Enemy Mine by Karin Harlow Read Free Book Online

to behind him. He sat down and adjusted his black-silk tailored suit. “I did.”
    “And?” She sat back in her chair.
    “I’m disappointed, Selena.”
    A vision of Johnny’s bloody body lying still in the dirt flashed before her eyes. He would be even more disappointed if she told him what had happened to the serums. “It couldn’t be helped. I’ll go back next week and round up twice the amount for half the cost.”
    “I think not. I think you’ll go earlier and I think you’ll do it at no charge.”
    Selena lifted her chin and stared straight into his eyes, which were beginning to redden just around the edges. Slowly, she sat up straight and inhaled, giving the stones around her neck the cue to pay attention.
    Standing, she planted her hands palm down on her desk, leaned forward, and spoke slowly. “I think, Joran, you have somehow gotten the impression that you call the shots.” She exhaled. The stones warmed. “I’m an independent contractor. I decide who, what, where, when, and how much. Not the other way around.”
    He smiled lazily and purred, “Yes, I know. But I also know, if it involves a nanorian, you will do exactly what I want. On my terms. Isn’t that right?”
    She looked sideways at him and fingered the four around her neck. “Perhaps.”
    “I happen to know there is one right here in Miami.”
    “If there is one in Miami, I’ll find it, without your help.”
    “Even when the daemon has possessed a human body as insidious as half of Hell?”
    “That’s none of your business.” She could, it was just harder. Black-hearted humans had the uncanny ability to hide the scent of a daemon. Maybe because they were so much alike.
    “Ah, a trade secret. Okay, I’ll give you that one, but only because I have my own.” He stood so fast that even with her enhanced vision she didn’t see the movement as anything but a shimmer in the air, like a ripple on a glassy pond.
    He stood inches from her now. “A Hellkeeper is running roughshod over some of my assets in Hialeah. That’s bad enough, but the daemon is hiding inside the body of one Armadeo Vegas.”
    She started at the name. Madeo Vegas was a one-man death squad for cubano mafioso Luis Fernandez and a frequent patron of Lost Souls.
    “What do you want me to do that you can’t do yourself? Just go bite the prick and drain him. The daemon will have to vaporize or die with the body.”
    “I can’t. He has knowledge of something I need.”
    “And this something you need?”
    “You know I don’t discuss my business.”
    “Oh, come now, Joran, I think we have gone a little past your being shy. Tell me what you want. Specifically.”
    “I will tell you this much: My protection, some of which offers you the same blind eye, is proving to be less than protective. In the last two months, many of my—associates have been incarcerated with alarming regularity. It seems those with whom I have financial agreements—and who happen to be the same persons with the power to look the other way—no longer choose to. Vegas has a hand in their newfound sense of justice. I want to know how Vegas is getting to them.”
    “How do you know it’s Vegas?”
    “I have eyes and ears everywhere, Selena. You know that.” Joran smiled tightly. “I want the information. You’ll get it after you expel the Hellkeeper from Vegas’s body and take possession of it yourself.”
    Her? Possess a human body? And even worse, human scum? Selena laughed. Shaking her head, she walked over to her balcony door and opened it. “You’re a funny guy, Joran. Real funny. Now leave.”
    He was all over her in the blink of her tired eyes. The door slammed shut and she found herself sprawled on her back across her desk. Joran’s heavy body pinned her to the desktop.
    He stared hotly into her eyes, his blazing red. His nostrils flared, his lips twitched, and just beneath, she saw a hint of fang. “You will do it or I will lead Paymon to your doorstep.”
    He would not dare!