Nightfire Read Free Page B

Though if Harry Bolt was who she thought he was, it was more than urgent. It was life-shattering.
    So she simply nodded, throat too tight to plead her cause.
    “Okay then,” the receptionist had said, tapping on her touch screen. “It’s a busy morning for Mr. Bolt, but I’ll do what I can.” She looked up again, eyes searching Chloe’s face. “Would one of the other partners do? Mr. Keillor has a free hour this morning.”
    Mr. Keillor would be Michael Keillor, former Marine, former SWAT officer, current partner. She’d read his bio on the RBK website and seen his unsmiling photograph. He looked smart and tough and capable, just like all the partners. If she had security problems, he’d probably be just as good as Harry Bolt.
    But her problems didn’t have anything to do with security.
    She shook her head, hoping the receptionist wouldn’t take her inability to speak as discourtesy. And while she was at it, that the receptionist wouldn’t notice Chloe’s shaking hands.
    The receptionist didn’t, she simply touched the screen again. “Okay, I can clear you for Mr. Bolt at nine-thirty, if you don’t mind waiting.”
    Chloe had waited all her life for this moment. Another half an hour wouldn’t make any difference. She managed to choke out a thank you through her tight throat and sat down to wait on one of the incredibly comfortable armchairs that dotted the enormous lobby.
    So many emotions swirled in her chest that she couldn’t feel any single one in particular, just a huge pressure so powerful she could barely breathe. She wanted so much for—
    And she stopped herself right there. Wanting didn’t make things happen. If there was one thing her life had taught her, it was that. She could want so fiercely she thought she would explode and it wouldn’t make any difference at all. It was impossible to understand what really could make a difference. Fate? Perhaps. Randomness? Maybe. Wanting? No.
    So she sat back in the extremely comfortable and attractive armchair and . . . disappeared.
    It was her trick, harshly learned throughout her childhood. Bad things happened to her when she got noticed. She’d learned very early to sit back and become unnoticed. She didn’t become literally invisible. It’s just that she could turn off all the subconscious signals humans sent to one another, so that no one noticed her.
    She sat there, unmoving, saying nothing, and observed. Observed the other people waiting for one of the three partners. There were three men in the room, all middle-aged or older, all visibly rich and powerful. Businessmen, who wanted RBK to help them in something or with something. Two were sweating so badly a slightly acrid odor rose above their expensive colognes. The other sat in Male Mode, knees apart, clasped hands between them. He radiated anger and aggression.
    Chloe didn’t dare look at him. Though she’d perfected the art of blandness, she knew through bitter experience that an angry male took even a chance meeting of eyes as aggression.
    She turned her head toward the entrance door so that he couldn’t even pretend to think that she was staring at him, and watched as the sliding door swooshed open.
    A man walked into the waiting room and all male eyes swiveled to him, watching his progress across the lobby. The three rich-looking men might think that they were alpha males in their own environments but they weren’t. Chloe knew many rich men who thought their money gave them top dog status anywhere, anytime. Often it did, but not always.
    This man, striding across the room, was the alpha male. He’d be the alpha male in any grouping, rich man, poor man, didn’t make any difference.
    He wasn’t tall but he was immensely broad—wide shoulders, thick arms, strong neck. A bodybuilder but without that bodybuilder waddle because he clearly built onto muscles that were already there. His movements were fast, precise, powerful. The strongest man in the room, hands down. And he’d be the