Beneath the Surface by Cat Johnson Read Free Book Online

back to your office and stay there. Do not call anyone. Do not tell anyone about what you’ve found. Wait for us to get back. Got it?”
    Beth shook her head. This was all too strange. “No. I don’t ‘got it’. Rick, what’s going on?”
    Rick sighed and turned back to her. Placing both hands on her arms, his expression softened. He took in a deep breath. “Please, Beth. You have to just trust me.”
    “I will, as soon as you explain yourself and your interest in these tunnels because I have to tell you, it isn’t normal if you are who you say you are. So are you? Are you really here doing marketing research?”
    He squeezed her arms a bit more tightly. “Not exactly.”
    As the tears threatened to fill her eyes, she wiggled to free herself from his grasp. “Let me go.”
    Robby took a single step forward protectively. Beth felt a little better that she wasn’t alone with this man. The man who she’d thought she knew but obviously did not, not one little bit. Her common sense screamed in the back of her brain that this situation was exactly the reason she didn’t date much. She’d done a heck of a lot more than “date” Rick last night. Her face colored again as she remembered all she had done with him, without hesitation, with complete trust. This time her eyes did fill with unshed tears.
    Rick took one look at her face and let out a curse. He pulled her farther away from where Robby and Lyssa stood watching.
    Robby took another step forward. “Beth?”
    “It’s fine, Robby. Stay there.” They were still in sight and could run for help should she need it. She turned a hurt filled glance toward Rick. “What do you want from me?”
    Looking torn, Rick glanced up at the ceiling. “This isn’t one of those places where they can hear me whispering from over there, is it?”
    Beth shook her head and scowled, remembering what she had whispered to him the night before. She was so stupid. “No, it’s not.”
    He let out a huff of breath. “Okay. I am going to tell you something that could at best end my career and at worst get me killed. I’m telling it to you because I want you to know the only reason I lied to you is because it was absolutely necessary.”
    “There’s never a good reason to lie.” She scowled and looked away.
    He gripped her shoulders and shook her lightly until she looked back at him. “Yes, there is. That’s what I am trying to tell you.”
    She let out a huff of her own. “Fine, tell me then.”
    “You can’t repeat this to anyone. Not the two kids over there. Not your boss or whoever. To no one. Understand?”
    Beth rolled her eyes. She wouldn’t repeat it because whatever came out of his mouth next would probably be as big a lie as everything else he had told her. And she had let him…she couldn’t even think of what she had let him do to her. The fact that she had enjoyed it was even more embarrassing.
    “Beth.”
    “Okay. I swear I will never repeat what you tell me.” She forced herself not to look away.
    “I’ve been deep undercover for the NYPD for two years trying to track the origin of huge shipments of drugs that are somehow mysteriously appearing in circulation on the city streets.”
    Well, this was a doozy. This guy had quite the imagination.
    He continued. “It didn’t seem to be coming in by boat through the harbor, we couldn’t catch anything crossing the borders by road or even by private plane. I mean I’m not talking small amounts here, Beth. I am talking truckloads full of drugs…or trainloads .”
    Her eyes opened wide, starting to believe him for the first time. “The private track?”
    He nodded. “Exactly what I’m thinking.”
    It still sounded a bit like a late night television movie to her. “Can I see some identification?”
    Rick laughed out loud. “Beth. Deep undercover means just that. I am not in any way identified with the department. I have one single point of contact by secure cell phone only. That is it. Otherwise, I’m on