Blue Moonlight by Vincent Zandri Read Free Book Online Page A

in the hopes of finding the flash drive, or what they mistranslated as a “fleshy box.”
    What I didn’t realize at the time was that Clyne had other plans.
    He wanted the flash drive for himself.
    He was determined to get it, and to use it to start a new life somewhere else in a new country. It was his intention to flip the bird on the world—the world he’d built with his cheating wife and the cops—by going rogue. Problem is, the flash drive he took off with was said to contain not only information concerning the location of millions in unmarked euros and dollars stored in numerous Swiss accounts; it also revealed both the locations of misplaced Soviet-era nuclear warheads and sensitive US nuclear secrets that would be worth hundreds of millions to interested buyers. Not the Russians, necessarily, but the Iranians perhaps, maybe the North Koreans, and even the Pakistanis. Or maybe some unknown terrorist group who would like to get their hands on the information and use it to blow something up, like, say, New York City or Los Angeles.
    So long as Clyne has that flash drive he’s considered one of the most wanted men in the world. Now so is my girlfriend’s new “old” squeeze, Agent Barter. Or so my new FBI friends tell me. I wonder if that technically makes Lola wanted also. Whatever the case, I’ve been trusted with infiltrating this new threesome, and with ultimately finding the flash drive.
    An untrustworthy head case like me.
    Makes total sense, doesn’t it?

When my beer is done, so is my shower. I’m drying off and anticipating some of the food the FBI has laid out for me and what, these days, has become a rare cigarette…when I hear the hotel room door open.
    I also hear it shut, the deadbolt engage.
    Gut instinct tells me to grab my automatic. But I’m totally naked and equally unarmed. I take a quick survey of the bathroom to see if there’s something I can use as a weapon. The closet thing I can find is a drinking glass.
    I wrap the bath towel around my waist, and then pick up the drinking glass. I hold it in the palm of my hand like a rock, the thick, heavy bottom pointing out. Swallowing a breath, I open the bathroom door, step out.
    She’s standing in the center of the floor, a dark brown leather bag slung over her shoulder. She’s not wearing her FBI Windbreaker right now. She’s wearing, instead, a black silk blouse that’s unbuttoned enough to reveal some cleavage and just a hint of a black lace bra. Victoria’s Secret maybe. Her miniskirt is also black and tight-fitting. The heels on her long black leather boots make her almost as tall as me. Shoulder-length hair parted neatly above her right temple, deep brown eyes, andmoist red lips make me want to take her into my arms, toss her onto the bed.
    But I’m dressed in only a bath towel, and it’s all I can do not to keep from proving to her how glad I am to see her. But a quick peek down at the pup tent emerging from my midsection tells me I’m having little success controlling Mother Nature.
    “I let myself in,” she says.
    “We can see that,” I say.
    She can’t help but work up a grin. “I hope these accommodations are to your liking.”
    “Well beyond expectations. You’re trying to get on my good side.”
    “We at the FBI wanted to prove we aren’t entirely uncivil when it comes to kidnapping in the name of national security.”
    “Feel free to kidnap me anytime.”
    She smiles and sets the bag onto the desk chair, takes notice of the food and the wine laid out there. Two long-stem drinking glasses came with the wine. Why hadn’t I noticed that before? The wine has been uncorked for breathing. I never noticed that, either.
    “Well, Moonlight,” Agent Crockett says and sighs, “you gonna stand there in your bath towel or are you going to pour a girl a glass of wine?”
    I make it two steps toward the bottle before I grab her hand and pull her into me. My towel comes off, drops to my feet. I’m standing at the end of