More Bark Than Bite

by Melissa Hosack

  * * *

  Mystic Moon Press

  www.mysticmoonpress.com

  Copyright ©

  * * *

  NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.

  * * *

  CONTENTS

  ~Dedication~

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  * * * *

  More Bark Than Bite

  By: Melissa Hosack

  ISBN-978-0-9821431-4-8

  All rights reserved

  Copyright © Sept. 2008, Melissa Hosack

  Cover Art copyright © Sept. 2008, Quiet Warrior Designs

  Mystic Moon Press, LLC

  Santa Fe, NM 87507

  www.mysticmoonpress.com

  No part of this e-book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Mystic Moon Press, LLC

  ~Dedication~

  I would like to dedicate this to my family and friends who have supported my writing addiction, especially my husband Jeremy who spends more hours than he would probably care to editing and correcting my bad grammar. Thank you all for your encouragement and support.

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Chapter 1

  "Oy! Morgan!"

  Morgan Phillips spun around to face the man running down the hallway of Channel 12's news station toward her. “Alston?” she asked, a question in her voice.

  "I'm so glad I found you before Jamison did,” her friend and cameraman said breathlessly.

  Morgan's eyebrows furrowed in concern. “This sounds like bad news."

  "You'd be correct,” Alston said, nervously spinning his wedding ring around on his finger. He cast a quick glance over his shoulder before turning back around to face her. “Jamison's really pissed about your report from this morning.” His face took on a pained look. “Come on, Morgan. A tap dancing St. Bernard?"

  "I can't make the news, Alston! There has to be something interesting going on first for me to report it."

  Alston shrugged as if this shouldn't be a factor. “I'm just giving you a warning. You may want to sneak out early before Jamison finds you, and for goodness sake, try to come up with something good for Monday."

  Morgan bobbed her head in agreement, her heart fluttering nervously at the thought of running into her angered boss. Lowering her voice, she hissed, “It's just that there's nothing to cover around here."

  "There's that string of extremely bloody, violent, and, not to mention, unsolved murders,” Alston suggested, trying for nonchalance but failing.

  Morgan gave him a look that spoke volumes. “You mean the case the police are being exceedingly tight lipped about? Those murders?” She rolled her eyes with a huff. “I wouldn't be able to get any information on that if the next victim was killed on my front lawn."

  "You just need to trick someone into giving you a few minor details."

  "You want me to trick a cop into giving me secret information? Isn't that illegal or something?"

  Alston waved her off with an unconcerned look. “That's called good reporting.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “There's that one cop I always say is sweet on you. The one who helped you up after you took a tumble down those stairs at that political rally."

  Morgan shot him a dirty look for bringing back the memory of her lack of grace when she'd taken a fall in front of hundreds of witnesses. “Officer Audrick,” she said, trying to ignore the excited thump her heart gave at the mere mention of his name.

  "That's the one!” Alston said with a snap of his fingers. “We have our victim. Now all we need is to get you alone with him so you can sneak in a few sly questions."

  "I don't know if I'm comfortable with this plan,” Morgan said slowly.

  "This is your career we're talking about. Sometimes you have to do underhanded things to get a good scoop. You might have to do stuff that would make a girl scout frown to get noticed by the important people upstairs."

  Morgan's eyes lifted to the ceiling, looking up to where Jamison's office sat above their heads.

  "Noticed for something besides being attacked by a squirrel on live television, that is."

  "That squirrel was evil!” Morgan shot back.

  Alston shrugged. “If you say so.” He set her with a challenging look. “So do you have an idea on how to get Audrick alone?"

  "Well...” A few weeks ago, she'd found out that Graham Audrick stopped at a tiny diner near her home every Friday at the end of his shift. She'd found out by coincidence because she herself ate at the same diner on Fridays.

  She secretly looked forward to seeing him. She enjoyed his friendly smiles and the couple minutes of sociable chitchat they sometimes had. How pathetic was she? The highlight of her weekend was polite conversation from a total stranger. Steeling her face into a determined look, she said, “I can get him alone."

  "Then I wish you luck,” Alston said. “May you charm the pants off of him."

  Morgan's cheeks flushed at that statement, but her eyes stayed confident. “I will."

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Chapter 2

  Morgan had her car parked along the road about half a mile from the diner. She had the hood popped and a damsel in distress expression on her face. Twice she'd had to chase off good Samaritans so she'd appear stranded when Graham drove up.

  She'd dressed up for the occasion, wearing a jean miniskirt and a low cut black top. Her feet were adorned in six inch black heels with straps that wrapped around her calves. They were not the kind of shoes a girl would want to be in when stranded with a busted car. It just helped add to the damsel in distress persona she was aiming for. Her waist length black hair was straightened to perfection and silky to the touch. She had brown highlights that were bronzed to a perfect color. There were also minute streaks of red mixed in as well. Her hair shined wonderfully in the sun and her green eyes were complimented by the tasteful makeup she wore. She looked drop dead gorgeous if she did say so herself.

