Chances Are - By Christy Reece Page 0,22
money into my unmentionables, so there will be hands touching me. Besides, you can’t be too protective or he’ll never take the bait.”
“You let me worry about that.”
“Did you ever have to deal with a serial killer when you were a cop?”
His “Back off” expression firmly in place, he shook his head.
That was a look she’d seen many times and had gotten used to. It didn’t matter. She was made of sterner stuff. She’d just keep asking questions until he finally opened up.
“You were a cop for what…six years? I’m sure you dealt with some terrible people during that time.”
His face grew harder and Angela shivered. Okay, maybe she wasn’t immune to those blue eyes piercing through her. They had known each other for months now and the only events he had talked to her about were the things that had happened to him since he had come to Paris. It was as if he wanted to pretend he had never had a life before LCR. Problem was, that life he wanted to pretend never existed continued to eat at him.
“You can give me those looks all day long but it doesn’t mean I’ll stop asking questions.”
“Why? What is it that you feel you have to know about me?”
Should she take this was an opportunity to tell him she knew almost everything about him? He had to know that she knew a little. Why else would she ask him about being a cop? That was information he certainly hadn’t shared with her. But should she tell him she knew about his wife’s death? That he blamed himself was apparent, but she knew the whole story. Teresa Mallory’s death had been a horrific tragedy and many were at fault. Jake was not one of them.
No, an inevitable argument would ensue. They didn’t need the distraction. After this was over, she would come clean. She should have long ago but had never got to the point of saying, “I know everything about you and I think you’re a wonderful man.”
She shrugged. “You said we were friends. Friends know about each other’s lives.”
“There’s still a lot I don’t know about you.”
She almost laughed. After all the chattering she’d done, there was almost nothing he didn’t already know. Still, if there were questions he wanted to ask, she was ready, willing, and able to give him answers.
“What do you want to know?”
“Were you born in Paris?”
“No. My father was French, my mother is…was from America…she grew up in Wisconsin. She met my father while she was on holiday in Europe. He moved to the States when they were married. I was born in Milwaukee but we moved to Paris when I was ten.”
“So that’s why you have so many Americanisms.”
She smiled. “We rarely spoke French in our house. My mother never learned to speak the language and my father was fluent in English. We were a very American family living in the heart of Paris.”
“Your brother and sister were born in France?”
“No, but they were just infants when we moved to Paris. However, they learned to speak both languages equally well.”
“Did your parents know that you worked for LCR?”
She shook her head. “I hated keeping the truth from them but Noah feared for their safety. And I didn’t want to worry them. He and I agreed that I would be as vague as possible about my employment. I think they were under the impression that I worked for an aging hippy.”
“Because of your tattoos and piercings?”
“Yes.”
“They didn’t know they were fake?”
She swallowed a startled breath. “How could you tell? People who have known me for years don’t know that. Even Noah didn’t know for a long time.”
“Maybe that’s because he—”
“Because he what?”
Looking as though he wanted to bite his tongue off, Jake shrugged and looked away as he murmured, “Maybe it’s because he hasn’t looked at you as closely as I have.”
A flash of heat rushed through her. Though she would love to take this conversation to a different level, she wouldn’t. Jake had made it clear he wanted nothing between them and while she refused to accept the finality of that, she wouldn’t pursue it here. When this case was over though, she planned to pursue the hell out of it.
“When I was hired, I was sporting a couple of fake tats. Just experimenting to see how I liked them. Noah told me my number one priority would be to deter uninvited visitors to LCR. So, when it came time to report for