Spy in the Sky by Diane Henders

Author:Diane Henders
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: thriller, espionage, amateur sleuth, humorous, women sleuths, female protagonist, racy, actionpacked, techothriller
Publisher: Diane Henders

Chapter 29

Frozen halfway between sitting and standing, I stared at the tiny blinking square on my screen.

Then I blew out a tense breath and dropped back into my chair.

Alt-Shift-Click.

The text window bloomed on my screen. “Compromised. Going off-grid approx. 24 hrs.”

My heart sank. Over the next twenty-four hours Stemp would be moving his wife and daughter to some new secret location and setting them up with new identities.

And when he suddenly severed communications with the Department, Dermott would seize the opportunity to cast suspicion on him.

Again, dammit.

Some quick mental math increased my worries. Twenty-four hours off-grid would make it tough for Stemp to get back here by Monday morning for my lie-detector interview.

Oh, God, Dermott was going to crucify me.

Without much hope, I typed “ETA?”

“Mon AM.” The blinking cursor hesitated as though Stemp had heard my groan. “Will attempt earlier,” it added.

I straightened my spine. Nothing I could do but hope for the best. After all, this was Stemp. The man was practically superhuman. If it was even remotely possible, he’d do it.

“Safe travels,” I typed, and the text window closed without acknowledgement.

Hauling myself wearily up from the chair again, I stretched my back and grimaced at the resulting pops and crackles.

When I trudged down the hall, my bedroom door was closed.

I hesitated. Awkward.

Did Arnie want privacy for something? We’d never stood on ceremony with each other before, but we were in a bit of a weird situation.

But surely he didn’t expect me to stay out of my own bedroom. Things might be weird between us, but they weren’t that weird.

I tapped on the door. “Arnie?”

“Oh, sorry, darlin’.” The rustle of bed linens was followed by his footsteps. He opened the door and smiled down at me. “Didn’t mean for ya to think ya shouldn’t come in.” He glanced at the hall light. “Gonna turn out the lights?”

“Right.” I trekked down the hall and flipped the switch, then returned.

As he stepped aside to let me into the room, I stopped, staring.

He’d found my stash of emergency candles, and the motley assortment of sizes and colours burned in their makeshift tin-can holders on the dresser and bedside tables. A bouquet of supermarket flowers, still in their plastic, occupied a quart sealer half-filled with water. My side of the bed had been turned down, and a cellophane-wrapped box of chocolates rested on the pillow.

Arnie gestured self-consciously at the room. “Hope ya like it.”

My heart melted. Such a sweet thing for him to do.

And so damn terrifying.

“Uh,” I croaked. “Wow. This is, um… thank you.” I reached up to kiss him.

Our lips bumped together with none of his usual finesse.

“It’s too fuckin’ weird, ain’t it?” he mumbled, his shoulders stiff under my palms.

I swallowed. “Of course not, it’s…”

“No lies, darlin’,” he reminded me.

“Oh, Arnie.” I hugged him hard. “You’re so sweet to do all this. And… yeah, it feels a bit weird.”

His shoulders slumped.

My heart smote me and I hastened to add, “But only because, even though it’s really nice, I don’t need stuff like this from you.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.