The Promise of Love Read Free

filled with nothing to do but watch her, he imagined.
    “Damn,” he whispered, then glanced over at Will.
    His buddy’s attention was on her as well, but focused on the whole scene, not so much on her exclusively. He checked out the blonde’s friend for a long time, then glanced away from all of them. For some reason that pleased the hell out of David in a way he couldn’t quite explain.
    “People can just drive in here, huh?” Will asked.
    “Duke thinks he’s hidden by being so far out and up a tough road,” Petrok muttered. “Looks like it’s not that tough.”
    David agreed. The two girls were driving a Honda, a good car, but he doubted it had any trouble getting up the road and it wasn’t even a front-wheel drive vehicle.
    The blonde hugged her friend and pulled away to give an obvious shiver at the cold. The sound of her laughter carried over to them. Another odd turn of his gut had him frowning even harder at her. It wasn’t as if he knew her, but there was something, maybe the way she waved and got in the driver’s seat with a laugh at the chill, that had him out of sorts. It’d been too long since he’d met a nice, normal girl, not some barfly without an agenda for a night’s worth of fun in the sack.
    The group talked for only a second more before the door shut, ending his view of the pretty blonde. The guy pulled the dark-haired girl away and together they raced back into the building. A second later the car backed up, turned and left. For some insane reason, David’s heart went crazy, beating as if he was getting ready to jump from a plane, right into a hotspot.
    The sound of the car suddenly went oddly louder, then puttered and died.
    A slow grin eased over his face, calming the adrenaline rushing him. If that didn’t sound like car trouble, he’d be a monkey’s uncle. A car door opening and shutting filled the wintery silence, guaranteeing he wasn’t closely related to the primates. His heart did a nosedive to his toes. Whoever the blonde was, she had one hell of a handle on his pulse.
    Petrok stood, pulling a second of his attention off his plans for helping a damsel in distress.
    “I want you two to stay low, keep yourselves under Walters’ radar. Duke will assign him as your direct supervisor, no doubt, but not at first. I want Walters busy with his own thing, with no idea where you two are. This place is big. He’ll never know you’re here if you lay low. Maybe the blonde will help with that,” she added with a laugh.
    “But Duke will know,” Will clarified.
    “Yeah, of course he’ll know. He wanted the real deal, so now”—she shrugged—“he has it.”
    “The real deal?” Will repeated.
    “Soldiers, real soldiers.”
    “And he wants what? Security? Because that girl just drove right in the back door.” Will gestured to the buildings.
    “Sure, he needs it, right? But then, he’s not here hiding, remember? He’s that bold,” she muttered. “Just keep a low profile. I’ll be your contact with Duke, unless he calls you in, maybe to meet you before you begin training those Ken dolls, huh?”
    Will snorted but David laughed at the reference to Duke’s men. It was accurate in his opinion.
    “We get this done, find the leads to who knows about the drug then pull them in. That way Walters won’t have a clue he’s stepped into the trap until it snaps down on him.” Petrok brushed her hands on her thighs, giving them a questioning glance.
    “Will do,” David said, but sounded distracted even to himself. He couldn’t seem to stop dancing from foot to foot, either.
    Is she outside in this cold working on her car?
    “Come on, you want to go save the damsel in distress, huh?” Will slapped him on the back with a grin and headed toward the entrance at a slow jog.
    Petrok raised her eyebrow at him as if daring him to deny it. Hell, he not only wanted to go save her, but wanted to do it alone. He couldn’t think of a way to stop Will though, so he didn’t even