Read Online Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies by Cynthia Cooke - Free Book Online

they could go back to those days when they’d been happy and life was easy. Before their mother’s accident. Before their world had been torn apart. But as she turned the corner, Becca was gone again, ethereal as the dust motes dancing in the dim beams of light from the grimy windows.
    Or had Genie imagined her in the first place?
    She couldn’t be sure. She reached out for her sister, calling with her mind. A wave of fear washed through her.
    “Run Genie! Run!”
    Becca! But where was she? Why was she hiding? Each step took Genie deeper into the darkness.
    A faint crackling sound stopped her. She listened intently, trying to decipher the noise. A snap. A pop. Then the acrid scent of burning reached her. Genie hesitated. Becca ? Every fiber within her screamed to turn and run! But she had to find her sister.
    She ran through one room after another until another sound stopped her—a beep beep beep . She took hesitant steps toward an open doorway, peered around the corner and saw a room filled with machinery. Through the bluish green glow of their lights she saw a figure lying on the ground, her mass of blond hair pulled back starkly from her face.
    “Becca!” she’d screamed.
    Genie rushed in, but before she could reach her sister, a massive explosion rocked the building to its foundation. Black smoke poured into the room. Flames licked at the walls. Genie tried to run through it, but it was no use. She doubled over, coughing and choking as the smoke burned her lungs until she could no longer breathe. She collapsed to the floor where the air wasn’t so thick and started to crawl, moving toward the front of the building. One hand pushing forward, then another until she collapsed, unable to move any farther, struggling desperately for air…
    Genie bolted upright, finding herself in the cramped cockpit with a start, gasping deep lungfuls of precious air.
    “You okay?” Kyle mouthed at her.
    She looked at him, blinking, trying to remember where she was and how she’d gotten there. There was no smoke. No fire. She wasn’t even in the warehouse. She must have fallen asleep.
    And seen Becca ? She wished she could be sure whether or not she’d really seen Becca in the warehouse that day. But other than in her dreams, she had no recollection of seeing her.
    …
    Kyle didn’t like how pale Genie looked. She’d obviously been having a nightmare. He wished she’d let him help her and tell him what was going on. What was she so afraid of? He jerked his head away from her, looking toward the horizon, anywhere but at her. He was walking a thin line, and if he weren’t careful, Cameron would have his head for this.
    Genie was supposed to be on that plane with her sister. Extract the girls; get them on that plane back to D.C. Those were his orders. And yet, here he was in the sky, ready to land in Seattle. He’d assured Cameron he would get to the bottom of the situation, but Kyle still hadn’t gotten anywhere. He had no idea what Genie really knew about what was happening with her father, or what had happened in the warehouse that day eight months ago that had caused her to go into deep hiding and break off contact with everyone in her life.
    Including the man who loved her.
    Had loved her, Kyle corrected himself firmly.
    He was risking her safety and this mission by letting her travel to the island off the Puget Sound where her father’s estate lay. And yet, here they all were. Doing exactly what the little she-devil insisted on doing—going after her dad. He wished he could throw her over his shoulder, haul her in for questioning, and make her tell him the truth. But he knew her well enough to be certain that would get him absolutely nowhere. He also knew he couldn’t just stand there and let her walk into the danger zone alone.
    Hell, Kyle still didn’t even know for certain it was Sean Emerich behind the attacks on her and Cat this morning. If it was, what the hell kind of game was the bastard playing? No sane