Running Blind Read Free Page B

saved me from a life of endless boredom. I’m in the front lines now, chickie. I’m no longer a drone slogging through a maze of cubicles like a robot and praying for something big to happen.”
    Stephanie laughed. “In the first place, you could never be categorized as a drone. Drones don’t look like you or get stared at the way you do. Speaking of which,” she added quietly after a furtive glance across the table, “what’s with Golden Boy over there?”
    Rhonda glanced at Jamie Cooper, then quickly away. Damn. He was staring. And damn, he was . . . golden. From his skin—he clearly had some Latino blood—to the gold rimming his chocolate-brown irises, to the natural highlights that shimmered in the dark brown hair that was just long enough to make him look like a badass. A very sexy badass.
    â€œWe haven’t quite figured each other out yet,” she hedged.
    â€œReally?” Steph’s sparkling eyes smiled as she gave Rhonda an all-knowing look. “Seems clear to me. The man’s got the hots for you, my friend.”
    Rhonda snorted. “What man doesn’t?” She knew what she looked like, and she liked to maximize her assets. She had a passion for Manolo Blahniks and vintage angora sweaters, and she was on a first-name basis with the clerks at her favorite makeup counter. So sue her .
    When she’d decided to take the position, she’d also decided that the team was going to have to take her as she was—blond and curvy and not shy about showcasing those curves. She enjoyed being a woman. She also had a smart mouth that she’d have to make a big effort to control; so far, that wasn’t working out too well. She took way too much pleasure needling Cooper, who had the mistaken impression that he was God’s gift to womankind.
    â€œAt least, until they get to know me and they figure out what a bitch I am,” she added.
    â€œYou’re not a bitch. You’re protective of yourself. Nothing wrong with that.”
    Rhonda changed the subject, as she always did when it veered too close to her emotional space. “Better give the man your order,” she said as the waiter reached them.
    Steph was her dearest friend, but even she didn’t know the reason Rhonda evaded, avoided, and even sabotaged budding romantic relationships. One day, maybe she’d tell her. In the meantime, she kept it to herself.
    Feeling a tingle at the base of her spine, she glanced across the table again. And again, there was Cooper, that cocky smile on his face, his gaze lasered in on her, irritating the hell out of her.
    She was going to have to do something about that man. She didn’t like the way he made her feel . . . off her stride, a little bit out of control. And too often unfocused—­not something she could afford if she was going to pull her weight on the team. She still had a lot to prove before she won their complete confidence.
    Cooper might want to play silly games, but she didn’t. Before they headed for work, she’d get him alone and call him on it. By the time she finished with the Golden Boy, he’d be looking for a new hobby—one that didn’t involve messing with her mind.

4

    Setting up the nest had required mechanical precision, patience, time, and tolerance for extreme boredom. It had been well over an hour since the targets had started arriving. And still, she waited.
    She peered through the Leopold 3x9 rifle scope and set it to minimum magnification. The scope made the targets appear to be only thirty feet away instead of three hundred yards, making long-distance kills almost as easy as close-ups. Jamie Cooper. Bobby Taggart. Mike Brown and his bitch of a wife. Their tightly knit group would soon be gone.
    Calculating the wind speed with the help of a flag fluttering on a nearby building, she adjusted the scope. The Kestrel weather meter provided temperature and humidity, since