Read Shut Off (Just This Once #3) for Free Online Page A

error of my stakeout. I wasn’t prepared in the least to be sitting there for any real length of time. I didn’t have a bottle of water, which was just plain stupid when you’re talking about Vegas heat. Water is pretty much a necessity. Nor did I have anything to snack on. Warring with whether to leave and pick up something at that very moment or wait it out until I was a sweaty mess and my stomach began gnawing my insides, I decided on the latter and leaned my seat back into a comfortable position. One that granted me the ability to see out without anyone directly seeing me, which may have been pointless if Lara were to recognize my car.
    With the first cropping of sweat lining my skin, I thought back to some PSA announcement about leaving babies and animals in the car in the sweltering heat. I’d only been in the car for five minutes with the car turned off before I was turning the starter over to get the air pumping back through my car. There was no way I would be able to make it another minute in the stifling heat. At 10 a.m., it was already 90 degrees outside, and in the car that felt like a staggering 110.
    Fifteen minutes later, the front door opened. I caught a brief glimpse of someone exiting the home before I ducked my head behind the door frame of my car, hoping that whoever had just left wouldn’t notice the lone woman sitting in her car watching the home like a single white female. The sound of car doors clicking let me know that someone was leaving. Leaning backwards slightly, I glanced out the rear driver’s side window to see who it was.
    Lara. In a white bondage mini dress and sandals that roped up her legs. Her short black bob—her distinguishing feature—was perfectly styled without a hair out of place. She hugged a man who I presumed to be her boyfriend. Paul Twinings, I recalled from my meeting with Kerri.
    Her face was hidden in his embrace and I watched in odd fascination at their interaction. There was nothing awkward or uncomfortable in the way they held each other, nothing about them seemed to relay the fact that they were newly involved as I would assume seeing as how only two months ago she was dating Joel. It felt uncomfortable watching her this way, like I was looking in on a moment that ordinarily I would turn my head to avoid seeing. It was a private moment not meant for public consumption, but she threw all common decency out of the window when she had me fired from my job. As far as I was concerned, she didn’t deserve the same treatment as regular people. Besides, it seemed to me she spent a lot of her time trying to distinguish herself from the common person.
    So I looked on while the man deep-throating Lara’s face clutched at her back as if she would vanish within his hold. Her arms hung loosely around him, and she kissed him back with less enthusiasm. From his scraggly beard and unkempt clothes, I could only assume that he was the owner of the house and this was somewhere Lara was staying in the meantime, until her meal ticket came through.
    I hated to think about Lara and this man living the lap of luxury on Joel’s dime. Lara would probably find the most ostentatious house to live in, something that told anyone driving by that she had the most money on the block. The thought burned through my stomach, leaving behind a sour churning in my gut.
    Lara slipped from his grip, and I ducked down just as she turned around to leave. The car door slammed shut, and I listened as she started the car and backed out of the driveway. I caught a glimpse of her taillights shimmering red as she stopped before turning back onto the main street. When I looked out of the window again, her boyfriend was just closing the door to the home.
    Staring at the closed door, I thought back to what Kerri said. Paul was scheduled to give his deposition for the case, which made me wonder where he fit into all of this. Was Lara using him, too? Maybe she needed him to vouch for her, and the moment she would