Free A Vow to Love by Sherryl Woods Page A

this."
    "Keeping him in the dark did seem like a good idea at the time," Sam said thoughtfully. "Now I'm not so sure."
    "Well, I am."
    "If you won't cooperate..." He allowed the threat to trail off.
    "What is it that you want from me?"
    "I could answer that," Didi muttered.
    Penny stomped on her foot under the table. At least she thought it was Didi's until she caught the amusement in Sam's eyes. He actually looked triumphant. She gave him a moment to gloat.
    "I want you to call me directly or at the very least 9-1-1 the minute you see Tank lurking around again," he ordered.
    "And what should I tell 9-1-1?" she inquired sweetly. "Should I mention that Detective Sam Roberts irritated a thug and said thug plans to take it out on me?"
    He scowled at her. "Just tell 'em there's a suspicious person stalking you. We have a very good stalking law on the books. Since you have a credible witness to his threat, namely me, we should be able to get a restraining order."
    "Don't you think that could get complicated?"
    Sam turned to Didi. "Would you please tell this woman to keep her irritation with me from interfering with her common sense?"
    Didi's eyebrows lifted a fraction. "Sounds to me like you just told her yourself."
    "But she doesn't listen to me."
    Penny stood. "Maybe that's because you talk to me or around me as if I don't have a brain in my head. Just for the record, Roberts, I did not leave that restaurant alone last night. The instant I saw Tank outside, I had Rosie's boyfriend escort me home. I'm sure you've met Maynard. He won the Mr. Universe contest a few decades back and he's never let those muscles go to seed."
    "Why the hell didn't you say so?" he asked, clearly exasperated.
    She smiled at him. "You never asked."
    With that final shot fired, she took off. She was almost back at the lab when Didi caught up with her.
    "Why'd you go running off like that?"
    Penny regarded her as if she were running seriously short on logic. "Do you really need to ask?"
    "He's genuinely worried about you, you know."
    "He's only worried that something will happen to me and the whole family will blame him."
    Didi shook her head. "That's not the way I read it. There was enough electricity sparking between the two of you to replace the annual Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza over Boston Harbor."
    "Sorry. What you felt were the reverberations of two previously immovable objects slamming together. A force of nature, nothing more."
    Didi grinned. "A force of nature, huh? I suppose that's one name for it. Where I come from we call it love."

    A force of nature. Love? Please! Didi couldn't have been more wrong. Antipathy, maybe. Penny could believe that. She and Sam seemed to have settled into a comfortable routine of hostility. They brought out the very worst in each other, automatically, every single time.
    Penny sighed. It really was too bad that all that sizzle couldn't be turned in another direction, but she wasn't going to hold her breath. Besides, how would she survive a relationship with a man who spent his time hanging out with hoodlums, putting his life on the line for punks who didn't appreciate it?
    She'd just made a firm decision to avoid involvement when someone tapped rather imperiously on her front door. The only person she knew in Boston who acted as if a closed door was tantamount to an insult was Sam. What on earth would he be doing dropping by unannounced, unless he wanted to pick up his lecture where he'd left off at lunch? Well, she was more than willing to go another round or two. In fact, she found the prospect downright exhilarating.
    "I'm coming," she shouted back, snatching papers and books off of every surface she passed and stacking them together in a relatively neat pile on the coffee table. There was no need for the man to discover that housekeeping ranked somewhere below boxing on her list of priorities.
    Apparently her belated attempt to tidy up took too long. The knocking resumed, this time with even more