The Devil's Thief, page 32
Sloan paced nervously as he directed traffic, feeling alternately anxious and foolish for making anything out of Lana’s need for a ride. What was he, a masochist? He’d sworn he would never let his hormones override his common sense again, and so far he’d managed to keep that promise. But his hormones were sneaky bastards. He’d forgotten just how willful they could be.
Lana sat in the front seat this time. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of the man sitting next to her. He hadn’t seemed any too friendly on their trip to the church. Kind of bristly, actually. Then why had he gone out of his way to offer her another ride? And should she have accepted?
The past year she’d fought hard for her independence. When she’d first announced to Bart that she was leaving, she’d been seized with second thoughts every hour or so. She’d never supported herself, much less herself and a little boy. What skills did she have? Every time an appliance went on the fritz or her car needed work, she’d longed for a man to help her with all those little things.
But Callie and Millicent assisted her through her crises large and small. Somewhere along the line she learned that she could do things for herself—argue about car repairs, juggle the bills, make decisions about her son’s discipline. She got skillful at budgeting, stretching her paycheck to cover church camp and an occasional new outfit for herself. And somewhere along the line she stopped yearning for a man to rely on for support and companionship. She stopped calling Bart and enduring his belittling comments about her inadequacies just to find out how to flip a breaker switch or change an A/C filter.
She learned to value her own company above anyone else’s.
The last thing she needed was a new man in her life. She would do well to remember that, no matter how her body was reacting to the virile male sitting beside her, his powerful-looking muscles straining the sleeves of the crisp blue policeman’s uniform, his dark hair curled into unruliness by the damp weather.
“So, how’d you end up as a cop?” Lana asked, genuinely curious. Sloan Bennett would have been voted Most Likely to End Up in the Pen by their senior class if there had been such a category.
Sloan visibly tensed, and she wondered if she’d somehow managed to offend him once again. But then he seemed to relax, and a brief smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “I guess I owe it all to Nicole Johnson.”
Lana felt a sudden tension herself. She certainly hadn’t meant to get into a discussion about her. “You mean the police chief’s daughter?” she asked casually.
“That’s the one. We were … close friends for a while. I got to know her father. He … straightened me out, convinced me to try life on the right side of the law.” The headlights of oncoming cars revealed a faraway look in Sloan’s eyes, an expression of wry amusement on his face.
So, the rumors had been true. Sloan and Nicole had been an item, even though she was ten years his senior. Lana had grabbed on to that bit of gossip as evidence that Sloan really wasn’t right for her if he could jump right into Nicole’s arms, Nicole’s bed, after their breakup. Nicole was fast and vastly inappropriate for a boy Sloan’s age. Why had Lana ever imagined he would wait around until she was ready?
“What did Captain Johnson do?”
“Well, first he threatened to fill my butt full of buckshot when he caught me with his daughter. But instead of skulking off, I stood up to him. Something snapped in me, I guess. Nicole and I hadn’t done anything wrong, and I was determined that I was going to make her father understand.”
“And did he?” Lana asked.
“After I talked until my voice wore out. Nicole put in a few good words for me too. So instead of riding me out of town on a rail, he gave me a job. I think he was hoping to prove I was the no-account hood he’d labeled me. But I was determined he wasn’t going to defeat me.”
“What sort of job was it?”
“Construction. I sweated more that summer than I ever have in my life, helping Johnson build his lake house. He let me stay in a little trailer on his property too, so I could get away from home.”
Lana shuddered, remembering the awful place he’d grown up, the parents who cared more about beer and cigarettes than their own kid.
“By the end of the summer I had some skills and a letter of recommendation. Johnson told me to shake the dust of Destiny off my boots and find opportunity elsewhere, and I did.”
“And what about Nicole?” Lana couldn’t help asking.
Sloan smiled slyly. “Johnson kept me so busy and so exhausted, my little fling with Nicole died a natural death.” He shrugged. “It was all very amicable. We’re still friends.”
Lana digested this. What was that unpleasant feeling in the pit of her stomach? Surely not jealousy. Surely not after all these years.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Excerpt From Tempting a Devil
About the Author
Excerpt From About Last Night
Excerpt From Blaze of Winter
Excerpt From Lana’s Lawman
Samantha Kane, The Devil's Thief
