Page 71 of Ice Cold Liar

“Hunter McQueen,” he said his name again.“I fight viciously.I fight dirty.But I am not about hurting innocents.Not who I am or who I ever will be.”

“Eb doesn’t believe I’m innocent,” she told him.It actually hurt to say the words, and even more so to add, “No one does.”

“I like to make my own opinions about people.”

“And what have you decided about me?”

“Still working on it.”

Her breath heaved out.“Give me that ride.”

“What?”An explosion from Eb.“Why the hell would you choose him?”

She spun toward him.“Because he’s being honest with me.”And I think that means the reporters are coming.Actually, crap, behind Eb’s massive shoulders, Naomi caught sight of a white news van barreling toward them.“I could use some honesty in my life.”

“I amsorry,” Eb said, voice rumbling.

“For fucking me?”

“Oh, damn,”Hunter rasped.“Damn.”

“Or fucking me over with your lies?”she asked sweetly.

“That’s a news van,” Hunter told them.“How about we take this chat to a new location?”

She was more than ready to leave.Nodding, she sidled toward Hunter.

“Naomi.”

A shiver slid over her.There was an odd note in Eb’s voice.An ache.A plea?No, no plea.Eb would never plead for anything.Certainly not for her.

Not.For.Her.

She left Eb and didn’t look back.Not like she really needed to look back, though.

She was one hundred percent sure he’d be tailing her and Hunter to the safe house.

Naomi settled into Hunter’s SUV, with Henry making himself comfortable in the backseat.Her head leaned back against the headrest.Hunter cranked the vehicle.

They didn’t drive away.

Her head turned toward him.She found him staring at her.The kind of intense, focused stare that told her he was trying to figure things out in his mind.

“You don’t look like a cold-blooded killer.”

Great to know.“You do.”

He smiled.“I know.”

They drove away.

ChapterFifteen

It wasa fuck-up on a colossal scale.He should have known how Madeline would operate.Should have known the minute she separated him and Naomi that his former handler was working one of her games.Fun random fact about Madeline?According to the CIA grapevine, the woman had been some chess prodigy back in her teen years.She was always fifty steps ahead of most people.It was one of the reasons she’d been recruited by the CIA at such a young age.

Sometimes, I think they brought her in when she was a teen.Not like the CIA would ever admit that, though.Not like the CIA admitted much at all.It was very much a cover-your-own ass situation there.

He’d made it to the safe house.More like safe mansion.He slammed his car door and glowered up at the stylish, sleek structure.One that stuck out like a sore-thumb in front of the massive oaks with their swaying Spanish moss and the dark bayou that waited in the distance.

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