Flawless by Heather Graham Read Free Book Online Page B

hospital for a checkup, just to make sure you’re all right. Sounds like you got pretty shaken up in that van.”
    â€œI swear, I’m fine,” Kieran said, putting a little more pressure on the ice pack pressed to her cheek.
    â€œEveryone who was in there looks as if they’ve been in the ring with Ali,” the EMT said. He kept talking, but Kieran didn’t hear him. She was too busy being horrified by the reporters—with cameras—who had arrived on the scene.
    She had to get out of there.
    She slid off her perch. She’d told her story at least three times: once to a nice-looking man in his late thirties wearing a pin-striped suit, once to an officer in uniform and once to an older man with gray hair and a grim face. They’d said something about statements and the DA’s office getting hold of her. Fine. They had her information and they could call her later.
    She did not want to appear on the news.
    As she slipped around the ambulance, hoping that she could just blend into the crowd, she stopped short. The FBI agent who had literally jumped to her rescue was talking with the man in the pin-striped suit she had spoken with earlier.
    â€œThe bosses want you to make a statement, Craig,” the man in the suit was saying. “They want you to say that the jewel thieves have been caught.”
    â€œMike, they haven’t all been caught. These guys didn’t kill anybody. Don’t you understand? They were running around with toy guns! ”
    â€œYeah, toys now. How do we know that they weren’t packing the real thing before? That they weren’t expecting to be caught sooner rather than later and were determined not to go down for murder?”
    â€œMike, why would they think—”
    â€œBecause it’s hit the news, Craig. Two people dead—you didn’t think that they’d be able to keep a gag on it long, did you?”
    Kieran froze where she stood.
    Two people were dead?
    Killed by the same thieves who’d taken her hostage?
    She stared at the two men in shock.
    â€œYeah,” her savior—Craig—said. “And I’m telling you, the killers are still out there.”
    What the hell? Did he really believe that there were more jewel thieves out there, only carrying real guns?
    â€œJust for a checkup,” someone said behind her.
    She turned. The earnest EMT had followed her and was still trying to convince her to go to the hospital.
    He flashed a light into her eyes, his own eyes worried as he examined her. “You need medical attention.”
    â€œNo, I don’t,” Kieran said.
    She looked away from him and saw that FBI agent Craig—was that his first name or his last? she wondered—was standing only a few feet away, staring at her.
    She felt a moment’s panic, then remembered that he’d managed to pass the stolen diamond to the police along with the others.
    With any luck whatsoever, no one would know that it had ever been in her possession. Thank God she’d managed to give it back, even if not in the way she’d planned.
    Thank God neither she nor anyone else had been killed.
    â€œMiss Finnegan?” he said.
    â€œYes,” she said. She hoped he couldn’t hear the note of guilt in that single syllable. And why should she feel guilty, anyway? She hadn’t stolen the diamond. She’d been trying to do the right thing—and she’d been kidnapped for her efforts.
    â€œI’m special agent Craig Frasier,” he said, and then he smiled, which changed his countenance entirely. He had high, strong cheekbones and a jaw that appeared to be made of stone. He was tall and dark haired with light eyes that drew her attention and seemed to home in on her like—like truth-seeking beacons.
    â€œI know you’ve told your story several times, but would you tell it again to me?” he asked her.
    â€œThere’s not much to tell,” she said. “And you