Look-Alike by Meredith Fletcher

Author:Meredith Fletcher [Fletcher, Meredith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Silhouette Bombshell
Published: 2006-05-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Sunbright Cleaners

Leipzig, Germany

"Wake up, Joachim. Come on now. I don't have all night."

Blinking, Joachim struggled through layers of pain-filled fog. Fear was a distant throb somewhere deep inside him, but he knew he should pay attention to it. Instead, he thought he'd go back to sleep.

"Get his attention," a rough voice said.

Burning agony suddenly flooded Joachim's face. It took him a moment to realize he'd been hit. The coppery taste of blood filled his mouth. He forced open his eyes.

Someone had tied him to a chair. His hands were numb behind him.

"Joachim," Günter called.

Focusing on the hulking figure in front of him, Joachim shook his head in an effort to wake up more. That was a mistake. His skull suddenly felt as if it were going to splinter.

After a moment, Joachim realized where they were. Although he hadn't been there often, there was no way he could forget the basement of Sunbright Cleaners. The Laundromat was one of Günter's legitimate businesses. It also had open access to Leipzig's sewers. The new pollution standards hadn't caught up to the entire city. Joachim had been there the night Günter had taken an ax to an ex-lover and tossed her body into the sewer.

The basement air was stale and dank with mold. The stench of detergents and bleach clung to the walls. During the day, when the big industrial-size machines grinded and whirled, conversation was almost impossible. On the plus side, no one could hear screams or cries for help, or the gunshots that ended, either.

"Are you awake this time?" Günter demanded. He sat in a straight-backed wooden chair. He looked pallid in the weak fluorescent light.

"Yes." Joachim's tongue was dry and thick. Warm blood ran down his chin.

"Good. Because we've got some things to discuss." Günter leaned forward. His cigar glowed violent orange, then he breathed out a plume of blue-gray smoke that coiled against Joachim's face. "Why did you sell me out?"

"You gave me no choice," Joachim said.

"Me?" Günter's eyes widened in surprise. "What the hell did I do?"

"You sent me after Leitner last year."

"Jacob Leitner stole from me." The man had been an accountant for some of Günter's enterprises. During his tenure, he'd stolen over ten million dollars. Günter had caught the man a step after he was gone. Joachim had tracked him down before he could get out of Berlin.

"Leitner was one of theirs," Joachim said. "He belonged to the BND."

"An agent?"

"An informant."

"Like you." Günter sneered.

"The BND squeezed me," Joachim said, "because you didn't catch your mistake soon enough. They saw me kill Leitner."

At the time, though, Joachim had been acting in self-defense. Leitner had resisted Joachim's efforts to take him alive and had pulled a pistol he'd never before carried.

"You could have come to me," Günter said.

"And gone down with you?" Joachim shook his head and regretted it.

"Law enforcement agencies have been after me for over twenty years," Günter said defiantly. "They haven't put me down yet."

"They will. You're too big to simply slip away. You've gotten more greedy than you should have.

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