Blaze (The Stark Affair Book 3) by Skylar Cross Read Free Book Online Page A

joking about that?”
    “No,
in fact I’m going to tell you something that I’ve never told anyone. Which
could be the end of me because you’re a cop.”
    He
takes a deep breath and sits on the edge of the bed. He temples his hands and
stares at the floor.
    “I’m
going to disappear,” he says. “Nobody will be able to find me. I have the
perfect escape all set up. Been working on it for two years. I call it my
Self-Detonation plan. Because once I plug that flash drive into a USB port,
boom! The whole world learns about what I’ve been doing, but more importantly
what Jasper van der Voort and my father have been doing for years.”
    “And
you’ll just be gone?”
    “Gone.
Vanished. Just get in my Go-Fast boat and zip my way across the water. Never to
be seen again. It’s all set up.”
    “But
you’re the great Colton Stark. The smartest guy in the room. Why can’t you just figure out a way on your own? Clear your name?”
    “Well,
I actually have. The only problem is that the Department of Justice won’t look
kindly on what I’ve done. I’ll get prison time. Which I
refuse to do because like I said on the boat, life is nothing but a series of
moments. One moment spent in prison for taking money that’s rightfully
mine is one moment too many.”
    “So
you’re going to run away? You? Big tough guy? Run
away?”
    “It’s
not running away. It’s escape. Freedom. Justice in exposing
an uber -criminal. Jasper has been funneling
drugs and guns from South America for years. This will put a major dent in the
criminal underworld. It will take years for them to recover. Imagine being the
cop that blows this wide open. You’ll be a legend. The girl from Wynwood who took down Stark Worldwide.”
    I
smile.
    “See,
you’re thinking about it!”
    “Where
is this flash drive?”
    “Ha!
Like I’m going to tell you that.”
    I
blink and shake my head, trying to wrap my head around all this. Funny, his
twisted logic makes sense.
    But there has to be a better way!
    “You
could cop a deal,” I say. “Roll on van der Voort . Get immunity.”
    He
looks at me with a frown. “Have you seen Jasper’s bodyguard Hector? He has
standing orders to kill me if anything bad happens to Jasper.”
    “That
guy? He’s just an old thug that looks like a big piece of rock.”
    “Look
him up in your database. You may be surprised. Even Max Zanik is scared of him.”
    I
lean up on my shoulder. “How the fuck do you know Max Zanik ?”
    “Because
I’ve been exploring options.”
    I
put my hand on his chest, stroking the tattoo with the eagle talons. “Okay, so
why tell me all this? Do you want me to slap cuffs on you?”
    “Well
yes, but not until we get to know each other a little better.” He kisses me
while stroking my hand. “But the real reason I’m telling you, Detective
Sergeant Sofia Martinez- Vallejos ... is because I
trust you. Do you trust me?”
    I
sit up on the edge of the bed, facing away from him. I look out at the vast
collection of toy boats surrounding DiLido Island.
    “I
have some... issues,” I say. “I lost my ability to trust most people because
there was someone I once trusted. And she died because I trusted her.”
    “What
happened then?”
    “I
lost it. I turned in my resignation, it was accepted by my
commander at the time, but then Lieutenant LaTashia Washington of the Organized Crime Section stepped in and saved me. I’ve known
her since I was a teenager. She got me into some ridiculous therapy and put me
on a six-week leave. I wasn’t going back.”
    “Did
the therapy help?”
    “No.
I had nothing else to do for the six weeks so I bought this yellow 1970 Chevelle with black racing stripes that I had had my eye on
for a while and I restored it. Better than therapy by far.”
    “So
what changed your mind? Why did you go back to the force?”
    “Because
of LaTashia . And Mike.”
    “Who’s
Mike?”
    “My
patrol partner. He showed up one day while I was working on the car. Made