Read Online Blowback (The Black Cipher Files Book 1) by Lisa Hughey - Free Book Online Page B

Cantonese and led me toward the back exit. The unexpected move unnerved me. I didn’t want to go through that door.
    The men here could all be plants. The Lucky Dog could be a front for something more sinister. To try to get me to trust Lucas. But to what purpose? I must be losing my mind. Maybe the drugs I’d been given were inducing a case of paranoia.
    On the other hand, I never trusted anyone. I never worked with anyone and I was in the unusual position of needing to work with him until I got the damn syringe back.
    And if I was honest with myself, I had this blind spot, this weakness about Lucas Goodman that I couldn’t seem to shake. I stopped him before he opened the door to the alley. “I held up my end. Now it’s time to get to a lab.” And test the contents of the syringe.
    “We’re on our way.” His tone was expressionless but something in his voice had me taking a closer look. He was frowning. But not at me--it seemed to be at himself. “And once we’re done at the lab, you owe me.”
    “Fine.” I shrugged off the need to make sure he was okay.
    Lucas yanked open the door to the alley. He said forcefully, “I just want to find Johnny.”
    Maybe Lucas was closer to this kid than I’d thought. “Why?”
    Lucas usually moved with a fluid grace, an unconscious easy lope. His stiffness gave away the depth of his unease as he strode toward a car in the alley. “Money.”
    But I didn’t believe it. His apartment didn’t scream money but it didn’t scream, ‘I’m poor, I need money’ either.
    “Try again.”
    “You’ve got your secrets.” He stared at me over the hood of the car and smiled grimly. “I’ve got mine.”
    ***
    We returned to his apartment in the car borrowed from the Lucky Dog’s owner.
    Lucas had given me a black-haired wig in a chic bob. Out of somewhere he’d found a spandex dress in basic black and a push up bra in the right size.
    After I slithered into the dress and adjusted the wig, I went out into the living room. I looked down at my shrink-wrapped body, then back at him. “You go out in drag often?”
    His lips quirked but he offered no explanation.
    He wore an understated suit in an interesting shade of olive green and glasses tinted another color green shaded his eyes. We were bland enough that the guards wouldn’t remember many details.
    Lucas’s gaze traveled over the length of my body, lingering over the cleavage. My nipples beaded and desire throbbed low in my belly. Not happening again. I waved my hand in front of his face. “Hello. My eyes are up here.”
    “And they are a picture to look at too.”
    My body wanted to warm at his smile but I refused to give in to the attraction. I had much bigger problems than a wayward sex drive.
    I wanted the syringe back. Now. “Syringe.”
    “Right before we leave.” He went into the back bedroom.
    Frustration sizzled along my nerve endings. I plucked at the skintight dress. “Couldn’t you have come up with something less revealing?” I muttered.
    Lucas’s voice drifted through the doorway. “Yeah, but this way I get to enjoy the view.”
    “Is there an Office Depot around here?”
    He walked back into the living room. “What do you need?”
    Sharing information was a foreign concept for me, but I couldn’t see anyway around it. “Untraceable cell phone.” I needed to contact Carson. He was my control and I’d been out of contact, since the loss of the ring, for hours. After my last experience with the pay phone at the bus station, I didn’t trust using a landline.
    “I have a couple of those pay-as-you-go cell phones with phone cards.”
    “Registered to you?”
    He just looked at me. Okay. So he wasn’t stupid. I knew that. I also knew that I never trusted anyone.
    Could I trust him? Maybe...but I wasn’t going to. “I’m sure there’s an Office Depot along the way.”
    “Right.” Lucas looked at me for another second before turning away. He didn’t try to change my mind, which conversely did