Exposed by Laura Griffin Read Free Book Online Page A

need me to come?”
    “Nah, you two finish your lunch.”
    After Sam took off, she slid back into the booth, looking slightly flushed. She shut down her computer and zipped it into the bag.
    “It’s a good lead,” Brian said. He went to work on his barbecued ribs as she picked at her salad.
    “I hope it helps.” Her brow furrowed. “I can’t stop thinking about Jolene Murphy. What do you think the chances are of finding her?”
    Brian watched her carefully. She meant finding her alive , and he put those chances at slim. “We’ll find her,” he said firmly, but Maddie looked unconvinced. “How’s that tripod coming?”
    “It’s coming.” She poked at lettuce, avoiding his gaze.
    “Think we’ll hear something today?”
    She scoffed. “Get real.”
    “I thought you had an in.”
    “I do.” She eyed his plate and looked up at him. “She’s fast, but it’s still going to take a few days. Which is better than Quantico, I’m guessing.” She paused to watch him as he licked barbecue sauce off his thumbs. “What’s your typical lead time on DNA evidence?”
    Brian wiped his hands on a napkin. “Depends.” He dropped a rib onto her plate. “Eat something.”
    “I am.”
    He gave her a baleful look, and she picked up the rib.
    “Typically, a few weeks, maybe a month,” he told her, which was stretching it. That was if they had a comparison sample provided by a suspect. Blind DNA tests were much lower-priority and could take months.
    “Well, we can do better than that. My friend Mia will probably get us something in the next few days.”
    “It still might not be fast enough,” he said, watching her. She nibbled the rib clean, and he added another one to her plate. “Anyway, knowing who took her doesn’t solve our problems, because we still need to figure out where she is.”
    Brian tried to read her expression as she stirred her iced tea. He wondered if she knew what had most likely happened to Jolene Murphy by now.
    “Maddie.”
    She glanced up at him. He held her gaze, and he saw it. She knew. She wasn’t kidding herself about the victim.
    “We’ll track them down one way or another,” he said. “This is a major case involving half a dozen agencies.”
    “An alphabet soup,” she said, and there was that cynicism again. He was sure of it now—she didn’t like cops, for some reason.
    “We’ll track them down. You can count on it.”
    She looked at him, and he felt that pull again, the one he’d felt when he first met her. He’d felt it again at her house last night, and now she was sitting right across from him, tempting him in that soft white sweater and watching him with those bottomless brown eyes.
    He should ask her out. He asked women out all the time, and most of them said yes. But she had her guard up, and he knew she’d find some reason to turn him down. His gaze dropped to her mouth. There was barbecue sauce on the corner of it, and she caught him staring.
    “What?” She dabbed her lip with a napkin.
    He should ask anyway. Otherwise, he was an idiot, and he deserved what he got, which was guaranteed to be nothing. But he kept quiet.
    “So, who is this guy, anyway?” She pushed her plate aside. “The one you’re investigating?”
    “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
    She leaned closer and looked him in the eye. “Yes, I do, or I wouldn’t have asked.”
    Brian debated what to tell her. Part of him wanted to tell her zip. But she was involved in the investigation now, and she at least deserved to know something.
    “We’re looking at him for a long list of offenses—drugs, racketeering, murder,” he said. “He’s very dangerous, and so are the people working for him.”
    “Who is he, some mob boss?”
    “Dr. Goran Mladovic, also known as the Doctor.”
    She looked startled. “He’s an M.D.?”
    “Yeah, but don’t let that fool you. He’s lethal when he wants to be. When someone crosses him, he’s outright sadistic.”
    The little worry line was back