kissed-by-moonlight by Rakhibul hasan (ebook reader for pc .TXT) 📕

a flourish only to replace it with another.

 

Then I actually looked at the picture, and nearly choked to death. If she hadn’t slapped my hands away from the glossy 4X6, I would have smeared my lunch residue all over it.

 

“Marcus Evans,” she told me gleefully, yet again jerking the picture out of my reach when I would have snatched it away. “If Pearson is the brains, then Marcus is the muscle. He’s been

 

supplying the group with weapons and intel for months. Ever since his predecessor, Aubrey Reed, disappeared off the face of the earth.”

 

“Can you say Jane Doe?” My voice was bitter.

 

Sonya nodded sadly. “I sure can.”

 

I stared at the picture of Marcus for a long time, mind racing. A part of me wanted to march back to the office and rat him out to Gabriel, but that part of me wasn’t looking at the big picture.

 

The rest of me was.

 

Why would Gabriel trust the word of a stranger over that of a man he’d literally grown up with? Especially when I told him how I’d come by this tidbit of information.

 

Grabbing a napkin, I wiped some of the carnage off of my face. “So,” I said slowly, “either Marcus is playing two sides, or he’s doing exactly what Gabriel wants him to.”

 

Frowning, Sonya swiped a fry before I could deprive her of her hand. “What do you mean?”

 

“Think about it,” I said, tugging my plate closer and huddling protectively over it. Like an inmate, or maybe a hobo. A waitress passed by our table and eyed me carefully. I ignored her. “Forming a new task force, getting the police chief and the mayor on his side, and pretending to be some benevolent savior? You can’t play at being a hero unless there’s already a villain wandering around.”

 

“But what would be the point?”

 

I shrugged. “Most likely it’s all a smokescreen. They found military grade weapons in the car that blew up back in February. We’re talking about an underground terrorist organization. They had to get the weapons from someone willing to deal under the table and who could provide what they needed in bulk.” I shook my head as I continued to turn the puzzle pieces over in my head. “Which means gun smuggling.”

 

“Gun smuggling, human trafficking, kidnapping, murder.” Sonya’s lip curled, “Gabriel Evans sounds like a real catch. I’m sure his mother would be proud.”

 

Ketchup and mustard oozed over my fingers as my nails bit into the burger I was holding. I could feel my face starting to tighten in annoyance, but I shook it off. Why was I getting so offended when I’d been the one to put the idea in her head in the first place?

 

It was crazy, but I just couldn’t reconcile the Gabriel Evans I knew now with the faceless monster he’d been before. It was easy to place sins at the door of a man you’d never seen laugh. Easy to judge someone who’d never picked you up from jail at one o’clock in the morning. Easy

 

to hate the man that everyone thought he was when he wasn’t one of the first people to ever make you feel wanted.

 

It was as if I were thinking of him as two different men. One was the guy I liked and the other was the one that made the inner journalist in me salivate like one of Pavlov’s dogs.

 

This line of thought was making my brain hurt. Time for a subject change.

 

“Were you able to dig up info on any of their other members?”

 

“Negatory,” she told me. “I do have a date with a certain enforcer next week though.”

 

My eyes widened. “How did you manage to pull that off?”

 

She grinned and gave a little half shrug, as if convincing the humorless Marcus Evans to go out with her hadn’t been the least bit difficult.

 

“I can be very charming when I put my mind to it.”

 

I laughed, “I’m sure you can.”

 

“I’m hoping he’ll let me join their little group. Or at least give me a tour or something.” Waggling her eyebrows she reached out and stole another fry. This time I allowed it. “Who knows? By this time next week you may not be the only one working undercover.”

 

She was so obviously pleased with herself that I couldn’t bring myself to voice the doubts that had begun to rise. Marcus was dangerous, but I had to trust that Sonya knew what she was doing and would be able to take care of herself. If something seemed off, I’m sure she had enough common sense to get out.

 

Looking at the clock mounted on the wall behind the cash register, I cursed.

 

“I have to get back,” I told her, reaching into my purse and slapping down a twenty. “Tell the waitress to keep the change.”

 

“Hold on.”

 

I stopped in the middle of sliding out from my side of the booth and looked back. Pulling a small paper sack out of her messenger bag, she grinned at me. “You almost forgot your surprise.”

 

Taking it from her with all the reverence I would have reserved for the Holy Grail, I clutched the sack to my chest and beamed.

 

“Thanks.”

 

She nodded and waved me off, pulling my abandoned plate to her side of the table so that she could finish off what I’d left behind. I walked out of BB’s glowing, and once again determined to find a story.

 

* * * *

 

 

Contents of my Goodie Bag

 

•Several small cameras no bigger than the tip of my pinkie finger

 

•A voice recorder hidden inside the body of a pen

 

•A camera that looked like a pendant necklace

 

•A lock pick

 

•A stun gun

 

•A USB that would allow me to save and access all the data from my spy stuff

 

•A half-eaten Kit Kat bar

 

 

 

This was some real life James Bond shit, and I couldn’t wait to try them all out. I got back to the office long before my lunch was scheduled to be over. I’d scheduled Gabriel to have a late lunch so that he could go over some paperwork with his lawyer, after that I’d set up a meeting with his Board of Directors concerning some policy changes, followed by a mid-afternoon appointment with Miss Lin, the bad-tempered Asian with magic guru fingers of relaxation and happiness.

