Free Only Her (A K2 Team Novel) by Sandra Owens Page A

headed to her bedroom. The cats joined her in bed. Merlin sat on the pillow next to her, where he could keep an eye on things, Arthur made a few turns on her lap before curling up, and Pelli batted a toy mouse across the comforter.
    Riley watched Pelli for a few minutes, smiling at his silliness. Her life was coming together finally. It hadn’t been easy. As a child who’d grown up in foster care, bouncing from one family to another, she’d had no one to depend on but herself. Her last family, the one she’d lived with her senior year of high school, had been the best, and she still kept in touch with them. They were the only ones, though, that she had any desire to keep in her life.
    Pat and John Haywood had helped her through a rough time, when she’d hated herself and the world. Pat was one of the wisest women Riley had ever known, and had given her Arthur and told her that she could whisper all her secrets to him and he would never tell. There were many secrets she’d shared with him, and once she trusted him, she told him her biggest one. Getting it off her chest had done wonders for beginning the healing process, and her surly attitude began to seem too much trouble to hold on to. Eventually, she’d trusted Pat enough to tell her about Reed.
    Seeing that she’d not put her phone in the charger, she picked it up from the night table. When she put the plug into it, it lit up with a missed call, Cody’s name coming up. Her heartbeat picking up, she punched Call. Had something happened to him?
    “Lo,” he said, his voice sleep muffled.
    “I woke you. I’m sorry. I just now saw that you’d called earlier.”
    “Hey, no problem.”
    He sounded alert now, and she guessed he was trained to go from zero to sixty at a moment’s notice. “So you’re okay?”
    “Yeah, why?”
    “When I saw your name on the screen, my first thought was that something had happened. I was worried.”
    “That’s damn sweet, Riley. Thank you.”
    His voice was sexy, all low and rumbly. She wished she could crawl through the phone and snuggle next to him while he murmured naughty things into her ear. “So, I guess you were calling to check on your dogs?” He chuckled, the sound sending a shiver through her.
    “No, darlin’, just wanted to talk to you. Is that okay?”
    Oh . “Yeah, sure. Where are you?” She heard the rustling of sheets and imagined him sitting up to rest his back against the headboard and wondered what he wore to bed. Her guess was nothing; he seemed like the kind of man who slept in the nude. That she’d like to see.
    “Some little tourist town in Iowa. Storm Lake. Ever heard of it?”
    “No. Can you tell me why you’re there?”
    “I will when I get back home. Right now, I’d rather talk about you. Did you go to the dog park?”
    “I did, and Pretty Girl and Sally tested my ball throwing stamina. They’re great dogs, Cody.”
    “They are, but they took advantage of you. I’ll show you why when I get home. Any more trouble with the poison thing?”
    “Yeah, had one today, but his owners got him to us in time. He ate some meat that someone left under a bush at the dog park.” As soon as she told him the last part, she wanted to take back the words. He was a smart man, and the comment wasn’t going to get past him.
    “Riley—”
    The soft, sexy voice was gone, replaced by one that was full of command. “I didn’t risk your dogs,” she said, cutting him off. “I never took my eyes off them, I swear.”
    “That’s not my worry. I know you wouldn’t put them in danger. It’s you I’m worried about. Has it occurred to you that the person poisoning animals might be the same one who tried to run you over?”
    She squeezed her eyes shut. No, that had not occurred to her. What had she ever done to anyone to make them hate her so much that they’d want to kill her?
    “Riley?”
    “Yeah?”
    “I’m not saying it is, but it’s entirely possible. Would you promise not to go to the dog park