One Hot Target

by Diane Pershing

• ISBN13: 9780373275281
• ISBN10: 0373275285
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-03-01
• Publisher: Harlequin

Summary

Yes. Carmen Coyle so desperately wanted to be in love. But with her best friend of more than twenty years? JR Ellis had always been there for her, but she didn't like him that way, did she? To complicate matters, a stranger was targeting her—hunting

Excerpts

"I can't believe it, JR. Me, here at Nordstrom, in the workplace department, in asuit. Abusinesssuit!" As she ranted into her cell phone, Carmen stared at the dressing-room mirror's reflection with intense dis-pleasure. She stuck her tongue out at the image, then spoke again into the mouthpiece. "I mean, you know me, JR, the original antifashion thrift-shop junkie. I've been a retro hippie, a recovering Goth--" she pivoted to get a view of the rear and made another disgruntled face "--but I've never,ever,been someone who even looked at a straight, desk-sitting, member-of-the-office-staff-and-proud-of-itsuit!" On the other end of the line, JR, who had, poor thing, heard Carmen's tirades before, said mildly, "How does it look?" She frowned again, then shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, I have no frame of reference. How is a suit sup-posed to look?" "Well, does it fit?" "I guess. The saleslady said this was my size and it isn't too tight or too loose, so yeah, I guess it fits. But it'sgray,JR," she griped to her very best friend in all the world. "With these littlepinstripes.And the sales-lady gave me this lavender blouse. Ablouse.I mean, really. Withbuttons." "Oh, no," JR said with mock horror. "Not buttons." "And I'm going to have to wearhose.I never wear hose.Ever." "Hey, kid, welcome to the world of grown-ups." "Yeah, I know." Carmen sighed loudly, then made yet one more face at the mirror. "It's time. I get it. But I don't have to like it." And she didn't like it, not at all. Goldie Raquel Coyle, known as "Carmen" since age seven when she'd been introduced to Bizet's opera and had fallen in love with the tragic heroine--to the point of insisting on a Spanish lady-of-the-night costume for Halloween that year--had made every attempt in the world to not grow up. But she was one year shy of thirty, and it was, alas, finally time. She had to get a job. A real job. Not a clerk at a used records store, nor a fast-food takeout counter person. Most definitely not a house-sitter/dog-walker/part-time errands runner. Those were items on her old resume, and would no longer do. She needed money, real money. She had bills to pay. Well, they weren't really her bills, but Tio's. The jerk. They'd lived together in her little house for three months and she'd had no idea he'd been dealing. None. He'd run up all kinds of debt on her credit card, borrowed money in her name from her friends. Never even paid his half of the rent and had spent her half. And she hadn't known. Not any of it. Not until he'd taken off, never to be heard from again. And the phone calls had begun, followed by the pounding on the door, and it had all been a nightmare. Big-time stress situation. Carmen hated stress, hated hassles. Avoided them like the plague. Which meant--and she'd be the first to admit it--that she'd lived her particular time on earth too often under the radar, too often letting others clean up her mess after her. Not anymore. She'd borrowed money from her family to cover Tio's debts and she would pay them back as quickly as possible. And this was the very last time she'd fall for another bad-boy type who was not what he claimed to be. She'd learned her lesson. About time. "Carmen?" JR's voice in her earpiece pulled her out of her reverie. "Does it have to be gray, JR? Couldn't it be, I don't know, yellow?A little sunshine to take away the gloom?" She stared at the mirror. She'd already kicked off her sandals--fun, strappy things in bronze-, silver-and gold-dyed leather with a chartreuse rose on top that she'd picked up at the Nordstrom shoe sale not five minutes before coming up here--and was now on tippy-toes, trying to imagine herself in heels. "Carmen," JR said, "I have a client coming in two minutes, so I have to g