Dangerous Liaisons Read Free

terminal. “May I help you?”
    Jesse extended the key and license. “I’d like to get into box 1271.”
    Louise’s eyes widened, then her expression melted into the bland professional look a customer might expect. Jesse smiled as if unaware of the reaction.
    “I’m afraid there’s a problem, Ms. Anderson.”
    Jesse raised her brows in question. Louise didn’t know her by name.
    “There’s a small administrative issue.” Louise returned her attention to her monitor and began typing.
    Jesse studied her. “What sort of issue?”
    “Just a new policy.” Louise’s eyes remained on the monitor.
    Tiny hairs on the back of Jesse’s neck prickled. How would Louise know she hadn’t been there since this new policy had been instituted?
    Jesse glanced at her watch. “My lunch break is short. I don’t have much time.”
    Feigning frustration, she took a casual step back and peered past the iron barred door into the vault’s subdued, gray interior. Her eye caught the nearest box number in her row, 1011, and scanned the row. Her gaze sharpened on the gaping rectangular hole where her box should have been.
     

Chapter Four
    Gone—her passport, Amanda’s new identity , all gone. How? But she knew how. When the Office of International Affairs wanted something, no one asked questions. She’d underestimated OIA—no, underestimated Robert Lanton—again. Suddenly, her six years in the world of black paled in comparison to his twenty years.
    Jesse stepped back to Louise’s desk. “When did they clean me out?”
    The woman’s eyes snapped up and locked with Jesse’s. Jesse read fear and a trace of anger. Louise licked her lips. Jesse didn’t think she would answer, but she said, “A week ago.”
    Jesse spun and hurried toward the front door with a crushing emptiness in her chest. Nobody in line or behind the desks broke position. The guard didn’t shift at his post as she pushed open the door and stepped into the stifling heat. She scanned the sidewalk and the upper windows of the buildings across the street for evidence of surveillance as she headed south on Second at a fast clip. She didn’t spot anyone looking out, which didn’t mean they weren’t there.
    She hailed a cab, but it whizzed past. She lengthened her stride, waved at a second taxi. The cabbie swerved from the middle lane and halted at the curb ahead of her. She hurried forward. The driver leered with lusty black eyes as she hopped in the back. She gave him the address of an Ethiopian restaurant on the Upper West Side.
    Jesse glanced back and memorized the cars, then slumped against the seat. The remainder of the afternoon would be spent taking random cab rides and subway lines to be sure no one was tailing her before she could make another move. Precious time she couldn’t afford to lose. She closed her eyes, picturing the hole that used to be her safe deposit box. Lost, all lost, the Anderson alias Amanda’s papers, and—Jesse opened her eyes, the disc containing the entire Green Team roster .
    Her fingers tightened convulsively on her purse. She should have destroyed the disc after finding it in Juanita Pinto’s purse the weekend they’d been in Madrid, then told Tom that the Spanish agent he’d fallen hard for had stolen it from him.
    Jesse stared through the windshield at the slowing traffic. Lanton had been looking for evidence he believed would incriminate him but, instead, hit the real jackpot. If her encryption scheme wasn’t good enough, he would crack the code, then take down Tom, the infamous Professor, and use the roster as proof she was a traitor. Dammit, she had played fast and loose with sensitive information…and had been careless with Amanda’s future.
    OIA knew about Amanda and the fact Jesse had been her legal guardian the last twelve years. Four months shy of Jesse’s eighteenth birthday, their mother had died. Those months until Jesse became of age had been sheer hell. But the morning she turned eighteen, before the