Read Online Kingdom by the Sea (Romantic Suspense) by Jill Winters - Free Book Online Page A

reminder.  Don't get in my way and I won't have to hurt you.”
    Lucius
sputtered at that.  “You mean her— not me.” 
    Michael
said nothing. 
    Talking
to Lucius might actually be worthwhile if he would reveal who the third party
was on this job.  Clearly there was one.  Lucius was a born middleman.  He’d
brought Michael on board, but he certainly hadn't orchestrated this operation. 
    The
two had met a few months ago in passing—a friend of a friend, once or twice
removed.  At the time, Michael had been working a con out of Hartford .  (Which was why
he'd recently made himself less recognizable and shaved his head.)  It was a
set-up that he'd run before on pool hall types, those guys you found always at
one smoke-filled table or another; those who liked to believe in a camaraderie
among card players, who seemed to think that the tips they got on horses or
property were legitimate and effortlessly lucrative, that some secret gold mine
had just opened in their path.  These were men who had money but were always
eager for more to hide; the types who treated the words “sure thing” like a Buddha
statue.  Over the years, Michael had seen how blind enthusiastic greed could
make an easy mark out of an otherwise smart person.  He had fallen prey to that
reality himself, years ago. 
    Now
he preferred to operate alone, and certainly not to be in an alliance with
someone like Lucius.  The guy was a criminal, for chrissake.  He was in a whole
other league.  For one thing, he had a record.  From what Michael had heard,
Lucius was into a bunch of illegal activities, from fencing to smuggling—and
not smuggling just art.   
    Maybe
he was rationalizing or whatever, but the way Michael looked at himself was: he
had a specific skill.  He could earn people's trust, at least more of it than
was wise, and without much effort on his part.  And he could profit from that
skill. 
    Considering
how abrasive and unappealing Lucius was, there was no way he’d be able to win
Nicole Sheffield's trust, which was the goal right now.
    To
that end, things were ahead of schedule.  Once Michael had been cast as her
protector, her trust and acceptance of him had been almost immediate.  Still,
he hated flying blind.  Who's job was this, really?
    It
had to be someone local, but Lucius wasn't saying.  Whoever it was, it was hard
to imagine that he would want Lucius hanging around town like this.  Especially
when Lucius's “look” generally attracted attention.  The big crooked nose, the
pocked skin, the spotty beard of blond patches along a jutting chin.  But his
eyes were the freaky part—noticeably uneven and bloodshot, the red spindly veins
like a maze of cracks on a busted windshield. 
    No,
Lucius would have to go back to Boston tonight.  He was too
short-sighted and impulsive to stay hidden.  Chatham was shaping up
to be an even smaller town than they had anticipated.  Talk about a fishbowl;
it was more like a snow globe. 
    Of
course, Michael had made the choice ahead of time to be upfront with the
cops—a.k.a. to hide in plain sight.  Rather than being elusive and run the risk
of drumming up speculation about the “stranger in town”—or worse, inviting
Coast Guard suspicion—he would present himself as though he were an upstanding
guy and tourist right from the start.  So far it was all going smoothly.  The
last thing he needed was for Lucius to bungle it.
    Even
though Lucius wasn't admitting who his nearby contact was, Michael had a way to
keep on eye on him, if and when it became necessary.
    “Now
what do you need to talk about so bad?” Michael demanded.
    “Did
you get inside yet or what?”
    “No.”
    “What
the fuck!  Don't take your time about it, Corso.  This isn't some leisurely job
where you lay groundwork for two or three months.  We gotta move on this.”
    Michael
bit back a pointless response.  There was nothing about his life that was
“leisurely” and never had been.