Wolfe Read Free Page B

possibility and it made me even more anxious. I’d probably watched too many Hollywood spy thrillers.
    What had this man done? Screwed Putin’s mistress?
    I chewed on the inside of my lip.
    What was done was done. Abandon my mother, my stepfather – who was a good man – or this.
    I’d have to take my car into work tomorrow, but they didn’t expect nurses to abduct patients. I could do this. Lunch hour would be a good time to do this. Some of the men were going to a meeting, after lunch, about vets and government funding. I could fudge a signature to say Andy had gone too.
    Then I’d leave with him. They’d realize I’d vanished, but not connect it to him immediately, and I could text in and say that I’d taken ill suddenly. A bad excuse but it’d hold off enquiries for hours. They’d just swear at me in my absence and think about firing me.
    The one big question was, would he come with me? The lowered medication meant he was brighter, thinking better, and less compliant.
    My hypothesis had been correct. Inside his mind, Andy was firing on almost all four cylinders. The drugs had affected him in an idiosyncratic way. Terrible really. But...
    I straightened in my chair. The second big question. What happened when his system was fully clear of drugs? He might become difficult to control.
    I should get a small stockpile. What the fuck did it matter if they discovered I’d stolen drugs? The US government would shoot me, or jail me for a hundred years, if they worked out I was involved in espionage.
    My heart ached. I didn’t want to do this.
    This was a sad day. I’d had such hopes.

Chapter 3
    Wolfe
     
    I was in a car. I’d been in buses before, I vaguely recalled. Field trips, visits to doctors, maybe. I remembered the trips and being wrapped in that fog. Sometimes things were so clear now that I was dizzy from the sensations.
    The world whirled. I grinned at the word rhyme and at the whizz and rumble of traffic flying past this white sedan of Kiara’s.
    “You okay, Andy...I mean Wolfe?” A little frown formed then vanished. “Should I call you that? I mean if Andy isn’t –”
    “Sure.” I nodded to reassure her.
    “Until you remember the other name?” The light we were stopped at changed and she stepped on the gas.
    “Yes.”
    “Okay. Wolfe.”
    It sounded as if saying it made her uncomfortable. Funny. It was a name associated with a predator but why would that bother her? Unless she thought of me as other than safe?
    Idly, I watched the traffic, thinking, loving being able to think. I felt fresh, alive, unfettered.
    Kiara had said bad men were coming for me at the village and that was why I had to go with her.
    She was lying.
    How did I know that?
    I didn’t know how I knew.
    But...simply knowing thrilled me.
    I liked her, but she deceived me for some reason I couldn’t figure out. She thought I was stupid and I wasn’t, or not anymore. I think I had been, so I could forgive her assumption.
    Her hair was up in a bun...
    Light gleamed on the tightly woven strands and sometimes sneaked around the edges to blind me. I kept looking at her anyway. Seeing her in silhouette, concentrating on driving, left me free to observe.
    I should be grateful for the help she’d given me. I was. Besides, she enticed me. The uniform shaped across her ample breasts, concealing and revealing all at once – the subtle curve of upper breast and of her cleavage...the straining of buttons, the glimpse of thigh where the dress had ridden up, even the shift of muscle as she used the brake.
    I imagined sliding my hand over her thigh then between her legs.
    I drew a breath and reached down to retrieve the sketch pad from the floor, turned to a fresh page, and began to draw.
    “What are you drawing?” She dared a sideways glance before the road compelled her attention.
    My lips parted but I held back the smile. “You. I haven’t tried drawing a person.” A woman. I swear my balls tightened at the very thought of