Free Saving Simon (Tarnished Saints Series Book 5) by Elizabeth Rose Page A

murderer?”
    “Most people thought my brother Thomas did it.”
    “Did he?” she asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
    “Let’s just put it this way. He has a shotgun and knows how to use it. Thomas isn’t the kind of guy you want on your bad side. Well, what are you waiting for? The roads are dark out here at night, we’d better get going before the bears come out.”
    “Bears? I didn’t know they had bears out here. I’m glad you’re riding with me, Simon.”
     
    Simon did his best not to laugh, feeling a little like a jerk for scaring Piper with his stories of Thomas as well as the bears. Thomas didn’t really kill his wife, and there were no bears in the woods around Thunder Lake, but she didn’t need to know that. Now he had her right where he wanted her. She was in his neck of the woods and not in the big city with her shark of a father calling the shots.
    Simon knew the more she thought she needed his protection, the closer she would stay to him. He had to keep a close eye on her and try to convince her not to do anything to close down the marina, and this might just do the trick. If he kept her distracted enough, maybe she wouldn’t find the time to do the job she’d been sent here to do.
    While he was still very upset with her, he couldn’t stop thinking of the time they spent together on the ship and the softness of her lips against his. Maybe this time since her father wasn’t here, he’d have a chance to pick up where they left off.
    “You’ll have to tell me where we’re going,” she said, driving very slowly in the dark. “I’d put the address into my GPS but for some reason it’s been acting up.”
    “Pippa, no one uses a GPS out here in the woods. You go by landmarks and just knowing the backwoods roads.”
    “I see. By the way, I just wanted to tell you that it’s okay if you call me Pippa. I don’t mind.”
    “Thanks for the permission.” He just smiled and shook his head. As if he needed permission to do anything. He would have called her Pippa even if she said she hated it, because that’s what he’d decided to do.
    They drove mostly in silence, and a short while later stopped in front of Thomas’s house. It was once the Ainsley’s Bed and Breakfast, and huge compared to the rest of the cabins on the lake. It had five bedrooms, four bathrooms, three fireplaces, a sunroom, two living rooms, a gigantic kitchen and a two and a half car garage with a woodworking shop attached.
    “Oh, my, this house looks beautiful,” she commented, dipping down her head to get a view of the whole thing in the headlights out the front window. “It’s so big. I never thought I’d see such a nice house in a place like this.”
    “A place like what?” he asked. “This area is home to a lot of people, just as Chicago is to you. Of course the house is big because Thomas needs lots of room to raise his eight kids.”
    “Eight kids? Wow. You’re right, I guess.”
    “Well, actually it’s only seven but he has one on the way.” He opened the car door, then looked back to her. “I’m starving. We haven’t eaten all day. How about you come in and we’ll see if my brother’s got any leftovers?”
    “Really, I couldn’t. I’ll just stop and get a bite to eat at a nearby restaurant.”
    “The only restaurant within fifty miles of here is my brother Levi’s restaurant, the Three Billy Goat’s Diner but it’s already closed for the night.”
    “Really?” she asked. “I didn’t know that, but I wouldn’t want to impose on Thomas at all.”
    “You’re not imposing. Now shut off the motor and let’s get something to eat. I’m so hungry I could eat those damned goats Levi keeps on the roof.”
    “Goats on a roof? What are you talking about?”
    “You’ll find out soon enough,” he said, walking around and opening the car door for her.
    He’d embellished his story a little saying there was no restaurant for fifty miles, but he had to do it in order to get her