Moonrise by Anne Stuart Read Free Book Online Page A

from me, or take off your pants.”
    She didn’t hit him. She wasn’t exactly sure why. Maybe because she knew he’d hit her back. Or because touching him, even in anger, might ignite something that was even more terrifying than the specter of death.
    Or maybe because she suspected he was deliberately trying to intimidate her.
    It didn’t matter. She backed away from him slowly, and he let her go. “Are you ever going to tell me the truth?” she asked him, pausing by the door.
    “About what?”
    “Anything at all.”
    It was odd, the strange sense of yearning that sparked between them. A moment later it was gone, and he lounged against the railing, watching her coolly. “I doubt it, Annie. I doubt it.”

Chapter Four
     
    A nnie came downstairs the next morning, wary, obviously expecting him to jump her. He’d managed to pull James McKinley back around him once more, and if he had more of a hangover than he wanted to admit, he figured it was his just punishment. She stared at him for a moment, uncertain.
    She wasn’t dressed in her traveling clothes, he noticed with a mix of admiration and despair. She didn’t look the slightest bit terrorized. Just very careful.
    “I thought I’d managed to convince you to run away,” he greeted her.
    “Why would you want to do that?”
    “You’re better off getting on with your life. It can be a dangerous thing, rattling cages.”
    “I don’t think I have any choice,” she said. “I can’t let it go.”
    He sighed. He was going to have to cut his hair. He’d already shaved twice in the past twodays, and the old reflexes were coming back. He was going to have to make up his mind. He’d come up with two possible solutions during the long, sleepless night. He just wasn’t sure which one he was going to implement.
    “I figured you wouldn’t,” he said pleasantly. “Which doesn’t leave me with much choice, does it?”
    “Does it?”
    There were three of them out there. She hadn’t the faintest idea, but James had counted them with uncanny accuracy. They’d gotten here faster than he would have expected. It was nice to know that the cessation of the Cold War hadn’t blunted their abilities.
    It had been a simple enough matter to get rid of the first one who’d come after him. He was young, new to the business, and he’d come alone. He had been no match for a man of James’s skills. There were no witnesses, and the ocean was nearby.
    But this time there would be a witness. A civilian, an innocent. Annie Sutherland watched him out of her clear eyes, totally unaware of the danger surrounding them.
    They would take her out as well if they could, he knew that. Simply because they had the same training he had, and it was exactly what he would have done if the situation were reversed.
    He moved to the cabinet over the gas burner and took out his 9mm, sliding back the bolt to make sure it was ready. It was the least innocuous of the weapons he had stashed around the place, and only the second most lethal. After his hands.
    “What are you doing?” she asked, eyeing the gun warily.
    She still didn’t have a clue, thank God. “Going for a walk,” he said, rising and tucking the gun in his belt.
    “We haven’t finished talking.”
    Her father wasn’t the only one good at manipulating. “Listen,” he said with just the right amount of weariness, “I’ve got a hangover and a short temper. Let me get some fresh air, think about things. I have an idea or two. When I come back, we’ll talk.”
    “Does that mean you’ll help me?”
    “That means I’ll think about it. In the meantime, why don’t you take a long, cool shower? You look a bit battered.”
    Actually she looked hot, tired, grumpy, and delicious. Too long without a woman, James reminded himself again. He half expected her to flush, but Win’s daughter seemed devoid of vanity. She simply shoved a hand through her hair and made a face. “I’m not surprised. I wouldn’t exactly call this a