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.His mouthwatered before he even lifted the lid.Shannon s food was phenomenal.But bythe time he got his meatball sandwichmade and situated on his lap for the returntrip, Shannon had gathered up her things toleave.He almost dropped his plate as shestretched behind herself for a cola, herphenomenal breasts outlined by the clothof her peach colored sweater.Man shelooked nice in that sweater.Dragging hisgaze away, he situated himself at the table.She plunked the cola in front of him, threwher stuff away and told the men goodbye.He watched intently until shedisappeared from sight.Roger had his head cocked to oneside, and his dark brown eyes danced. Oh, so it s that way huh?John picked up his sandwich. Idon t know what you re talking about.The former Marine laughed andslapped his leg with his good hand.Themolded left hand rested on the table,currently immobile.John admired Roger,because his amputated arm had beenreplaced with a state of the art cyber skinprosthetic that was actually wired into thenerves of his arm.It was truly a wonder towatch, because it was so lifelike.Even theskin tone was incredibly close to Roger sdark walnut color.There were militarymedical trials going on with paraplegicsand quadriplegics using stem-cells, but hehad chosen not to participate in them.Roger was leaning down, trying tocatch his eye. What, dammit? John shoved hisplate away and sat back in his chair, readyto fight.Adrenalin coursed through hisveins, disproportionate to the situation.Roger held his hands up placatinglybefore sitting back in his own chair. Ididn t mean anything by it.I think Shannonis a great girl.Why do you think I getmyself out of bed so early every Friday?John narrowed his eyes and tried tobreathe deeply.Was Roger interested inher like he was? He could understandsome women would be attracted to him.He wasn t bad looking, even with theshrapnel scars covering one side of hisface and the prosthetic forearm. I just didn t realize you had a claimon her. I don t, John grumbled.That wasthe whole problem in a nutshell.He hadno claim on her.He didn t even know ifhe wanted to claim her.Yeah, she turnedhim on, but what could he offer her?Certainly nothing long term.What wouldan active, vibrant woman like her wantwith a broken man like him?John tried to think of other things ashe finished his sandwich, and ignore theache in his chest.Shannon hated to leave the breakroom.She saw John so little.Duncan hadadded responsibility to everybodyrecently, which kept them busy.LNFInvestigative Services had expandedexponentially as more people learned oftheir ability and dedication to get a jobdone.The service had gone from the threepartners when they first started to almosttwenty now, five years after they opened.Shannon knew that Duncan had stacks ofrésumés from other disabled vets whowould love to work here.New ones camein every day.Just this week they d hired a brashyoung Marine that had been a canineofficer in Afghanistan.Settling into her chair, she begantyping up Chad s dictation notes from hissurveillance on the Malone divorce case.A couple of weeks ago she d found him inthe spare office hunting and pecking on thekeyboard with his good right hand.Headmitted that the report writing wasdifficult, because he did not have the samemobility in his left hand and arm he usedto have.Everybody in the office hadphysical therapy appointments, and Chadwas no exception.The scars thatcrisscrossed his left arm showed that hehad been burned terribly, and Shannon ssoft heart had gone out to the formerMarine.All of the men had been in theirprime when they were injured.Most wereadapting to their injuries accordingly, buta couple still visibly struggled.As the only woman in the office, shetried to make it a point to pay everybody alittle special attention.Several of the menhad left their families to come to Denverto work for Duncan.He d evoked enoughloyalty for several members of the agencyto move from several states away.Chad walked into the office andthrough the reception area to her desk,smiling broadly.Shannon could not helpbut return his smile as she reached for thecandy container in her lower desk drawer.Chad Lowell had a sweet tooth that wouldnot stop.The candy needed to be hiddenor it would all mysteriously disappear.Injest, she had tried to hire him to find themissing candy, but he gravely told her itwould be a waste of her money, becausehe did not think the candy was evercoming back.Occasionally, giant bags ofhis favorites would materialize on herdesk.Shannon knew that Chad would be agreat friend, not just a boss. Hey, Chad, she greeted. What areyou up to?Chad put on a wounded look that wastotally ruined by his twinkling eyes. Idon t know what you mean.Why would Ibe up to something?Shannon laughed outright and put theplastic container at the edge of the deskwithin easy reach. Right&.Chad dug a couple of pieces ofcaramel out of the container. We have aninterview in a while.Boss man wants totalk at us before the kid gets here. Jennings? That s the one.Duncan wants to seewhat we read from him.Shannon gave a single nod, and kindof hoped that they didn t hire the recentlydischarged young Marine.There wassomething that nagged at her about hiseyes.Almost as if there was a disconnectthere and he seemed to be going throughthe motions to present himself correctly.But it wasn t really her place to sayanything.If he got hired, she d do her bestto make him welcome as she did theothers.She saved the work on her computerand printed off the notes she had just typedup for Chad s case, then attached themwith a paper clip and handed them to him. Oh, Shannon, you are a doll.Thatwould have taken me two hours. Hispretty green eyes lost their twinkle. It only took me ten minutes.And itwas no big deal.I m trained to do it, youaren t.Besides, Duncan doesn t keep metoo busy, she lied. Why don t you try thedictation machine I gave you? I will, I promise, he told her as heslipped into Duncan s office.John wheeled in seconds later as sheput the lid on the candy container.Hechuckled as he pulled alongside her desk,making her shiver convulsively.The manwas sex on wheels, literally, and it wasall she could do not to jump into his lap.Ahint of his deodorant wafted over her.Shannon clenched her teeth in an effort tocontrol her roaring response but it wasalways the same.And he seemed totallyoblivious.Of course. Hi, John. Shannon.I see Chad s already beenhere.Shannon nodded as she held the dishout to him, but John declined.His sweettooth leaned more toward baked goods.Fridays she usually brought in some typeof cake or cookies. Hey, I wanted to see if you couldfind a copy of an invoice for me.Shannon straightened in her chair,fingers ready at her keyboard.He reeled off the company name andthe list of what he ordered.Shannonfrowned. I just put a copy of this on yourdesk yesterday.You lost it already?John glowered, clamped his jaw, andlooked down at his lap.He didn t sayanything for several long seconds, andwhen he looked up, his dark brown eyeswere calm. My desk is pretty terribleright now.Maybe it is there.I ll look afterI talk to Duncan.Thanks, Shannon.He turned and powered his chairthrough Duncan s doorway. Lunch was awesome, by the way,he said, just before he disappeared [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]