Free The Eligible Suspect by Jennifer Morey Page A

for her, and she was alone with him. She watched him realize the same in the way his regard softened toward her.
    “I think you would depend on someone if you were ever given the chance,” he said. “There’s a difference between depending on someone out of need and depending on them as part of a team.”
    “Is it safe to depend on you?” she asked.
    As her meaning sank in, his softness faded and he became unreadable. He was too damaged to be part of any team. He was a lone wolf. Like her.
    “Right,” she said. “I’ve had my heart broken. I don’t need it broken again.”
    His eyes never wavered from hers and she could see he understood but could say nothing to alleviate her fears. And why should she expect him to? They’d only just met. This was about her own insecurities. Her weakness. One she hadn’t had before she’d met her fiancé. She’d like to get back to that place. Fearless. Full of adventure. Korbin gave her plenty of adventure, but it wasn’t the kind she had in mind. He was dangerous for her, and not only to her heart.

Chapter 5
    W here the hell was Damen? Demarco Ricchetti stuffed his phone into his pocket with a hard sigh and rang the doorbell of a small, run-down ranch home in a bad part of Denver. His twin brother had started acting strange several months ago. Some would call him arrogant. Reckless. Maybe even stupid. As his twin, Demarco would say he was all three and more. But he was also a product of his upbringing. Their dad had always favored Demarco. He was the one with all the brains. The ambition. The women. They were fraternal, not identical, and Damen got the bulldog looks. He was shorter than Demarco, stockier, and had acne scars. Demarco had smooth, youthful skin and a physique that attracted countless women.
    He was sure Damen’s low self-esteem had kept him from excelling in school. Demarco went to college. Damen barely made it out of high school. He did have his redeeming qualities, though. Despite being unpopular and last in their dad’s pecking order, he loved Demarco and would do anything for him. They had a special bond, the kind he couldn’t really describe. It was just there. They knew each other’s thoughts. They were one.
    Demarco didn’t like thinking that it was pity that made him overprotective of his brother, but he was afraid that was the reality. But Damen seemed to be headed down into a cesspool of his own creation and Demarco didn’t want to be flushed along with him. He was torn over doing what he’d always done, or turning his back on his brother for the first time in his entire life. He hadn’t talked to him in days, and ever since the news broadcast of his girlfriend’s murder, he kind of needed to. Why hadn’t his brother called him? The murder of the woman you loved wasn’t something you didn’t share with your twin brother.
    It wasn’t like Damen to avoid him. They talked every day, mostly by text. But he wasn’t even answering those. And he’d bet the news that police were looking for Korbin Maguire in connection to a hit-and-run was no coincidence. It was all very bizarre but had to be related somehow.
    Demarco was about to knock when the door opened to an average-height, dark-skinned man.
    “Hey, Demarco. Come on in.” Baxter “Bear” Brown stepped aside. In this part of Denver, Demarco had to be careful about what he said and did. With a glance around, he stepped into the house.
    Bear was Damen’s business partner; at least that’s what Damen had called him. When Demarco had asked if he was getting into trouble again, his brother had joked and said,
“only a little.”
    Demarco now knew that it was far more than a little. He was sick with it.
    “I’m looking for Damen. Have you seen him?” Demarco moved deeper into the living room and faced Bear.
    “Not in a few days. I’ve talked to him, though. He went up to Wolf Creek.”
    That immediately sparked an alarm. “Why did he go there?”
    “He didn’t say. Vacation, I