Free The Law of Desire by Gwyneth Bolton Page A

she had nowhere to go. She couldn’t go back to the McKnights’ apartment. She knew the people in the white van would be waiting for her there. But she wasn’t supposed to leave the area. Although Chief Hightower’s less-than-subtle suggestions wouldn’t keep her there if she had any of David’s money left to leave town with.
    She sucked her teeth and huffed.
    I’m getting tired of people treating me like a crook when I haven’t done anything. I’ve almost been kidnapped, shot and I’ve spent the night in a cruddy cell. And I just lost three of the last four people on this earth who gave more than a damn about me. No wonder I almost cracked in that office. Hell, I’m just two events shy of an emotional breakdown! If anything else happens to me, I’ll be lucky to just cry.
    Someone grabbed her arm from behind and she swung her free arm to smack him as she spun around. Luckily, she noticed it was Lawrence and she stopped herself before connecting with his grill.
    He caught her arm midair and placed it at her side. “Let’s go.”
    “Go where?”
    “You need a safe place to crash and I need to make sure you don’t jet before we find out how you’re connected to all this. So, I think it’s best that you just come with me.”
    The man had to be crazy. It couldn’t just be arrogance. It certainly wasn’t just presumptuousness. He had to be a lunatic and out of his ever-loving mind if he thought she would go with him anywhere after he made her spend the entire afternoon cramped up in that funky little trailer office, after he harassed her with his never-ending questions and suspicion and after sleeping in a corroded cell getting the cooties from the millions of bedbugs that must have taken up residence in that mattress. Cooties she wouldn’t be able to get rid of because she no longer had access to a shower.
    She glared at him and snatched her arm away. “Thanks but no thanks, Detective. I’ve had enough of your company to last me a lifetime.”
    He narrowed his eyes in contemplation. “So where are you going to go, Minerva? I wouldn’t advise you to go back to the McKnights’. That’s the first place they’d probably look for you. And I really think you should seriously heed the chief’s advice about sticking around. He can be a bit of a hardnose. I’d hate for him to think he had to lock you up again for your own good…”
    Visions of the crusty cell swam in her head. If she were prone to whining and complaining in even the slightest way, she would have started stamping her feet and screaming, “ Why me?” at that very moment. Good thing life had dealt her enough hard knocks not to expect lots of pleasant things to happen to her just because …But she seriously could have used a small shift in luck for a change.
    He held out his hand. “Come on. Let me help you.”
    “Why do you want to help me?”
    He paused and his face sort of twisted up. “Look, you need to decide if you want to risk it out there against folks trying to get you who you claim you don’t know, or let me help you.” He turned and started walking in the opposite direction.
    She stood there for a few seconds and then shrugged. No good could come from hanging around the detective too long no matter what he said. He would probably find some way to pin all the murders on her and convince the world that she was really Bin Laden. No, she needed to keep it moving. She turned and kept walking.
    Now, if I can just figure out —“Whoa!” She screeched as her thought processes were interrupted suddenly. Just as she made it to the front door she felt herself being lifted from the ground and before she knew it she was over Lawrence’s shoulders.
    “Put me down, Lawrence Hightower! This is kidnapping and we’re in a freaking police station!”
    “Shut up, Minerva,” he said in the calmest voice she’d ever heard.
    They headed out a side door and down some stairs to an underground parking garage. When he finally put her down in