth was talking to one of Susan’s doctor friends. Lily managed to catch her little sister’s eye, but Beth just grinned, crossed her eyes, and then turned her back.
    The rotten little rat fink. Beth always had been spoiled.
    “I want you to know that I won’t hold your liaison with Turner against you,” Freddie announced. “I’m a fair man. What’s sauce for the goose and all that. And, uh, I’m aware that his kind… well, they exert a certain sexual compulsion. Though I was surprised to hear that you… but it’s not your fault.”
    Her gaze jerked back to him. “What the hell are you talking about?”
    “Your affair with Turner. Really, Lily, I shouldn’t have to repeat myself. It’s only polite to listen.”
    “Oh, I’m listening. I just didn’t think I’d heard right, since my personal life is none of your business.”
    “We’re cousins. And one day, when you’ve finished your youthful experimentation—”
    “I’m twenty-eight, not eighteen.” She shook her head, exasperated. Once Freddie got an idea into his head, it took a sharp scalpel to get it out. “Read my lips. We are not going to get married. Not ever.”
    His smile was patient. Tolerant. “Your