Ring of Truth (Devlin Security Force Book 2) by Vaughan Susan

Author:Vaughan, Susan [Vaughan, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gullwood Press
Published: 2015-04-22T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Cort and Mara landed in San Francisco just before noon. The city was always cool and usually foggy, Mara had said. He zipped up his windbreaker. Cool, yeah, but the sun shone in a clear bowl of sky.

She was chewing on her lower lip. Anxious about seeing Danita Inglish? Or worried about what she’d tell her mother? She’d worked late and then slept most of the way on the plane, her head against his shoulder. He’d gotten a cramp in his thigh from sitting still for so long, but she’d smelled so fresh and felt so good against him he’d kept still. Even after the long flight, she looked smooth and hot in black pants and a neon-orange jacket.

They’d used her frequent-flier miles for the plane tickets and her boss gave her authorization to use a condo DSF kept in the city. Cort could manage but he wasn’t stupid even if Devlin’s high-handedness ticked him off.

Mara must’ve gauged his mood because she didn’t object when he insisted on paying for the rental car. He followed signs out of the airport then turned north toward the Bay Bridge. The high-speed traffic and all the rapid-fire signage allowed little opportunity to watch for a tail. He mentally crossed his fingers that their last-minute arrangements caught the bad guys with bare asses in the wind. They’d left the Clone Brothers in a traffic snarl near Dulles.

Research didn’t yield much about Inglish. She’d struggled in menial jobs after losing her Smithsonian security-guard position. She and her daughter had lived in a one-room D.C. apartment on welfare until she parlayed her technical skills into a traffic-control monitoring job in Chicago. When her grown daughter moved west and had a baby, Inglish followed. She moved several times since, each time to a better situation. She’d turned her life around. Cort half hoped the woman was innocent and didn’t have a ring piece.

Where would that leave him? Dead in the water.

“She never answered my phone messages,” Mara said. “I ought to try her now to see if she’s home. She might be at work. I couldn’t get her schedule.”

“You’re worried about her.” He placed a hand over hers, felt a slight tremble. Wished again he hadn’t involved her in this mess. But only for a second. Caved because weak bastard that he was, it’d mean he wouldn’t have her soft hand to hold. And her soft body beside him at night.

“Why wouldn’t I be after what happened to Falco?” On a sigh, she added, “No answer.”

They’d find out soon enough, but he didn’t like the odds.

Mara’s GPS unit guided him through an Oakland middle-class residential neighborhood of colorful stucco homes with well-tended yards. They turned from a wide boulevard into a neat development of garden-style apartment buildings. He pulled into a guest parking space near the entrance to Inglish’s building. Another car drove into the complex behind them but veered off toward distant buildings. Nobody else around.

He exited and walked around to Mara’s side of the rented Altima.

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