Rogue Alpha (Alpha 7) Read Free Page A

busy trying to keep both of them alive. Once he and Quinn delivered her back to the embassy, she was hustled away and Seth had never seen her again.
    This woman, beautiful, self-assured for the most part, was nothing like the woman he remembered rescuing in Colombia. “Has anything else happened recently? Besides this feeling you have of being followed?”
    She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “Someone broke into my apartment a week ago.”
    “Did you report it to the police?”
    “Yes.”
    “And?”
    She gave an uncomfortable shrug. “Nothing was taken, so they weren’t interested.”
    “Was your apartment trashed?”
    “No.”
    Seth drew in a controlling breath. “So if nothing was taken and your apartment wasn’t trashed, how can you be so sure someone broke in?” Patience wasn’t exactly one of his virtues, but he really was doing his best to hear this woman out. She looked brittle enough to break down and cry right here in a public bar if he didn’t. He didn’t deal well with crying woman either.
    Come to think of it, he didn’t deal well with women at all, except in bed—
    “You sound like the police. I just know , okay?” She glared her frustration with his skepticism. “I also know what you’re thinking right now, Mr. Armstrong, and you’re wrong. I’m not delusional. I’m not having some sort of emotional breakdown, a delayed reaction to what happened in Colombia. Someone did break into my apartment a week ago, and I don’t only feel as if someone is watching and following me. They are!”
    “Did you report that to the police too?”
    She grimaced. “Yes, and received the same uninterested response.”
    Paranoia brought on by too much emotional stress would be Seth’s guess. No doubt that was the opinion of the police too when she reported a break-in where nothing was stolen or trashed, and then a couple of days later went back to them claiming she was being followed.
    Which, equally, could be exactly what the person doing these things might hope would be the line the police took?
    Damn it, now he was allowing himself to be seduced into her paranoia.
    “Is someone following you this evening?” He glanced about the crowded bar, some of the people regulars, like Seth, others merely popping in for a drink with friends on their way home from work. No one looked as if they were taking particular notice of the two of them sitting together in this corner booth at the back of the room.
    Too busy flirting with the wrong people, would be Seth’s guess. He had no doubt several of them would imbibe a little too much Christmas cheer and end up in bed with the wrong person too before the night was through, and wake up in the morning to regret it.
    Bah, humbug, Seth recognized self-derisively. He wasn’t into Christmas. Too many bad memories from when he was a kid, probably. Whatever the reason, the garish decorations in the bar and the overdecorated Christmas tree in the corner of the room did absolutely nothing for him.
    “I don’t know.” Diana Moore looked pained. “I thought they were. It felt as if they were. I don’t know ,” she added emotionally, tears gathering on the darkness of her lashes.
    “Hey, it’s going to be okay.” He reached out awkwardly and squeezed her hands where they were still clenched together on her thighs.
    “No, it isn’t.” She gave a shake of her head. “I want—I need for you to come back to Paris with me and—”
    “Paris?” he echoed doubtfully.
    She nodded. “I live and work there now.”  
    Paris?
    This woman wanted him to go to Paris with her?

Chapter 2
    “Drink it.” Seth held the glass of whisky up in front of Diana Moore’s face until she reluctantly took the glass from him. “I said drink it, Diana,” he repeated firmly as she made no effort to do so but simply cradled the glass in both her hands.
    The bar had been too noisy for them to continue their conversation, and she had flatly refused to go back to the Grayson