Smokescreen by Meredith Fletcher and Vicki Hinze Doranna Durgin Read Free Book Online Page B

pretending to be nice.”
    “You talked to her?” Jethro stopped his hand just before the candy reached his mouth. “How did you—they won’t even let me ask about her.”
    Sam didn’t answer his question. “She told them pretty much everything. I’m not even sure how she knew that much—but then, I haven’t been through the system, so I have no idea what you learn on the way through. Too much, apparently. That car bomb came from our mean guys…and I know who it was. I know who he’s looking for. And I bet he’s counting on the disruption of that bomb to keep anyone from stopping him.” She sighed, and when she opened her eyes it was with renewed determination. Amazing what chocolate could do. “I’ve got to warn the Captain.”
    She pushed away from the wall, popping the last of the candy into her mouth and tossing the wrapper in a trash can on the way by. Jethro hastened to catch up. “You haven’t told me a thing.”
    “Haven’t I?” She glanced back, affecting surprise.
    “Nothing I didn’t already know—or that I need to know. Don’t forget I’ve got my own reasons for helping out.”
    She stopped short, pivoting slowly and pinning her gaze on his. Sunshine through honey. “I don’t need your help,” she said. “I never did. You invited yourself along because you thought I’d get careless and feed you useful secrets, and it didn’t happen. Time to give it up. I’ve got work to do.” And she left him standing there, heading for the bank of phones on the other side of the Emergency reception desk.
    He stared after her a moment, then blew a gust of air through his mustache. “Holy freakin’ iceberg.”
    “ Waaay too seriously with the whole Batman thing,” she informed him over her shoulder.
    “Hey!” He ran a few steps to catch up with her, turning to put himself in front of her and then walking backward toward the phones when she didn’t hesitate. Only when one of the phones pressed into his back did she stop, fishing in her pocket with an annoyed expression and little success. He dropped a few quarters into her hand. “Didn’t you ever want to be a superhero?”
    She pulled her brows together in a faintly puzzled, newly annoyed expression. “I never wanted it…” and then she pressed her lips together and dropped the change into the phone, quickly tapping out a number.
    Jethro waited while she did, easing around to the side so she couldn’t take off on him so quickly. After anendless number of rings, Sam slammed the phone back down on the hook and stared at it with an expression that should have melted it. Then she gave him a hard, dismissive glance. “I don’t have time for this,” she said, and what she meant was that she didn’t have time for him.
    “Make time,” he told her. “Or I’ve got some photos to share with the police.”
    He hadn’t expected it to stop her so short. And then she seemed to realize she’d given too much away and she turned away from him—but stopped short at that, too, and finally turned to face him. “You’re full of crap. The police don’t care about me.”
    He shrugged. “Maybe not. Maybe I should just show those photos around the street and see what people have to say.”
    She informed him what they’d have to say in one succinct, anatomically impossible suggestion.
    Unperturbed, he crossed his arms over his chest, leaned against the phone beside him, and said, “You all have the same eyes.”
     
    You all have the same eyes.
    Dammit all anyway. She didn’t need this. Not with the Captain out of touch and no one else to contact and the fair certainty that Scalpucci would move on the other houses in the local underground, hunting his wife. He’d not only likely find her, but he’d go through everyone in his way to get her. Other women on the run, other house guardians…
    And what did it matter, anyway? So Jethro had photos. It didn’t matter who he showed them to. He was the one who would seem crazy, claiming that the woman