The Reveal by Julie Leto Read Free Book Online Page B

a couple of minutes to recharge. Though she must have fallen asleep on the fire escape, exhaustion still flooded her veins like liquid lead.
    “I was just coming over the bridge when they shot out behind me. They must have been waiting. I tried to lose them by jumping the sidewalks and navigating between buildings. I thought I’d shaken them off and was making my way back toward the rendezvous when they came around a corner and smashed me from behind. I laid the bike down as close to an alley as I could then climbed up the fire escape and hid under the tarp. As soon as I thought it was safe, I activated the tracking device so you’d find me.”
    “It worked,” he said. “I figured they might be watching me, so I led them away then doubled back.”
    Sean’s blue-gray eyes darkened like storm clouds. He’d made the right choice for the mission, but he’d paid a price for leaving her behind—a price she’d never wanted him to dole out on her behalf.
    “Did you see them?” she asked.
    Sean looked away. The break in eye contact lasted a split second, but it was long enough for her to understand that he’d not only seen the men who’d attacked her but he’d stopped them.
    Permanently.
    “Who were they?”
    He patted his jacket pocket. “I don’t know, but I have their photos. We’ll look at them later. Ready?”
    The painkillers had taken the edge off. He helped her stand, and once satisfied with her control of her balance, he let her limp unassisted into the tiny living area where their Spanish-speaking guardian angel was blowing on a mug of hot chocolate for her…son?
    Brynn wasn’t sure. The child had long, dark, curly locks and brown eyes with lashes a mascara model would kill for, but the imp was dressed in a bright blue T-shirt emblazoned with a stylized gold and red S—the universal symbol for Metropolis’s favorite superhero.
    Not that the clothing was gender specific. For Christmas, Ian had gotten her an Iron Man sleep shirt. She’d always had a soft spot for Tony Stark.
    She smiled at the memory, which their hostess took as a signal to invite them to eat.
    They begged off politely, but Brynn couldn’t refuse when the woman offered her a pair of jeans that didn’t have one leg missing. A size larger than Brynn normally wore, the jeans did not rub so badly against her bandage. She changed in the tiny washroom, taking time to wash the grit off her face and brush out her hair. By the time she’d donned a fresh white button-down blouse and denim jacket, also provided by their generous savior, Brynn looked almost normal.
    She slipped as many euros as she could spare into the woman’s bathroom cabinet before they exchanged hasty good-byes. Despite the language barrier, Brynn did her best to warn the woman against telling anyone that she’d helped them. Judging by her earnest nods, Brynn trusted that she understood.
    They slipped down a back stairwell then went around to the front, anxious to blend in with the locals heading out to work. Sometime before he’d retrieved Brynn on the fire escape, Sean had exchanged the leather jacket he’d taken from the safe house in Barcelona for a gray wool coat that was cut somewhere between a trench and a blazer. The look on his trim body was heart-stoppingly European. When he dragged a pewter-gray scarf out of his pocket and wrapped it carelessly around his neck, Brynn thought she might faint from hormonal overload.
    “Where did you pick that up?” she asked, lightly fingering the wool-blend material of the sleeve.
    His wicked grin made her knees tremble. “ El Creador has a taste for high fashion.”
    “You’ve already been to see him?”
    She had no concept of how long she’d slept under the tarp. Long enough, clearly, for him to neutralize the men who’d been tailing them, double back to el Creador ’s loft and not only retrieve the papers they’d been waiting for but also acquire a new wardrobe.
    The man was remarkable.
    “He was very