The Paris Secret by Angela Henry Read Free Book Online Page A

decided to play it cool and just walk away. But he grabbed the strap of my bag and yanked if off my shoulder, knocking me off balance. He shook the bag upside down, emptying the contents on the ground.
    “Hey! What the hell is your problem? Give me my bag back!”
    He dropped the bag and stood His brown eyes were cold and hard in the bright sunlight. After shoving up the sleeves of his polo shirt, his hands curled into fists. That’s when the small red mark on his arm jumped out at me. It wasn’t a birthmark. It was a tattoo of coiled snake, a cobra. I suddenly realized there could be another reason why he would smell like he’d spent time at the police station, and it wasn’t a good one.
    “Who are you?” Every hair on my body stood up in alarm.
    He didn’t answer. Instead, he punched me hard in the stomach. The pain was immediate and intense. I doubled over, clutching my stomach. He grabbed my throat and slammed me up against the side of the lattice walkway. Leaves, vines of ivy and the hard latticework pressed into my back.
    “Where’s the crucifix?” Tattoo Man hissed at me, bathing my nostrils with his funky breath.
    “Wha…what?” was all I could get out. Between the pain in my stomach and the tight grip of his hand around my throat, I could barely breathe, let alone talk. I struggled to free my hands, which were trapped between our bodies.
    “Don’t play games with me! I know Juliet gave it to you. It wasn’t in the hotel room! Where is it?” He shook me by my throat like a rag doll.
    “I barely knew her,” I gasped. “She never gave me anything. I swear. Please…don’t hurt me anymore!”
    I managed to press myself back just enough to free my right knee and drove it toward his groin. But he anticipated the move and deflected it by turning sideways, then spun me around pressing my face against the latticework as he tugged my arms up painfully behind me.
    “You barely knew her, yet you shared a hotel room! You barely knew her, yet you showed such concern for her when you saw her being harassed by that Frenchman on the bridge.”
    “Please! We didn’t know each other! We didn’t!” How did he know about what happened on the boat?
    “Don’t lie to me!” he screamed in my ear and pulled my arms up higher. It felt like they were about to break.
    “I’m not lying. Please! Please, stop!” Tears streamed down my face and snot ran from my nose.
    “I followed you yesterday. I know you didn’t have the crucifix then. She must have given it to you after she got back to the hotel.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about! I swear!”
    “What I did to Juliet Rice is nothing compared to what I’ll do to you if you don’t give me what I want! Where is the crucifix?”
    The world started to spin. This was the man who took my bag. This was the man who took my key card and used my corkscrew to kill Juliet. My legs gave out and I slid down his body to the ground. He jerked me back to my feet, turned me around to face him and punched me again, this time in my right side. The explosion of searing pain caused me to fall to the ground and curl into a ball. He grabbed a handful of my hair and jerked my head back.
    “Tell me!” he screamed.
    My vision began to blur. My attacker let out a grunt. The last thing I heard before passing out was the sound of fists on flesh.
     
    When I came to, I was lying on my back. The most intense pair of green eyes I’d ever seen stared down at me. I’d seen those eyes before.
    “Are you okay? Can you stand?” asked the man with the green eyes.
    His English was tinged with a French accent. Sunglasses poked out of the front pocket of his faded jean jacket. His white shirt was ripped and his pants were smudged with dirt. This looked like the guy I’d bumped into when I’d arrived earlier. But those eyes made me realize that hadn’t been the first time I’d seen him. This was also the man who’d seen Juliet arguing with on the Pont de la Concorde. What was