Read Bite Me (Woodland Creek) for Free Online Page B

Jake said. “They might even be in the process of switching over soon. Who knows?”
    “Why are you so irritated?”
    Jake didn’t answer. He didn’t even look at her.
    Their bunks were also on opposite sides of each respective cell. Probably to make sure no one in the opposite cell could reach over and strangle their neighbor while they slept. Seemed like a good idea, but it was just that much more space between them while Jake lay back and stared at the ceiling.
    It was quiet, and it felt strange, considering everything that had happened, and even where they were. It had been years since Jake was a cop, and even then, it had felt like longer since he’d walked into a precinct. He just remembered a lot of ringing phones, some shouting, and maybe if he was lucky, a fight would break out while some stupid car thief tried to get away.
    The adrenaline rushes on those were the best.
    Nothing here. There was a secretary out front and a couple of cops at their desks. One even offered to order them some takeout from the local pub. Small towns. It seemed that if a man lived here and asked nicely, he could get a place to deliver when delivery wasn’t a normal option.
    Strange.
    At least Alice was now safe. All these years of looking for her, damn near obsessing over her, and now that he’d found her, he almost didn’t know what to do with her. Fantasies were always better than reality. If this was an action movie or a romance, she would’ve been in his arms by now, but when Jake turned his head, she was still all the way over there, lying on her cot, her slim, pretty fingers laced together on her flat stomach.
    He watched her inhale a deep breath, watched the way those perfect breasts rose and fell, and then she spoke. “Why didn’t you tell the chief about, you know, us?”
    Jake’s blood chilled inside his veins. “Us?”
    She turned her head to look at him. “Yeah, us.”
    Color flooded her cheeks, and she looked away so quickly it was impossible for him to not take note of it. “I mean, sorry, not that there’s an us, but what we went through. What we did.”
    Jake cleared his throat as quietly as he could. “It wasn’t important.”
    A brief silence. “It wasn’t?”
    “No,” Jake said, shaking his head a little. “It has nothing to do with the case now. It’s not information that would help catch or detain Bobby either. No point.”
    Not that he wasn’t fairly certain Rickman didn’t already suspect something. Jake wasn’t sure what he’d expected from the chief of police around these parts, but this guy was smart. He didn’t seem like the type who would be fooled too easily over anything. Which meant Jake was pretty damned grateful the man hadn’t said anything.
    Jake had followed Alice all over the country, searching her out when he didn’t have to, when she wasn’t even his problem anymore. How could anyone not realize something had been going on?
    Alice didn’t say anything for the longest time. “He’s not going to give up until I’m dead, is he?”
    Jake didn’t need to think about what he said before he said it. “I won’t let that happen.”
    “You can’t stop everything.”
    “I can stop him.”
    He’d done it once before. With her help, of course, but he’d still done it. Getting shot in the process hadn’t been the least bit fun, but he could remember taking a great deal of satisfaction from the look in Alice’s eyes as she tried to stop the bleeding. She’d been so scared for him. It was kind of sick how pleased he’d been at the time, and how much he’d hung onto that specific memory, but oh well. It couldn’t be helped.
    More silence. He couldn’t fucking take this. They used to talk about everything, for hours on end. Granted, a lot of what he had to tell Alice had been lies and half truths mixed in to keep himself from getting confused, but they’d had a connection back then that Jake had never had with any women before or since.
    Now it was like they couldn’t