Double Impact: Never Say Die & No Way Back by Tess Gerritsen, Debra Webb Read Free Book Online Page B

to make this trip herself, so she asked me to come. And I’m hitting the same brick wall she hit twenty years ago.”
    â€œMaybe you haven’t gone to the right people.”
    â€œWho are the right people?”
    Quietly, Guy shifted toward her. “I have connections,” he said softly. “I could find out for you.”
    Their hands brushed on the railing; Willy felt a delicious shock race through her whole arm. She pulled her hand away.
    â€œWhat sort of connections?”
    â€œFriends in the business.”
    â€œExactly what is your business?”
    â€œBody counts. Dog tags. I’m with the Army ID Lab.”
    â€œI see. You’re in the military.”
    He laughed and leaned sideways against the railing. “No way. I bailed out after Nam. Went back to college, got a master’s in stones and bones. That’s physical anthropology, emphasis on Southeast Asia. Anyway, I worked a while in a museum, then found out the army paid better. So I hired on as a civilian contractor. I’m still sorting bones, only these have names, ranks and serial numbers.”
    â€œAnd that’s why you’re going to Vietnam?”
    He nodded. “There are new sets of remains to pick up in Saigon and Hanoi.”
    Remains. Such a clinical word for what was once a human being.
    â€œI know a few people,” he said. “I might be able to help you.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œYou’ve made me curious.”
    â€œIs that all it is? Curiosity?”
    His next move startled her. He reached out and brushed back her short, tumbled hair. The brief contact of his fingers seemed to leave her whole neck sizzling. She froze, unable to react to this unexpectedly intimate contact.
    â€œMaybe I’m just a nice guy,” he whispered.
    Oh, hell, he’s going to kiss me, she thought. He’s going to kiss me and I’m going to let him, and what happens next is anyone’s guess….
    She batted his hand away and took a panicked step back. “I don’t believe in nice guys.”
    â€œAfraid of men?”
    â€œI’m not afraid of men. But I don’t trust them, either.”
    â€œStill,” he said with an obvious note of laughter in his voice, “you let me into your room.”
    â€œMaybe it’s time to let you out.” She stalked across the room and yanked open the door. “Or are you going to be difficult?”
    â€œMe?” To her surprise, he followed her to the door. “I’m never difficult.”
    â€œI’ll bet.”
    â€œBesides, I can’t hang around tonight. I’ve got more important business.”
    â€œReally.”
    â€œReally.” He glanced at the lock on her door. “I see you’ve got a heavy-duty dead bolt. Use it. And take my advice—don’t go out on the town tonight.”
    â€œDarn! That was next on my agenda.”
    â€œOh, and in case you need me—” he turned and grinned at her from the doorway “—I’m staying at the Liberty Hotel. Call anytime.”
    She started to snap, Don’t hold your breath. But before she could get out the words, he’d left.
    She was staring at a closed door.

CHAPTER THREE
    T OBIAS W OLFF swiveled his wheelchair around from the liquor cabinet and faced his old friend. “If I were you, Guy, I’d stay the hell out of it.”
    It had been five years since they’d last seen each other. Toby still looked as muscular as ever—at least from the waist up. Fifteen years’ confinement to a wheelchair had bulked out those shoulders and arms. Still, the years had taken their inevitable toll. Toby was close to fifty now, and he looked it. His bushy hair, cut Beethoven style, was almost entirely gray. His face was puffy and sweating in the tropical heat. But the dark eyes were as sharp as ever.
    â€œTake some advice from an old Company man,” he said, handing Guy a glass of Scotch. “There’s no