As Cold As Ice by Mandy Rosko Read Free Book Online Page B

house. Her for being dangerous, and
Ethan for not wanting her to go. She told them Ethan was a good
citizen and loyal to Layton's cause, and that it had actually been
his idea to work for Head Office, to prove that she, as a
paranormal, could be safe to be around and useful to the people who
needed the protection of the hunters.
    If Ethan was ever caught, then he'd say the
same thing. They'd rehearsed this a time or two before.
    The tricky part came when she had to explain
why Ethan was in hiding, and why he wouldn't try to come back and
turn himself in.
    "That's my fault," Jessica said. "It's not
his fault, please don't blame him."
    It was hard to say words like that with a
smile on her face when the last thing in the world she felt like
doing was smiling.
    "Oh? Please explain then." Though Layton was
smiling, a slight twitch beside his eyes told her he didn't like
where this was going.
    Jessica cleared her throat. She shifted in
her seat, only realizing she'd done it after it happened. Great,
she definitely looked like she was scared and trying to hide
something.
    Maybe he didn't notice. Why wasn't Soren
beside her? Why did it have to be Charles?
    "Ethan and I prepared for the day when I
might be found out. We agreed that if something ever happened, if I
ever wanted to confess, that I would stay behind and he would go.
It was one thing for me to want to turn myself in, since I'm a
paranormal, but he's just normal. There's nothing different about
him. I decided that the risk of him going to prison was too much.
If I ever turned myself in, then he was to run, and he wasn't to
tell me where he was going."
    Layton's smile slowly slipped from his
mouth, his gaze turning into something that made Jessica twitch in
her seat again.
    "That was before, though," she added
quickly. "I don't think...I guess what I'm trying to say is that
neither of us thought this through too well. Now that I'm here, and
I'm able to tell you what happened, I think it would be good for
him to come in."
    "And, do you have a way of contacting
him?"
    Jessica shook her head. "Not directly. I
don't know how he left or when, but that was another rule. No
phones. They're too easy to track. If he were to hear from me, or
even just know I'm still working for you, and that you believe I
can still be of use as a hunter, then he'll know to come back."
    Okay, she'd kissed ass enough. It was time
to show her honesty and let Layton see she meant business.
    Her eyes hardened on the man. Layton watched
her coolly. "After the time I spent locked in the basement, I'm
glad we decided on this, for him to wait before coming back. I
don't care what the law is, I would rather he run away than spend
almost a month locked downstairs like that."
    She didn't mention the other paranormals who
were thrown into her cell. Nor did she discuss the shower she
almost never used, not until the smell of her own body got to be so
unbearable that she was unwilling to put up with it, even knowing
several men were watching from behind a camera, or a two-way
mirror.
    She didn't mention any of that, because the
odds were better than perfect that he already knew about it. He
might've even watched a couple of those shower videos himself.
    Her small outburst of sisterly affection,
showing off the need to protect her family, must've been real
enough to convince Layton, because his calm smile returned.
    "That's more than fair. So, if Ethan Frost
sees you working the field, either on camera or through some other
source, then he'll know you are not being held against your will,
and he will return to work for us, as well."
    Jessica nodded, even though that was the
furthest thing from the truth. "Yeah, that's about it."
    Layton’s smile chilled her to the core,
frostier than her powers could have ever done.
    It was a relief when he called Charles and
Soren forward to have a word with them, though somewhat irritating
when he acted like she wasn’t in the room.
    The thing that was the most telling,
however,