MIND READER by Vicki Hinze

come back. Pain hid in those shadows. Gut-wrenching, soul-shattering pain. What—who—had put it there?
    Questions. Always questions about her. But few an swers.
    Restless, Parker flipped onto his side, yanked up the comforter and concentrated on the aquarium’s droning hum . Usually the sound soothed him. Tonight it agitated.
    It was Caron. The idea of busting her had been easier froma distance, when he hadn’t yet seen those shadows in her eyes. Maybe that was her attraction. Maybe it wasn’t. The shadows confused him. Cold and calculating con artists like Caron Chalmers didn’t get hurt. Yet that was what those shadows made him feel. That she’d been hurt and she hadn’t recovered. Not that she seemed fragile so much as brittle and ready to snap.
    “You’re getting soft in the head, Simms,” he muttered, scrunching up his pillow. “Get some sleep.” He forced his eyes closed. Tomorrow would be here soon enough, and Chalmers was quick; he had to be quicker.
    She’d been ticked about how he’d kept Meriam Meyer busy, and about him not showing a lick of compassion at her near miss with Decker. Parker had had no choice but to play hardball then, though. Caron had looked a beat away from panic, and he had been a beat away from smothering her with relieved kisses. His stomach muscles clenched. After meeting Decker, Parker agreed she’d been right. Kidnapping or no, if Decker had caught her in his house, he would have killed her.
    That thought had Parker nearly climbing the walls. He wished he didn’t care about her as a woman. Something in her pulled hard at him. Hard, and at gut level. She was at tracted to him, too, which was the only thing that made his being attracted to her easier to take. Still, she didn’t know him; he hadn’t done anything to her. But he did know her, and she’d cost him probably the best friend any man ever had in his life.
    That made Parker feel guilty as hell for being attracted to her. Oh, after they’d kissed he’d told her he hadn’t been. But he’d lied. He had been attracted. So attracted that if Mr. Mud Boots hadn’t nearly knocked the window out of the car rapping on the glass, Parker and Caron would have ended up in the back seat, doing something that would have haunted him as long as he lived.
    As aroused now as he’d been when it was happening— and feeling even guiltier—Parker tossed on silk sheets that suddenly felt rough. How could he want her, knowing who she was and what she’d done? What kind of man was he?
    It was her, not him. He’d outgrown back-seat tussles years ago. At least he’d thought he had, until tonight.
    Parker groaned and again stared at the ceiling. With her sweet curves and sinewy moves, Caron Chalmers was hard on his body. But the woman inside was even harder on his soul. She’d cried for him. He rubbed his thumb and fore finger together. Because he’d shut her out and not ex plained his animosity toward her, she’d cried tears that he’d touched. And he’d been so tempted to open up.
    The phone rang.
    He considered not answering it, but some sixth sense warned him that he’d better. He reached over to the night- stand and lifted the receiver. “Yeah.”
    “Parker.”
    Her voice was high-pitched and cracked, but he recognized it at once. He sat straight up in bed. “What’s wrong, Caron?”
    “Someone’s been in my apartment. They—they left me a message.”
    He tossed back the covers and jumped out of bed. “Are you sure they’re gone?” Hiking his shoulder, he jammed the receiver between the crook and his chin and jerked on his jeans.
    “Yes. I—I tried to call Sandy. But he wasn’t—”
    “Give me your address.” He knew it, but right now he just couldn’t think.
    She reeled it off. He repeated it back to her to make sure he’d gotten it right. “Give me ten minutes.”
    “I’ll wait outside. I—I don’t want to be alone here.”
    “No.” She was reacting on emotion, not with logic. “He might still be