 

I didn’t like talking to Lin because she could test the patience of a saint, but the woman’s massages would make a mass murderer poop rainbows. It was the only reason I put up with her shenanigans.

 

What all of this boiled down to was that I would have plenty of time to hide my new toys. I placed a couple in Gabriel’s main office, one in the elevator, and held on to the rest until I could find a chance to slip them into his inner office. In the meantime, I grabbed the voice recording pen and rolled it beneath the locked door. Hopefully one of the men would pick it up thinking they’d dropped it or something. Either that, or they’d step on it and crush it to bits. In which case I hoped the Oracle kept the warranties for all of their gadgets.

 

Fifteen minutes later, I pulled on the necklace, finished off the Kit Kat, pocketed the stun gun and USB, and declared myself done. Just in time too, because I had no sooner adjusted the necklace at my throat than Gabriel and Marcus stormed through the door.

 

Gabriel’s face was flushed with color and Marcus looked more sour than usual. I could only assume that they’d been arguing, but as soon as the two men caught sight of me they made a visible effort to relax.

 

“Phaedra,” Gabriel began, voice striving for normalcy and failing miserably. Thoughtful now, my eyes narrowed. “You’re back early. I thought you’d still be at BB’s.”

 

This surprised me. I had mentioned my preference for BB’s about a week and a half ago. At the time he hadn’t reacted to my mention of the restaurant’s supremacy over all others, but he must have been listening after all.

 

“I…uh…I had some paperwork I needed to work on, so I decided to cut my lunch a little short.”

 

At my words he and Marcus exchanged looks and a muscle began to work in Gabriel’s jaw.

 

Curious.

 

Leaning back in my swivel chair, I propped my feet on the edge of my desk and folded my hands over my abdomen.

 

“Speaking of, what are you two doing back?”

 

I had the satisfaction of seeing Gabriel shift nervously where he stood, while Marcus scowled at me. They looked at one another again, before Marcus spoke up and I was reminded that these two had been raised as siblings.

 

“Something came up. Gabriel and I are going to be out of town for a few days. We were just stopping by to pick up a few things.”

 

My feet came down with a crash, but neither one of them paid me any mind as they walked past me and into Gabriel’s main office.

 

“What sort of something?” I called after them, unaccountably annoyed that I hadn’t been told anything about it. Gabriel hesitated and turned back.

 

“It’s personal,” He paused and a brief smile touched his lips and made his eyes sparkle. “A family emergency. We’ll only be gone for two or three days.”

 

“But—”

 

His hand lifted as if he wanted to touch me, but obviously thinking better of it, he let his arm drop.

 

“Think of it as a vacation.”

 

“I guess that means you don’t need me to come in?”

 

“You guessed right.”

 

I nodded solemnly even as my heart soared. I now had three days to get into that inner office and plant my little goodies. I sighed to cover my rising excitement.

 

“I guess a break wouldn’t be such a bad thing.”

 

“I’m sure you’ll survive the tragedy,” he said dryly. “Cancel my plans for the rest of the day. After you’re done with that, you can go ahead and head on home.”

 

“Thank you, sir,” I said cheerfully. “Did you need me take care of the travel arrangements or—”

 

“No.” I jerked back at the bite in his voice and he cleared his throat with exaggerated care before trying again. “No, thank you. Marcus and I can handle it.”

 

“Of course.”

 

He opened his mouth as if to add something more, but only sighed instead. Shoulders slumping, he turned without another word and went into his office after Marcus. The closed door seemed to mock me and the dull sense of loneliness that had begun to fill me at the thought of not seeing him for three days. Ever since I’d started I hadn’t gone longer than a few hours without at least talking to him. There always seemed to be some chore that needed my attention, even on the weekends, which I was supposed to have off.

 

If I didn’t know any better I would have said that I would miss him, but that couldn’t be right. It was probably just excitement. After all, I planned on getting into his inner office even if I had to scale the side of the building and come in through a window like a ghettofied SWAT team reject.

 

Picking up the phone on my desk, I dialed a number and sat back with a smile.

 

“Lin,” I cooed when she picked up, “you old Japanese harpy. Turns out Evans won’t be able to make it to his session this afternoon, so I’m going to need our deposit back.”

 

“I’m not Japanese, pale-faced slut.”

 

I tsked. “Sorry. Is this because I didn’t say ‘hello’ first?” I struggled to recall what I knew of the language. “It’s ‘ohayō,’ isn’t it? Isn’t that how your people say hello?”

 

“I’m not Japanese!” she screeched, and I had to slap a hand over my mouth to muffle my laughter. “Every time you call I have to put up with your shit. One of these days I kill you and stuff your body in my blender. Feed it to my kids. Teach them what American trash taste like.”

 

“Whoa there, tiger. What’s the matter, Mae Lin?” I asked, as if honestly concerned. “Find another cobweb in your vagina this morning?”

 

“At least I don’t have to