Something Wicked: HarperImpulse Romantic Suspense (23 page)

BOOK: Something Wicked: HarperImpulse Romantic Suspense
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Officer Jack settled both hands on his hips, his lips twitching as his gaze looked her up and down. “Got yourself locked out, huh?”


Please
don’t tell my dad.”

“I gotta call this in, kiddo. You know that.”

“Yeah, but do you have to mention my name?”

Noah hooked his thumbs on his belt loops and hung back. If he hadn’t thought the situation interesting before, he was fascinated now.

The officer shook his head, but smiled. “All right. Verify the homeowner’s information for me, and I’ll
try
to keep your name out of it.”

She rattled off a few details about Hannah Dawson—now Hannah Collins—while the officer scribbled them down. Wasn’t anything Noah didn’t already know. Hannah was a pretty nurse who’d lived here for about a year. Her then boyfriend—husband now—had moved in a couple of months ago.

The cop glanced up and returned his attention to Noah. “I’m gonna need to see your identification, son.”

Clenching his jaw muscles, Noah pulled out his wallet and handed over his driver’s license. He’d had the ID updated a few weeks ago. He matched the dark-haired picture of himself perfectly. While the officer jotted down his information, Noah glanced toward the enticing girl. He tried to guess her age. Late teens, he thought. Cute. Had great legs. Probably jailbait, his luck.

He realized in a fleeting moment of self consciousness that he was behaving like a true male member of the West family, trying to judge how easy it would be to take a woman who’d caught his eye to bed. Well, so what? She had to be at least eighteen if she was staying here alone. This was a woman who stirred his blood, and there was no fighting heredity. Noah intended to find out more about her.

The officer grunted and handed the ID back. “Thanks for coming to help, Mr. West. Why don’t I walk you back to your house now?”

Not that he needed the escort. Didn’t take a genius to read this situation.

Noah tipped his head toward the young woman anyway. “I live in the two-story stone house if you need anything while you’re here. See you around, Spider.”

She flashed him an awkward wave. “Seriously. Thanks for your help!”

Officer Jack followed him to the edge of the yard before saying, “You lived around here long, Mr. West?”

Noah sighed and turned to face the man. Last thing he needed was to capture the attention of a snooping cop. “No. I’m renting the house across the street. Moved in a couple of months ago.”

The cop squinted against the early afternoon sun. “Tell you what. That young woman in there is special. Make sure you don’t get any ideas while she’s here. Got that?”

“Sure.” He held back the smile that would have betrayed the fact it was too late.

“Good.”

The officer started to move away, but Noah couldn’t resist asking, “Her dad is a cop, right?” It was the only thing that made sense. It would be a helluva reason to keep his distance, but then again, he loved a good challenge.

Jack nodded, but a smile played at his mouth as he opened his car door and looked back at Noah. “Not just any cop. Chief of police. You have a good day now, you hear?”

About HarperImpulse

HarperImpulse is an exciting new range of romance fiction brought to you from the women’s fiction team at HarperCollins. Our aim is to break new talent from debut authors and import the hottest trends from the US, bringing you the very best in romance. Whether that is through short reads for your mobile phone or epic sagas that span the generations we want to proudly publish romance fiction that gets everybody talking.

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HarperImpulse an imprint of

HarperCollins
Publishers
Ltd

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Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2013

Copyright © Angela Campbell

Cover Images © Shutterstock.com

Angela Campbell asserts the moral right

to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are

the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to

actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is

entirely coincidental.

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written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © October 2013

ISBN: 9780007543069

Version 2013-10-17

Digital eFirst: Automatically produced by Atomik ePublisher from Easypress.

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BOOK: Something Wicked: HarperImpulse Romantic Suspense
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