Double Dare by Vicki Hinze Read Free Book Online Page B

He shot a warning look at Will. “Remember our limitations.” Barone strode away and was immediately engulfed by worried owners.
    Barone’s parting comment to Will alarmed Maggie, andfrom the troubled look Justin sent her way, it hadn’t sat well with him, either. Maggie turned to face Will. “What did Mr. Barone mean about ‘limitations’?”
    Will frowned, pulled Maggie and Justin across the thoroughfare and into a hallway between the security and medical offices. The little alcove had rest rooms on the left and right, and dead-ended at a door marked No Exit—Employees Only.
    “I’m not sure what he meant,” Will admitted. “But I take it he hasn’t mentioned anything to you about the Winter Wonderland going on here tomorrow afternoon and night.”
    “What exactly is that?” Stones tumbled in Maggie’s stomach.
    “The owners have spent a fortune to create a snowfall in the Center Court pit tomorrow for the kids. You know, snowball fights, building snowmen—things people don’t normally get to do in Florida.”
    “Oh, man,” Justin said. “That means every kid in five counties will be here.”
    “That’s what the owners are hoping.” Will shoved a hand into his pants’ pocket. “The mall has twenty-six A-stores, ones comparable to Macy’s. Eight are located on each level,” he explained. “The rest are smaller B-stores. Specialty shops, restaurants, that kind of thing.”
    Maggie nodded. “Right.”
    “So, as you’d expect, the A-stores have a big voice in all mall operations.”
    “What’s your point, Will?” Maggie nudged him.
    He pursed his lips, debating on what to say and, for the sake of his job, what he should leave unsaid. “Right after Mr. Barone got the first call on this situation, he set up ameeting with the twenty-six. He forgot to mention it to you. That took place at seven o’clock this morning. They agreed to extra security, provided it is requested, discreet and in no way interferes with shoppers. But they flat refused to have medical staff inside the building, with the exception of Dr. Crowe. That would be a signal something was wrong that the shoppers couldn’t miss. They’d be afraid and leave, taking their money with them.”
    “You can’t be serious, Will.” Justin rounded on her. “Two minutes is all we have, Maggie. I can’t inject—”
    She lifted a hand, half surprised he’d used her first name but fully grasping his objection. Her own mirrored it. “We’ll work around it.” One bump at a time.
    “Sorry to say I’m very serious, Dr. Crowe.” Will looked even more worried than he had before the meeting. “Mr. Barone will never do anything the twenty-six don’t want done. No way.”
    “We’ll work around it,” Maggie said again, fighting an internal war. The owners grasped that they could be playing Russian roulette with shoppers’ lives and their own, but they couldn’t close their stores forever on a maybe, especially without a Homeland Security advisory ordering, or even recommending, they close.
    She made a mental note to have Darcy petition again to get a shutdown order issued. And then outrage flooded Maggie. Outrage that the owners would jeopardize other people’s lives for their own money. Wasn’t that what Kunz was doing that everyone found so vehemently objectionable?
    Her cell phone rang. Maggie stepped away and answered it. “Holt.”
    “We’ve got another wrinkle.” Colonel Drake sighed.“From five to nine on Christmas Eve, you’re going to have two groups of significant interest in the mall.”
    Terrific. What else? “Who?”
    “For one, Special Forces members and their families.”
    “Oh, no.” Kunz would love that. Freaking love that.
    “I’m afraid so.” The Colonel paused. “The mall is staying open later because the store owners are creating a Winter Wonderland in their honor. Well, theirs and the local Special Olympians.”
    “Oh, God, no. I just found out about the Winter Wonderland but I didn’t know