Circle of Desire by Carla Swafford Read Free Book Online

up and down the hall, she dashed into the office. Empty. The computer monitor showed a chart with a rainbow of colors instead of a screen saver. Had the owner just left for a break or planned to return in seconds?
    Wasting time worrying wouldn’t help. She left the door cracked, dropped the sheet, and scurried into the coat. It brushed her toes. The guy was a giant.
    Her fingers thumbed the buttons closed all the way to her neck and then she flipped up the collar. The fabricated air in the building was a little on the chilly side. She inhaled. A man’s cologne clung to the cloth. Nice scent.
    Time to get out of there. Shoes would be nice but she wasn’t pressing her luck. Probably seven minutes had passed without an alarm. Not bad so far.
    She checked the windows. Who in their right mind designed a building with windows that wouldn’t open? For only a fraction of second did she consider wrapping the sheet around her hand and busting the pane. Pressing her cheek to the glass, she looked down at the ground and noticed how the windows interlocked with the outside wall in a smooth finish.
    No toeholds. This side of the building looked over a courtyard, revealing two more floors below street level. Closing her eyes for a few seconds, she sighed. She was roughly forty feet up. That meant the only way out was through a street-level exit.
    She scurried over to the door. No sounds from the hallway. The building was one of the most deserted she’d ever been in. Maybe it was lunchtime.
    Taking one step toward the door and stairs, she heard voices and footsteps echoing in the stairwell. Well, wasn’t she lucky?
    Gritting her teeth, she looked left and right in the hallway. Not waiting to see if they were coming for her, she picked a direction and ran. The hallway curved and then turned into another wing of the building. She took the corner blindly. Then she slammed into a solid mass.
    A broad chest flattened her nose. Without hesitation she hooked her foot around a leather clad ankle and kicked back as she shoved her fist into his hard stomach. The man stumbled but somehow held onto his balance as he reached out and grabbed her hair.
    “What the hell?” a deep voice shouted above her.
    She aimed for his groin, but he anticipated the move and hit her with an uppercut.
    The bastard had a fist made of steel. Stars floated in front of her face.
    Funny. Birds really do chirp above a person’s head just like in cartoons.
    Then everything went black.

 
    Chapter Three
    “D id you have to hit her so hard?” Collin glanced over to his best friend and second in command, Rex Drago. The big man stood to the side with his arms crossed, glaring at the unconscious woman strapped down in the hospital bed.
    With a tender touch, Collin applied an ice pack to Olivia’s swollen chin.
    Anne was tending another patient and the dark-haired nurse, Jennifer, refused to come into the room. She was still shook up from the treatment Olivia had dealt her earlier. That the nurse still lived gave Collin hope for The Circle operative. Rumors were she wasn’t known for her restraint.
    He’d only found out what happened after they brought her back unconscious into the clinic, and within a few minutes of arriving in the room he’d realized no one would tend to her. The staff resented her treatment of Jennifer. Ordering them to take care of Olivia would be easy but he wanted to be near when she woke up. So here he was playing nursemaid, ice pack in hand, trying to reduce the swelling.
    “You better be glad that’s all I did. That slut deserves to die a slow and painful death,” Rex growled.
    The scar across his nose and the other one near the corner of his mouth met in a vee on his cheekbone, pulling his upper lip in a grimace.
    “No one is certain she was the one who pulled the trigger. We’ve discussed this. It could have been someone else,” Collin reminded him.
    Rex had fallen in love with another operative who’d been killed by one of The