Midnight Action Read Free Page A

binoculars into the sleek black duffel by her side. As she gracefully rose to her feet, the warm August breeze lifted her blond ponytail and heated the back of her neck.
    “I’ll see you shortly, Gilles,” she told the panicked man. She paused in afterthought. “Oh, and I suggest you don’t reach for that pricey cognac of yours.”
    Suspicion floated over the line. “Why not?”
    “Because I poisoned it.”
    His startled curse brought a smile to her lips. “Y-you...h-how...”
    “Don’t you worry about that, honey,” she answered as she quickly disassembled her rifle, while balancing the cell on her shoulder. “It was just a precaution, in case I didn’t like the outcome of this phone call.”
    When he made an outraged noise, she fought a laugh and said, “Out of curiosity, who’s the target?”
    There was a pause. “I thought you didn’t want details over the phone.”
    “Not about money or method. Names are fine.”
    She zipped up the rifle case, then tucked it next to the duffel—she’d leave both on the roof and collect them after her little tête-à-tête with the good lawyer.
    “Ah. All right, then.” Girard hesitated. “The target is a soldier. Well, a former soldier. He now works as a private military contractor.”
    “A mercenary.”
    “Yes.”
    Shifting the phone to her other shoulder, she patted her jacket to make sure the weapons beneath it were secure, and then she walked across the gravel-littered rooftop toward the wrought-iron ladder at its edge.
    “He’s used various aliases over the years,” Girard continued, “but he’s currently operating under the name James Morgan.”
    Noelle froze. “What did you say?”
    “Morgan,” Girard repeated. “The target’s name is James Morgan.”
    •   •   •
    “I met someone else.”
    The slender brunette kept her back to him as she snapped the clasp of her bra into place. Her long, straight hair fell down to her panty-clad ass, shimmering in the pale glow of the bedside lamp.
    Morgan zipped up his cargo pants and waited for Maya to continue, which she did, with great regret in her throaty voice.
    “I should have ended it sooner, but I was...waiting...hoping, I guess.” She turned to face him, her bottomless brown eyes flickering with unhappiness. “I suppose I was silly to think that we might have a future.”
    When he didn’t argue, her expression grew even more pained. “I know. You made yourself clear from the start.”
    Morgan cleared his throat. “Maya—”
    She held up her hand to silence him. “No. Don’t apologize. Like I said, it was silly of me. But Cruz...he’s willing to give me everything you can’t. And he adores Diego...”
    Whom you have never even met,
was the unspoken implication.
    And damned if it didn’t make him feel like a total dick. In the two months they’d been sleeping together, he’d gone out of his way to avoid Maya’s seven-year-old son. Not out of malice or dislike, but, well, he knew how attached kids could get, especially young boys without a father figure in their lives, and he hadn’t wanted to take any risks. He’d known from the onset that his affair with Maya would be a temporary one.
    She was a wonderful woman—he couldn’t deny that. Smart, beautiful, hardworking. But relationships didn’t interest him. Sex was all he’d ever wanted out of the arrangement, and Maya had always been more than happy to provide it.
    “I want to give my son a good life, Morgan.”
    “I know,” he said gruffly, his Spanish coming out stilted even though he normally spoke it impeccably.
    Maya slipped into a pale blue tank top and a pair of denim shorts, then walked over and kissed him. She was a tall woman, didn’t even have to stand on her tiptoes to bring her mouth to his, and he kissed her back with more tenderness than he’d ever shown her before.
    She blinked in surprise as she pulled back, but the resolve in her eyes didn’t falter. “I had a lot of fun.”
    “Me too.” He