Enemy Lover by Karin Harlow Read Free Book Online

equation.
    Feeling like a target standing out in the open, Rowland walked through the groups of awe-inspired tourists, the strolling couples holding hands, and the man reading a newspaper on a park bench.
    Startled by the sudden pressure of a firm grip on his right shoulder, Rowland flinched and spun around.
    “Senator Rowland, good morning,” the man the senator knew as Colonel Lazarus said from behind him.
    “Jesus, I hate when you do that!” A man always in complete control, the senator did not like surprises. Yet all this man did was surprise him. Rowland turned, facing Lazarus. He was dressed completely in black, not one inch of his pale skin showing except the lower part of his face. The guy was just plain odd. Reluctantly, Rowland shook the colonel’s gloved hand even as he struggledto meet what he knew were pale, frosty eyes shadowed by a wide-brimmed black felt hat and thick sunglasses. The colonel’s lips pulled back from very long teeth. At that moment, the senator knew how it felt to look down a shark’s throat. The fine hairs on his body rose, and his skin chilled beneath his ample clothing. The colonel’s grip increased. The senator scowled and yanked his hand away.
    “Just staying on top of my game, Senator.”
    The senator’s scowl deepened. Nervously, feeling like he was in the colonel’s crosshairs, he glanced around, half expecting to see the glint of a scope. “This isn’t a game,” Rowland bit off, still unable to shake the feeling he was a target.
    The colonel smiled wider and slid down the large pair of black sunglasses as he too scanned the peripheral area. Unlike Rowland’s rigid stance, the colonel’s body was relaxed in a defiant, I-dare-you-to-try-something kind of way. Apprehension settled with a thud in Rowland’s gut.
    “C’ mon now, Bill, you’ re a sitting U.S. senator. No one would dare take out a U.S. senator.” A short pause emphasized the colonel’s next words. “Would they?”
    Rowland narrowed his eyes, not missing the threat. It was a habit the colonel had fallen into, and one he was going to cut short, here and now. “
You
talk about audacity?”
    The colonel raised a black umbrella he had been holding in his left hand and pressed a button. With a short, sharp snap, it popped open, casting a dark shadow over both men. Rowland jumped back at the abrupt sound.The colonel smiled. “I have a slight sensitivity to the sun.” He inclined his head forward. “Shall we walk, Senator?” he asked, inclining his head away from the thickening crowds. “I feel too much like a target standing still out here in the open.”
    “Talk about a target? You’ ve painted one on both our backs.” They walked toward the Vietnam Memorial. “This latest business in Venezuela? Too high-profile. Too damn high-profile.”
    “The job was completed,” the colonel said.
    “Damn it, man!” Rowland shouted, then lowered his voice when several passersby gawked. He grasped the colonel’s beefy arm and steered him over to the far edge of the promenade. “The lunatic running that country already despises us as it is. And what do you do? Leave one of his oil ministers cut from balls to gullet—and on a public road, no less!”
    The colonel abruptly stopped and jerked his arm from Rowland’s grasp. Low and level he said, “He
needed
to be found. It
needed
to be public. It made the correct statement! And, might I remind you, we also left enough dope and evidence of dummied bank accounts to suggest cartel involvement.”
    Rowland moved to the edge of the grass and softly said, “It was in the papers for Christ’s sake. If it ever leaked out that we, that
I,
was involved—”
    The colonel quickly cut him off. “That’s never going to happen because
I’ ll
never let it happen.” The colonel laid a hand on his shoulder. “Senator, you contracted The Solution to do the things our government can’t or won’t do.” The colonel leaned in until they were almost nose-to-nose.