Deliverance by Dakota Banks Read Free Book Online Page A

this meeting, and she would have walked out on anyone else.
    No harm in playing along with this little identity game for now.
    Elizabeth walked over to the bar, poured herself a double Chivas Regal, neat, and sat opposite Fred at the table. A chill rode up her spine, a very enjoyable one.
    This is a place where deals are made, where power oozes out of the walls, where lives are built up or torn down.
    “A Scotch drinker, eh? You should have asked. I would have gotten out the good stuff.”
    Elizabeth shrugged. She wasn’t picky about her drink and had just taken something to appear companionable. She was going to be spending a lot of time in this man’s company.
    He poured himself the same drink, came over to her side of the table, and perched on the edge of it. They toasted to friendship. He looked down her dress while she checked out his flat stomach and broad shoulders.
    Not bad. At least the sex should be tolerable.
    Elizabeth put her hand on his knee, answering the unspoken question. She wanted Fred relaxed and confident that he’d already charmed his visitor.
    “I have something to offer you,” she said. “A secret weapon to use against your opponents.”
    “What makes you think I need a secret weapon? My relationships with my enemies are all civil. We manage.”
    “Then why did you use the term enemies ?”
    “It’s a common . . . what are you selling, some new type of armament?”
    “In a way.”
    “Get to the point, or I’ll get the guard back in here to soften you up. Come to think of it, it might be fun to do it myself.” Fred shifted positions enough to show that he was wearing a shoulder holster underneath his jacket. She’d already spotted it, but having it in view made her next move easier. She rose from the table, snatched the gun, and pointed it at him. It all happened so fast that he didn’t even feel the touch of her hand slipping into his jacket. When he got the picture, he put his drink on the table and raised his hands.
    “That wouldn’t be wise,” she said, “for you or the guard. I can take care of myself.”
    Her voice was calm but devoid of warmth, and carried the utter certainty that she would follow through.
    She put the gun on the table. Fred went back to his chair and sat down. She was pleased to see that he was cautious but not overly intimidated. He wasn’t so much yielding to her as wanting her out of his space. When he sat down, he reached for the gun. Her hand shot out and claimed it, but then she let him take it back, knowing he was doing so with her permission. She glared at him across the table for a moment and then continued as if nothing had happened. He picked up his drink and sipped it, reevaluating her over the rim of the glass.
    “The secret weapon is an assassin. An unstoppable one.”
    “Why unstoppable?”
    Elizabeth went to a laptop computer at the other end of the table and plugged in a USB flash drive. Fred leaned over her shoulder—too close—as she started up a video.
    “See the woman kneeling on the ground? Watch her.”
    In a moment, the woman vanished.
    “Are you seriously trying to sell me some goddamned magic act?”
    “No. Watch again, slower this time.”
    “My God! Does anyone else have this video?”
    Elizabeth shook her head. “It’s been destroyed. Thoroughly. Do we have a deal?”
    “You haven’t said what you want in return.”
    “I want to be your advisor. As you rise, so do I.”
    Fred tipped his glass to her. “Deal.”
    “Deal.”

Chapter Six
     
    W ith her team scattered because of the police video, Maliha decided to leave her Chicago home in her private jet. For once the jet happened to be located in the United States, if not in the state of Illinois. She had a habit of leaving it in foreign locations. Indianapolis was less than two hundred miles away, so by the time she’d packed a few essentials and taken a thirty-mile limo ride to the Gary Jet Center in Gary, Indiana, the jet had arrived. The jet center was an