Free Hot Pursuit by Lynn Raye Harris Page A

as Matt shook hands with the
patrolmen he was talking to. The driver’s door swung open, and he
sank down beside her. “You okay?” His gray eyes were sharp as he
studied her.
    She shrugged, too embarrassed to admit she
was still shaking. As if he couldn’t see. “I’ll be fine. Did you
find Julie? Is anyone hurt?”
    “Steve took her home already. And yeah, there
were some minor injuries. No one got shot, though.”
    “Bastard,” Evie spat. “Stupid bastard.”
    “Jimmy’s always been a bully. Tonight, he
took it too far.”
    “I heard he pulled a knife on Ginny Temple. I
should have been more careful.”
    Matt gripped her chin and forced her to look
at him. “It’s not your fault. Jimmy’s an asshole. And now he’s an
asshole with a broken arm and a few criminal charges. If it’s
anybody’s fault, it’s his.”
    “He seemed pretty pissed at you.”
    Matt ran a hand over his face. He’d tried to
rinse the dirt away, but there were still streaks of it across his
skin. Not that it made him look any less appealing,
unfortunately.
    “Yeah. He wanted to join the military but he
couldn’t pass the physical. It drives him crazy that I’m in and
he’s not. Last time I was here, he picked a fight with me out at
Dean’s Bar. It’s like he’s got something to prove.”
    “Did you break his arm that time too?”
    His eyes glittered. “I’m sorry you had to see
that.”
    Evie wrapped her arms around her body. Where
had that come from? He’d pretty much just saved her from God only
knows what.
    “It’s okay. I’m not typically squeamish. It’s
just a combination of a lot of things in my life right now. And I
know you broke his arm because you had to, not because you wanted
to.”
    He laughed low in his throat, a sound that
curled through her and made her shiver again. “Believe me, I wanted
to.”
    Matt started the car and reversed out of the
parking lot, and Evie turned away from his hard profile to look out
the window. It was dark and she couldn’t see anything, but she had
a sudden need to breathe without him taking up all the air. Of all
the places she thought she might be tonight, alone in a car with
Matt Girard hadn’t been one of them.
    “What’s a Ranger?” she asked after they’d
turned onto the main road. She had no idea what all that military
jargon was, but Jimmy had seemed impressed with it.
    Matt glanced at her. “A Ranger is a special
operations soldier. They parachute behind enemy lines, take the
difficult targets, smooth the way for the rest of the Army to
follow.”
    “Jimmy said your daddy bought you in.”
    Matt laughed. “If only it was that easy.
Believe me, I’ve got the scars to prove I did it on my own.”
    Evie watched his profile. She hated to think
of him with scars. He was beautiful.
    And she was ridiculous. She shook her head as
if that simple movement would clear him out of it. He’d never
really left her thoughts. He’d just been hidden behind a curtain.
Now that he was here, the curtain had been peeled back, and she was
grappling with his presence in her life all over again.
    “Why’d you choose to do something so hard,
Matt? You could have done anything.” It made no sense to her. If
she’d had the advantages he had, she would have made good use of
them, not thrown them away getting captured by enemy soldiers.
    He glanced over at her again, his eyes
gleaming in the darkness. “You think it’s crazy?”
    “It seems a little odd for someone like
you.”
    He flipped on the turn signal. “Because I’m a
Girard, you mean.”
    She sighed. “If I could have anything I want,
I doubt I’d risk my neck jumping out of airplanes.”
    “Maybe you think I ought to sit on my daddy’s
porch sipping iced tea all day. Or do nine to five at Girard Oil,
pretending I like being a businessman. No, thanks. When I go to
work, I know what I do matters.”
    Her pulse throbbed. “A job doesn’t have to be
dangerous to matter.”
    He flashed her a grin. “Maybe I’ve