Read Can't Shake You for Free Online Page B

for her. They’d always been her mother’s favorite. Said they reminded her of Carissa as a little girl—small, bright, and beautiful.
    She felt a stab of melancholy that she wouldn’t be the one enjoying the pretty little blooms every year, but hopefully whoever bought the house would appreciate what was sure to be a beautiful array of wildflowers and other perennials when the garden was complete.
    “I don’t have to take this bullshit from you, Fletcher!”
    Carissa flinched at the booming voice coming from the interior of the house.
    Apparently not just one of the guys. Crap.
    She clamped her eyes shut and pulled in a careful breath, praying this wouldn’t be as bad as it seemed. Maybe, just maybe, Reed would go against his rules and cut her some slack.
    “Oh, that’s right. You used to share a pillow with the homeowner, so that gives you the right to push me around. Wrong, asshole!”
    Double crap.
    Carissa got to her feet and hurried to the house.
    “You know as well as I do that this has nothing to do with Carissa—this is about you trying to pull the wool over my eyes on every goddamn job you do. Get your shit together, Kelly, or I’ll see to it your license is yanked faster than you can say State Board.”
    Carissa slid into the main part of the house just in time to see Alex fling a hammer across the living room and right through the wall he’d hung that morning. The sheetrock punctured like ice on a puddle in spring.
    “What’s going on here?” Both men turned to her, opposite expressions on their faces. Alex’s full of rage and frustration and Reed’s calm and stoic. He smiled faintly, his dark brown eyes almost apologetic beneath light brown eyebrows and spiky blond hair.
    “I told you I had this under control, but you had to run and call your boyfriend, didn’t you?” Alex glared at her, his hands flexing at his sides.
    She looked to Reed in question. He shook his head and blew out a breath before he explained.
    “She didn’t call me, Kelly. If you really want to know, I’m here because someone else reported you for illegal work. Looks like I got here just in time.”
    Someone had called her in? Oh, God.
    “I can’t believe this.” Alex pushed a hand back through his hair, making it stand on end. He swung a glance over to his guys, who had all stopped working to watch the show. “You better hope I don’t find out which one of you—”
    “Hold up.” Reed interrupted him with the cool grace of an upheld hand. “You’ve got bigger problems than worrying about who reported you, Kelly. How about you get to work tearing down that wall, so I can see what you’ve got going on behind it.”
    “Screw you.”
    Reed chuckled wryly as he pulled a clipboard from beneath his arm and began to write. “Have it your way then.” He tore off what looked like a parking ticket and handed it to Carissa. “I hereby shut this renovation down until your contractor complies, whether it’s by showing me you’re legal or by fixing what we all know isn’t.”
    The room spun a little. Her knees went weak.
    “Shut down?” she croaked. “You can’t shut me down, Reed. You just...you can’t.”
    “I wish I didn’t have to, angel. Really I do.”
    She shot a pleading glance toward Alex. “Just show him. Please. You said there’d be no trouble.”
    Alex said nothing, just looked back and forth between her and Reed, his expression growing more menacing by the second, those demon eyes coming to life. She eyed the hole in the wall and bit her bottom lip.
    How could she work with him now? Wondering what other problems might arise, or, God forbid, if he’d go off again.
    “You know what,” she heard herself say, autopilot kicking in. “We’re done here. I can’t afford this kind of drama. I’m sorry, Alex, but if you’ve got something to hide, I can’t have you working for me anymore.”
    He laugh was pure, bone chilling evil. “We have a contract.”
    Reed cleared his throat to speak, but