Hotshot by Catherine Mann Read Free Book Online Page B

Vince will be tied up with his team giving the telecomm briefing, and I’ll be in D.C., which is a helluva long way to watch her back.” He’d almost lost his daughter once, the only thing to ever break his control. “She needs to know to be extra careful.”
    “Even assuming she’s completely innocent, she needs to act natural so as not to set off any alarms that would put her in more danger.” Paulina spoke slowly but firmly. “Bottom line, Don, it’s not your call. She’s already getting special consideration because I pulled strings for you. Think like an agent, not her father. You’ll only make things worse for her if you deviate from the path we both know is the safest.”
    He took his frustration down a notch. He didn’t have any choice but to keep silent. Best to move past it and hope his daughter wouldn’t hate him even more when she found out.
    Three exhales later, he’d shifted gears in his mind as well as on the Beemer. His brain filled with thoughts of seeing Paulina at the airport. After work they would race to her apartment. There was no love between them, not even like, because that would entail getting to know each other. They enjoyed something more in line with mutual respect and sex.
    And sex offered the perfect way out of this discussion. “What would you like as payback for all this special consideration you’re giving me?”
    She laughed, but with an edge that relayed clearly she hadn’t forgotten a word of their argument. “I think it’s more a matter of what else I can do for you, lover.”

    Motorcycle rumbling under him, Vince trailed Shay down the neighborhood road dense with trees. After their compulsory trip the police station, the feel of the first-rate bike should have soothed the beast at the end of a nightmare day.
    Except he’d never had a day quite like this one.
    Sure, he’d been confronted with dead bodies before, and he’d thought he could handle seeing Shay Bassett again. But no memory of her from the past could have prepared him for her in the present, standing down a coked-up kid carrying a fucking machete.
    He wasn’t naive enough to think the kid’s murder would put an end to the threat. The timing didn’t feel coincidental. Maybe the kid hadn’t been hyped up, or maybe someone got him juiced and sent him in for her. But there was more to this than any of them knew.
    He cleared the security gate and pulled into the complex of two-story brick town houses. He cruised to a stop in the spot next to hers. Shay swung her long legs out of the rusty sedan, tweaking his attention much the same way she’d done as a teen. She’d known how to use those gams to her best advantage back then in short skirts.
    Somehow her current, less in-your-grill uniform of jeans and cotton button-down with a community center logo still packed a helluva punch.
    She hip-bumped the car door closed. “I suppose you want to check the place before I walk inside.”
    Hell yes, he wanted to do a walk-through, not that she seemed happy about the prospect, and he certainly couldn’t brief her on the plan, not with her connection to the kid still suspect.
    For now though, he needed to secure Shay.
    Good old reverse psychology used to work like a charm on her. So if he wanted inside, the best way would be to make her think otherwise. “Looks like a nice neighborhood to me.” He scanned the area. Security lighting illuminated a neatly landscaped dog-walk park. “I figure you’re safe.”
    Her brown eyes widened. “It is. I am.”
    “Well, good then, I’m outta here.” He started to turn toward his bike again, slow, giving her a second, then glanced back, and sure enough, she didn’t look all that comfortable about entering her apartment. “Is something wrong?”
    “Dead bodies.” She rubbed her hands along her arms again just as she’d done outside the community center. “As a nurse, I’ve seen them before, but tonight, this was . . .”
    “Obscenely violent.” He stepped closer