Easy Target by Kay Thomas Read Free Book Online Page A

limited right now.
    Still, if Gavin was dirty, Bryan was the pope. He’d worked with Gavin too long and seen the man in too many situations to accept anything else. His gut check was not buying that Gavin could be corrupt. Bryan squeezed Sassy’s hand and hoped like hell he wasn’t being naïve.
    “Don’t worry about me, Hollywood. Only in the U.S. do they want my head on a pike.”
    “So far,” added Marissa with a grim smile.
    Gavin raised a shoulder in a shrug and pointedly ignored the comment. “Risa figured we were the logical ones to deliver the travel documents. Nick is already on his way home, and Leland is still on crutches.” He studied Sassy with undisguised curiosity.
    “Whatever the reason, I’m glad to see you,” said Bryan. But even as he reached out to shake Gavin’s hand, Nick’s words in Skikda came to mind. We can believe whatever we want. It’s what we can prove that will matter.
    Bryan was still holding Sassy’s fingers in his other hand and dropped them when he realized he was squeezing a little too hard. “This is Sassy Smith, Trey Smith’s sister.” As he introduced Gavin and Marissa, Bryan fought the urge to put his hand on Sassy’s back.
    What was it about his always wanting to touch her?
    One of Gavin’s eyebrows shot up. “Elizabeth Yarborough’s Trey Smith?” he asked.
    Bryan nodded and forced himself to meet Gavin’s stare. While he had told Gavin that Trey was a friend when AEGIS had been hired to look for Elizabeth, he had never told his boss about the connection between himself and Sassy and exactly how AEGIS had come to be hired.
    After Elizabeth’s disappearance and Trey’s arrest, Bryan had gone to see Sassy at her mother’s house, explained what he did with AEGIS, and offered to help. In turn, Sassy had introduced Bryan to Elizabeth’s parents and encouraged them to hire AEGIS to help find their daughter. The Yarborough family vehemently believed in Trey’s innocence, which had made for some heartrending news coverage. Even so, Bryan suspected Gavin had never told anyone else at AEGIS about his connection to Trey Smith.
    That suspicion was confirmed when Marissa put her hand out to greet Sassy. “I must say that it’s a surprise to meet you. I had no idea until now that anyone in AEGIS had a personal connection to Elizabeth Yarborough before her parents came to us.” The look Risa shot Bryan would have melted glass if he hadn’t already been so fried by everything else happening.
    S ASSY GLANCED SIDEWAYS at Bryan as she shook the stunning redhead’s hand. Sassy wasn’t sure what to say to the woman or to the man. Something had happened as soon as Bryan had seen these ­people seated in the hotel lobby. She’d felt it in Bryan’s hand gripping hers when he’d completely tensed up and squeezed the hell out of her fingers before the introductions.
    Marissa’s voice wasn’t unfriendly, but it wasn’t exactly dripping with enthusiasm for the situation either. And Sassy could tell the woman was world-­class pissed at Bryan. She had a feeling it had to do with her being Trey’s sister.
    What was going on? Could Sassy trust these two ­people or not?
    “I appreciate everything your organization is trying to do for the Yarboroughs and for my brother. I don’t know what we’d do if we didn’t have Bryan on our side.” Sassy smiled like a good Southern girl and thickened her accent while patting Bryan’s shoulder as she would her brother’s.
    He glanced down at her and gave a slight shake of his head. Was that a warning sign or resignation?
    “What are you doing here in Africa?” Bryan asked again.
    Marissa studied Sassy openly with her bright green gaze before answering, and it took every bit of Sassy’s hard-­earned poise not to squirm under the scrutiny. She was the poor country cousin next to the beautiful redhead’s elegant ensemble. Sassy’s outfit had been pulled together from what Bryan had bought in a glorified grocery store and what