Internal Affairs by Jessica Andersen Read Free Book Online Page B

sent to the ARX Supermax Prison north of Bear Claw City. There, through the sort of clandestine communication network that tended to exist in supermax security prisons despite the inmates’ isolation, al-Jihad made contact with Jonah Fairfax, who was supposedly doing life without parole for killing two federal agents during a raid on an antigovernment cult up in Montana. In reality, he was a deep undercover operative tasked with ferreting out al-Jihad’s contacts within federal law enforcement. In that guise, his handler encouraged him to help al-Jihad and his lieutenants escape. That same handler, Jane Doe, had been working with the terrorists all along. Fax had turned out to truly be one of the good guys, despite Sara’s concerns when her best friend, Chelsea, had fallen for the escaped-convict-maybe-undercover-agent. He and Chelsea’s friends had banded together to foil a terror attack on a local concert, recapturing Muhammad Feyd in the process. The others—including Jane Doe—had remained at large, though, and intelligence suggested they had fled the country.
    A few months later, Lee Mawadi had reappeared in the Bear Claw area, gunning for his ex-wife, Mariah. Sara was less clear on the details, except to say that the ex was now engaged to one of the FBI agents on the task force. The two had been instrumental in foiling a planned attack on the prison, though they hadn’t stopped the riot that had killed—supposedly, anyway—Detective Romo Sampson of the BCCPD’s internal affairs department. Who patently wasn’t dead.
    Finishing up, Sara told him how over the past few weeks the communication monitors had said things were heating up the way they might before another attack. Nobody knew where the next horror would be targeted, though, or when. She paused. “There was a manhunt today. Two federal agents were killed, maybea couple of the terrorists, too…and then you show up here covered in blood.”
    His eyes were very dark, though she couldn’t read the emotions in them. “I don’t know whose blood it was,” he grated. “God help me, but I don’t know. I don’t even know whose side I’m on.”
    “You’re one of the good guys,” she said automatically. “You must’ve been undercover, working for al-Jihad and his people, while reporting back to someone on the local or federal response team.”
    “You sound very sure of that, considering our history.” He paused. “What exactly happened between us?”
    Unease was a sluice of cold in her belly. “You sure you want to go there?”
    “Yeah.” His smile went crooked. “I can’t imagine…I don’t feel like the kind of guy who would cheat.”
    Her heart drummed in her chest, with a relentless, aching beat. “Trust me, you did. Then you came to me the next morning and confessed. You said you’d stopped into a bar, had a few, one thing led to another…and you woke up next to your waitress.”
    He winced, but struggled to lever himself up on an elbow, even though the action must’ve hurt like fury. His eyes were steady on hers, his gaze deep and probing, making her very aware of his bare collarbones and throat, and the fact that he was all but naked beneath the blanket. “Did I ask you for another chance?”
    Her face felt numb, her whole body felt numb. She couldn’t believe she was having this conversation with a dead man who didn’t even know his own name. “I don’t do second chances.”
    Something flickered in his expression. “Pity. That was a hell of a kiss.”
    She squared her shoulders as anger guttered. “We were great in bed. In the end, that wasn’t enough.” He looked as though he wanted to say something more, but she steamrolled over him, snapping, “And is that the only thing you can think about, after what I just told you?”
    “Of course not. But it’s the elephant in the room, isn’t it?”
    He was right, of course. They weren’t strangers, but in a sense they were, because he didn’t remember the things she