LITMIR.BIZ

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      “This is for your own good,” Marquez said quietly. “You know that.”

      She sighed. “Yes, I suppose it is.” She moved away from the desk. “My whole life, I’ve been forced to run away from problems. I’d hoped that this time, at least, I could stand and deliver.”

      “Neat phrasing,” Marquez mused. “Would you like to borrow my sword?”

      She gave him a keen glance. “Your mother should never have given you that claymore,” she told him. “You’re very lucky that the patrol officer could be convinced to drop the charges.”

      He looked affronted. “The guy picked the lock on my apartment door and let himself in. When I woke up, he was packing my new laptop into a book bag for transport!”

      “You have a sidearm,” she pointed out.

      He glowered at her. “I forgot and left it locked in the pocket of my car that night. But the sword was mounted right over my bed.”

      “They say the thief actually jumped out the window when he brandished that huge weapon,” Glory told Haynes, who grinned.

      “My apartment is on the ground floor,” Marquez informed them.

      “Yes, but you were chasing the thief down the street in your…” She cleared her throat. “Well, you were out of uniform.”

      “I got arrested for streaking,” Marquez muttered. “Can you believe that?”

      “Of course I can! You were naked!” Glory replied.

      “How I sleep has nothing to do with the fact that the guy was robbing me! At least I got him down and immobilized by the time the squad car spotted me.” He shook his head. “I told the arresting officer who I was, and he asked to see my badge.”

      Glory put her hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle.

      “Did you tell him where it was?” Haynes asked.

      “I told him where he could put it if he didn’t arrest the burglar.” He moved restlessly. “Anyway, another squad car pulled up behind him, and it was an officer who knew me.”

      “A female officer,” Glory told Haynes, with glee.

      Marquez’s high cheekbones actually seemed to flush. “The burglar’s tote came in handy,” he murmured. “At least I got to ride back to my apartment. But the story got out from the night shift, and by the next afternoon, I was a minor celebrity.”

      “What a pity you didn’t get caught by the squad car’s camera,” Haynes giggled. “They could have featured you on that TV show, Cops.”

      He glared at her. “I was robbed!”

      “Well, he didn’t actually get to keep anything he took, did he?” Haynes asked.

      “He fell on my new laptop when I tackled him,” Marquez scoffed. “Trashed the hard drive. I lost all my files.”

      “Never heard of backing up with hard copy, I guess?” Glory queried.

      “Who expects to have someone break into a cop’s apartment and rob him?”

      “He does have a point,” Haynes had to admit.

      “I guess so.”

      Marquez looked at his watch and grimaced. “I have to be in court this afternoon to testify for a homicide case,” he told them. “I can tell my boss that you’re going to Jacobsville, right?”

      She sighed. “Yes. I’ll go tomorrow morning, first thing. Do I need a letter of introduction or anything?”

      “No. Jason will let the manager know you’re coming. You can stay in the house on the property.”

      She hesitated. “Where is the manager staying?”

      “Also in the house.” He held up a hand. “Before you say it, there’s a housekeeper who lives in the house and cooks for the manager.”

      That relaxed her, but only a little. She didn’t like strange men, especially at close quarters. She decided that despite the summer heat, she’d pack thick cotton pajamas and a long robe.

      JACOBSVILLE SEEMED MUCH smaller than she remembered it. The main street was almost exactly the same as it had been when she lived nearby. There was the pharmacy where her father had gone for medicine. Over there was the café which Barbara, Marquez’s mother, had run for as long as she could remember. There was the hardware store and the feed store and the clothing boutique. It was all the same. Only Glory herself had changed.

      As she turned onto the narrow paved road that led to the Pendletons’s truck farm, she began to feel sick at her stomach. She’d forgotten. The house was the same one she’d shared with her mother and father, until her mother’s explosive temper had shattered Glory’s young body and their family. Until now, she hadn’t thought about how difficult it might be, trying to live there again.

      The old pecan tree in the front yard was still there. She spotted it before she saw the mailbox beside the narrow paved driveway. Years ago, there had been a tire swing on the tree.

      The real surprise was the house. The Pendletons must have spent some money remodeling it, because the old clapboard house of Glory’s youth was now an elegant white Victorian with gingerbread woodwork. There was a long, wide front porch which contained a swing, a settee and several rocking chairs. Far behind the house was a huge steel warehouse where workers were putting boxes of fresh corn and peas and tomatoes and other produce from the large fields on all sides of the house and warehouse. The fields seemed to stretch for miles into the flat distance.

      She pulled up in the graveled parking lot under another pecan tree and cut off the engine. Her small sedan contained most of her worldly goods. Except for her furniture, and she hadn’t even considered bringing that along. She was keeping her apartment in San Antonio. The rent was paid up for six months, courtesy of her stepbrother. She wondered when she’d get to go home.

      She opened the door and got out, just in time to see a tall, jean-clad man with jet-black hair and a mustache come down the front steps. He had a strong face and an athletic physique. He walked with such elegance that he seemed to glide along. He looked foreign.

      He spotted Glory and his taut expression grew even more reserved. He moved toward her with a quick, elegant step. As he came closer, she could see that his eyes were black, like jet, under a jutting brow and dark eyebrows. She had the odd feeling that he was the sort of man you hope you never meet in a dark alley.

      He stopped just in front of her, adding up her inexpensive car, her eyeglasses, her windswept blond hair in its tight bun and her modest clothing. If he was measuring, she thought, she’d fallen short.

      “May I help you?” he asked coldly.

      She leaned heavily on the car door. “I’m the canner.”

      He blinked. “Excuse me?”

      She swallowed, hard. He was very tall and he looked half out of humor already. “I can can.”

      “We don’t hire exotic dancers,” he shot back.

      Her green eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

      “The can-can is a dance, I believe?”

      “Is it, really?” she asked with a mischievous glance. “Would you like to demonstrate it, and I’ll give you my opinion of whether it’s a dance or not?”

      Incredible, she thought. Until now, she hadn’t really believed that a man’s eyes could explode with bad temper…

      2

      THE MAN’S JAW CLENCHED. “I am not in the mood for games,” he said in coldly accented English.

      “First you talk about dancing, now you’re on about games,” she said. “Really, I don’t care about your private life.

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