Page 58 of Be Very Quiet

Yeah, right. She’d bet her favorite Sig Sauer his name wasn’t Smith. “So, Ed Smith, where are you from?” Maybe he’d slip and let her know he was from Minnesota.

“What does that matter?”

Hum, defensive. Did Ed have something to hide? “I like to get to know my friends, Ed.” She reached over and stroked his leg. She was unprepared when his hand slammed over hers, and he guided it to his erection. Oh God, she was going to be sick. She was going to throw up all over his brown leather shoes that were in serious need of polish . . . would be even more so when she vomited on them.

The car in front of them stopped suddenly, forcing Ed to stomp the brakes. That allowed her to yank her hand free. She was going to have to dip it in bleach or something.

“Ed, baby, where are you taking me?”

Damn, her tone was harsh. She needed to mask her disgust and play the vixen. She was so not good at this.

Ed frowned as he glanced in the mirror again. She knew he hadn’t picked up on Christian following him. Christian was too good to be caught, especially by someone as seemingly inept as Ed, but something bothered him. He muttered under his breath and then slammed his foot on the accelerator.

Audria gasped as the belt locked her against the seat. Her arms shot out to brace herself against the dash as he weaved in and out of traffic like an untrained Indy Car driver. Her muscles tensed when he almost sideswiped a Mercedes.

“The hell is he doing?” Christian barked in her ear.

She hoped it was a rhetorical question because she was too busy clinging for dear life to answer him. In her side mirror, she saw the unmarked police car gaining on them, and the lights flicked on. She hadn’t gotten any information from Ed, but then, she wouldn’t if they were both dead. She was glad they decided to stop him now before something happened.

Dread filled her as they approached a red light going way too fast to stop. Ed veered around the line of waiting cars, bumping up on the sidewalk. The back end clipped a light post, but he kept going. Now she understood the other dents in the fender.

A van with the green light right-of-way was headed directly at them. Audria screamed as Ed swerved at the last second. Her head slammed into the window, and the world went dark.

#

Though he’d barely started his career with COBRA Securities, Christian Zamora already loved his new job. If the stories he’d heard were true, it would provide the rush that had fueled his time in the service. His position with the Drug Enforcement Administration had been okay, but he’d chafed at the endless rules and regulations, not to mention the politics involved with moving up the ranks.

Working for COBRA Securities would allow him to feed the thrill-seeking addict inside him while helping to make the world a better place by saving the innocent and capturing the guilty. Win-win.

He was getting to know his coworkers and liked each one. He’d had limited interaction with Audria before this mission. On the trip to Florida, she’d told him about her last assignment with the FBI, relaying the story about the grieving mother she’d been forced to kill. She wanted him to know her head was in the right place, and she wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger again if necessary.

Christian could tell it had cost her to admit what happened. She didn’t like showing any weakness, and he respected that sentiment. He assured her he was confident in her abilities, and it was the truth. Having recently undergone the same rigorous training, he knew how physically and mentally demanding it was and how qualified someone had to be to pass.

He watched as Audria and the vice cop, Kelli, trolled for a pickup. He admired Audria for trying to attract The Mortician, knowing she was uncomfortable as hell doing it.

Kelli was selected first, but she wasn’t his priority. He kept his focus on Audria as a black sedan that had been circling the block returned. When it slowed in front of her, Christian started the engine and shifted the SUV into drive.

“This could be it, guys,” Audria murmured.

“I’m ready to roll.” Christian checked for traffic and pulled out to follow as Audria climbed into the passenger seat.

He heard the man say his name was Ed, which was close to Ted. Could he be the man they were searching for? He hoped it was, but as he’d learned in the military and again with the DEA, nothing was ever that easy.

Christian had been following along at a leisurely clip when all of a sudden, the sedan shot forward like a fired bullet, dangerously weaving in and out of traffic and barely avoiding several collisions.

“Go ahead and stop him,” he ordered Malik, the officer in the unmarked car behind him.

“On it.”

Malik swung around him and surged forward, activating his lights and siren. Ed veered around a group of cars, up on the sidewalk, and then darted into green-light traffic. Two cars swerved to miss him, one of them slamming into the side of Malik’s cruiser and the other causing a chain reaction accident.

Christian avoided the collision but couldn’t get around the wreckage. “Damn it!” He picked up the police-issued walkie-talkie. “Malik, are you okay?”

He groaned. “I think so.”

Christian wanted to check on him, but he had to get around the mess, and help was already en route. Ed and Audria had gotten away.

“Audria, can you hear me? Audria?”

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