Aegis 01 - First Exposure Read Free

printed.
    “Where did you get this?”
    “It showed up in my mailbox about a week after Melody disappeared.”
    “Did you show it to the police?”
    “Yes. They didn’t think it matched Melody’s handwriting and claimed it was nothing more than marketing material from the resort, but I know that’s from her.”
    “Hm.” He turned the postcard over again and looked closer.
    One side of the double doors to the office pushed open before she could ask what he was thinking. Avery’s head snapped that direction. The words dried on her lips when Mr. Dark and Dangerous stepped into the room.
    “Sorry I’m late.” The man crossed the floor, long legs eating up the space, muscles bunching under the fitted black shirt, and handed Jake a folder. Pulling a red lollipop from his mouth, he said, “Miller was distracting Brandi downstairs, so it took me longer to get these than I thought.”
    “Thanks.” Jake set the postcard on the desk, then opened the folder and paged through the information. “I’d feel better if we had more time to do a thorough rundown of the resort, but this will have to do. You catch the discussion?”
    “Yeah,” Mr. Dark and Dangerous answered. “I was listening in. Caught the big stuff.”
    Avery’s pulse picked up speed. She’d been right about the surveillance. But she was too focused on the man who’d just entered the room to be irritated he’d been listening without her knowledge. He didn’t fully turn her way, so she couldn’t see anything more than his profile. But that scar…
    Jake looked up. “Ms. Scott, this is Cade Blackwell, one of Aegis’s best operatives. If you’re hell-bent on going to Indulgence yourself, he’ll be the one accompanying you.”
    Cade Blackwell. Holy shit . Avery’s heart dropped like a stone straight into her stomach. It was him. She hadn’t been imagining after all.
    Cade turned his piercing stare her way. Dark eyes she now saw were the same as they’d been at eighteen. Except then there’d been a hint of innocence. Now there was nothing but suspicion.
    “That disguise is terrible.” He looked toward Jake again. “That’s never gonna work. Her face is way too damn recognizable. She’s gonna need a total makeover.”
    Jake closed the folder. “What do you have in mind?”
    Cade looked back at her, cocked his head, popped the sucker back in his mouth, and took a long perusal of her, from the top of her head all the way to her toes. Every cell in her body jerked to life as it had in the lobby, except this time she felt it everywhere . He pulled the sucker out again. “Hair, clothes, a helluva lot more makeup. She looks too damn innocent for Indulgence. People who go to resorts like that go for one very specific reason.”
    Her thoughts were a jumbled mess of impressions and memories and emotions she didn’t want to revisit, but one thing got through. They were talking about her like she wasn’t in the room. Irritation replaced the heat his thorough inspection had caused and clawed its way up Avery’s throat. “Hold on a second, I—”
    Cade turned his dark gaze back her way. “How many swingers resorts have you been to, Ms . Scott ?”
    The way he said “Scott” made the fine hairs along her neck leap to life again. There was animosity there. And distrust. And a whole lot more than she expected or deserved. Her mouth closed.
    “None, I bet.” He pointed the sucker at her. “They’ll know it too. Dressed like that, in your conservative little pencil skirt, fitted blouse, and sensible heels, they’ll eat you alive. Your wig isn’t fooling anyone. One look and every person in that place will know America’s sweetheart is taking a walk on the wild side. I know these places. I know the people who work there and the lowlifes who play there, and if you want to get in and out unnoticed, then you’ll listen to me, because when it comes to this, I’m the only one here who knows what the hell I’m talking about.”
    He was talking to her