Strong, Sleek and Sinful - By Lorie O'Clare Page 0,14
and focused only on their friends.
Turning a half circle, she met the amused look of the long-brown-haired girl, her eyeliner applied even thicker than it was that afternoon. There were two other girls with her, one of them tall and lanky, with curly auburn hair, and the other about the same height as the brunette, with hair almost identical. They could be sisters.
“Learn lots of good stuff to write in your paper?” the teenage girl asked.
“Getting some ideas.” Kylie smiled at her and the other girls but then shifted her attention to the man with them.
It was the man who’d shown up at the parking lot yesterday and tried coming over to her. She didn’t get a good look at him at the time, but now, in the darkness with streetlights accentuating shadows, the tall, dark-haired man staring at her, his expression unreadable, was damn near the best-looking guy she’d ever laid eyes on in her life.
“My uncle is a cop,” the teenage girl said smugly, grinning broadly.
Kylie matched the girl’s smile, unwilling to lose what little trust she’d managed so far. Since she already knew he was part of the local law enforcement, she at least maintained her cool with that piece of knowledge.
“How neat.” Sounding calm when absolutely sinful eyes gazed down at her proved a hell of a lot harder to do than it should have. Her heart pattered too fast in her chest, and her palms grew damp, making her itch to rub them against the sides of her short dress.
Kylie fought not to show any signs of being affected under his incredibly scrutinizing stare. Heat flamed to life inside her, but she held her ground, not doing as much as even shifting her weight from one foot to the next. “I never did get your name,” she said, turning her attention to the girl and meeting those alert gray-green eyes head-on.
“Dani,” she said.
“Let’s go, girls,” their uncle growled, and quickly herded them away from Kylie; then glancing over his shoulder, he pinned her with dark, intense eyes that sent chills over her enflamed body. “I didn’t know college students drove around in rentals.”
“You do now,” she offered, and turned away from him toward her car before she lost her composure. He’d run her tag after seeing her in the mall parking lot. Interesting.
Chapter 3
“Unit Seven, what’s your ten twenty?”
Perry grabbed the two-way radio from the clip where it hung on his dash.
“I’m headed back in,” he said on the radio. “I just passed the Eighteenth Street Expressway.”
“We’ve got a head-on collision at Forty-seventh Street and Fontana. Possible drunk driver. He ran from the scene of the crime.”
“I’ll be ten ninety-seven in minutes. What direction is our suspect headed?” Perry switched lanes and accelerated toward the accident scene.
“Northeast and on foot.”
“I’m heading into that neighborhood now.” Perry put the radio on its hook on the dash and turned right at the next intersection. The small tract homes lining either side of the street were predominantly rentals, some duplexes and others single dwellings. It was a neighborhood mixed with college students and families with small children, affordable housing for those starting out in life.
The radio chirped on his dash: “Suspect is reported heading northeast on Elledge Road.”
Perry pulled his Jeep to a stop on the neighborhood street and stuck his Bluetooth in his ear. He forwarded his private cell to the earpiece and jumped out of his car, heading down the block on foot. His phone rang and he pressed the small button to acknowledge the call.
“Flynn, where are you?” It was Barker, and she sounded out of breath.
“On Elledge. Do you have a visual?”
“He ran in between a couple houses. I’m calling in for more backup. He’s a white male, late teens, blue jeans, and red baggy T-shirt. Dark hair, shoulder length.”
“Ten four.” Perry walked quickly up the street, looking in between each house. “East or west side of the street?”
“West.”
“Roger that. Where are you?”
“I see you. I’m on the corner. He disappeared about four houses up from me. He runs a lot faster than I do.”
Perry snorted. Barker was in pretty good shape. He continued glancing in between houses as he worked his way up the block and spotted a cruiser heading slowly down the next street. Pausing at a double driveway, he thought he saw something move behind overgrown hedges that ran the length of the property line. At the same time, the sound of children laughing grabbed his attention.