Transference by Sydney Katt Read Free Book Online

it had been many places. The feeling of rough jaw and smooth lips had been an amazing cacophony of sensation. Without that working for him, she could almost trick herself into believing that the killer beside her wasn't the same man who'd labored inside her for most of the previous night.
    Allison sucked in a sharp breath as the memories of the night flooded unwanted through her mind.
    "You okay over there?"
    She nearly jumped out of her skin at his interruption of the tense silence. "What? Yeah. Why?" She let out a shaky breath, feeling his eyes on her and refusing to meet his gaze. "Huh?"
    "You were breathing funny."
    "I'm fine," she answered a touch too quickly even to her own ears. To cover, she added, "Uh...where are we now?"
    "Iowa."
    Great. He was in another one of his quiet moods when she needed something other than her own thoughts to occupy her time. The things on her mind were dangerous. "How far are we trying to get before dawn?"
    Brad was silent as he maneuvered the car onto the side of the road and put it into park. In the darkness, he turned to Allison. "You already know we're zigzagging our way across the country so it doesn't matter how far we travel." He worked the muscle in his jaw. "Why don't you just say whatever it is on your mind and get it over with?"
    Allison turned away from him. "I don't have anything on my mind." Not that she was prepared to share, anyway. "Let's just get back on the road, okay?"
    "No. Not okay." When she didn't look back at him, he squeezed her chin in his hand and turned her to face him. "These next few weeks will go by a lot faster if you cut out the silent routine."
    She swatted his hand away. "You're one to talk. You've barely said a word since you flipped out over the news story about Stafford."
    "I didn't flip out." He eased the car back onto the road. "I just didn't want to hear about it." When Allison didn't respond, he added, "I really don't see what's so difficult about conversation. You used to talk my ear off when you thought I was gay."
    "That wasn't why."
    "Oh?"
    "I didn't know you were evil yet."
    Of all the responses he could have, he laughed.
    "What?" she demanded.
    "I'm not apologizing for doing my job if that's what you're fishing for."
    "And I'm not apologizing for making you look like an ass when you couldn't catch me."
    "Just as well. I was getting tired of the Secret Service anyway."
    Allison hesitated. "Brad?"
    "Yeah?"
    "Were you the unnamed former Secret Service agent who broke into Vice President Stafford's house?"
    "Maybe."
    It was time for Allison to ask the question that had been burning through her mind since her extraction. Well, one of the many questions she had. "Why are you helping me?"
    "For a million-dollar payday."
    "No, I know that. I mean, why did you switch sides so completely? I don't understand why you're working for the people you were chasing a month ago. And how does breaking into the vice president's house fit into it?"
    He sighed but didn't say anything right away, clearly weighing how much to tell her.   "I'd been on Stafford's protection detail since the very beginning. When she needed an agent around who wouldn't ask questions and didn't mind looking the other way, I was the go-to guy. As far as politicians go, she wasn't as shady as some I'd protected, so it wasn't all that bad of a post." He spared a glance in Allison's direction. "Until she called me to the residence in the middle of the night when I was off duty."
    "Vice-presidential booty call?"
    "Hardly. Her marriage may just be for show, but she prefers blonde call girls. Younger the better."
    "No she doesn't."
    "I think the guy standing outside the door would know."
    "I guess, but she had a thing with my father for years."
    His hands visibly tightened on the wheel. "Not after she got the VP nod, she didn't."
    "No. They just ended it a few years ago. The governor was giving him a hard time about what business he always seemed to have in D.C."
    "Wait." The car came to a