  She spotted a blue and white cruiser in the distance and plastered a helpless look on her face.

  Just as she knew he would, Graham slowed to a stop in front of her and rolled down his window. “You having some trouble there, little lady?"

  Her eyebrows arched at that. At five foot eleven, she was far from little, but she took his comment as a compliment. Running a hand over her forehead as if she were unbelievably hot, Morgan said, “Yeah. My car ... it seems to have given up on me."

  "Well, ain't that a shame,” Graham sympathized, a tiny hint of southern twang audible in his voice.

  It was just enough twang to make Morgan's toes curl in delight.

  "Do you want me to call a tow truck?” Graham asked as he climbed out of his car to walk over to her side.

  Morgan leaned over the car, arms extended to grab the hood as she shamelessly jutted out her derriere. “Nope.” She slammed the hood closed and turned to face him, silently thrilled that it took him a moment to drag his eyes to her face. “My brother owns a truck we can hook the poor thing up to. Only...” She trailed off, biting her lip.

  "Only?” Graham asked, tak
ing the bait.

  "Only he can't tow it till morning because he works the overnight shift this week. It would be so sweet of you to give me a lift to the diner. That way I can get some dinner while I call around for someone to come pick me up."

  Graham motioned toward his car. “Of course.” Walking to the passenger side, he held the door open for her like a true southern gentleman.

  Morgan felt a stab of remorse. She was lying to him. There was nothing wrong with her car. Alston had her spare set of keys. He and his wife were going to pick up her abandoned car and drop it off at her house in the morning.

  Her eyes looked Graham over as she slid into the car, taking in his honest and open features.

  He had short, dark blond hair that was spiked up and eyes the sparkling blue of the ocean. He had what looked like a couple days worth of dark blond stubble along his jaw that was causing butterflies to go nuts in her stomach.

  Graham was adorable in that boyish, innocent sort of way. She loved that young at heart look of his, yet it was the very thing she was about to take advantage of.

  "I'll make you an even better offer,” Graham said, breaking up her thoughts. “I'll have dinner with you. I was already headed to the diner anyway,” he said with a friendly smile. “When we finish, I'll give you a ride home."

  "Oh, I couldn't impose like that,” Morgan replied, inwardly smiling at the fact that he'd taken the bait she'd dangled in front of him.

  "I insist."

  Feigning as though she was thinking on it, Morgan finally broke into a grin that said she was giving in. “Why not? It sounds nice to have company for once on a Friday night.” Well, that had come out a tad more pathetic than she'd been going for.

  "And here I thought you liked eating alone,” Graham commented as he pulled into the diner parking lot.

  "What?” Morgan asked with a little laugh.

  He tossed her another adorable grin, stretching a tanned arm over her seat as he looked behind them to back into a parking space. “You always have a ton of paperwork around you and you always look so busy. I'd have invaded your table months ago, but you looked like you were enjoying the solitude."

  Morgan felt her heart melt at that. “You should have come over! I wouldn't have minded."

  "Well, now I know."

  As she climbed out of the car, Morgan tossed him a flirtatious smile. “Now you have no excuse to ignore me."

  Graham held the door of the diner open for her and Morgan stepped through, her heart aching. She liked Graham. She really, really didn't want to do this.

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Chapter 3

  Twenty minutes had passed since Morgan and Graham were shown to a table. They both had been given their food and were talking about the weather, their dinner, and the usual pointless topics one would bring up when they didn't know the other person well.

  Nervously, Morgan took a deep breath. She needed to bring up the murders, but she needed to do it casually. If she brought it up in a way Graham found suspicious, he would clam up and she would never get him to speak freely in front of her again.

  She waited until there was a lull in the conversation, then tried to sound casual as she said, “So what's new in the world of police work?” She held her breath, waiting for his angry accusations, but they never came.

  "Not too much. It's a big city, so we see the usual riffraff you would expect, but nothing too dangerous,” he responded, taking a bite of his burger and leaning nonchalantly back in his seat.

  "That's good,” she said slowly, trying to plot out where to go with this. She had to be very delicate with the way she approached the subject of the murders. She couldn't be too obvious and just rush into things. She had to use a little tact, a little slyness. “I would hate for you to get injured in the line of duty."

  His eyes swept almost thoughtfully over her face before he slid into a devilish grin. “I'm pretty indestructible. You don't need to worry about me."

  Morgan nibbled on a fry, her heart pounding in anticipation of her next statement. This was as good of an opening as she expected to get. “Well, I worry about everyone ... especially with those recent murders."

  Graham's smile faltered and he stared at her for a moment in silence.

  He sat so still that the little hairs on Morgan's arms felt like they were standing on end. It was his eyes that startled her the most. They'd gone from a pretty blue to a gray that she could only describe as intimidating. She licked her lips nervously, the smoky color of his eyes making her very uneasy. She suddenly wished she hadn't said anything at all. The expression on his face let her know just how little he appreciated the topic being mentioned.

