Aegis Security 03 - Extreme Measures Read Free Page A

throat told her she knew him from somewhere, and she needed to be careful.
    “First I’ll need proof you have my”—she paused for a moment, just to show him he didn’t hold all the cards—“package.”
    Smith shot her a devastatingly handsome grin, leaned back in his chair, and stretched his long legs in front of him. Anyone walking by would think they were old friends. But she knew different. “And what if I said no?”
    For some reason, at that second, a long-ago conversation with Sawyer ran through her mind.
    “Bluffing is 90 percent of the game,” she’d said. “You know that. If they believe you, that’s all that matters.”
    “It’s different for a woman, though,” he’d countered. “Are you ever scared?”
    “Always. But that’s part of the risk we take.”
    It’d been one of those quiet nights in Lebanon when they’d both been on duty, monitoring the run-down drugstore across the dusty road through their apartment’s crappy windows while Carter had been snoring in the next room. Why the conversation popped into her head now, she didn’t know. But she definitely didn’t need it. Or thoughts of the man who now hated her with every fiber of his being.
    She pushed aside the memory and reached for the bag at her feet. Her chair scraped the sidewalk as she stood. “Then I guess our meeting’s over.”
    She turned to leave.
    “Juliet?”
    She glanced back over her shoulder and followed Smith’s gaze as it shifted across the street to a white van now parked against the curb. A burly man dressed in jeans and a tight-fitting T-shirt climbed out to stand in the road. He folded his arms over his massive chest and stared right at her.
    “That move is not advised.” Smith nodded toward her chair. “Sit.”
    Eve scanned the street for other threats, for something she might have missed earlier. Didn’t see anything other than the van that had appeared during their conversation. But the hair on her nape was suddenly standing straight, telling her the power of this meeting had shifted. And not in her favor.
    Slowly, she eased back down into her chair. Smith smiled and signaled the waiter. A server darted over and listened as he ordered.
    He was gloating. This most definitely wasn’t going as planned. Eve’s adrenaline ratcheted up.
    When the waiter left, Smith pulled a cell phone from his pocket, pressed a button, and slid it across the table toward her. “Take a look.”
    Eve expected to see a photo of the file she’d been tracking, but what flashed on the screen was an image of a woman, lying on her side, hands bound behind her, ankles tied together, feet bare, and a black sack covering her face. Eve lifted the phone, watched as the woman struggled against the bonds, trying to free herself. When she rolled toward the camera, a purple butterfly on her right ankle came into view. The same tattoo her sister Olivia had gotten during her freshman year of college.
    No.
    Eve’s gaze shot to the man across from her, and any pretense of bluffing disappeared. “Where?”
    He nodded toward the van across the street. The burly driver was now gone.
    Her heartbeat shot up into the triple digits. “How do I know for sure she’s in there?”
    “Look closer.”
    In the background, Eve could just make out the floor of the van and the rear cargo doors with a smattering of daylight illuminating the black sack over her sister’s face.
    Fear pushed in from every side. Risking her own life was one thing, but her sister . . . Olivia was a schoolteacher. She didn’t know the first thing about espionage or terrorist factions or traitors.
    “What do you want?”
    His smile widened. “I think we both know what I want.”
    She set the phone down, pulled the envelope from her bag, and slid it across the table. Smith looked inside, smiled at the currency he saw, and then tucked the envelope into the back pocket of his jeans. “Sometimes even the best laid plans go awry. Very nice doing business with you, Ms. Wolfe.