Circle of Deception by Carla Swafford Read Free Book Online Page B

builds them special and doesn’t mind having a woman tell him how to design it.” She picked up a plastic box and flipped open the lid. When she pulled out the same kind of silver bullet Rex had found, Abby stumbled back.
    “Damn it, Olivia. Where did you get those?”
    “Rex sent over a box for Collin to examine and test.”
    “Is that a Hell’s Purifier?” Marie craned her neck to get a better look.
    Charlie muttered, “Shit,” and looked around as if she was trying to figure out a safe place to hide.
    “Hell’s Purifier.” Abby shook her head. “I hate it when people call inanimate objects names like that. It romanticizes it. Where do people come up with that crap?”
    “There’s nothing romantic about the Inferno. I’m guessing they expect this to cleanse the world for them.” Marie’s frown changed in a blink to a full-blown smile. She slapped Charlie on the shoulder and pointed a thumb toward two large black SUVs pulling up.
    Rex and Arthur Ryker stepped out of the nearest SUV as a couple guards exited the other one. Hanging back, Abby watched the scarred and intimating leader of The Circle give his wife a crooked smile. He appeared human.
    “Be careful, Olivia. We don’t need to be playing with them.” Collin walked out of the shadows and kneeled next to his wife.
    Where did he come from? The man was creepy good at showing up where he wasn’t expected. He’d proven that a couple times in the past.
    Abby heard a click and looked over to her friend.
    Olivia had set up the rifle on the mat and stretched out behind it. “I never play around with my weapons—you know that, sugar pop.”
    Collin growled in warning, “Olivia.”
    She grinned as she looked through the scope. “Watch this.” She took a deep breath, waited a second, and then squeezed the trigger.
    A ten-foot section of the twenty-six-foot dirt-filled mound exploded into the air, leaving a hole the size of a bowling ball, spewing fire, in the concrete wall behind it.
    “Jesus H. Christ! That’s some ammo!” Charlie raised her arms and folded them over the top of her head, eyes wide.
    Abby’s hands trembled as she stuck them in her pockets. She’d understood what Rex and Jack had told her about the bullets, but seeing them at work confirmed how dangerous they were to civilians and military personnel alike.
    “Everything all right with you?” Rex stopped next to her.
    “We’ve got to stop this guy.” She swallowed, trying to calm down.
    “Just think if we had the microcomputer set up on this rifle with the software to program the microdot, the bullet could’ve turned and hit Charlie.” Olivia looked over her shoulder at the other woman.
    “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” Shaking her head, Charlie dropped her arms to her sides. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be in the SUV.”
    Collin shook his finger at Olivia, obviously holding back a smile, and walked over to talk with Rex and Ryker. Surviving deadly situations as often as they did, it was easy to develop a warped sense of humor that was hard for others to understand.
    Abby waited until Marie followed Charlie into the SUV and closed the back passenger door. “Olivia, why do you do that? You should be ashamed of yourself. She admires you and you just scared the crap out of her.” Sometimes she wondered what caused Olivia to act that way.
    “Admires me?” Olivia’s forehead wrinkled and she darted a look to where Charlie sat with her back to the side window, avoiding her view of the mound. Marie patted her friend’s shoulder and listened intently to her.
    “What’s the real reason you brought me out here?”
    Olivia looked over her shoulder at where the men stood before moving her attention back to Abby and softly saying, “I knew if we stayed in the house, you wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about Rex. I hadn’t planned for them to follow us out here.”
    “What makes you think I want to talk about him no matter where we’re standing? I certainly don’t want to