Strong, Sleek and Sinful - By Lorie O'Clare Page 0,81
her until I have the facts straight, and then I get to yell first.”
He knew something was up when Dani told him Kylie wouldn’t be coming to dinner tomorrow night. Call it a gut instinct, but Kylie wouldn’t have canceled. Not only did she want to know the girls better, for whatever reason he still needed to find out, but beyond that, there was a level of interest there. He might not be an expert on relationships, but he recognized the attraction between them. No matter if she tried meeting another guy. Kylie was interested in him.
Perry heaved out a loud sigh. Not only did he have absolutely no interest in a serious relationship, but he couldn’t flatter himself into thinking that after knowing him barely a week Kylie would want to set up housekeeping. At the same time, though, it would surprise him if she came up with a lame excuse to get out of going to dinner. If it weren’t because of him, she wanted to spend time with his nieces. She had a paper to write, and he had all the research she could ask for in his nieces.
“Is something wrong?” Megan asked.
“Nothing. What do you know?” he asked, keeping his tone neutral. He got a lot further with Megan when he kept his cool.
“Hearsay,” she snapped. Denise said something in the background and Megan snapped at her, too, telling her to go unload the dishwasher and quit eavesdropping.
Denise announced in the background that if it weren’t for her eavesdropping they wouldn’t know right now that Dani was about ready to go do something stupid enough to get herself killed.
“What did Denise tell you?”
“Apparently she overheard Dani on her phone talking to one of her girlfriends about meeting a boy she’s been talking to on the Internet.”
“What?” Perry turned around quickly in his living room, the sudden urge to destroy something, pick something up and hurl it, or better yet send his fist crashing through anything hit him hard enough that it made him dizzy. “How long have you known this?”
“Since I got home. And I’m dealing with it,” she said, using her “I’m the mother” voice on him. “I will not have you reaming her out before I know completely what is going on.”
“I can tell you what’s going on!” he yelled, his voice bouncing off the walls. “Girls her age are disappearing! I helped peel a teenage girl off the asphalt the other day, beaten damn near beyond recognition, and dead, because of some online stalker.”
“Which is why you are not going to talk to Dani about this,” Megan yelled right back at him. “You’re jaded, Perry. There’s no way you can’t be with what you do for a living. Dani isn’t stupid. I will take care of this.”
“She’s more than stupid if she’s considering meeting someone off the Internet.”
“I said I’ll take care of this.”
“What are you going to do?”
Megan didn’t say anything for a minute, proof enough that she didn’t know what to do about it. He needed to talk to Dani; the sooner the better.
“I’m going to find out the truth of the matter first.” Her tone turned cold. “And then I’ll handle it. In fact, she just came home. I’ll see you and your lady friend tomorrow night.”
Megan hung up on him. She never hung up on him. Perry turned, fisting his hands with enough pressure that he felt the pain in his palms from his fingertips. It didn’t help his anger subside. Megan had the power to push him out of his nieces’ lives. They were her daughters. But damn it to hell and back, he wouldn’t stand around and watch if Dani were about to do something so idiotic it could risk her life.
Stalking into his kitchen, he grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator and returned to his couch and the remote. The beer wouldn’t help. Maybe something harder, with a fierce bite, might numb his aggravation and outrage.
“Goddamn it,” he grumbled, sinking into his couch but unable to get comfortable. Tilting the chilled bottle, he poured half the brew down his throat. He needed to call Kylie and figure out what the hell was going on with her supposedly backing out of dinner tomorrow night. The sooner he had answers the better. More than likely, Dani would tell Megan the same thing she told him; if anything, his niece would use the topic as a shield against her mother to prevent getting yelled at for talking to