True Honor by Dee Henderson Read Free Book Online Page A

small suitcase, having changed from casual clothes to a more formal red blouse and navy slacks. Power colors. They looked good on her, and as much a part of her personality as the elegance he had seen by the pool tonight.
    “You need a kid’s bike in the garage.”
    She lifted an eyebrow as she slipped in an earring.
    “This illusion. It doesn’t work without the kid’s bike in the garage.”
    She blinked at him, and then a small smile appeared, just at the edges of her mouth. She walked into the kitchen. “You want something to drink before we leave?”
    “As long as you don’t offer me a juice box.”
    She poured them both tall glasses of lemonade from a pitcher on the top shelf of the refrigerator. The juice boxes on the second shelf were fruit punch.
    She held out one of the glasses. “You’re guessing.”
    “Am I?” He drank the lemonade, studying her, smiling just a little because he was enjoying the moment. “I could look closely at that patio door to your small second-story balcony where you probably keep a small grill and a closed lid box for the charcoal bag. And there will be little handprints on the glass at your daughter’s height. The bathtub will have at least a few toys on the ledge and even the medicine cabinet will run to pediatric formulas of cough syrup.
    “I bet your husband is the one who enjoys the neatness, and you’re the one who clutters the kitchen drawer with coupons and carryout menus. His razor items will be neatly aligned in the bathroom drawer, but there will be a few whisker hairs along the edge of the floor tiles where the broom wasn’t 100 percent thorough. You could tell me all about him and your daughter, but you’ll never make the sale.”
    He reached out and ran a finger down her arm, stopping at her wrist by the new watch she had put on to replace the one that had gotten wet. “If you had a daughter and a husband who loved to go fishing, Darcy, you would know how to swim.”
    She took one step back and then laughed. “You’re good.”
    “After years training to see things, I sure would hope so.” She wasn’t married, she didn’t have a little girl, but it was a masterful presentation. And at the moment he didn’t want to explore why he was intensely relieved that this was an illusion. “You would be a jealous wife and mother. You wouldn’t be doing the job you do if you had a husband and daughter waiting for you to come home. You’d want to be spending your time with them.”
    He’d pegged her, but he didn’t want to rub it in, so he smiled and looked around the apartment. “The lack of a wedding ring was also noticed, although that could easily have been explained as a reality of your job so as not to put your family at risk. They’re traveling tonight? Your mythical husband and daughter?”
    “Her first chance to go with him on a business trip to the city, a day away from school for a father-and-daughter moment,” she offered with a smile.
    “Yes, it would be a good memory. When was the last time you were actually here?” Why did she even ask him to make this stop tonight, try the deception out on him? She probably had her reasons, but he wasn’t nearly good enough to read a woman’s mind. Especially not this woman’s.
    “Six months and seven days ago.”
    He looked back at her, startled by the time period. He slid his hands in his back pockets, intrigued. “You’re what we would call rated in my business—very good at what you do that this level of cover would be maintained for such a spur-of-the-moment need.”
    She nodded at the compliment. “I am very good at what I do but also truly retired. We need to go.”
    He put his glass in the sink beside hers. “Mention to the woman who comes in to make fresh lemonade every week that she earned her pay.”
    “I’ll do that.” She picked up the small suitcase she’d packed.
    He shut off the lights behind them as they walked down to the garage. “Is this what you call a bolt-hole?”
    She