Lethal Consequences by Elisabeth Naughton Read Free Book Online Page B

her throat. “I can’t—”
    “You can. You’re the strongest woman I know.” His voice hitched, and his arms tightened around her. “Don’t try to protect me. Don’t try to protect anyone but yourself. Tell them whatever they want to know. You can get through this. You can live.”
    Live . . .
    That was all she wanted right now. To go back to her boring life in Boise. But even as the word sank in, she realized he hadn’t said we . He’d said you .
    “Landon—”
    “They don’t want you, Olivia. They want me. Just tell them what you know about me.”
    She wasn’t sure what he meant. Didn’t know what he was saying. Before she could ask, the door slammed open, the sound of hinges creaking and metal hitting metal echoing through the room with an ominous clank that made her jump.
    “Bring her,” a voice barked.
    Landon released her and stepped away. Olivia wanted to reach for him, wanted to pull him back. Her gaze found his. His chocolate eyes were sad, pained, guilty, and when she realized the confident, commanding man she’d met that day in Seattle was nowhere to be seen in his battered features now, a new sense of fear closed a tight, cold hand around her throat.
    The man in the light moved forward, grabbed her by the arm, and wrenched her away from the wall. Landon didn’t say anything. Didn’t reach for her. Didn’t try to stop them. But she read the look in his eyes. And she knew what he was saying even if he didn’t mouth the words.
    I’m sorry.

     
    Seated at his desk, Jake glanced up at the heavy footfalls across his office floor.
    “He didn’t make the flight.” Marley slapped a paper on the mahogany surface and pinned him with hard, worried blue eyes.
    Carefully—because he’d seen that look before and knew it meant she was in bloodhound mode—Jake lifted the paper and scanned the timeline she’d worked up. “Did you try to call him?”
    “He’s not answering his cell.”
    “And the hotel?”
    “His room was ransacked. No sign of him.”
    “Shit.”
    “Yeah, you could say that.”
    Jake rubbed a hand over his hair. Miller was due back to the DIA in five days. Though Jake hated to lose him, he knew the way the game was played. It was possible someone from the Pentagon had learned Miller had been moonlighting for Aegis, but Jake seriously doubted that was the cause of Miller’s disappearance now. If they had found out, they’d most likely turn a blind eye, especially so close to the man’s reinstatement. No, what concerned Jake most was the fact Miller’s room had been tossed. As if someone was looking for something. As if Miller was the key to finding it.
    “The hotel concierge said a woman showed up at the hotel last night inquiring about Landon.”
    “Did he give you a description?” Jake asked, reaching for his phone. Miller had given Jake his CO’s info at the DIA, not that Jake ever had any reason to use it, but there was always a first for everything.
    “Yes. Medium height, thin, green eyes, shoulder-length blonde hair, American, with a purple butterfly tattoo on her ankle.”
    Jake’s hand hovered over the keypad on his phone, and he slanted a look at Marley. Her glasses were pushed up to the top of her head, and her blonde hair hung in a sleek, wavy mass past her shoulders—a new look for her, one he liked more than he should. “A butterfly tattoo? Are you sure?”
    “That’s what the man said. I already called her house. Olivia isn’t answering either. And—get this—she took a leave of absence from her teaching job at the end of last week.”
    “Son of a bitch.” Jake set the phone down and pushed back from his chair. “Where’s Eve?”
    “She and Zane are finishing that assignment in Atlanta.”
    “Dammit, I told Miller to fucking leave her alone.” Jake rounded his desk and crossed to his jacket, which was tossed along the back of the couch in his office. He yanked out his cell phone. “Guys like Miller should not get involved with anyone.