Soft Target Read Free Page A

Maggie drawled. “I just closed. Can’t clean in the dark.”
    The younger man stared at Gray, clearly assessing. Gray stared back, noting the man’s wide stance and the hand resting on his sidearm.
    “You’re new,” the patrolman said.
    “You caught him,” Maggie said. “He came to kidnap me and I talked him into mopping the floor first.” She pushed the man’s shoulder, but he remained immovable. “Seriously. He’s a friend of the family. Ease up, RoboCop.”
    Max stayed put. “Nate, do you need me to hang around?”
    “No.” Maggie bit the word out, and then softened it with, “thanks anyway.”
    She shooed him out, locked the door and returned to them, her chin tucked to her chest and her shoulders square as she charged toward her brother. The twins had always argued in identical fashion—deep breath and jump in.
    “Call off the babysitter brigade,” she said.
    “If you’ll let me hire someone to watch you,” Nate countered.
    “A bodyguard? Nathan! I’m surrounded by men who treat me like their little sister.”
    “Dammit! You’re my sister. You’re my responsibility. I let you down once.”
    Her head snapped back like he’d struck her. “I’m my own responsibility. You’ve heard Glen. Flowers aren’t against the law. They can’t do anything unless it escalates.”
    Gray’s molars ground together as heat climbed his neck. He’d be talking to the police chief first thing Monday. The judge would be next. Nate might not ask for special treatment, but Gray would call in every favor the family had accumulated over the years. No one was going to get close enough to harm her.
    “I’m sorry, Gray. You’re probably exhausted, and now you’ve walked into another—”
    Her sentence stopped on a sharp inhale, and he dropped his lashes to hide his eyes. Too late.
    She wheeled on her brother. “You told him, didn’t you?”
    “He needed to know what he was getting into.”
    “He’s not getting into anything. These guys would never hurt me.” Her shoulders squared. “I’m tired of policemen following me around. At this point, I don’t know who the boogeyman is and who he isn’t.”
    Nate’s posture mirrored hers and Gray stepped between the siblings to stop the brewing fight, as he’d done several times before. The worst, until now, had been when Maggie had narrowly defeated Nate in a dump truck race and he’d accused her of cheating.
    “Maybe it’s not such a bad idea to have more eyes on the place,” Gray reasoned. “You’re worth a lot of money.”
    Guilt washed over him as Maggie’s eyes darkened and her chin dropped. He tugged the broom from her hands and nudged her onto the stool he’d pulled closer.
    “What is it?” Putting a hand on her shoulder, he found all curves and no sharp angles. In worn cotton and denim, she was the human equivalent of his favorite blanket. He wanted to burrow his fingers into the softness. Instead, he squeezed gently. He knew full well the fragility of the bone under his thumb. “Tell me.”
    “Money?” she echoed his whisper. “I don’t want to think about one of my friends terrorizing me for money . I don’t want to think about one of them doing it at all. I can’t.”
    She trembled under his fingers as a shadow flitted through her eyes. For a moment, she looked the way he felt going down a hallway. Then her mask came back. She had to be tired of fighting.
    Gray handed her the broom. “Let’s finish so you can get some rest.”
    They completed their chores in silence, and Nate and Faith left for home. Certain Maggie was safe for the night, Gray entered his new address into the GPS. Shifting into gear and pressing the accelerator made him whimper. The first pothole sent his shoulder into a spasm, curling him over the wheel.
    The air-conditioning wheezed until he gave up and rolled down the window. It was cooler outside anyway, and the air was clean. After ten years in Chicago, he’d almost forgotten the crisp bite of country air.