Alpha One (Shadow Agents 1)

Take the pleasure he can give you. A tempting whisper from inside. Then you be the one to walk away.

Only, there was a problem with that plan. If she took him back to her bed, Juliana was afraid she might not want to walk away.

So she pulled her arm free, and before she gave in to that temptation, she headed up the stairs.

I can walk away now.

Juliana just wasn’t sure that walking away was what she really wanted.

* * *

DIEGO SHOOK HIS HEAD as he stared at the man seated in front of him. McLintock couldn’t even keep his head up anymore. Blood and sweat coated his body.

“I didn’t have anything to do with that explosion at the cemetery. I promise!” Ben McLintock mumbled, voice rasping. He’d already said this over and over, and Diego actually believed him.

Why keep lying at this point? McLintock had no one to protect. No family. No lover. The guy had always just been out for himself.

But if it hadn’t been McLintock... Diego’s eyes narrowed.

He waved the guard back and strolled toward McLintock. He put his hands on the other man’s shoulders and shoved him back. McLintock blinked blearily as Diego leaned in close. “This can all be over,” Diego promised him. “I just want to know who’s after Juliana James. I want to know who set that bomb in her car.” Who’d almost screwed his plans to hell.

I need that evidence. Another loose end. There were too many.

“I...don’t know! I swear—I don’t...”

His hands tightened around McLintock’s thin shoulders. “Did you know that Mario over there—” he tilted his head toward the guard “—has one thing that he’s particularly good at? Death. He can kill in a hundred different ways. He likes killing.”

McLintock was crying. Had been for a while now.

Did he realize that no matter what happened, he wouldn’t get out alive? Probably not. People always clung to hope so desperately. Even when they had no reason for that hope.

“Did you see anything...anyone suspicious at the cemetery?” Diego pressed. “You rode over in that limo. Who was there when you got in it?”

“Just...the driver, Charles...”

The man wouldn’t have killed himself.

“Cops were...there.” McLintock licked his lips. Tried to hold up his sagging head. “Federal...agents. I thought—I thought everything was...safe.”

No place was safe.

With the cops swarming around, though, the person who’d planted that bomb would have needed good

access—an “in” at the mansion.

“I rode...in the car, just...me, Juliana and...Susan...”

Susan. Diego paused, remembering a woman with sleek blond hair and too-sharp eyes. He’d seen her before, with the senator.

He’d seen Susan, but she’d never seen him.

Aaron’s lover. Would a lover kill a daughter?

Yes.

“When it was time to leave the cemetery, why weren’t you in the limo?” This was the important question. From what he’d learned, Juliana had been about to climb into the limo. What about the other passengers?

“Susan...Susan said she wasn’t...feeling well.” The words were soft. Weak. The blood loss was definitely taking its toll on the man. “She...asked me...stay with...her. Wanted to get...some air. Said we could get...ride back...with someone else....”