Free Wickedly Dangerous by Deborah Blake Page A

start that I don’t have any evidence; just a very strong suspicion.”
    â€œConsidering I’ve got nothing,” Liam admitted with chagrin, “that still puts you at an advantage over me.”
    Baba muttered something that sounded distinctly like, “You have no idea,” then added more to the point, “I think it was the woman who works for Peter Callahan. Belinda said her name is Maya something and that she got here right before children started disappearing.”
    Liam was so started by this pronouncement, he muffed the shot, sending the ball skidding into one of Baba’s and nudging it into a better alignment for her next turn. Profanity made it as far as the inside of his lips and hung there, largely unspoken.
    Baba stalked around the table, eying all the possible angles. Liam just eyed her.
    â€œWhat makes you think Maya Freeman has anything to do with this?” he asked. “She may have shown up around the right time, but I’ve looked into her background and everything checks out.”
    One solid-colored ball zoomed past him into a corner pocket, rapidly followed by another two in a blur of rainbow colors. “Appearances can be deceiving,” Baba said coolly. “And that woman is not what—who—she appears to be. All I can tell you is that I saw her do something suspicious at the meeting. Maybe it had nothing to do with the ensuing upheaval, but I wouldn’t want to bet your town’s safety on that, would you?” The eight ball followed all its fellows in as if to punctuate her statement.
    Liam sighed, as much in anticipation of more futile phone calls as at the loss of the game. “I’ll delve a little deeper, see if I can turn anything up.” He started racking the balls again, trying not to be distracted by his opponent’s amber gaze. “I have to admit, there is something about the woman that makes the back of my neck itch.”
    Baba’s shoulders relaxed microscopically as she realized he wasn’t dismissing her suggestion out of hand, and he didn’t have the heart to tell her he still found her a heck of a lot more suspicious than Peter Callahan’s fancy assistant.
    â€œThat’s two days you owe me now,” she said in a satisfied tone. “Are you sure you don’t want to quit while you’re ahead?” A tiny smile played at the corner of her full lips.
    He shook his head and leaned into the break, pushing his frustration into the forward movement of the stick. A yellow ball raced across the green surface, hung for a moment on the edge of oblivion, and then fell over with a swish. Liam grinned at Baba as he knocked a second solid ball in right after it.
    â€œNo thanks, I’m good,” he said. “And you owe me two more answers.”

S IX
    LIAM PONDERED HIS next two questions, not wanting to waste either one—since there was a distinct possibility he wouldn’t get another chance. The woman played pool like she did everything else, with an almost scary competence and cool grace.
    Baba’s sly half smile didn’t help his concentration any. He didn’t understand what it was about her that shook his usual self-possession. Yes, she was beautiful—in the same way a bolt of lightning is beautiful when it shatters the night sky, or a lioness is beautiful as it races across the veldt. This was not a safe or gentle woman, no damsel in distress in need of rescuing. Any knight in shining armor who dared such a thing would probably find himself picking bits of his own sword out of his teeth.
    Not that he was any kind of knight. Or interested in having any woman in his life, much less this prickly, mystifying, cloud-haired stranger with her secrets and her lies. That all ended long ago, when the world fell out from underneath him, changing in an instant from a place of warmth and joy to a dark and cruel mockery, empty and cold.
    He’d tried to stay strong for Melissa,