Read Online The Job by Janet Evanovich, Lee Goldberg - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Janet Evanovich, Lee Goldberg
Ads: Link
alone.
“You’re going to miss the good stuff with that pillow over your face,” Nick said.
“What good stuff did you have in mind?” she asked.
“Me naked.”
Kate took the pillow off her face and looked at him. He was wearing a towel that hung low on his hips.
“You’re not naked,” Kate said.
“I could be.”
She pulled the pillow back over her face.
“I get the feeling you’re not happy to see me,” Nick said.
“Gee, how’d you figure that one out?”
“I can’t hear you,” Nick said. “You’re talking into the pillow.”
Kate ripped the pillow off her face and sat up, pop-eyed, arms flailing. “You have to stop breaking into my room! I need privacy sometimes. I need to get away from you. We’re partners, not lovers.”
“Your loss,” Nick said.
He dropped his towel and stepped into boxer briefs.
“Good grief,” Kate said.
Wow! She thought. The man was freaking perfect.
“It turns out that Serena’s brother was the plastic surgeon who gave Lester Menendez a new face and a new body,” Nick said. “When the operation was complete, Menendez tortured and killed Serena’s brother.”
“Oh my gosh, how horrible.”
“A few years back, a con to trick a Somali warlord out of a piracy ransom went very wrong, and I found myself locked in a tiger cage, facing a sunrise execution. Instead of cutting and running with the rest of my crew, Serena stayed behind, crept into the heavily guarded compound in the middle of the night, and rescued me. We barely made it out of Somalia alive.”
“So you owe her.”
“Big-time. Even if I didn’t, I would still help her. She’s a good person, and Menendez is evil.”
“She wants you to kill him?”
“No. She wants me to destroy him.”
“Nice. I like it.”
“I imagine your boss will also like it,” Nick said.
“Every law enforcement agency in the world wants Menendez. He still controls a big chunk of the drug trade in North America and Europe. Unfortunately, no one knows what he looks like now or where he is. And even if we did, we don’t have his DNA or any fingerprints we can use to identify him. He set fire to his house, so we lost our chance to collect anything we could use to create a DNA profile. And I can guarantee you he also burned off his fingerprints. He could be anybody.”
“He’s still the same person inside,” Nick said. “He still has the same strengths, weaknesses, longings, and obsessions. Before his radical surgery, Menendez was a fat man who put on the pounds devouring the most expensive and rare chocolates in the world. I can guarantee he still likes them. He’s also been obsessed with finding sunken treasure ever since he was a kid in Colombia and found doubloons that washed ashore from a seventeenth-century shipwreck. Those are the weaknesses we’re going to exploit.”
“You think you can just wave a Hershey bar and some gold coins under the right nose, and he’ll introduce himself to you?”
“Pretty much. I came up with something in the shower.”
The image of Nick naked was burned into Kate’s brain, and she had a vision of what else came up in the shower.
“We’re going to use Menendez’s lust for rare chocolate to narrow down his new identity,” Nick said. “Once we’ve foundhim, we’re going to convince him that we’ve discovered the legendary
Santa Isabel,
a Spanish galleon that sank in a storm in 1502 off the coast of Portugal with over a billion dollars’ worth of treasure on board.”
“That’s the bait,” she said. “What’s the trap?”
“I’m still refining some of the details on the trap.”
“Oh boy,” Kate said. “You don’t know the details.”
“I know some of them.” He flipped the quilt back and sat on the edge of the bed.
Kate’s eyes got wide. “What are you doing?”
“Going to bed. I’ve been up all night.”
“This is
my
bed.”
“It’s
our
bed.”
“No, no, no. There’s no
our.
Get out of my bed,” Kate said.
“No.”
“I
“You’re going to miss the good stuff with that pillow over your face,” Nick said.
“What good stuff did you have in mind?” she asked.
“Me naked.”
Kate took the pillow off her face and looked at him. He was wearing a towel that hung low on his hips.
“You’re not naked,” Kate said.
“I could be.”
She pulled the pillow back over her face.
“I get the feeling you’re not happy to see me,” Nick said.
“Gee, how’d you figure that one out?”
“I can’t hear you,” Nick said. “You’re talking into the pillow.”
Kate ripped the pillow off her face and sat up, pop-eyed, arms flailing. “You have to stop breaking into my room! I need privacy sometimes. I need to get away from you. We’re partners, not lovers.”
“Your loss,” Nick said.
He dropped his towel and stepped into boxer briefs.
“Good grief,” Kate said.
Wow! She thought. The man was freaking perfect.
“It turns out that Serena’s brother was the plastic surgeon who gave Lester Menendez a new face and a new body,” Nick said. “When the operation was complete, Menendez tortured and killed Serena’s brother.”
“Oh my gosh, how horrible.”
“A few years back, a con to trick a Somali warlord out of a piracy ransom went very wrong, and I found myself locked in a tiger cage, facing a sunrise execution. Instead of cutting and running with the rest of my crew, Serena stayed behind, crept into the heavily guarded compound in the middle of the night, and rescued me. We barely made it out of Somalia alive.”
“So you owe her.”
“Big-time. Even if I didn’t, I would still help her. She’s a good person, and Menendez is evil.”
“She wants you to kill him?”
“No. She wants me to destroy him.”
“Nice. I like it.”
“I imagine your boss will also like it,” Nick said.
“Every law enforcement agency in the world wants Menendez. He still controls a big chunk of the drug trade in North America and Europe. Unfortunately, no one knows what he looks like now or where he is. And even if we did, we don’t have his DNA or any fingerprints we can use to identify him. He set fire to his house, so we lost our chance to collect anything we could use to create a DNA profile. And I can guarantee you he also burned off his fingerprints. He could be anybody.”
“He’s still the same person inside,” Nick said. “He still has the same strengths, weaknesses, longings, and obsessions. Before his radical surgery, Menendez was a fat man who put on the pounds devouring the most expensive and rare chocolates in the world. I can guarantee he still likes them. He’s also been obsessed with finding sunken treasure ever since he was a kid in Colombia and found doubloons that washed ashore from a seventeenth-century shipwreck. Those are the weaknesses we’re going to exploit.”
“You think you can just wave a Hershey bar and some gold coins under the right nose, and he’ll introduce himself to you?”
“Pretty much. I came up with something in the shower.”
The image of Nick naked was burned into Kate’s brain, and she had a vision of what else came up in the shower.
“We’re going to use Menendez’s lust for rare chocolate to narrow down his new identity,” Nick said. “Once we’ve foundhim, we’re going to convince him that we’ve discovered the legendary
Santa Isabel,
a Spanish galleon that sank in a storm in 1502 off the coast of Portugal with over a billion dollars’ worth of treasure on board.”
“That’s the bait,” she said. “What’s the trap?”
“I’m still refining some of the details on the trap.”
“Oh boy,” Kate said. “You don’t know the details.”
“I know some of them.” He flipped the quilt back and sat on the edge of the bed.
Kate’s eyes got wide. “What are you doing?”
“Going to bed. I’ve been up all night.”
“This is
my
bed.”
“It’s
our
bed.”
“No, no, no. There’s no
our.
Get out of my bed,” Kate said.
“No.”
“I
Similar Books
