Heart of Gold - B.J. Daniels Page 0,10
The judge asks and we do whatever he wants because he saved our lives. He wants me to help you and that’s what I’m going to do, with or without your approval.”
She flipped her hair back. Snow crystals had settled in her dark curls like tiny fairy lights. “I should have never called the judge. It was a mistake. I’m fine. You can go back and tell him—”
“The judge wouldn’t have sent me unless you were in trouble. So you’re not fine. Remember, I know you.” His gaze locked with hers. He’d forgotten the warm honey of her eyes and what looking in them did to him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She laughed. “I’d forgotten how pigheaded you are.”
Her pulse pounded beneath his fingers as her laugh floated around him. He’d also forgotten that infectious laugh. It took him back to their first encounter all those years ago and what had followed. The memory sent a sharp stab of longing racing through his bloodstream. The girl had gotten under his skin all those years ago. He couldn’t imagine the kind of damage the young woman standing before him could do. He let go of her wrist.
“You need to go back to the judge and tell him that I’m fine,” she was saying. “It was a mistake. I thought I saw someone from my past but—” She glanced over her shoulder across the icy street and shuddered.
He heard her breath catch in her throat. Her brown, soulful eyes had widened into saucers. She swayed on the step next to him, then grabbed hold of his biceps, her fingers digging in as she tried to steady herself.
“That’s her.” The words came out in a low croak.
Shep followed her gaze across the street. Through the falling snow, he caught sight of a slim, dark figure in the shadow of a light pole. He had only a glimpse of long blond hair before the figure dissolved back into the darkness of the alley.
In those fleeting seconds, several cars roared past before he could pry Charlie’s fingers from his arm and race across the street, his boots slick on the gleaming black ice. By the time he reached the alley, it was empty.
When he returned to the stairs leading up to her apartment, Charlie was sitting on the step where he’d been. She looked up at him, snowflakes caught on her lashes, her brown eyes dark with fear.
“It was her,” she said, voice cracking. “It’s Lindy Parker. She’s come back to make me pay for what I did.”
* * *
SHEP HAD NO idea who Lindy Parker was. But whatever Charlie had seen, it had scared her. From what he knew of the incredible girl she’d been, scaring her wasn’t easy. By the time he’d met her at the judge’s boot camp—her sixteen and him seventeen—she’d already been toughened by life. She had that way of looking at a person as if she’d already seen too much, been through too much. But she’d never talked about it. Neither had he.
“Who’s Lindy?” he asked now.
Charlie stared at him in surprise. “The judge didn’t tell you?”
“The only thing he told me is that you needed my help.”
“And you agreed without even knowing what was wrong?” She looked as skeptical as he felt. “Why you?”
They were back to that? He shrugged again. “He said I was the right person for the job.”
“Are you a detective, a cop or something?”
Something. “I teach.”
She waited, obviously not letting him get away that easily.
“Middle school math.”
Her expression said it all.
“I believe the judge asked me because I’m a problem solver.” He figured that might be part of the reason. He didn’t want to speculate on the other. “I’m also reasonable and logical.”
Charlie scoffed at that as she started to get to her feet. “Like I’m not?”
Shep wasn’t about to touch that one. He reached out his hand to pull her up. She took it, but her gaze was on the other side of the street. Whoever had been there was gone but far from forgotten, given the fear still in her expression.
“Why don’t we go inside where it’s warm and you can tell me all about it?” he suggested.
She turned and started up the stairs, seeming dazed as she led the way to her third-story apartment. Apparently there was no elevator, he gathered after the climb.
He watched her try to unlock the door with trembling fingers until he gently took the key and opened the door. Following her inside, he took in the place.
It