Page 3 of Callum
“Okay, I’ll call you once I find something.”
She laughed. “I’ll be eagerly awaiting that call.”
Once she hung up, she took a massive bite of her apple, knowing she’d only get a couple in before needing to get back inside.
Her heart gave a little skip at the fact Callum was in there. The man came to the library often, usually after borrowing one of her favorite books, the ones on which she put the little tags of recommendation. The books were never returned as they’d been borrowed, though. He always seemed to damage them in some way. Often with a fold of a page or a stain on the cover.
She told herself that was the reason she couldn’t crush on him, but in reality, she wasn’t that shallow. What shewas, was scared shitless of getting her heart broken again.
With a resigned sigh, she stood and moved into the library, throwing the apple into the trash after a second bite. Immediately, and completely without her permission, her gaze searched the stacks for Callum. The library was small, designed with some self-borrowing machines at the front and a manned circulation desk behind them. There were aisles of books beyond, extending to the back wall.
Third row…that’s where Mr. Million Feet of Muscle stood. His head was down, and he was reading the back of a book. One she’d popped her recommendation tag onto that morning.
Her brain tried to short-circuit at the way his biceps flexed as he turned the book over. God, why did the man have to be built like God’s gift to women?
Because that’s how they get you, the burned voice in her head whispered.
With a shake of her head, she looked away before he could spot her staring.Do not focus on him, Fiona.
Quickly, she found a trolley of books that needed to be shelved and chose the aisle furthest from Callum to start in. The third book from her cart needed to go on the top shelf. Because the library wasn’t big enough for a lot of aisles, the rows of books went up quite high instead. Only the librarians used the ladders to get books from the high shelves, though. They were mostly study aids. Books people knew they needed, so they didn’t have to read a blurb.
She grabbed a ladder and placed it beneath the shelf, then climbed to the top. She’d just slotted the book in when her phone vibrated from her pocket. She cursed. God, was that her sister again? What was it this time? Was Amanda messaging to tell her she knew she was going to die alone? Because that wasn’t news to Fiona.
She shouldn’t check it. She knew she shouldn’t. Yet her stupid hand still slid into her pocket and pulled it out. She was smart enough to cast a quick, covert look around her. No Rick. Good.
Unknown number: You better keep your hands off what’s mine, bitch.
What the hell? She re-read the text three times, convinced that she must be misreading, but nope, the words were still there and unchanged every time.
Who would send her—
“Fiona! What did I just say?”
Rick’s angry voice boomed through the aisle, so loud and menacing that she flinched—and the one hand still on the ladder tugged it forward. It rocked, and she tried to right it, but her efforts only made the rocking more violent, until both she and the ladder were falling back.
CHAPTER2
The corners of Callum’s lips tugged into a smile as his gaze ran over Fiona’s intricate handwriting on the small recommendation tag.
This razor-sharp crime thriller will leave you awestruck as the author takes you on a journey of windy turns.
Truth be told, he didn’t even need to read Fiona’s words. Her name on the tag was enough. Her recommendations had never led him astray before.
He glanced at the door, recalling the words he’d heard on his way inside. Words about needing a date for a family wedding. About already having told her family she had a date when she didn’t.
He hadn’t been trying to listen, but it had been damn impossible not to. He’d heard everything. Right now, he could hear the breath slipping in and out of the woman by the corner window. The ticking of the second hand on the older man’s watch one row over. Even the beating of the woman’s heart at the end of the aisle.
And he knew the exact moment Fiona stepped back into the room, but that wasn’t because of any altered DNA. It was his acute awareness of her. She drew him in like a moth to a flame. It wasn’t just that he found the way she put him in his place sexy as hell. It was the way her chestnut eyes glowed when she looked at him. That she tried to put on a tough exterior, but he saw the vulnerability below the surface.
When he looked across the library at her, she wasn’t facing him. In fact, she was staring at a cart of books like it was the most interesting thing in the room and marching toward it like she was on a damn mission.
He bit back the chuckle that threatened to break free. He’d been coming to this library for months. It felt good to get back into reading. The security company he ran with his team took up a good chunk of his time, but he’d needed something else. Something just for him.
He spent a couple minutes picking up and putting back other titles, Fiona’s recommended book firmly in his grasp. Then he walked down the back wall, checking each aisle. He told himself he wasn’t looking for her, but that was a damn lie. He searched for her every time he was here. Hell, it was why he got through the books so quickly and only borrowed one at a time—so he had an excuse to come back.
It wasn’t until he reached the last aisle that he saw her. His lips twitched. Had she chosen this one because it was the farthest from him? That was something she’d do.
She was on a ladder, wearing a cream-colored top that pulled tight against her ample chest and a yellow skirt that flowed down to her knees.
