Read Online Dangerous Liaisons by T. C. Archer - Free Book Online Page B

I’ll cut out your heart and leave it on this table. I’m already dead. There’s nothing I can do to make it any worse.”
    Cole stared back. “You want Lanton?”
    “I’ll get Lanton.”
    “Yeah? Why haven’t you?” Before she could answer, he added, “Because you’re not dead. Because you want to prove Lanton is responsible for Green Team’s death. You want your life back.”
    “My life back?”
    She would get Amanda to safety—somehow. But get her life back? Her heart sped up. Cole was right about one thing; he had found her, which meant Lanton had found her. And he had to be watching them right now. She scanned the diner. Her gaze snagged on the woman with the little girl . . .the little girl.
    “Whoever is behind this knew I’d find you.” Cole’s voice jerked her attention back to him. “What they didn’t count on was that I’d see you in action. The person who sent Green Team into that village to be murdered wouldn’t have gone into that alley.”
    Jesse stared in disbelief. “You’re saying my going into that alley proves I’m innocent?” She snorted. “For all you know, last night was a performance.”
    Cole studied her. “Was it?”
    Jesse considered a glib remark, but answered, “No.”
    The bell on the door tinkled again and a man entered.
    “You say Lanton is our mole, but he let you get away,” Cole said. “What have you got to prove that Jess? What does he want from you?”
    This was the defining moment. Was Cole telling the truth or was he really Lanton’s man? Either way, what did she have on Lanton? The most damning evidence was his membership in DC’s exclusive Submissions BDSM club and a two million dollar account she had yet to connect to him or Perez. Was that enough for him to send every available assassin after her, or was there more that she hadn’t yet uncovered?
    “You’re asking a lot,” she told Cole.
    “Maybe,” he replied, his drawl pronounced. “But if you’re right about Lanton, then he’s wondering the same thing I am.”
    “What I’ve got?”
    Cole shook his head. “Why you’ve kept quiet.”
    He was right, Lanton would wonder, which she prayed kept him terrified.
    Cole scooted to the edge of his seat. “I’ll be back.”
    He stood, then strode across the diner and down the short hallway leading to the restroom. The men’s room was at the end of the hall, directly in her line of sight. He opened the door and stepped inside. The little girl sitting at the counter squealed in delight as the kid behind the counter placed a large banana split in front of the girl. Jesse reached for her coffee when she realized that the man who had entered a moment ago was gone, and she hadn’t seen him exit. She glanced down the hall toward the men’s room.
    Jesse rose and started for the front door. “My boyfriend’s in the bathroom,” she called to the waitress, who stood a couple tables away. “I’m just going out to the car for my purse.”
    The waitress nodded as Jesse pushed open the door. She strolled nonchalantly past the diner window, then hurried along the wall to the end of the building. She stopped and looked back. Twenty feet of gravel and a battered chain-link fence divided the diner’s property from a dense thicket. Two cars were parked along the fence. Probably employees’ cars. Jesse scanned the side of the building. Past the closed kitchen door, about halfway down the length of the building, rested a large trash bin next to a window where the men’s room should be. She hurried past the door and trash bin and heard Cole’s voice.
    “This is my mission,” he said. “Get out.”
    Jesse crept forward. Loose gravel crunched under her shoes. She halted.
    “Cool your jets,” a male voice responded. “She looked at me when I came in, then went back to talking to you. She doesn’t know me.”
    Jesse’s heart skipped a beat.
    “What do you want?” Cole demanded.
    “Hey, we’re looking out for you, man.”
    “I don’t like being