Broken Ties Read Online Free Page A

wished she didn’t sound quite so horrified by his words.
    “Yes. No. Jeeze, Sid. I’m sorry I kissed you now . You were nearly kidnapped tonight. You were knocked out by chloroform. You couldn’t possibly be in your right mind.”
    “So you think I kissed you back because my judgment was compromised by my being chloroformed?” She fought to regain a grip on her dignity.
    “Yes.”
    “I’ve thought about kissing you an awful lot before today.” That admission was proof of just how far gone her mind was at the moment.
    “You have?” He sounded like a vulnerable schoolboy, shocked that the object of his crush reciprocated his feelings.
    A smile spread across her face, and she nodded.
    “Yes. And I’ve never been chloroformed before.”
    “But Teddy—”
    Frustration bubbled up inside her as the smile slipped from her face. How long was he going to cling to his foolish notion that she and Teddy were more than friends? They had never given him any reason to believe it. Yet, he had never been able to get past his own stupid assumptions that they were lovers. She opened her mouth to tell him just what she thought about his pigheaded refusal to see the truth, but before she could speak, he stood and moved to the kitchen.
    He came back moments later with a glass of whiskey in one hand and a can of soda in the other. He set the soda on the end table nearest her and swallowed the whiskey in one gulp.
    “None of it matters now,” he said, slamming the glass down on the table and raking a hand through his hair. “We can’t afford a distraction like this.”
    “Will we be any less attracted to each other if we ignore it?” She frowned at the empty glass. “Or if you’re drunk?”
    “I don’t know. What I do know is that I need to keep all my attention on protecting you from the man who tried to take you. From here on out, we have to control whatever it is we feel for each other. We have to move forward with clear minds. And I’m not drunk.”
    “Levi,” she protested, but was silenced when he kissed her again, before pulling her to her feet, taking her bag and leading her downstairs, gun at the ready.
    Feeling as if her head were stuffed with fuzz, she leaned back against the headrest in his car and closed her eyes.
    “Are you okay?” he asked as he climbed behind the wheel.
    “Not really.” She rolled her head to look at him.
    He reached for her hand where it lay on the seat between them.
    “We’ll find whoever’s behind this, Sid. Don’t worry.”
    She wondered if he realized he still said “we” as if he and Teddy continued to work together and nothing had ever come between them. She didn’t mention that as she offered him a half-hearted smile.
    “I know,” she assured him. She knew he would try, even if she wasn’t sure he’d be successful.
    Except for her directions, they were silent on the way to her house, and she was grateful for the time to think. She had wondered a million times over the years what had driven her parents to leave her at that rest area. Now, for the first time, she wondered if there had been a reason she was there other than them not wanting her. Had they been foreigners? Was that how she knew a language she didn’t remember ever hearing? Had they escaped to America? Had they been illegal? Forced to run from the immigration authorities and leave her behind? Had they been arrested, or deported back to their homeland? Or had she really been kidnapped?
    He slowed as they turned onto her road, and she pointed at the two-bedroom postwar home she’d rented three years ago. She frowned at the light in the living room window. She didn’t remember leaving it on, but she’d been in a hurry this morning, running late because she couldn’t find one of her shoes. She must have rushed out as soon as she found it behind the sofa, not even remembering to turn out the light as she scolded Coda on her way out the door.
    “Nice place,” Levi said as they walked up the shrub-lined