INTO DANGER (Secret Assassins (S.A.S.S.) Book 1) by Gennita Low Read Free Book Online Page B

laptop. A small Toshiba. There wasn’t enough time to turn it on and check it out, so he just took note of the type of laptop. Then he signaled that he would join them later and replaced all the articles back into the suitcase.
    Not much progress, but he had something to work on later.
    ***
    T he game of hide-and-seek, Marlena mused, was a game of percentages and probabilities. She understood the risks she took too well. One too many—and she was due for one too many—and Marlena Maxwell’s life would be over.
    She quietly stepped out of the shower stall, leaving the water running. Noise was also a great mask if there happened to be some listening device she’d missed. She pulled a mini cell phone, the size of a compact, from her purse and turned the music down.
    “I’d hoped your number is still the same,” she said softly when she got through. She smiled, then continued, “I heard you were going to be the courier. This will have to be quick—I have company. I’m bringing somebody and I want any files you can find on him.” Pause. “Of course he’s good-looking, and no, you can’t have him. Get your own.” Pause. “Steve McMillan. Possibly CIA. I have his driver’s license number.” She gave it. “Can’t say. I’ll try to find out whether he has any bad side.” She laughed. “You’re right. I’ll have a good time finding out. Bye.”
    Marlena wondered what Steve was up to. She was sure the man wasn’t merely sitting out there docilely waiting for her. She’d changed the safe combination, so he couldn’t get into that so quickly. Maybe he was waiting for the right moment to kill her.
    Sobering thought. She cocked her head, looking at her reflection. Fear was a familiar feeling in her profession, but she’d been trained to see it as a good thing. Fear kept one alive. Yet nothing about Steve McMillan played with her fears; rather, it was anticipation he called up. A thrilling, nervous energy that made her feel slightly more reckless than usual.
    Hide-and-seek. Keep him so close he couldn’t see what she was hiding. That was a good plan for now. But how close? The little query brought that nervous energy again, quivering in her stomach. How close? The voice in her head repeated softly. Her blue eyes in the mirror mocked her. For once she had no answer.
    She walked barefoot into the bedroom, taking in at a glance the different boutique bags and the slight crease on the bed. She stood there for a moment, enjoying the image of him sitting there on that bed, waiting for her.
    It had been a long time since she’d had a man doing that. She’d discovered a long time ago that men didn’t like role reversals. They didn’t mind it if they were gone and their women waited for them, but ask a man to do the same, and the relationship was doomed. A man, she’d found out the hard way, couldn’t wait. Of course he’d then lie to cover up.
    “May I come in?” Steve asked from the doorway.
    Marlena turned to face him. Tall, broad-shouldered, and easy on the eye. A mouth that could kiss away any excuses. Women would snatch him up just like that, CIA or not. And, she concluded with a touch of irony, he didn’t look like a man who liked to wait.
    She turned away. “I had fun today,” she said as she picked up one of the bags and emptied it on the bed.
    Steve sensed her withdrawal. It was difficult to read the woman, but her moods were discernible to him. She ran the gamut between teasing and calculated. Right now she was neither. She was wearing a large T-shirt with a cartoon of Tweety Bird on it. Without makeup, her hair damp, she looked ridiculously young. The look she’d just given him reminded him of the time after their first kiss. It made him want to pull her in his arms and hold her.
    “I didn’t,” he complained.
    Her lips curled slightly. “Your job’s to amuse me, not yourself.”
    “Is that what you were doing, amusing yourself?”
    She held up a dress against her body, smoothing away the