Stuck On You Read Free Page B

went through the tunnel which lead from the courtroom to the basement of the courthouse. After ascending a flight of steps, they went out the back door. Kate's car was parked across the street at a meter.
    When they slipped into her car, Mack turned to her and said, "Sorry, Kate, but I have no intention of doing your program."

CHAPTER 2

    The shock that registered on Kate Kingston's face might have been amusing under other circumstances, but Mack knew that Kate was dead serious about her program. She was serious about everything . But he might as well be straight with her.
    He needed to be free to find out who framed him and why.
    Maybe he could work out a compromise with Kate.
    "But you agreed to the conditions of my program," she said, as anger sparked her eyes.
    "I would have done anything to get out of jail."
    "You're under a court order to be on house arrest." She hurled the words at him like stones.
    He knew she was frustrated and angry and anxious. He felt the same. But he had no choice. He was a cop–a damn good one at that–and he had work to do.
    He stared into her grass green eyes. They seemed to look right into his soul. And he loved the way her blonde hair fell around her face. In different types of light it shimmered with various shades of gold, and her body could stop traffic.
    Katherine Kingston had crept into his dreams on more than one occasion since high school.
    He had seen her around the jail, the courthouse and the county office building when she was a probation officer. This program was a new venture for her, and she’d make it successful or die trying. That’s the way she was in school, and that’s the way she was now.
    He remembered how Kate volunteered to be the editor of the school paper when no one would do it because of the work involved and because it was a geek job. But Kate didn’t know that. She took it on, and actually made The Rooster Crows an interesting paper to read.
    He remembered how she even interviewed him just before the big football game. She didn’t know a thing about football and admitted to doing research before the interview. She sure as hell tried to ask good questions. Actually, she did quite a flattering story on him. He had always felt that her article had helped him get the Rose Lake High Alumnae Scholarship.
    And then he had passed on the scholarship to join the sheriff’s department and the scholarship went to Pete Nash instead. Mack’s father had been livid and things were never the same between them.
    But that was then, and this was now.
    "I can't sit at home," he said, wanting Kate to understand. “I have to find out who set me up and who shot Tom. I had nothing else to do in jail but replay that night over and over in my mind. So now, I have to check out a couple of things. I can't do that if I'm locked in my house."
    "If you'd bothered to read the contract you signed, you'd know that you get to go twenty feet around the perimeter of the house."
    "Oh, boy." He rolled his eyes. “Kate, I’m a cop, a good cop, believe me. And something’s rotten in Rose Lake. I have to get to the bottom of it.”
    The elevator came and Mack was relieved when he saw it was empty. The fewer people who saw him in jail clothes, the better. They got on and he pushed the button for the intensive care floor.
    "You lied," Kate said, shoving back her bangs in a way that made some of them stick up.
    "Don't worry. It'll all work out."
    "It'll work out because I'll make sure that it does, Mack. And if you don't cooperate, you can just rot in jail until all your court proceedings are over because I'll simply surrender you."
    "You'd have to catch me first. With a good pair of scissors, this ankle monitor is history."
    Her face was turning red. He was pushing her past her limits. He liked her. She was a good egg in high school and the butt of a lot of ribbing due to her shyness and because she was a bookworm. Over the years, she had gotten over some of her shyness. She certainly said what