Nightfire Read Free Page A

hands against the wall, letting the steaming hot water sluice over his back for a full half hour. By the time he got out, the sky outside the window was pearly gray. He walked out onto the long deck overlooking the Pacific and looked out over the view he loved.
    This morning the vast cobalt blue ocean with its lacy morning waves didn’t instill the deep calm it usually did. He clutched the iron balcony, standing there with a big white towel around his hips, watching the sky become lighter and lighter.
    Unlike Harry, Mike never had trouble sleeping. Before getting married and plunging into Harry Blissworld, Harry had gone for three, four nights at a time without sleeping, something Mike had never really understood.
    Now he did. He felt no sleepiness at all. He felt like he’d never sleep again. He watched the sky grow brighter, the ocean becoming ever larger and he felt that his life was like the ocean, going on and on and on, yet never changing. He had a glimpse of his own future in the water.
    On and on.
    Trying not to bug Nicole and Ellen too much. But seeing as much of his nieces as he could, because he loved those little girls. It seemed to him that the only thing he had to look forward to was watching them grow up, from the outside looking in.
    He felt restless, almost aching for that fight the woman had wanted. He didn’t want to fight her, he wanted—shit. He didn’t know what the fuck he wanted. He knew only that if he’d come across some gangbangers in his long run across town, he’d have welcomed a really good, rough fight.
    He was good with his fists. Was a fighter, always had been. There wasn’t any number of men he’d back down from. Bring it on.
    Hooah. Yeah.
    Bullshit.
    Something deep in his gut told him there wasn’t any kind of fistfight that would calm whatever it was that was boiling inside him.
    Finally, when the sun had lightened the entire sky, he went back inside to get dressed for another working day.

Chapter 2
     
    C hloe Mason sat in the very elegant waiting room of RBK Security Inc., which was in a very elegant building in very elegant downtown San Diego.
    She’d spent a lot of time in plush designer surroundings, but she was still impressed with the large room, which managed to be both beautiful and designed for comfort and efficiency.
    It also had another quality she was very familiar with. Everything in the room, from the color palette of light earth tones to the lush, healthy plants to the expensive couches and armchairs, the interesting but not shrill modern artwork, was designed to calm and to soothe.
    It was still the Christmas season, but the office didn’t have the usual loop of nauseatingly familiar carols playing, which many found grating and stressful, particularly if they were in trouble. Rather, the Christmas spirit was honored by soft medieval madrigals playing in the background. Instead of killing a tree, the company had put up a colored light sculpture that was both intriguing and beautiful.
    She’d spent all of her childhood and a good deal of her adolescence in and out of very expensive medical clinics and that mixture of good taste and reassurance was one she was familiar with.
    Even the receptionist was soothing. Chloe had walked into this highly successful office and asked to speak with one of the partners. In American business-dom that just didn’t happen. She knew enough of business etiquette to know that.
    And yet she hadn’t made an appointment. She’d propelled herself here from Boston without even thinking of making one, excited and terrified and hopeful, in equal measure.
    So she’d walked over to the elegant U design of the reception counter and quietly given her name to the slender, sharply dressed receptionist with beautiful silver hair cut by someone who knew what he was doing.
    The receptionist hadn’t blinked at the unexpected request. She simply looked up and asked whether the appointment was urgent.
    Urgent? Was it urgent? Maybe, maybe not.