Domino by Chris Barnhart Read Free Book Online Page B

of hell while mocking laughter ate away the dream.
    Clarissa touched lightly the diamond necklace
around her throat. It felt heavy like an iron collar to which only
Morgan held the key. Yet, she could not tear it off. The dream that
had been ingrained in her all her life would not be so easily cast
aside. And so the trap tightened.
    "Clarissa," Alex's voice was cool and
seductive like a polar wind off a glacier. "Come out. I'll do
whatever I can to help you."
    She ached to let that thought provide the
comfort it so enticingly invited. That Alex Rogers could actually
protect her from Morgan was pure fantasy. If he tried, Morgan would
kill them both.
    "Come out, Clarissa," Alex whispered. "Let's
talk." There was a long pause and Clarissa fought down the urge to
call to him. He was baiting her, she convinced herself. Did he
really know where she was hiding? If he did, he wouldn't have to
flush her out with his tempting, soothing voice.
    "J'ai Ose," he whispered. "The perfume you're
wearing. It's giving you away like a neon sign."
    Clarissa's stomach tightened and she wedged
herself deeper against the Jag's front bumper and the garage wall.
Her hand brushed something hard and cold on the concrete floor that
chilled like the touch of frost. She recoiled at first, then her
heart leapt. She lifted the tire iron slowly and carefully, willing
her hands not to shake.
    Alex sniffed the air, his almost computer-like
senses separating the odors of rubber, oil, gasoline, and car wax
from Clarissa's expensive perfume. He narrowed her position down to
the driver's side of the Jaguar near the wall. He could almost
pin-point the spot just behind her ear where the perfume had been
daubed, although he could not yet see her in the dark. Slowly, he
pulled the Magnum from his shoulder holster and stepped into the
garage behind the Jag. He had to smile. His training had been
exceptional. Clarissa's purse lay next to the front wheel of the
black Cadillac.
    "You dropped something, Clarissa," Alex
couldn't help grinning. He had her cornered and she was his
prize.
    Clarissa saw his hand reach down for the black
beaded evening bag she had tossed over near the Cadillac's front
tire. With a quickness that surprised her, and with a blind aim,
she brought the tire iron down hard across the back of Alex's head.
With a slight groan, he slumped to the grease stained
floor.
     
     
    Marco was only half listening as Wolfe gave
orders for the disposal of Byron Roth and Clarissa Hayden, her
personal possessions, and Roth's car.
    "It'll be just a minute or two before we have
her," he assured Morgan. "They're closing in on her. Rogers saw her
on the number four monitor. She's down by the front
gate."
    "Good," Wolfe replied. "I want this whole mess
cleaned up by midnight."
    "She can't escape, Mister Wolfe. Two of the
guards are wearing these." Marco held up a pair of night vision
goggles. Wolfe nodded his satisfaction.
    Marco stood facing his employer on the bottom
step of the small front porch but his attention was distracted for
a second. He felt a sudden unexplained uneasiness, a minute
disturbance in the air around him as subtle as a drop of moisture
falling off a leaf. His acute senses went automatically on alert
and he turned away from Wolfe for a moment to read the shadows and
study the wind.
    "What is it, Marco?" Wolfe asked.
    Marco moved down the front walk to the edge of
the driveway. The only detectable movements were the guards he had
assigned to patrol the front gates and Dalton searching the trees
on the front lawn. He watched for a moment, satisfied that the ring
of guards were closing in on Clarissa.
    Yet Marco was tense. His muscles bunched and
flexed under the black t-shirt and shoulder holster, and he was
inwardly coiled like a cobra ready to strike. He was sure of the
disturbance. Whether it was a sound or movement out of place, he
couldn't tell. He slipped on the goggles, peered down the driveway
toward the garage trying to pierce its darkness.