Page 40 of Fast Kill

You sure?

Yes, but thanks.Her thumb paused on the electronic keys. She didn’t want to seem like she was blowing him off.

Dinner tomorrow? If you have time.

Getting out of the house, especially with him, seemed like the best idea she’d had in a long time.I’d love that.

It’s a date. Sleep tight.

A date she would actually look forward to. She bit her lip, couldn’t help but smile.You too.

She was still smiling as she picked up her e-reader and opened to the book she was partway through. After an hour, she finished the chapter she was on, turned out the light, and fell asleep in minutes.

Only to jolt awake in complete darkness sometime later to the bleating of a loud, shrill alarm. Confused, heart thudding, she threw back the covers and surged to her feet. She didn’t smell any more smoke than there had been before bedtime.

Hurrying to her bedroom door, she put the back of her hand against it to check for heat, just in case. It wasn’t hot. She cracked the door open and stuck her head out into the hallway. Only a tiny haze of smoke near the ceiling. So what was with the alarm?

And then it dawned on her that this alarm was different from the one she’d heard earlier. And that the smoke detector also had a carbon monoxide sensor in it.

Unease trickled down her spine as she stood there for another moment in indecision. Maybe the smoke from earlier had built up enough to lower the oxygen level.

Deciding it was smarter to err on the side of caution rather than assume it was a false alarm, she hastily threw on her robe, grabbed her phone and headed for the front door, dialing the agent watching her house from across the street. It rang three times before she got to the door, and he didn’t answer.

His voicemail picked up as she stepped outside into the darkness and looked around, her bare feet cold on the wet cement of her walkway. Hunching under the robe while the light rain pattered down on her, she darted across the street and headed for the gray sedan at the opposite curb.

A few strides from the driver’s side, her gaze landed on the small, round hole in the window, the glass spider-webbing outward.

The agent was slumped in his seat, his head lolling to the side.

No.

She grabbed the door handle and jerked it, but it was locked. “Corey, can you hear me? Corey!” She banged on the window.

He didn’t move, and as she leaned closer to squint through the rain-streaked window she saw the blood spattering the passenger side of the car.

“Jesus!”

Panic punched through her. Her fingers were stiff as she dialed 911. With the phone to her ear and her back to the car, she scanned up and down the street for a threat. Had whoever had shot Corey taken off? A crawling sensation at the base of her spine told her otherwise.

Dillon or someone from theVenenocartel had done this. And they were still watching.

She ran back across the street and pounded on her neighbor’s door just as the operator answered.

Chapter Twelve

TheVenenocartel’s days were numbered. Its founders just didn’t realize it yet.

En route. Be there in about twenty minutes or so.

In the back of the cab taking her to the Virginia headquarters of the DEA’s FAST units, Special Agent Jaliya Rabani sent the text message then set her phone down in her lap and rubbed at her dry, burning eyes.

The last leg of her trip from Kabul had been delayed at Heathrow due to mechanical problems, adding another four hours to her already grueling journey. She’d have killed for a two-hour nap before this upcoming meeting, but FAST’s Commander, Taggart, had already waited long enough for her arrival, and he’d also called in his entire team for this.

Okay. Meet us in the briefing room, Taggart responded.

Will do.

With a sigh, she leaned her head back against the seat as the lights of Alexandria rushed by in a blur outside her window. She’d been called here for high-level meetings to do with theVenenos, based on intel she’d recently uncovered back in Afghanistan.

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