Cate Noble [Black Ops 03] Deadly Games (v5.0) (epub)

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.DEADLYGAMESCATE NOBLEAll copyrighted material within isAttributor Protected.ZEBRA BOOKS are published byKensington Publishing Corp.119 West 40th StreetNew York, NY 10018Copyright © 2011 by Kathleen HolzapfelAll rights reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property.It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”All Kensington titles, imprints, and distributed lines are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotion, premiums, fund-raising, educational, or institutional use.Special book excerpts or customized printings can also be created to fit specific needs.For details, write or phone the office of the Kensington Special Sales Manager: Attn.Special Sales Department.Kensington Publishing Corp., 119 West 40th Street, New York, NY 10018.Phone: 1-800-221-2647.Zebra and the Z logo Reg.U.S.Pat.& TM Off.eISBN-13: 978-1-4201-2263-3eISBN-10: 1-4201-2263-0First Printing: February 201110 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Printed in the United States of AmericaDEADLY ATTRACTIONGo! she thought.Wrenching the door handle back, Gena threw herself out of the truck.The man grabbed for her, catching her shirt, but couldn’t hold on.The ground walloped her, stealing her breath with a wicked punch.She tried to tuck and roll, but control was beyond her.She heard gunfire and waited for the bullet to tear into her body.Car tires squealed as she slammed to a stop against a tree.Get up! Got to get up! Gotta move!Her hands, scraped raw by the pavement, stung as she pushed to her feet.Dizzy, she fell back to the ground.“Gena!”She heard Rocco’s voice and tried again to get up.“I’ve got you, sweetheart.” His arms closed around her, lifting her and holding her close.Other books by CateDead RightDeadly SeductionAnthologiesBaddest Bad BoysIn MemoriamAlice Katherine “Kate” DuffyJanuary 28, 1953–September 27, 2009Ad occursum futurum, requiescat in pace“Simply brilliant!” isn’t adequate.“The best!” isn’t sufficient.“Thank you!” isn’t enough.“Come back! I miss you!” says it all.AcknowledgmentsTo the ones who kept the faith when I didn’t think I’d make it:Karen Kearney, always thereJenn Stark, always readyLori Harris, always steadyNolen Holzapfel, always mineTo fellow writers Stephanie Newton and Milinda Jay Stephenson, for making me feel right at home in Panama City.To the real pros: Editorial Director Alicia Condon, Kensington Publishing; and Agent Robin Rue, Writers House.And a very special thanks to my fans.Without readers, what would an author do?As always, I own any errors, mistakes, and boo-boos.I frequently mangle the rules to fit the story.CONTENTSDEADLY ATTRACTIONOther books by CateDedicationAcknowledgmentsChapter OneChapter TwoChapter ThreeChapter FourChapter FiveChapter SixChapter SevenChapter EightChapter NineChapter TenChapter ElevenChapter TwelveChapter ThirteenChapter FourteenChapter FifteenChapter SixteenChapter SeventeenChapter EighteenChapter NineteenChapter TwentyChapter Twenty-OneChapter Twenty-TwoChapter Twenty-ThreeChapter Twenty-FourChapter Twenty-FiveChapter Twenty-SixChapter Twenty-SevenChapter Twenty-EightChapter Twenty-NineChapter ThirtyChapter Thirty-OneChapter Thirty-TwoChapter Thirty-ThreeChapter Thirty-FourChapter Thirty-FiveChapter Thirty-SixChapter Thirty-SevenChapter Thirty-EightChapter Thirty-NineChapter FortyEpilogueDEAD RIGHTDEADLY SEDUCTIONChapter OneArlington, VAOctober 3, 11:50 P.M.Rocco Taylor eyed the tiny digital clock on the video player, the only source of light in the town house’s shadowy living room.Ten more minutes?No way.He checked his watch.Way.His Tag Heuer was never wrong.Damn Sam.It felt like it had been ten more minutes an hour ago.The couch springs groaned as he rocked forward and raked fingers through his hair.God, he hated waiting, doing nothing.Let him belly crawl across a minefield into an enemy stronghold.Or give him an MP5 and a load of clips and let him shoot his way in.Hell, hand-to-hand combat was better.Anything was better than this: playing along while being fucked with.Oh, like you’re really suffering.Compared to what Maddy was enduring right now—Jesus.Maddy.The gravity of her situation mingled with the molten guilt in his stomach.After three days of nada in the search for missing CIA analyst Madison Kohlmeyer, the Agency had scored deuces today, even if they only knew half of it.Earlier that afternoon, while busting his ass to get to Dulles airport, he’d gotten word that Maddy’s BMW convertible had been pulled from the backwaters of Chesapeake Bay, a two-by-four still jammed against the gas pedal.Hearing this from a friend who’d picked the story up off a newswire had infuriated Rocco.After being shut out of the Agency’s official investigation into Maddy’s disappearance on grounds of “emotional involvement,” Rocco had been promised that every stone would be turned, every angle examined, and that he would be notified personally of any big breaks.That he wasn’t should have been clue one.An illegal U-turn on the interstate had Rocco racing back to the CIA complex that housed his office, dreading the word that would come once they pried open the BMW’s trunk.The relief he’d felt upon learning that the vehicle was empty eroded as the truth of how little else had been done to locate Maddy surfaced.The Agency genius heading up the investigation had decided to let the police complete their missing-person investigation first.Except the locals had back-burnered the case as a low-priority after an interview with Maddy’s roommate revealed that Maddy had seemed preoccupied.Rocco would have jumped all over that.Preoccupied could mean scared, nervous.Upset.Had she been bullied? Threatened?But to the jaded Virginia police detective, who claimed he’d worked “dozens of cases just like this,” Maddy’s failure to show for an all-girl weekend at Virginia Beach three days ago meant she had something better planned.To the detective, “preoccupied” was code for “she’d met someone.” “I figured she’d turn up for work on Monday, embarrassed to find people worried,” the detective had told Rocco by phone.“Happens all the time.”Yeah, well, as Rocco’s grandfather used to say, the road to hell was paved with bad assumptions.In the end, Rocco had stormed out of his office in disgust after picking a fight with one of the supervisors.The official excuse offered, that Armageddon had broken loose at the Agency, was a crock.When was it normal these days, given the ever-expanding war on terror? The war on drugs? The war on wars?“Hard choices call for tough sacrifices,” the supervisor had parroted.“You’re saying Maddy was sacrificed?” Rocco had been livid.Did they really think that sounded better than the truth? That Maddy’s case had slipped between the cracks as everyone assumed someone else was handling it?And even though recovering Maddy’s drowned car had escalated her case to “foul play suspected,” it made little difference in light of the e-mail Rocco had opened just two hours ago [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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