  Just as she was about to apologize for even bringing up the conversation, Graham's eyes slid away from hers, back to his food. “Yeah,” he said into his plate as he swirled a fry around in ketchup. He lifted his eyes back to hers as he stuffed the fry into his mouth. “Those have been pretty horrible."

  His eyes were back to their pretty blue, and Morgan chocked the whole frightening experience up to her nerves. She blamed it on her guilty conscience making her see things. “Are you guys close to catching anyone?” she asked boldly, trying to force her eyes wide in innocent concern. She was trying to keep the conversation from sounding too much like an interview.

  "We're getting close. There's a specialist from the FBI coming in. He's worked on cases similar to this in the past. When that guy gets here, our killer is going to be behind bars within a week."

  So they were bringing in an FBI specialist. That was just the kind of inside scoop she was looking for. Popping her last fry into her mouth, Morgan shifted in the seat to face her purse. Pretending to be looking for her wallet, she let her gaze flit back and forth between him and the purse. That made it easier to keep him from seeing the greedy glimmer in her eyes due to the information he'd just spilled. “I'm sure you would have done just fine without the FBI. I know I feel much safer just knowing you're on the job."

  The boyish grin returned to Graham's face. “I'm glad I have your vote of confidence.” His eyes slid to the purse she was rummaging through. “I know you're not thinking about paying for your own dinner.” He climbed to his feet and grabbed his wallet out of his back pocket. “You've got that car of yours to pay for. You shouldn't be worrying about dinner. It's my treat."

  As he pulled out money and dropped it to the table, Morgan's stomach fell to her toes. How could she even be considering this? He was such a sweet guy and he trusted her enough to talk about the murders in front of her. Damn him! Why did he have to be so trusting? If he would have politely changed the subject, she would have let it go. After a brush off, she would have chocked it up as a failure and left it at that.

  "Your expression says I've just done something horrible,” Graham said with an amused grin. He ran his tongue along his teeth, a comical expression of worry on his face. “I don't have food stuck in my teeth do I? I've been accused of dining like a barbarian."

  Snapping out of her daze, Morgan burst into giggles. “No. You don't have food in your teeth and you didn't eat like a barbarian. I was just ... thinking."

  "Ah,” Graham said, tugging teasingly at a lock of her hair, “so that explains the smoke trickling out of your ears."

  "Hey now!” Morgan cried as they made their way out to the parking lot. Laughing, she gave him a playful shove. “It's Friday. A little bit of smoke can be expected."

  He tossed her another lopsided grin and Morgan's stomach did somersaults.

  With her belly in knots, Morgan climbed into the squad car, once again lost in her own thoughts. The short ride to her house was filled with polite small talk. To Graham it probably felt relaxed and pleasant. To Morgan, it was awful. The nicer he was to her, the crummier she felt. It was like he was purposely being as sweet as sugar to make her feel worse about herself.

  When Graham finally pulled up to her house, Morgan almost felt like bolting from the car. One more minute with him and she just might die of gui
lt. He was just too amiable for his own good.

  Morgan fought not to roll her eyes at that thought. There was just a point where nice was too nice. She was reaching the conclusion that she was actually looking forward to taking advantage of his generosity. “Oh, who am I kidding?” she grumbled to herself. She was jumping back and forth with her opinion so quickly to keep herself from thinking about just how horrible the things she planned to do were. She couldn't lie to herself though. She was hating this more by the second.

  Graham looked at her with a puzzled expression on his handsome features. “What was that?"

  Plastering a pleasant smile on her face, Morgan said, “Nothing. Just talking to myself.” Unbuckling her seatbelt, she peered at him through the darkness. Giving him what she hoped looked like a sheepish, grateful smile, she said, “Thank you so much for the ride. I really appreciate it."

  "It's in the job description,” Graham said, throwing the car in park. “Protect and serve, right?"

  Morgan turned in her seat and wrapped an arm around the headrest, leaning into the padded cushion. “Just part of the job? Something tells me if Jasper Cryteck was the one broken down, you wouldn't have treated him to dinner and driven him home."

  Jasper was the owner of the diner they'd just eaten in. He was forty pounds overweight, had a ghastly comb over, and his temper was horrendous. He wasn't the most pleasant man to be around, but he was a damn fine chef.

  "Would Jasper be wearing the same outfit you are?” Graham asked. When Morgan crinkled her nose at that mental image, he climbed out of the car with a laugh. “Perhaps you're right. I gave you special treatment."

  Morgan felt a thrill race through her. She liked getting special treatment from Graham Audrick. She liked it a lot. She tried to squelch that thought before it took root. Following him out of the car, she asked in surprise, “You're walking me to the door?"

  "I gotta follow through on that special treatment, now don't I?” His eyes crinkled in the corners with his smile. “Besides, I'd never be able to live with myself if some monster snatched you up while you were under my watch."