Read Online Promises to Keep by Maegan Beaumont - Free Book Online Page A

away from the doorway, knees drawn tight against his chest by arms so thin and pale they looked like twigs, bleached white by the sun.
    He started rambling again, eyes, like miniature black holes aimed at the body on the floor. She started to cross the threshold, but Mandy threw up a hand and shook her head. Sabrina stalled out mid-stride and watched as Mandy stood, crossing the room on slow and steady feet. She said something in what sounded like the same language the boy was speaking and as if Mandy had thrown a switch, he stopped talking.
    Sabrina watched and listened. Mandy got closer and closer, still speaking the strange language in a low easy tone that seemed to sooth the boy. It sounded Slavic, maybe Russian. Strange coming from the woman crouched on the floor. She must’ve asked him a question because the boy nodded, eyes suddenly flooded with tears. He started to speak again, but his speech had lost its hysterical edge. Mandy got close enough to reach out and touch him, but she didn’t. She kept her hands at her sides, shaking her head as she crouched low and slow in front of him. She kept talking. The boy kept listening.
    â€œWhat. The. Fuck,” Strickland said behind her. “Coroner Barbie speaks gibberish.”
    â€œIt’s not gibberish, dickhead. It’s Russian,” Mandy said without looking up.
    Sabrina felt a prickle, like electricity dancing along her skin. What was a Russian boy doing in an abandoned house in San Francisco?
    She looked away from the boy crouched in the corner to the one dead on the floor.
    â€œAsk him if he knows the victim,” Sabrina said.
    Mandy spoke quietly and the boy answered, shaking his head. “No. He said he’s never seen him before.”
    Sabrina studied the boy on the floor. He was small and blond. She entered the room and squatted down next to the body. She peeled back a lid and looked at his eyes. They were milky, but she could see enough of the iris to know they were hazel.
    She stood. “I need some air,” she said, brushing past Strickland on her way out the door. She could feel him watching her, and she silently urged him not to follow.
    She didn’t need air; she needed to call Ben Shaw, because there was a very real chance that she’d just found Leo Maddox.

fourteen
    Ben met him on the tarmac a few hours later. “What part of clean sweep did you not understand?”
    The part where it entailed shooting an unarmed woman. “Relax. It’s gonna be fine,” he said, dropping his duffle at his feet. “The gun used to do the guards has her prints all over it, and I used different calibers and kill methods. Once you plant the evidence in her computer that points the way to her hiring a hit squad, no one is gonna believe her lone-gunman theory.”
    â€œShe saw you.” Ben shook his head. “What if she recognized you from the club?”
    â€œPlease. The last time she saw me, she was blitzed out on booze and roofies,” he said, despite the doubt that nagged him. “That whole night is a big black hole as far as she’s concerned.”
    Ben was as unconvinced as he was. “You should’ve killed her. Leaving her alive was sloppy.”
    Michael eyes narrowed just a twinge. “Would you’ve killed her?” he said. Ben looked away, and he scoffed. “Didn’t think so. It’s bad enough she’s gonna spend the rest of her life in prison for multiple murders she had nothing to do with. Just let it go.”
    â€œEasy for you to say—” Ben’s phone let out a chirp. He dug it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. “Meet you on the plane,” he said, turning his back on him and walking toward the tail of the plane before answering. Michael watched him go, caught the smile on his face that appeared after he said hello. The grin faded quickly, replaced by a look that said he was all business now. After only thirty seconds, he snapped