Soldier's Redemption Read Free

right?”
    “I think so, but she won’t talk to me. We have trouble with each other on the phone.”
    “Then you have to see her face-to-face. Do you know where she lives?”
    “I know the address. I mean, I can find it. It’s in the book over on the desk. But I’ll have to call a cab or find the right bus.”
    “Or call a friend.”
    “I don’t have many friends here, just family,” she said, hurrying to the desk and finding Aneta’s address. She had no idea what part of the city it was in, but she copied it quickly.
    “Your aunt—”
    “She mustn’t hear a word of this.”
    “I got the feeling Mr. Machnik will not meekly accept the loss of something he cares about,” he added. “And what did he mean it’s worth double or triple what he paid?”
    “The artist died earlier this year. The prices on his miniatures skyrocketed. I’ll have to find the painting or make retribution somehow.” She gulped her panic and wondered about insurance, but more than that, she wondered how the painting could have disappeared from a locked vault....
    “Your aunt—”
    “I can’t tell my aunt. She’s undergoing chemotherapy. She’s too sick to be involved.”
    “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice compassionate and yet in control. “Well, here’s an idea. I have a rental outside. I’ll give you a ride.”
    “I can’t ask—”
    “I don’t believe you did. Are you coming?”
    It took Skylar one heartbeat to review her options. She locked the vault and the store. A minute later, she slid into his rental, her heart jammed high in her throat.

Chapter Two
    It turned out Skylar’s coworker lived thirty minutes away in a cinder block apartment building with a rusty black fire escape zigzagging its way from the top floor to the bottom. The small, unlocked lobby was dark and held only a row of mailboxes. Cole and Skylar stood side by side looking at the names, searching for Aneta’s apartment number and floor.
    Cole’s original plan upon entering the art gallery had been to flirt his way into a dinner invitation with Luca Futura’s niece. He’d been well on his way to accomplishing that goal when the missing painting provided a solid plan B. Cole was used to taking opportunities as they presented themselves. He was former special forces, and that meant augmenting years of physical and mental training with split-second tactical decision making.
    Now, hopefully, Skylar would see him as a friend, a confidant, someone who’d been willing to lend her a hand...someone she could trust.
    He’d chosen Skylar for his mission because she appeared to be the weakest link in Futura’s chain—and as such, Cole’s best chance of getting close to a man shielded behind layers of protection.
    He’d done his research, and he knew Skylar was a recent graduate of a design school. She had three brothers and a sister plus a large extended family spread all over the States. She created clothes for a living and wore them like a petite fashion model, tended to change her hair color on a whim and worked whatever odd jobs paid the bills and gave her time to do what she loved.
    He’d known all that going in. What he hadn’t known was how damn pretty she was up close and personal, the way her eyes resembled blue diamonds, the creamy texture of her almost translucent pale skin, the fullness of her lips or the rounded curves of breasts and hips that merged into a trim waist.
    Totally feminine and utterly breathtaking—and this from a man who didn’t often allow a person’s appearance to affect him.
    But it wasn’t just her looks...there was something else, something robust and lively about her. She’d flirted with him with ease, yet she had no hidden agenda like he did. She just seemed to like people. And there was the way she’d faced first the disappearance of the painting and then her customer’s threats with polite courage, and that had touched him. And to be honest, her distress alarmed him.
    He’d been prepared to use her in