Frostbite Read Free

pushed the button on the only other piece of electronics I had remaining in my possession besides my watch. Praying it was the right frequency, I heard the front doors click with recognition. Had scanned for the proper code when we arrived.
    Despite his size, the prince’s head of security was closing on us. And no way in hell did I think he’d politely stop at the door’s edge and let us get away. And with just my birthday suit and Sophia in tow, I wasn’t equipped to wage an unarmed war with a pro.
    The hot, humid smell of freedom greeted our noses as Sophia and I rushed out the front and bolted onto the sidewalk.
    “What the fuck?” Sophia gasped at the sight that awaited her.
    Dozens upon dozens of people stood before us in carefully formed lines in the middle of South Alhambra Circle, others still joining them. Like troops awaiting their general’s instructions.
    Men and women.
    Mostly brown in skin tone like us, but comprised of all different races and ethnicities with dashes of vanilla thrown in among them.
    All matching approximately our heights and builds.
    And all nude.
    Right as we stepped into the mass of bodies, they began the choreographed routine to Flo Rida’s “Club Can’t Handle Me” that blared from the speakers positioned on the flatbed truck stopped behind them.
    The prince’s security emerged onto the sidewalk with guns drawn, but were stunned by what they were witnessing.
    “Quick. Follow along and do what everybody else is doing,” I hissed in her ear as we gradually moved to the rear of the hastily assembled flash mob. I’d arranged for them on one of the online social networking sites last night, providing instructions on the time and routine along with a phony cause célèbre for which to bare all.
    The riskiest part of this plan and they’d actually come through.
    With us blending in and the prince’s not wanting an international incident, they holstered their firearms then slowly retreated inside the compound to finish rounding up the other captive women ... and questioning the real satellite repair workers. But not before a couple of them smiled at the nude bodies bouncing and gyrating in front of them.
    Exhausted and drained, I backed away from the still performing flash mob and bent over, succumbing to the adrenaline fleeing my body as I took a minute to catch my breath.
    “Well ... you look good,” Sophia commented as she smacked me on my bare ass, bopping around as if the terror and drama of the last few minutes hadn’t even happened. And ignoring that she was standing nude in Coral Gables.
    But she could get away with being nude as beautiful as she was.
    “Who are all these people?”
    “Students. From the U,” I said, managing to point in the general direction of the university campus on the other side of Old Dixie Highway. “I needed young, willing bodies from nearby.”
    “Never knew you were a Canes fan,” she somehow joked.
    “I’m not. Florida State fan,” I replied, still trying to get my heart rate under control and gasping for air. “But I’d never put their students in harm’s way,” I joked back. “Now let’s get to the clothes I stashed before the cops show up.”
     
     
    Fully clothed again, I turned up the CNN broadcast with Soledad O’Brien. Another one of those specials they gave her carte blanche to host. Black In America XII: The Blackest Ever or something like that.
    We were near the edge of the Everglades. At the Crowne Plaza by Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise. Two queen-sized beds at my request. Sophia was in the bathroom using the rinse for her hair that I’d bought along with a few sets of clothes and luggage from the mall across the street.
    My plan was to lay low and fly out of Fort Lauderdale Airport tonight. If the prince was as manic about his possessions as he was about his soccer matches then unlimited wealth could be troublesome even for a plotter and schemer like me.
    “How do I look, baby?” Sophia asked as she emerged from