Cold Pursuit by Carla Neggers Read Free Book Online

psychological addiction of killing, the emotional draw—the satisfaction that went beyond a paycheck. Melanie liked money. But money wasn’t why she’d become a paid assassin.
    â€œI’m not letting you screw up a good thing for me.” He sat back and gave her a grim look. “You should never have gotten involved with Thomas Asher. You should have at least told me when you did.”
    He’d found out two weeks ago when he’d come to Washington to discuss the Bruni hit. “I didn’t know we’d be given Alex Bruni as a target.” Melanie kept her voice low, but she was careful not to sound defensive. “We’re partners, Kyle, but you don’t own me. You and I are together maybe a week, at most two weeks, a month. You don’t live in Washington. I’m not even sure where you do live. I’m entitled to have a life.”
    â€œNot with someone you met in Black Falls, Vermont.”
    She ignored him. “Thomas could have seen me this morning,” she said.
    Kyle shook his head. “No, he couldn’t have, and it wouldn’t have mattered. Your disguise was good. Your timing was perfect. You did exactly what you were supposed to do.”
    â€œYour plan worked,” Melanie said, hoping flattery would distract him from how annoyed he was about her relationship with Thomas.
    â€œYes, it did.”
    There was no pride, no sense of accomplishment, where there should have been. She never could have pulled off such a hit by herself—she wasn’t the planner Kyle was. Calculating the details of running a prominent ambassador over in broad daylight was where his limited imagination kicked into action and combined with his logical, lethal mind. He’d left nothing to chance. The hit-and-run death of Alex Bruni was pure choreography.
    But thanks to her relationship with Thomas, she’d known Bruni would be at the hotel that morning, thus making the final choice of the time and place to kill him that much simpler.
    â€œThere was a messenger,” she said in a near whisper. “A young woman on a bicycle—I almost ran her over, too.”
    â€œShe didn’t see anything that can identify either of us.”
    He was so calm. So certain, so reassuring. Melanie felt a twitch of desire and knew it would become more urgent—it always did after a successful mission. Very soon the twitch would become an ache that would take over her body, her mind, every fiber of her being. She wouldn’t be able to think about anything else until it was satisfied.
    â€œKyle…”
    He was like a rock. “Meet me at my hotel in an hour. Room 257.”
    She glanced around the restaurant. “If we’re seen together—”
    â€œI’m one of your decorating clients. Nothing more.”
    Melanie hesitated. “Kyle…why did we kill Alex Bruni?”
    â€œHe had enemies. One of them wanted him dead enough to pay to make it happen.”
    The equation was always so simple and direct for him. “I don’t like it that Bruni vacationed in Black Falls. He knew Drew Cameron. I don’t understand why we killed him, either. Who wanted Bruni dead? Who hired us? It wasn’t his wife—his ex-wife?” Or Thomas. It couldn’t have been Thomas.
    â€œYou know as much as I do.”
    Melanie doubted that. Kyle dealt with their employers. Their transactions were conducted entirely over the Internet—no names, no faces. Just codes and passwords. He claimed even he didn’t know who paid them to kill people, who served as the middleman between them and the enemies of their targets. She executed her part of Kyle’s plan and asked no questions. She was paid well and accepted that nothing short of perfection was expected of her.
    But soon none of that would be of any concern to her. “I haven’t changed my mind,” she said. “I’m still retiring.”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œI’m