Read Online A Perilous Eden by Heather Graham - Free Book Online

his mouth tightening, his thoughts suddenly shifting. As Toni spoke, he conjured up another face. A very different face. Sea-green eyes, a wild mass of tawny blond curls.
    It was the woman he had seen from the park bench and then again at the memorial, with Ted Larkspur. There had been something about her.… She had met his eyes, for one thing. She hadn’t looked away, and she had never denied to herself that she was staring at him. There had been something courageous in that gaze; it had caught his attention when nothing else could.
    He remembered how she had been dressed at the memorial. He could remember everything about her, he realized. She had been dressed simply, with an attractive, understated sophistication. The lady came from money. Washington society. She wasn’t the type of woman he needed now. Right now it didn’t matter who a woman was; it barely mattered what she looked like, as long as she was clean. He had realized that so long as he still breathed, he had basic needs. But he felt like an emotional void; he had nothing to give in return.
    Still, she had interested him. He had even acknowledged to himself that he found her to be very beautiful, and perhaps more. There seemed to be so much life and emotion and passion within her eyes.
    It was probably a good thing he was leaving the country. She meant something to Larkspur, and he liked Larkspur. He shouldn’t associate with anyone close to the man.
    â€œAdam? Did you hear me?”
    â€œYes, yes. You said that I needed a heroine. Damn you, Toni—”
    Toni held up her hand. “I’m done! I’m done! Why don’t you plan to stay a few more days, Adam? I’d love to have a little get-together—”
    â€œI can’t stay, Toni. I’ve already made my travel arrangements.”
    â€œSo you change them!”
    â€œI can’t,” he said flatly. Then he looked at her. “Hey—if you want, you can come out and spend some time with me in between shows.”
    â€œUh-uh,” she said emphatically. “I already did the whole Israeli thing, you know. That time I came out before and stayed all those months. First of all my damned luggage was stolen—everything I owned! Then they searched me—and refused to let me get on the plane as they were suspicious—because I’d been there three months and didn’t have any luggage! No thanks, Adam. I love you like a brother—or as much as you let anyone love you!—but not again.”
    â€œHey—we haven’t had a hijacking in years,” he reminded her, a little tersely, she thought. “I’d say we have the safest airlines in the world.”
    She looked at the table and spoke softly. “I’m an American, Adam. Nothing else. I’ve no desire to be anything else. I don’t want the violence, I don’t want the desert, I don’t want any of it! Terrorism is taking over, and I want safely out of it, thank you.”
    He wasn’t going to argue with her—their time together was too brief. He turned the conversation back to her play, and they talked about the world at large.
    She hugged him goodbye. “Adam—take care. Let things go lightly for a while, huh?”
    He grinned engagingly, or what would have been engagingly, if only the warmth had touched his eyes. They seemed to glitter in the muted hallway light. “Sure. Hey, I’m on vacation, aren’t I?”
    He tweaked her chin as he had often done when they were kids; he the older cousin, she the adoring little girl in tow.
    Adam walked away, giving her a last cheery wave. An arresting man in a smart leather jacket and jeans, blond hair catching the soft light.
    Except that it was an illusion. There was nothing soft about him.
    Cannes
    May 22
    It hadn’t been difficult to arrange Michael Adams’s meeting with the leader of Cell Six of the Death Squad—or Freedom International, as the group chose to